PhD Thesis defense: Helena Lozano
2020-07-16 11:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Madrid)
Electrical and topographical study of bacterial appendages at the nanoscale
Helena Lozano, Nanoscale bioelectrical characterization group
Some bacteria can exchange electrons with non-soluble electron acceptors, such as minerals. This phenomenon is called Extracellular Electron Transfer (EET) and it can be done through several mechanisms, especially through conductive bacterial nanowires.
The main objective of this thesis is the investigation of the polarization properties of electrochemically active bacteria and their appendages. Specifically, I have studied two types of bacteria, Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 and cable bacteria. I have used the Electrostatic Force Microscopy (EFM), which measures the electrostatic force using a nanometric probe, combined with finite element simulations to obtain the polarization properties. The electrostatic force depends mainly on the geometry and dielectric constant of the probe-sample system.
First, I have developed a way to obtain the dimensions of objects avoiding physical contact with the sample by measuring the electrostatic force. I have tested this technique on silver nanowires and bacterial flagella, optimizing the EFM technique to nanowire-like biological samples at the nanoscale. Afterward, I have studied S. oneidensis Outer Membrane Extensions (OMEs), responsible for the EET. I have obtained a low value of the dielectric constant (εOME=3.7±0.7). However, considering that the conduction mechanism of such OMEs is through electron hopping, where electrons are localized, these results do not contradict the literature.
I have also studied the cable bacteria, especially the fibers that are along this filamentous bacterium. The dielectric constant of the fibers was εr=7±1. This result is not compatible with the conductivity reported in the literature. Therefore, a core-shell model was proposed with a conductive core of h~10–20nm.
Subsequently, I have performed qualitative EFM measurements in liquid over living and rehydrated S. oneidensis bacteria.
Finally, I have performed macroscale measurements in living S. oneidensis using a microfluidic device that I designed, fabricated and characterized at the Denmark Technical University (DTU), Copenhagen. It was used to perform two-electrode impedance measurements.

In order to attend to the defense, you must send an email to the president of the Doctoral Commission of the Faculty of Physics (Dr. Eugeni Grauges Pous – vd.fisica.recerca@ub.edu) with a minimum notice of 48 hours and will be held via Microsoft Teams.

PhD Thesis defense: Martina Maier
2020-09-21 11:00 - 13:00
The principles of advanced virtual reality-based neurorehabilitation
Martina Maier, SPECS group
How the training in virtual reality and based on principles can support the recovery and diagnosis of disabilities after stroke.

This thesis defense will take place on Monday, September 21st, at 11:00 hours.
Location: The defense will be online. People are invited to attend upon receiving a link provided by UPF shortly before the defense.

