Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia

V Jornades sobre l'ensenyament de la biologia i la geologia a secundària
2016-11-03 - 2016-11-05, 2016-11-03 00:00 - 2016-11-05 23:59 (Europe/Madrid) | CosmoCaixa Barcelona, Carrer d'Isaac Newton, 08022 Barcelona, Spain
De la interpretació del passat al disseny del futur
Activitat per a escoles a CosmoCaixa Barcelona
Les Jornades sobre l’Ensenyament de la Biologia i la Geologia a Secundària, organitzades conjuntament pel Col·legi Oficial de Doctors i Llicenciats en Filosofia i Lletres i en Ciències de Catalunya, CosmoCaixa Barcelona i el Departament d’Ensenyament de la Generalitat de Catalunya, aspiren a constituir un punt de trobada per debatre els reptes actuals que planteja la docència d’aquestes disciplines.
La millor ciència és aquella que afronta els enigmes des de tots els fronts possibles, amb totes les eines disponibles. La ciència és necessàriament transversal, ja que el món és únic, som els humans els que ho compartimentem per tal que sigui més fàcil abastar-lo.
Els grans problemes del segle XXI són complexos i, per tant, requereixen de la col·laboració de diferents disciplines . Els equips d’investigadors actuals són interdisciplinaris; treballen costat a costat biòlegs, físics, químics, estadístics, geòlegs, enginyers … ja que els nous coneixements estan ara en les fronteres entre especialitats. Però, què passa en els centres d’ensenyament? Som capaços de fer visible la importància de la transversalitat de la ciència?
A partir d’una àmplia i diversa oferta de tallers i conferències, aquestes jornades pretenen contribuir a:
– Analitzar i resoldre problemes utilitzant de forma integrada models científics de diferents disciplines així com aspectes tecnològics.
– Identificar la necessitat d’aprofundir en la coordinació entre el professorat de secundària de diferents disciplines
– Reflexionar sobre la importància de proporcionar a l’alumnat una visió més integrada i funcional del coneixement científic per al seu desenvolupament competencial

PhD Discussions: Ágata Mata and Lucas Pedraz
2016-10-28 10:00 - 12:00 (Europe/Madrid)
Role of secreted Sema3E in embryonic and adult hippocampal formation
Ágata Mata Rodríguez, Molecular and cellular neurobiotechnology group
Due to its implication in many cognitive processes like learning and memory, the hippocampal formation is a brain structure which has been widely studied over the years. Its simplified architecture, where principal cells are in a single cell layer and synaptic inputs are in well defined dendritic lamina, has enabled the study and establishment of the general principles of modern neuroscience. Behind this simplicity resides the action of numerous factors that regulate the correct development of the structure.
The principle entrance of information to the hippocampus is the entorhino-hippocampal (EH) pathway or perforant pathway, where axons arising from the entorhinal cortex enter the hippocampus proper and arrive to the outer molecular layer of the dentate gyrus. The development of this pathway is highly regulated and some of the molecules that intervene in this process are the class III Semaphorins.
Class III Semaphorins are soluble molecules initially known by its function in axonal guidance. It is known that some of these molecules and their receptors are involved in the development and maturation of the hippocampal connections, nevertheless, the participation of Sema3E and its receptor, PlexinD1, in the development of the entorhino-hippocampal connection has not been studied in detail. With this in mind, in the present study we focused on determining their role during development and adulthood.
Our results show that in absence of Sema3E/PlexinD1 signalling (i) there is an aberrant layering of the entorhinal axons in the hippocampus during development, and (ii) there are some alterations in the adult hippocampal formation such as misrouted ectopic mossy fibres and ectopic granule cells in the dentate gyrus due to a dysregulation in the proliferation of dentate gyrus progenitors.

