IBEC Seminar: Irene Marco
2019-03-01 10:00 - 12:00 (Europe/Madrid) | IBEC, floor 11, Tower I, Baldiri Reixac 4-8, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Hyperpolarised magnetic resonance for real-time, in situ monitoring of cell metabolism
Irene Marco, Biosensors for bioengineering – IBEC
There is a clinical need for non-invasive and reliable markers to diagnose, stage and evaluate treatment response in many diseases such as cancer or non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Magnetic resonance (MR) methods now have the potential to revolutionise in the identification of such biomarkers in real time. Spectroscopic identification and quantitation of metabolites via carbon-13 chemical shifts can be combined with imaging (MRI) to simultaneously probe spatial (biodistribution) and temporal (kinetics) aspects of metabolism in vivo. These capabilities are enabled by so-called hyperpolarised (HP) MR techniques, including Dynamic Nuclear Polarisation (DNP), which can transiently boost the carbon-13 MR signals by several orders of magnitude, compared to traditional methods. DNP enables real-time measurement of enzymatic reactions in cell suspensions and in vivo. Multiple HP 13C-labelled substrates have provided insights in several metabolic pathways, including glycolysis, the pentose-phosphate pathway and the cellular redox state. I will present the potential of DNP to study metabolism in cell suspensions, tissue ex vivo and animals in vivo, as well as tap on the advances into the clinical translation of the technique. Also, I will talk about how we intend to implement HP MR to monitor metabolism in organs-in-chips in the lab of Javier Ramón (IBEC).

Fira Recerca en Directe
2019-03-06 10:00 - 2019-03-09 17:00 | CosmoCaixa
Fira Recerca en Directe
La Fira Recerca en Directe es planteja com a un tastet de projectes de recerca que estan en curs sobre diferents disciplines amb un format de proximitat, on es presenta l’oportunitat de parlar cara a cara amb els mateixos investigadors, així com de realitzar petits experiments amb la instrumentació científica i part del laboratori que desplacen fins a la Fira.
Va néixer el 2003 per establir un canal de comunicació on es pogués transmetre a la població el mètode científic i la recerca que es porta a terme als laboratoris de tot Catalunya.
Participa el grup de “Pluripotència per a la regeneració d’òrgans” amb un stand on parlaràn de CRISPR i edició genètica

Women in Society: Past, Present and Future
2019-03-15 08:00 - 17:00, 2019-03-15 11:00 - 13:00 | PCB
To celebrate International Women´ Day 2019, the Equality and Diversity Committees of IBEC and IRB Barcelona, and the Barcelona Science Park is hosting a round table in which women will talk about their past and present professional experiences: what has worked well and what has not. Recommendations for the establishment of best practices for engaging and empowering women in society will also be discussed.
Participants:
María Teresa Paramio (Chair)
PhD in Veterinary Science, Professor of Animal Production and Deputy Vice Rector of International Relations at the UAB. President of AMIT-Cataluña (Asociación de Mujeres Investigadoras y Tecnólogas) and member of its Governing Board.
Amparo Tomé
BA in English and Sociology, Diplomate and Master’s in Psychology and Sociology in Education from the University of London. Specialist in Women’s and Girls’ Education.
Lidia Arroyo
Researcher in the Gender and ICT Group, Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, Open University of Catalonia, and assistant professor of Psychology of Organisations.
Neus Molina (to be confirmed)
BA in Journalism and Humanities. Specialist in social and cultural journalism related to education and the performing arts.
Networking appetizer
How to register? Here

IBEC Seminar: Paul Wright
2019-03-15 10:00 - 12:00 | IBEC, floor 11, Tower I, Baldiri Reixac 4-8, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Nanosafety research addressing public health concerns about metal oxide nanoparticles
Paul Wright, Head of RMIT Nanosafety Research Group – RMIT University
Paul Wright is Australia’s foremost expert in nanotoxicology and nanosafety, and founding co-ordinator of the Asia Nano Safe and NanoSafe Australia research networks. He is the toxicologist at RMIT University’s School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, at Bundoora in Melbourne, Australia. He heads RMIT’s Nanosafety Research Group and led RMIT’s large contribution to the Australian Consortium for the OECD’s recent nanosafety testing program. He is nanosafety advisor to the Australian Nanotechnology Network (ANN), and has directly advised several Australian Federal and state government authorities and committees on nanosafety issues. Paul is a Fellow of International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and formerly an elected director of the Executive Committee of International Union of Toxicology (IUTOX).