PhD Thesis Defense: Dolores Blanco
2020-11-09 15:00 - 17:00
Noninvasive multimodal analysis of thoracic bioimpedance and myographic signals for the assessment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Dolores Blanco, Biomedical Signal Processing and Interpretation
Chronic respiratory diseases cause morbidity and premature mortality in adult population. In particular, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) represents a socioeconomic burden worldwide. COPD is usually evaluated by a spirometry test to quantify the airflow limitation. Classical spirometry requires the patients to move to the medical centers making difficult the continuous monitoring. Alternatively, other noninvasive methods have been studied to monitor respiration because of their capability to provide valuable respiratory-related information. These techniques would lighten the intrusiveness of the measurements and ease the ambulatory monitoring of respiration. However, the applicability of these methods into the clinics is still limited because of the lack of evidence in these applications.
The objective of this thesis is to propose and evaluate novel noninvasive methods to monitor respiration and assess obstructive diseases. We proposed a setup and a protocol to evaluate the applicability of thoracic bioimpedance and surface myographic signals for respiration assessment in healthy subjects and COPD patients. We acquired bioimpedance, airflow and surface myographic signals in ten healthy subjects and fifty COPD patients. The physiological data was measured during an inspiratory threshold loading protocol to evaluate the methods during restrictive conditions. The thesis consisted of three different studies published in high impact factor journals. The two first studies delved into the changes of thoracic bioimpedance during restrictive breathing and, the third one focused on the combination of bioimpedance and myographic signals for the assessment of COPD.
Previous studies showed a linear relationship between thoracic bioimpedance and respiratory volume during normal breathing. Firstly, we assessed this linear relationship in healthy subjects for the first time, during a loading protocol. We found a strong correlation between the signals even during highest loads. Nevertheless, bioimpedance measurement is the combination of the different impedances of body tissues, organs and fluids and consequently, not only volume contributes to its measurement. Accordingly, our second study aimed to evaluate the relevance of volume and chest movement to bioimpedance measurement at different levels of inspiratory muscle activity. We characterized bioimpedance using chest movement and volume signals by linear models and neural networks for different muscle effort. The results agreed with our previous results, indicating that respiratory volume was the main contribution to bioimpedance, but chest movement contributed substantially and more notably at high muscle activity. Both studies provided better knowledge of thoracic bioimpedance measurements which reinforces its use for noninvasive respiratory monitoring.
Finally, we evaluated the combination of thoracic bioimpedance and surface myographic signals in the COPD population. We proposed two novel ratios derived from the bioimpedance amplitude and myographic activity. These ratios showed significant differences between the mild and severe COPD patients meaning that the severest patients had lower inspiratory ventilation contribution of the inspiratory muscles. Consequently, we suggest these novel ratios to provide valuable information to noninvasively monitor and complement the classical assessment of COPD.
The multimodal approach proposed in this thesis supports the application of thoracic bioimpedance for respiratory monitoring during normal and restrictive breathing. Furthermore, the combination of bioimpedance and myographic information exhibited differences between COPD severity. The proposed methods will provide additional information about COPD condition which will be easily tracked by a single wearable device. Consequently, the results of this thesis open up the way for a high-quality noninvasive monitoring of chronic respiratory patients.

This thesis defense will take place on Monday, 9th November, at 15:00 hours.
Location: The defense will be online using Microsoft Teams. People are invited to attend upon receiving a link that you have to request to Dolores Blanco (dblanco@ibecbarcelona.eu) or Raimon Jané (rjane@ibecbarcelona.eu).

PhD Thesis Defense: Jesús Ordoño
2020-11-25 00:00 - 14:00 | Sala d’Actes de la Facultat de Matemàtiques i Estadística (FME), Carrer de Pau Gargallo, Barcelona, 08028, Spain
Lactate: unraveling the regenerative potential for cardiac tissue engineering
Jesús Ordoño, Biometerials for regenerative therapies grouop
This thesis defense will take place on the 25th November at 12.00 at Sala d’Actes de la Facultat de Matemàtiques i Estadística (FME), Campus Diagonal Sud. It is possible to attend to this defense but it will also be transmitted online at Google meet (meet.google.com/ufd-vtgp-gmd).

PhD Thesis Defense: Arnau Biosca
2020-12-04 11:00 - 13:00
Discovery of protein aggregation in Plasmodium parasites and development of a combinational antimalarial therapy at the nanoscale
Arnau Biosca, Nanomalaria Group
This thesis defense will take place ONLINE on the 4th December at 11.00 using the “BB Collaborate” streaming platform.

PhD Thesis Defense: Javier Rodriguez Benítez
2020-12-04 11:00 - 13:00
Characterization and interpretation of cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory dynamics in cardiomyopathy patients
Javier Rodriguez Benítez, member of Biomedical Signal Processing and Interpretation (BIOSPIN) Group
Friday 4th December 2020, at 11.00 am
This defense will be transmitted online at Google meet, using this link

