Research news

Xavier Fernàndez Busquets’ joint IBEC-ISGlobal Nanomalaria group has moved a step closer to the validation of immunoliposomes as a vehicle for antimalarial drugs by showing that they increase the efficacy of lipohilic (poorly soluble) compounds in a mouse model of malaria.

The results, published in Biomaterials, suggest that this strategy could be used for the treatment of severe malaria.

Most antimalarial drugs currently in the pipeline are poorly soluble in water, and high amounts are needed to ensure their efficacy, particularly in cases of severe malaria.

IBEC’s Nanobioengineering group have made important inroads in mechanobiology by creating an in vitro model of the extracellular matrix that shows how this environment works with protein complex actomyosin – the essential substance that allows muscle to contract – to direct the movement of cells.

The group’s paper, which appears in Advanced Functional Materials this week, sheds light on cell migration, which is essential for many biological processes such as embryonic development and wound healing when things are going right, and cancer progression when things go wrong.

An IBEC group has developed a new imaging method that can characterize the conductance of single molecules, shedding light on the molecular mechanisms behind biological processes such as respiration, photosynthesis and repair.

Publishing in the journal Small, the Nanoprobes and Nanoswitches group describe a new way to observe conduction pathways in redox proteins and complexes – in which the transfer of electrons causes a change in oxidation – at the nanoscale.

IBEC junior group leader Lorenzo Albertazzi is a contributor to the 2017 edition of ChemComm Emerging Investigators, which is published annually by the UK’s Royal Society of Chemistry.

Now in its seventh year, the special issue showcases research carried out by internationally recognised, up-and-coming scientists in the early stages of their independent careers, and who are making outstanding contributions to their respective fields.

IBEC researchers, together with their collaborators from the Max Planck for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, have engineered tiny robots that can remove disease-causing bacteria, such as E. coli, from water.

Contaminated drinking water is a persistent public health problem that can cause potentially life-threatening illnesses when proper treatment isn’t available, as in many areas of the world. It can be disinfected with chlorine or other disinfectants, but some hardy bacteria and other microorganisms stick around and can be hard to remove. Sometimes, the byproducts of these disinfectants can be harmful to human health as well.

Today three IBEC group leaders – Pere Roca-Cusachs, Vito Conte and Xavier Trepat – consolidate the institute’s leadership in mechanobiology by publishing a review of the field in Nature Cell Biology.

Their paper, “Quantifying forces in cell biology”, summarizes a wide range of sensors and sensing methods able to quantify the forces generated by cells. During the last two decades, advances in our understanding of these mechanisms have allowed researchers to find out more about cell-generated forces at different scales, ranging from molecular forces – how a protein domain folds – to long-range supra-cellular force patterns such as the ones that govern wound healing or collective cell migration.

From the cells of a patient with a rare neurodegenerative disease, Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome (GSS), researchers at IBEC have managed to generate neurons that also present parallel neurodegenerative processes unrelated to the syndrome.

The striking image on the left shows a mass of neurons derived from GSS-affected pluripotent stem cells (iPS), developed in José Antonio Del Río’s lab.

Researchers have created the most efficient single-molecule diode ever.

Diodes are common in everyday electronic devices, in which they control the current by allowing it to flow in one direction while blocking it in the opposite direction. The researchers, working at the University of Barcelona (UB) and IBEC, have created one of just 1 nanometer in size with a rectification ratio – the ratio of the current that flows in one direction compared to the other – several orders of magnitude higher than previously.