Regulation of DNA synthesis in bacterial biofilms: An in vitro system for modelization of the oxygen gradients present in the chronic infections biofilms
Lucas Pedraz López, Bacterial infections: antimicrobial therapies
Chronic infections represent one of the main threats to human health nowadays, being one of the main causes of death even in the developed countries. These infections are always associated with the developing of a biofilm, complex 3D structures where cells are encapsulated in an extracellular polymeric matrix, seeing increased their resistance to antibiotic therapies and physical stress. In biofilms, oxygen cannot diffuse freely throughout the structure, generating an oxygen concentration gradient and leading to the presence of microaerophilic and anaerobic environments.
Given the urgent need to develop new antimicrobial therapies, many aspects of bacterial physiology are being studied trying to understand better the underlying molecular mechanisms of their growing and virulence. However, one of the major factors affecting the differential behavior in the biofilm is the oxygen concentration, and, in most cases, studies have only been conducted using biofilms as a whole, or using fully aerobic or fully anaerobic liquid cultures; in real world conditions, transition from aerobiosis to anaerobiosis is never done in a single step, having always a spatial and/or temporal gradient of oxygen concentrations, and gene regulation during intermediate stages of this gradient, in microaerophilic environments or during dynamical oxygen concentration changes, has not been studied properly.
In our lab we have developed a method to monitor bacterial gene expression as determined by oxygen concentration, during a progressive change in oxygenation conditions, that can be implemented in any microbiology lab and that only relies on common laboratory equipment. The method is based on a chemostat-like bioreactor coupled to an oxygen tension continuous detection system that also allows for discontinuous sampling. Initially, this system is now being applied to the determination of the changes in ribonucleotide reductase gene expression profile determined by oxygen concentration in a Pseudomonas aeruginosa liquid culture.

FRAILTY - A societal challenge in need of integrated solutions
2016-10-27 10:30 - 2016-10-28 15:30 (Europe/Madrid)
FRAILTY – A societal challenge in need of integrated solutions
October 27th-28th
We are very pleased to welcome you to this Frailty Workshop, mainly intended to deepen in this concept, a state of high vulnerability to low-power stressors, which place older people at high risk of becoming disabled. Frailty has risen in the last two decades as one of the most innovative concepts in the field of Health and Social Sciences for older adults. The old framework approaches disability by treating diseases. Overcoming it by acting on functional issues arises from the main idea of detecting and intervening in the earliest phases of the functional deterioration leading to disability and dependence. Frailty also demands the incorporation of an appropriate technology to provide clues to its detection and diagnosis and to an integrated, continued and coordinated management. Frailty concept offers the best window of opportunity to significantly reduce the burden of disability in our aged societies.
Goals:
– Updates from key opinion leaders in the field
– To introduce EIT and EIT Health to a broad audience in Spain
– To present the FACET project: service and product to promote frailty care and prevention
– Business opportunities related to frailty
– To reach stakeholders and take action regarding frailty.
More information
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Useful dates:
Workshop dates: October 27th-28th, 2016

IBEC PhD Thesis Defence: Oiane Urra
2016-10-27 00:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Madrid) | Sala d’Actes de la Facultat d’Informàtica de Barcelona, C/Jordi Girona, 1-3, Barcelona, Spain
“Analysis of the Interlimb similarity of motor patterns for improving stroke assessment and neurorehabilitation”
Oiane Urra, Biomedical signal processing and interpretation group
Oiane will be defending her PhD thesis on Thursday 27th at 12:00 at Facultat d’Informàtica de Barcelona (Sala d’actes), Edifici B6 del Campus Nord, Planta 0 (C/Jordi Girona, 1-3, 08034 Barcelona).
Everybody is welcome to attend.
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If you’re an IBEC PhD student and would like to advertise your PhD defence on the IBEC calendar, please contact vleigh@ibecbarcelona.eu

Good practices in a multi-disciplinary lab
2016-10-26 10:00 - 12:00 (Europe/Madrid)
Good practices in a multi-disciplinary lab
The objective of this workshop is to acquire the good practices necessary in a multidisciplinary laboratory to ensure the highest quality of the results.
If you are a Master Student, Undergraduate Student or you are in your first year of PhD and you want to learn how to work in a multidisciplinary laboratory you need to attend this workshop.
The training method will be to follow the process of performing an experiment, from previous planning until the moment of leaving the benchtop. For this purpose, we will take into account relevant aspects such as correct use of routine equipment, dealing with the waste, keeping a clean and tidy space, or health and safety.