PhD Thesis Defense: Anna Vila Giraut
2020-12-10 15:30 - 17:00
Hydrogel co-networks of gelatin methacryloyl and poly(ethylene glycol)diacrylate sustain 3D functional in vitro models of intestinal mucosa
Anna Vila Giraut, Biomimetic systems for cell engineering Group
Conventional in vitro cell culture models do not possess the complexity that the native tissues offer. Because of this, the functional properties of the tissues are not properly mimicked, which causes poorly predictive capabilities. Engineered tissues, which combine biofabrication and tissue engineering techniques, try to overcome this gap by providing the cells with an environment similar to the native tissue, recapitulating (I) the physicochemical and mechanical properties of the cellular matrix, (II) the multicellular complexity of the different tissue compartments, and (III) the 3D structures of the tissues. These new engineered models are key factors to improve the platforms for basic research studies, testing new drugs or modelling diseases. Among all the engineered tissues, the intestinal mucosa is not well represented. The intestinal mucosa is formed by the epithelium, which is a multicellular monolayer laying on top of the lamina propria, a connective tissue containing several cell types (mesenchymal cells, immune cells). The gold standard intestinal models are based on epithelial cell lines derived from colon cancer cells grown on the hard porous membranes of the Transwell® inserts. The lack of the intestinal stromal compartment and the growth on a hard surface give high transepithelial electrical resistance and low apparent permeability. Therefore, the development of better in vitro platforms, which integrates both compartments and provides epithelium-lamina propria cell interactions, is highly desirable.
In this work, we describe an easy and cost-effective method to engineer a 3D intestinal mucosa model that combines both the epithelium and the lamina propria compartments. To build the 3D scaffolds we chose hydrogels as materials to mimic the physicochemical and mechanical properties of intestinal tissue. Thus, hydrogel conetworks of gelatin methacryolyl (GelMA), a natural polymer, and poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA), a synthetic polymer, are photopolymerized. On one hand, GelMA provides biodegradation and cell adhesion sequences but it lacks long-term mechanical stability. On the other hand, PEGDA, is non-biodegradable and does not present cell adhesion motifs. Nevertheless, it has good mechanical properties. By this technique, the lamina propria compartment of the intestinal mucosa can be reproduced in vitro. To do that, GelMA and PEGDA polymers are laden with mesenchymal cells (fibroblasts or myofibroblasts) and/or immune cells (macrophages). We demonstrated that GelMA – PEGDA hydrogel co-networks support the growth of these cells and epithelial monolayers on top of the scaffolds. Embedding fibroblasts or myofibroblasts on the hydrogel conetworks enhance the formation and the maturity of the Caco-2 epithelial monolayers, providing barrier properties similar to in vivo. The presence of the stromal cells also enhances the recovery of the epithelial integrity when the epithelium is temporally damaged. Finally, an immunocompetent model is obtained by the encapsulation of macrophages in the constructs. The presence of macrophages does not influence the formation of the epithelium. However, when the epithelial monolayer is disrupted, the presence of mesenchymal and immune cells in the stromal compartment increases cytokine secretion in a synergistic manner. Our model can successfully mimic the interactions between stromal and epithelial compartments found in vivo intestinal tissue, offering a potential platform to be used to study absorption and toxicity of drugs, as well as cell behaviour under physiological and pathological conditions.
Location: The defense will be online. People are invited to attend upon receiving a link that you have to request to vd.fisica.recerca@ub.edu

PhD Thesis Defense: Elena Lantero
2020-12-11 14:00 - 17:00
Targeting strategies against Plasmodium and practical applications: blocking parasite development with heparin derivatives and identifying new aptamers for diagnosis
Elena Lantero, Nanomalaria Group
This thesis defense will take place ONLINE on the 11th December at 14.00 using the “BB Collaborate” streaming platform.