Visita/Taller ESCOLAB
2019-03-19 10:00 - 13:30 | IBEC, floor 11, Tower I, Baldiri Reixac 4-8, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Mecanobiologia : les cèl·lules fan forces
El cos humà està constantment sotmès a forces físiques; quan et fas una ferida, les cèl·lules del teixit circumdant apliquen forces per sanar l’àrea danyada. De la mateixa manera, les cèl·lules canceroses apliquen forces per escampar-se a altres parts sanes del cos en forma de metàstasi.
Els investigadors de l’IBEC utilitzen les eines, tecnologies i tècniques de la bioenginyeria per comprendre el comportament mecànic de les cèl·lules i les seves interaccions amb el microentorn, així com els mecanismes dinàmics que intervenen en la cicatrització de teixits, la morfogènesi i la invasió cel·lular col·lectiva en el càncer.
En aquest taller els estudiants coneixeran els darrers avenços en mecanobiologia de la mà d’investigadors del nostre centre. A més, podran posar en pràctica alguns dels principis d’aquesta jove disciplina.
Escola: Institut Lluís Companys / Institut LLuis Domènech i Montaner

Saló de l'Ensenyament
2019-03-20 09:00 - 19:00 | Recinte Montjuïc, PALAUS 1, 2 i Plaça de l’Univers, Avda. Reina Maria Cristina, s/n 08004 Barcelona, Spain
El Saló de l’Ensenyament celebra el seu trentè aniversari del 20 al 24 de març de 2019 al recinte de Montjuïc de Fira de Barcelona. Aquesta edició manté la seva aposta per millorar l’experiència dels visitants i ho fa reforçant els serveis d’orientació, tant presencials com online. El certamen comptarà amb més de 190 expositors que presentaran l’oferta formativa més completa als alumnes d’ESO i Batxillerat que visitin el saló. A més, sota el marc de La Setmana de la Formació i el Treball també tindran lloc la 16a edició de Futura, el Saló dels Màsters i Postgraus i la segona edició del Saló de l’Ocupació Juvenil, que reuniran un total de més de 250 expositors al recinte de Montjuïc.
L’IBEC estarà present a l’espaiciència del Saló de l’Ensenyament el dia 20 de març.
L’espaiciència és un espai de divulgació científica per a joves de 15 a 18 anys, integrat per universitats, centres de recerca, empreses i d’altres institucions científiques, amb un programa d’activitats divulgatives, tallers i experiments científics i interactius per fomentar les vocacions cientificotècniques. Explora la teva faceta més científica!

IBEC Seminar: Silvia Muro
2019-03-22 10:00 - 12:00 | IBEC, floor 11, Tower I, Baldiri Reixac 4-8, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Spread the word!
Nest Friday we are glad to present to all those who are part of the IBEC community the IBEC FASTER FUTURE programme, an initiative to accelerate our research in a collaborative way together with patients’ associations and hospitals. Everyone can be involved and we will comment the different ways to contribute to Faster Future.
This year, we have added a new project led by Dr. Silvia Muro, responsible for the Targeted therapeutics and nanodevices group, related to Parkinson’s disease, that affects millions of people around the world.
In this presentation, Silvia Muro will talk about Enabling Delivery of Therapeutics Across the Blood-Brain Barrier for Treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases.
Get involved, we count on you!
Enabling Delivery of Therapeutics Across the Blood-Brain Barrier for Treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases
Silvia Muro, IBEC Group Leader Targeted therapeutics and nanodevices / ICREA Research Professor

