Research news Archives - Page 25 of 33 - Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia

June 27, 2016December 15, 2015

Cells are liquids – but behave like solids

Scientists at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) have revealed that, counter to previous understanding, the living cells in our bodies behave like solids rather than the liquids they are made of.

IBEC group leader and ICREA research professor Xavier Trepat, who led the research, describes the discovery as ‘truly counter-intuitive’. “It means we need brand new laws of physics to understand what ingredients a fluid needs to behave as a solid,” he says.

June 11, 2016December 11, 2015

Harnessing E. coli to power micromotors for drug delivery

An IBEC researcher and his collaborators have taken the next step in their quest to achieve safe micromotors for medical drug and cargo delivery by developing a version that is powered by bacteria.

Samuel Sánchez, who recently published some work about similar micro-sized drug carriers that are powered by enzymes that consume biological fuels, such as glucose, worked with the part of his group at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems on this latest finding, highlighted on the inside cover of Advanced Materials Interfaces, which elaborates an even more promising ‘microswimmer’ that is powered by Escherichia coli.

June 21, 2016December 1, 2015

Researchers reveal a potential cancer repressor function in a key protein

In a paper published in Nature Cell Biology, IBEC junior group leader Pere Roca Cusachs and his collaborators at Columbia University and Singapore’s Mechanobiology Institute reveal the potential of a protein found in cell cytoskeletons as a repressor of cancer.

The ability of cells to sense the rigidity of the extracellular matrix – a collection of molecules that provides structural and biochemical support – affects the regulation of their activity in development, wound healing and other essential processes.

June 27, 2016November 25, 2015

How we learn in chunks – and what it means for the brain

In some research conducted with his colleagues at the University of California San Diego, IBEC senior researcher Jordi Fonollosa has shed some light on the mechanisms behind how we memorize sequences – as well as how failures in these mechanisms can provide insight into neurological disorders.

Previous behavioral experiments suggest that humans and some animals learn and recall sequences in smaller segments.

June 13, 2016October 22, 2015

Another big step towards understanding the electric properties of the cell

Having measured the electric polarizability of DNA – a fundamental property that directly influences its biological functions – for the first time ever last year, IBEC´s Nanoscale Bioelectrical Characterization group has made a further breakthrough in the understanding of the dielectric properties of cell constituents by measuring the electric polarizability of the main components of the cell membrane – namely lipids, sterols and proteins – with a spatial resolution down to 50nm.

The cell membrane plays an essential role in fundamental bioelectric phenomena. Found in places such as neurons or cardiac cells, it regulates the exchange of ions between the cell and the environment, as well as enabling the formation of electric potentials that can propagate over long distances.

June 8, 2016October 12, 2015

Possible new treatment for bladder cancer using a mycobacterium

Collaborators at the UAB and IBEC have found a mycobacterium that is more effective in treating superficial bladder cancer and does not cause infections, unlike those used up to now.

Mycobacteria are the only bacteria used in cancer treatment. The administration of the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis (BCG) is the current treatment for superficial bladder cancer, and is inserted directly into the bladder through a catheter. BCG prevents new tumours from appearing, but despite its efficacy it has many adverse side effects, the most serious being BCG infections that need to be treated with antituberculous drugs.

November 6, 2015October 6, 2015

Safe nanomotors propelled by sugar

Researchers at IBEC and their collaborators have made a breakthrough in nanomotors for applications in medicine by developing the first ever fully biocompatible self-propelling particles that are powered by enzymes that consume biological fuels, such as glucose.

In Nanoletters today, IBEC group leader and ICREA research professor Samuel Sánchez and his collaborators at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS), the University of Tübingen and the MPI for Solid State Research, describe their fabrication of enzyme-powered synthetic nanomotors that overcome the disadvantages of current systems by being both biocompatible and powered by biologically benign fuels.

September 29, 2015September 3, 2015

IBEC group presents 4th generation biomaterial that mimics bone

IBEC researchers have published a paper in Nanoscale elucidating a brand new biomaterial that paves the way towards a fourth generation of effective structures for tissue regeneration.

The Biomaterials for Regenerative Therapies group and their collaborators in the Netherlands and Poland describe a hybrid material which faithfully mimics the structure of bone’s extracellular matrix.

June 11, 2016July 9, 2015

Findings on seizure susceptibility open new avenues to understanding epilepsy in rapid progressive dementia

IBEC researchers have revealed the role played by the cellular prion protein (PrPC) – which is associated with a plethora of biological functions including cell proliferation, differentiation and signaling – in epilepsy.

In the latest edition of Scientific Reports, a Nature group journal, the Molecular and Cellular Neurobiotechnology group and their collaborators outline findings that could lead to a better understanding of rapid neurodegenerative diseases that involve epileptic fits, such as Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD).

June 15, 2015

How cells cope with stress and strain

A study by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) reveals how cells withstand breakage during the constant changes in shape and volume experienced in most biological processes

During critical biological processes such as embryonic development, breathing, the pumping of the heart, wound healing and tumor growth, the body’s cells are stretched and distorted to adapt to their environment. The cell’s membrane, though, is rigid and inflexible. So how does it withstand all these constant deformations, so that it doesn’t break?