PhD Thesis Defense: Sock Ching Low
2020-12-15 12:00 - 14:00
Giving Centre Stage to Top-Down Inhibitory Mechanisms for Selective Attention
Sock Ching Low, SPECS (Synthetic, Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems)
Selective attention determines the sensory signals that are processed at higher levels at the expense of others and is biased by higher-order brain regions which anticipate task-relevant stimuli and increase neural sensitivity to them in the sensory cortex. Often, this is thought to occur through excitation of selected neurons, but some studies have suggested that it is not the full description of the process. Increasingly, evidence has pointed to an alternative, top-down inhibitory biasing mechanism. Here, we investigated such an inhibitory model of attention. We first showed how sensitivity to stimulus features known to be task-irrelevant are reduced through top-down suppression. Secondly, we demonstrated a biologically grounded spiking model’s ability to modulate information processing and benchmarked it to physiology. Lastly, we explored the interaction between the excitatory and inhibitory models of top-down attention in a foraging agent. Our results support the inhibitory model of top-down attention as a biological attentional mechanism and show how it fits into the current zeitgeist of top-down attentional mechanisms.
This thesis defense will be held online using “Zoom” using this link.

PhD Thesis Defense: Laia Lidón Gil
2020-12-21 11:00 - 13:00
Regulación de la expresión de PrPC como elemento clave en las modificaciones de tau en la enfermedad de Alzheimer
Laia Lidón, Molecular and Cellular Neurobiotechnology
La enfermedad de Alzheimer (EA) es la causa más común de demencia y tiene una elevada prevalencia a nivel mundial. Se caracteriza por un deterioro cognitivo progresivo y muestra como principales rasgos neuropatológicos la presencia de placas seniles enriquecidas en βamiloide y ovillos neurofibrilares intracelulares constituidos por la proteína tau hiperfosforilada. Una precisa regulación de la fosforilación de tau es esencial para que la proteína ejerza sus funciones normales, ya que su hiperfosforilación interrumpe procesos neuronales básicos como el transporte axonal.
Por otro lado, la proteína priónica celular (PrPC) es una glicoproteína de unión a membrana que en humanos se expresa mayoritariamente en el sistema nervioso central a partir de un único gen, PRNP. Sus funciones fisiológicas abarcan un conjunto de propiedades neuroprotectoras como la regulación de la homeostasis del calcio, la actividad anti-apoptótica y la capacidad antioxidante.
En los últimos años, el interés por la PrPC y su implicación en diversas enfermedades neurodegenerativas ha ido en aumento a medida que se han ido conociendo los múltiples rasgos comunes a nivel molecular y/o neuropatológico entre PrPC y dichas enfermedades. Por
ejemplo, se ha descrito que PrPC interacciona directamente con las proteínas tau, Aβ y αsinucleína participando así en diversos procesos patológicos y vías de señalización. Es por ello que PrPC ha sido asociada con la EA y otras taupatías o la enfermedad de Parkinson.
En este sentido, se ha descrito que el aumento de expresión de PrPC provoca una reducción de los niveles de tau y una menor susceptibilidad a la fosforilación en modelos experimentales de EA. Además, ha sido demostrado que durante el curso de la EA se producen cambios de expresión en el perfil de PrPC habiendo un incremento notable en estadios iniciales de la enfermedad, mientras que en estadios avanzados la expresión de PrPC disminuye coincidiendo con el incremento de depósitos de ptau. Este hecho, sugiere que PrPC podría estar ejerciendo un rol neuroprotector en las fases iniciales de la enfermedad y, en cambio, la reducción de su expresión en fases avanzadas contribuiría a la neurodegeneración y a la progresión de la patología.
A pesar de ello, se desconoce cuáles son los desencadenantes de los cambios de expresión de PRNP en la enfermedad y, por este motivo, uno de los objetivos principales de la presente tesis ha sido analizar dichos factores. Hemos estudiado diversos estímulos asociados a la EA que pueden estar implicados en la regulación transcripcional de PRNP en etapas iniciales de la enfermedad y nuestros resultados indican que el incremento celular de los niveles de tau promueve la activación del promotor de PRNP. Además, hemos descrito que la vía de señalización JNK-c-jun-AP1 es la principalmente implicada en la activación del promotor de PRNP por tau.
Por otro lado, diversos estudios sugieren que PrPC participa en la diferenciación neuronal de progenitores neuronales, un proceso altamente influenciado por la actividad de la glucógeno sintasa quinasa-3beta (GSK3β), siendo esta inhibida por PrPC . Múltiples trabajos han descrito un desequilibrio en la expresión de las diferentes isoformas de tau (tau3R y tau4R) derivadas del splicing diferencial que sufre el gen de tau, MAPT, en enfermedades que cursan acúmulo de tau, como la EA. En dichas enfermedades también se han encontrado niveles alterados de diversas quinasas, y entre ellas se encuentra la GSK3β, que además de incidir sobre la hiperfosforilación de tau, está directamente implicada en el splicing alternativo de MAPT. Por ello, otro de los propósitos del presente estudio ha sido analizar la intervención de PrPC , no solo en la fosforilación de tau y en el mantenimiento de sus niveles de expresión, sino también
en la generación de las diferentes isoformas tau3R y tau4R. Mediante el uso de animales transgénicos, muestras humanas de pacientes con EA y modelos experimentales de estudio de la PrPC , nuestros resultados corroboran la implicación de PrPC en el splicing alternativo del exón 10 de tau a través de su papel inhibidor de la actividad GSK3β.