Contents of the course:
• Introduction
• Plan and perform an experiment
• Practical part
Methodology:
Sessions will be organized in two parts:
• In the first part, the trainer will guide us in the use of good practices from the moment a researcher arrives to the benchtop and starts working until the end of the experiment.
• In the second part, the trainer will ask you to deal with different daily lab situations in a simulated bench. This part will be highly interactive, including games and debate discussions.
Number of participants: 25.
Language of the course: English
Trainers:
IBEC’s Health and Safety Committee members:
David Izquierdo
Ariadna Pérez
Soledad Pérez
Isabel Oliveira
Raquel Guillén
If you’d like to attend, please send an email to hr@ibecbarcelona.eu before 18:00h on October 25th, including any questions you’d like to discuss.
After receiving all the applications, our HR Unit will contact you to confirm your acceptance.

IBEC Seminar: Targeting fibroblast durotaxis as anti-fibrotic therapy
2016-10-13 15:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Madrid)
Targeting fibroblast durotaxis as anti-fibrotic therapy
Dr. David Lagares, Harvard Medical School
Dysregulated wound repair process in response to chronic tissue injury can lead to the development of tissue fibrosis in most organs. Fibrosis is characterized by accumulation of collagens and other matrix proteins that result in the distortion of tissue architecture, and ultimately organ failure, in variety of human diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Tissue stiffening, traditionally thought to simply be a consequence of lung fibrosis, has been recently shown to be a contributing factor to its pathogenesis by inducing fibroblasts differentiation into activated myofibroblasts, the principal effector cells responsible matrix deposition.
The cellular and molecular mechanisms through which increased tissue rigidity drives disease progression remain to be fully elucidated. Using atomic force microscopy (AFM) to mechanically characterize the “topography”, i.e. the spatial distribution, of alterations in matrix stiffness produced in mouse models of lung fibrosis, we consistently found that stiffness, rather than being uniformly elevated in lung fibrotic tissues from animals models, rises and falls in spatial gradients between “peaks” and “valleys.” We hypothesize that the stiffness “peaks” represent areas in which the fibrotic process was initiated, or “nucleated”. Once fibrosis is nucleated, the stiffness gradients leading to these fibrotic peaks are amplified by fibroblast “durotaxis,” – the directed migration of cells from regions of lower to higher stiffness, which occurs in the absence of chemoattractant gradients. Using hydrogels that recapitulate the stiffness gradients observed in animal fibrosis models, we demonstrated durotaxis of lung fibroblasts in time-lapse microscopy studies. In human studies with lung tissues from IPF patients, AFM revealed similar stiffness topography as we observed in mouse models, i.e. the presence of focal peaks surrounded by stiffness gradients. Of note, we have also found that primary lung fibroblasts from IPF patients exhibit greater durotactic responses to stiffness gradients than do control lung fibroblasts. In efforts to identify the molecular pathways involved in cell durotaxis, we have found that the increased durotaxis of IPF fibroblasts may be attributable, at least in part, to increased acetylation of their microtubules. Acetylation of α-tubulin is dependent on α-tubulin acetyltransferase (αTAT1) activity, which is upregulated in fibrotic fibroblasts compared with controls. siRNA-mediated αTAT1 downregulation in these fibrotic fibroblasts reduced their pro-durotactic phenotype without affecting fibroblast chemotaxis. In vivo, αTAT-1-deficient mice were protected from bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis, as assessed qualitatively by histology and quantitatively by hydroxyproline levels. Together, we identified a novel mechanism through which gradients of matrix stiffness produced in the injured lung drives the progression of lung fibrosis, by recruiting additional fibroblasts to sites of injury and incipient fibrosis through durotaxis. We consequently hypothesize that inhibition of fibroblast durotaxis has the potential to be an entirely new therapeutic strategy for IPF and other fibrotic diseases.