Accessing the brain is key to study its function and pathology, and for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Yet, this remains a formidable challenge due to the blood-brain barrier (BBB). To overcome this obstacle, new nanovehicles are being designed to cross this interface, without much translational success. A prime obstacle is the lack of knowledge on the biological regulation of these devices, as most efforts have been devoted to controling their chemical and physical properties. To brindge this gap of knowledge, we designed nanovehicles targeted to receptors of the main routes of transcytosis across endothelial barriers, i.e. clathrin-, caveolar, and cell adhesion molecule (CAM)-mediated pathways (identified in our lab), and compared their BBB transport in cellular and animal models. Targeting these three routes resulted in transport across the endothelial lining, whereas the CAM pathway was the most effective across a broad spectrum of carrier sizes and targeting valencies. This is reminiscent of the CAM function, which contributes to transcellular leukocyte migration, and it happened through a remodeling of the lipid composition of the endothelial plasmalemma and reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton. By understanding the biological regulation of this pathway, we were able to optimize carrier design parameters to enhance BBB crossing. This needed a fine balance between the ability of carriers to bind to BBB receptors at the apical (circulation) surface and to detach from them at the basolateral (brain) side. As a result, cargoes such as enzyme therapeutics for the treatment of neurological lysosomal disorders, were delivered in an active form in the brain after intravenous administration in mouse models. Our current efforts aim to implement this strategy for the development of new therapeutics against other neurodegenerative conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease.

Visita/Taller ESCOLAB
2019-03-26 10:00 - 13:30 | IBEC, floor 11, Tower I, Baldiri Reixac 4-8, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Teràpies regeneratives : fes créixer el teu propi cos
La medicina regenerativa és un conjunt de teràpies que persegueix activar la capacitat de regeneració del propi organisme.
Els investigadors de l’IBEC utilitzen les eines, tecnologies i tècniques de la bioenginyeria per dissenyar nous materials al laboratori que en un futur puguin ajud ar al nostre cos a regenerar-se, obrint una porta alternativa als transplantaments i apostant per l’auto-reparació dels òrgans malmesos.
En aquest taller els estudiants coneixeran els darrers avenços en medicina regenerativa de la mà d’investigadors del nostre centre. A més, podran posar en pràctica alguns dels principis d’aquesta jove disciplina.
Escola: Josep Tous

PhD Discussions Sessions: Elena Lantero and Manuel López
2019-03-29 10:00 - 12:00 | IBEC, floor 11, Tower I, Baldiri Reixac 4-8, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Targeting Plasmodium falciparum with DNA aptamers
Elena Lantero, Nanomalaria
Malaria still remains as one of the main causes of mortality in many developing countries. Caused by parasitic infection of Plasmodium species, the World Health Organization has launched an ambitious plan to eradicate malaria, which will require population mass screening and treatment. In this context, the current diagnostic gold standard is light microscopy of peripheral blood smears, which is time and labor intensive, and needs prepared personnel and continuous training. Alternatively, antigen-based rapid tests have limited sensitivity and do not provide quantitative measure; and PCR-based molecular methods, although sensitive, demand for highly trained personnel and costly reactives. Besides, most current antimalarials have known resistances and new forms of treatment such as targeted delivery are interesting tools to prevent further spreading of such resistances.
Accordingly, malaria massive screening and treatment will require new rapid, sensitive, simple and economically affordable methods, able to detect even asymptomatic infected patients and low-density infections. Screening for new bioreceptors is required in order to increase the sensitivity of current antigen-based malaria rapid diagnosis or to develop new treatments. Antibody production often involves the use of laboratory animals and is time-consuming and costly, especially when the target is Plasmodium, whose variable antigen expression complicates the development of long-lived biomarkers. To circumvent these obstacles we have applied the Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment (SELEX) method to the rapid identification of DNA aptamers against Plasmodium-infected red blood cells (pRBCs). This type of synthetic bioreceptor is expected to display higher dry-storage and lyophilisation stability than antibodies. Five 70 bp-long ssDNA sequences having a highly specific binding of pRBCs versus non-infected erythrocytes have been identified by using cell-SELEX with fixed pRBCs.
Photons to electrons: Single molecule and time resolved Photosynthetic complex electron transfer study
Manuel López , Nanoprobes and nanoswitches
We present our work on the electron transfer process of plant photosynthetic complex I (PSI). PSI is a membrane protein complex that captures sunlight energy and uses it to shuttle and energize electrons throughout thylakoid membrane, bringing them from a low energy state in one side of the membrane to a very energetic state in the other side.
We study the electron transfer process between photo-oxidized and photo-reduced peripherical cofactors of the protein and their respective protein redox partners performing electrochemical bulk and single molecule photocurrent measurements as protein sample is irradiated with LED and femtosecond pulsed lasers.