This thesis defense will be held online next 21st December at 11, in order to be able to attend the defense, you have to write an email to: doctorat.biologia@ub.edu

PhD Thesis Defense: Maria Blancas Muñoz
2021-01-15 11:00 - 13:00
Knowing what you know. A pedagogical model based on learners’ metacognitive abilities
Maria Blancas Muñoz, Synthetic, Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems (SPECS)
This thesis defense will be held online next 15th January at 11, via “zoom”, using this link.

PhD Thesis Defence: Davia Prischich
2021-02-23 15:00 - 17:00
Development and applications of photoswitchable small molecules and peptides to control protein-protein interactions and GPCR activity
Davia Prischich, Nanoprobes and Nanoswitches group, IBEC
The defense will be held online through the platform provided by the UB. For those who are interested in joining, please remember that you have to write an email to vd.quimica.recerca@ub.edu at least 48 hours before the event.

PhD Thesis Defence: Maider Badiola
2021-03-10 09:00 - 23:00
Compartmentalised microfluidic culture systems for in vitro modelling of neurological and neuromuscular microenvironments
Maider Badiola, Nanobioengineering group
Movement of skeletal-muscle fibres is generated by the locomotion circuit. Failures in any part of the circuit can cause or define the severity of neuromuscular diseases (NMD), such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Conventional in vitro study models coculturing motoneurons and skeletal muscle cells are not physiologically relevant. Moreover, studying fragments of the circuit cannot provide a comprehensive and complete view of the pathological process.
This thesis aims to study the neuromuscular context in vitro through compartmentalised microfluidic culture systems (cµFCS) and to create physiologically relevant study models. It offers an evolving prospective of in vitro models, moving from mice to human cells, from 2D to 3D cell cultures, from primary cells to human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC), and analysing both healthy and diseased cells.
This thesis gathers many technological innovations from a Bioengineering point of view, paving the way for future studies in the neuromuscular field. It shows that the integration of the entire neuromuscular circuit components in the developed in vitro systems provides a wider view of the neuromuscular physiology and the pathological processes. These results show first steps towards future 3D physiological neuromuscular circuit models on a chip for NMD studies.
The defence will take place online using the Microsoft Teams Platform

PhD Thesis Defence: Patrica Prado Peralta
2021-04-07 10:00 - 12:00
Developing new strategies to understand human kidney development and target human disease
Patricia Prado Peralta, Pluripotency for organ regeneration group
The defence will take place online using the BBCollab platform

PhD Thesis Defence: Núria Blanco-Cabra
2021-04-16 10:00 - 12:00
Noves metodologies per al tractament de bacteris creixent en forma de biofilm
Núria Blanco-Cabra, Bacterial infections and antimicrobial therapies group at IBEC
The defence will take place online, if you wish to attend to this defence, write an email to doctoratmedicina@ub.edu at least 48 hours before the defence.