IBEC Seminar: Scaling up in Systems Biology: from a minimal cell to microbiomes
2016-10-13 10:00 - 11:00 (Europe/Madrid)
Scaling up in Systems Biology: from a minimal cell to microbiomes
Maria Lluch Senar, Design of Biological Systems grup, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG)
Ultra-sequencing technologies have allowed the massive identification of human-associated microbiomes. Genome annotations of microbiomes consider conserved ORFs or those encoding for proteins larger than 100aa. However, growing evidence highlight the existence of a hidden universe of small genes (smORFs) encoding for small peptides (SEPs; <100aa), many of them secreted, being involved in infection and quorum sensing. Also, in eukaryotes, small antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are secreted in response to infection. The interplay between these secreted SEPs is essential to control the different human microbiomes to ensure coexistence rather than weakening the host against opportunistic infections. Thus, determining the smORFome of bacterial-host ecosystems and studying its role in homeostasis are essential. In this seminar, I will explain how by using different system biology approaches we discovered this layer of small peptides in Mycoplasma pneumoniae and our future plans to study their role in human microbiomes focusing in female reproductive tract.

Conferència: La regeneració d'òrgans com a paradigma de la medicina del futur
2016-10-11 19:00 - 20:00 (Europe/Madrid) | CaixaForum Girona
Conferència: La regeneració d’òrgans com a paradigma de la medicina del futur
Dra. Elisabeth Engel, cap del Grup de Biomaterials per a Teràpies Regeneratives de l’IBEC i professora agregada de la UPC
CaixaForum Girona. Dimarts 11 d’octubre del 2016 a les 19 h
En el passat, la idea d’un home biònic ha estat només cosa de la ficció: Frankenstein n’és l’exemple. Però, avui dia, no sembla tan increïble que la tecnologia pugui igualar, o fins i tot sobrepassar, les capacitats del cos humà. Els investigadors de l’IBEC s’estan enfrontant a un ampli ventall de desafiaments en enginyeria de teixits. Alguns dels nostres científics s’especialitzen en teixit ossi, vascular i neuronal i altres busquen regenerar òrgans sencers com el cor. L’enginyeria de teixits podria proporcionar un mitjà per substituir parts del cos danyades o malaltes utilitzant les cèl·lules del pacient mateix, per evitar així les llargues llistes d’espera i el risc de rebuig que tenen actualment els trasplantaments.
Més informació i registre

IBEC Seminar: Publishing in the Nature journals
2016-10-10 15:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Madrid) | Sala Félix Serratossa, Parc Científic de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
IBEC Seminar: Publishing in the Nature journals
Dr. Alexia-Ileana Zaromytidou (Chief Editor, Nature Cell Biology)
Alexia-Ileana Zaromytidou, Chief Editor of Nature Cell Biology will provide an editor’s perspective on the editorial and publishing process in the Nature journals.
She received her PhD from the London Research Institute of Cancer Research UK in London, UK (now the Francis Crick Institute) in January 2007. Her doctoral work with Richard Treisman centered on the molecular interactions between actin-regulated transcription factors and their coactivators in the context of MAPK and Rho signaling responses. She pursued her postdoctoral research in the lab of Joan Massagué at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where she studied how different phosphorylation inputs affect TGFβ/BMP pathway activity to achieve distinct biological outcomes. In September 2010 she joined the editorial team of Nature Cell Biology as the editor responsible for the areas of cancer biology, mechanobiology, cell adhesion, migration and the cytoskeleton, and became Chief editor of the journal in November 2015.

Complementary Skills Session: Career progression in science: options beyond the bench
2016-10-10 09:15 - 12:00 (Europe/Madrid) | Sala Dolors Aleu, Cluster II, Parc Científic de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Complementary Skills Session: Career progression in science: options beyond the bench
Together with the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), we have organized a Round table on “Career progression in science – options beyond the bench”, in order to give our PhD students and postdocs the opportunity to discover new and exciting career options from the experience of successful professionals.
You can have a look at the programme and speakers
Complementary Skills Sessions are open to all staff and researchers at all career stages.