PhD Thesis Defence: Laura Moya
2021-04-26 10:00 - 12:00
Deciphering the utility of Galleria mellonella as an infection and toxicity in vivo model
Laura Moya, Bacterial infections: Antimicrobial therapies
The defence will take place online, if you wish to attend to this defence, you will find the link to access and all the information here

PhD Thesis Defence: Martina Di Muzio
2021-05-11 10:00 - 12:00
Nanoscale dielectric mapping of biomembranes with in-liquid Scanning Dielectric Microscopy
Martina Di Muzio, Nanoscale bioelectrical characterization group
The defence will take place online, if you wish to attend to this defence, you can find the link to access here and you can find more information here
Please join the meeting few minutes before the mentioned time to avoid session interruption.
If you are joining after the mentioned time, please make sure your microphone is muted before joining the session.

PhD Thesis Defence: Harishankar Balakrishnan
2021-05-12 10:00 - 12:00
Nanoscale Tomography based in Electrostatic Force Microscopy
Harishankar Balakrishnan, Nanoscale bioelectrical characterization group
The defence will take place online, if you wish to attend to this defence, you can find the link to access here and you can find more information here
Please join the meeting few minutes before the mentioned time to avoid session interruption.
If you are joining after the mentioned time, please make sure your microphone is muted before joining the session.

PhD Thesis Defence: Enara Larrañaga
2021-05-25 03:00 - 17:00
Effects of substrate-derived cues in driving the self-organization of organoid-derived intestinal epithelia
Enara Larrañaga, Biomimetic systems for cell engineering
The defence will take place online, if you wish to attend to this defence, you can find the link to access here and you can find more information here

PhD Thesis Defence: Xarxa Quiroga
2021-06-23 10:00 - 12:00 | Auditori Antoni Caparrós – PCB
Plasma membrane mechanosensing upon stretch-induced topography remodelling
Xarxa Quiroga, Cellular and molecular mechanobiology group.
The thesis defence takes place tomorrow at 10AM in the “Antoni Caparrós” auditorium, located at the PCB Tower D, with limited capacity.

PhD Thesis Defence: Maria Arista
2021-06-28 10:00 - 12:00
Unveiling viral structures by single-molecule localization microscopy
Maria Arista, Nanoscopy for nanomedicine group
The defence will take place online, if you wish to attend to this defence, you can find the link to access here and you can find more information here

PhD Thesis Defence: Ferran Velasco
2021-07-01 09:30 - 12:00
Carboxymethyl cellulose-based cryogels as scaffolds for pancreatic and skeletal muscle tissue engineering
Ferran Velasco, Biosensors for bioengineering group
The defence will take place online, if you wish to attend to this defence, you have to send an email to doctoratmedicina@ub.edu and you can find more information here

PhD Thesis Defence: Ana Candida Lopes Hortelão
2021-09-03 11:00 - 13:00
Enzyme Powered Nanomotors Towards Biomedical Applications
Ana Candida Lopes Hortelão, Smart Nano-bio-devices group
The defence will take place online, if you wish to attend to this defence you can find the link and more information here

PhD Thesis Defence: Adrianna Glinkowska
2021-09-09 11:30 - 13:30
Formulation and screening of drug nanocarriers using microfluidic technology
Adrianna Glinkowska, Nanoscopy for nanomedicine
The defence will take place online, if you wish to attend to this defence you can find the link and more information here

PhD Thesis Defence: Alexandre Gomila
2021-09-20 10:00 - 13:00
Development and characterization of in vivo models for photopharmacology
Alexandre Gomila, Nanoprobes and Nanoswitches
The defence will take place online, if you wish to attend to this defence you can find the link here

PhD Thesis Defence: Ignasi Ferrer Lluís
2021-10-25 15:30 - 17:30
Novel mHealth and multimodal physiological biomarkers for non-invasive monitoring and home healthcare of obstructive sleep apnea and COPD patients with comorbidities
Ignasi Ferrer Lluís, Biomedical Signal Processing and Interpretation
he defence will take place online, using the “Google Meet” app. If you wish to attend to this defence you can find the link here

PhD Thesis Defence: Ana López Mengual
2022-01-12 11:30 - 13:30 | Sala Graus, Faculty of Biology, Barcelona
Factores físicos y moleculares implicados en la migración celular y en el desarrollo de la corteza cerebral.
Ana López Mengual, Molecular and cellular neurobiotechnology group
Abstract
Cell migration acquires special relevance during embryonic development and tissue regeneration. During the development of the adult individual, cells multiply, differentiate and mature, having to move to their destination regions through migration. Once the adult individual has formed, these tissues can suffer damage, leading to an altered state. In this process of tissue regeneration, they try to set tissue homeostasis, cell migration is essential. This thesis analyses the mechanical factors involved in cell migration in brain development and neural regeneration, as a fundamental tool to understand these processes. OECs migrate greater distances over CXCL12 functionalized PLA 80/20 nanofibers, thus responding to the chemotactic gradient. Measurements made with by means of BIO-AFM of the mouse embryonic brain reveals differences between the pallium and the subpallium. These differences determine the differential migration rates when transplanting explants of various origins outside their usual site and analysing the migration of Cajal-Retzius cells. In addition, Cajal-Retzius cells respond by calcium entry to the inhibition of mechanosensitive cation channels, changing their migration rate. So, we conclude that physical factors are a key factor involved in the migration and disposition of Cajal-Retzius cells.

The public event will take place at the Sala de Graus at the Faculty of Biology (University of Barcelona) on January 12th at 11:30. If you prefer to attend to this defence virtually, contact with Ana López (alopezm@ibecbarcelona.eu).

PhD Thesis Defence: Ariadna Marín Llauradó
2022-01-27 11:00 - 14:00 | Auditori Antoni Caparrós, PCB, Tower D, c/Baldiri Reixac 4-8, Barcelona, Spain
Mechanical stress in curved epithelia of designed size and shape
Ariadna Marín Llauradó, Integrative cell and tissue dynamics group
The function of organs such as lungs, kidneys and mammary glands relies on the three-dimensional geometry of their epithelium. How epithelial geometry emerges from mechanical stresses remains poorly understood. To address this question systematically, here we engineered curved epithelial monolayers of controlled size and shape and mapped their state of stress. We designed pressurized epithelia with spherical, rectangular and ellipsoidal cross-sections. We developed a computational approach to map the stress tensor these epithelia from the measured pressure and geometry, without assumptions of material properties. In epithelia with spherical cross-section spanning more than one order of magnitude in radius, we show that stress increases with areal strain in a size-independent manner. In epithelia with rectangular and ellipsoidal cross-section we found pronounced stress anisotropies consistent with asymmetric distribution tractions measured at the cell-substrate contact line. Cells tended to align with the direction of maximum principal stress, but this alignment was non-universal and increased with monolayer anisotropy. Our study establishes how the size and shape of an epithelium depends on luminal pressure and mechanical stress.
This thesis defence will take place at Auditori Antoni Caparrós, located at the Parc Científic de Barcelona, Tower D with limited capacity, seats will be assigned on a first come first served basis. The defence will start at 11 AM.

PhD Thesis Defence: Andrea García Lizarribar
2022-01-28 11:00 - 13:00
Development of tunable bioinks to fabricate 3D-printed in vitro models: a special focus on skeletal muscle models with potential applications in metabolic alteration studies

Andrea García Lizarribar, Nanobioengineering group

This thesis defence will be held online using the Teams App, you can find the link here. You can find more information here

PhD Thesis Defence: Lucía Selfa Aspiroz
2022-02-01 10:00 - 12:00
Engineering human pluripotent stem cells to understand kidney development and disease

Lucía Selfa Aspiroz, Pluripotency for organ regeneration group

This thesis defence will start at 10AM. If you wisth to attend to this PhD thesis defence, you can join here via zoom.