Mechanobiology Across Networks
2016-10-06 08:00 - 2016-10-07 17:00 (Europe/Madrid) | Auditori Antoni Caparrós, PCB, Tower D, c/Baldiri Reixac 4-8, Barcelona, Spain
Mechanobiology Across Networks
Joint Meeting of the Spanish Network of Excellence in Mechanobiology and the European Innovative Training Network BIOPOL
By factoring the role not only of biochemical but also of mechanical signals, the emerging discipline of Mechanobiology is reshaping our understanding of molecules, cells, and tissues. This meeting brings together two networks dedicated to this blooming topic: the Spanish Network of Excellence in Mechanobiology, and the European Training Network BIOPOL. The meeting will feature talks and poster presentations from both senior and junior members of both networks, and will address fundamental and applied questions in mechanobiology from the perspectives of physics, biology, and engineering. The meeting is also open for attendance to anyone interested in the topic.

Important deadlines:
Abstract submission: 21st June
Notification of acceptance: 6th July – 21st July
Registration deadline: 16th September
For more details and to register, visit https://ibecbarcelona.eu/events/Mechanobiology_across_networks

Mechanobiology Across Networks
2016-10-06 08:00 - 2016-10-07 17:00 (Europe/Madrid) | Auditori Antoni Caparrós, PCB, Tower D, c/Baldiri Reixac 4-8, Barcelona, Spain
Mechanobiology Across Networks
Joint Meeting of the Spanish Network of Excellence in Mechanobiology and the European Innovative Training Network BIOPOL
By factoring the role not only of biochemical but also of mechanical signals, the emerging discipline of Mechanobiology is reshaping our understanding of molecules, cells, and tissues. This meeting brings together two networks dedicated to this blooming topic: the Spanish Network of Excellence in Mechanobiology, and the European Training Network BIOPOL. The meeting will feature talks and poster presentations from both senior and junior members of both networks, and will address fundamental and applied questions in mechanobiology from the perspectives of physics, biology, and engineering. The meeting is also open for attendance to anyone interested in the topic.

Important deadlines:
Abstract submission: 21st June
Notification of acceptance: 6th July – 21st July
Registration deadline: 16th September
For more details and to register, visit http://ibecbarcelona.eu/events/Mechanobiology_across_networks

IBEC PhD Thesis Defence: Manuel Lozano
2016-07-15 11:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Madrid) | Sala d’Actes de la Facultat de Matemàtiques i Estadística, c. Pau Gargallo 5, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
“Multichannel analysis of normal and continuous adventitious respiratory sounds for the assessment of pulmonary function in respiratory diseases”
Manuel Lozano, Biomedical Signal Processing and Interpretation group
Manuel will be defending his PhD thesis on Friday 15th July at 11:00 at the Facultat de Matemàtiques i Estadística (Sala d’Actes) of the UPC (c. Pau Gargallo, 5 08028 Barcelona).
Everybody is welcome to attend.
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If you’re an IBEC PhD student and would like to advertise your PhD defence on the IBEC calendar, please contact vleigh@ibecbarcelona.eu

IBEC Seminar: Prof. Shulamit Levenberg
2016-07-12 10:00 - 23:00 UTC
Engineering Vascularized Tissue Constructs
Prof. Shulamit Levenberg, Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Technion, Haifa, Israel
Vascularization continues to represent a major challenge in the successful implementation of regenerative strategies. Cell organization into 3D tissue vascularized structures involves cell-matrix and cell-cell interactions, some of which occur between the different tissue cell types. During this process, cells further differentiate and assemble into structures resembling the final tissue architecture. We have established that vessel network assembly yielding vascularized 3D tissue structures can be induced in-vitro by means of coculturing endothelial cells, fibroblasts and tissue-specific cells. We have also shown that in vitro pre-vascularization of engineered tissues can promote tissue survival and further vascularization upon implantation, via anastomosis of the engineered vessels with host vasculature, forming functional blood vessels in vivo. Vascularization of engineered tissues can be enhanced through coordinated application of improved biomaterial systems with relevant cell types. Moreover, we have shown that vessel network maturity and morphology can be highly regulated by both matrix composition and by external mechanical stimulations. Our recent studies have focused on investigation of the degree of the in vitro prevascularization required to achieve best postimplantation vascularization of tissue constructs, as well as on understanding the mechanisms underlying host-implant vessel integration and anastomosis. New co-culture approaches for inducing pre-defined vessel structures in vitro will also be discussed, as will novel studies on vascularized muscle flaps engineered to reconstruct large soft tissue defects.
