Research news

Cellular prion protein (PrPc) plays an essential role in maintaining neurotransmitter homeostasis in the central nervous system. This discovery has been made possible by the observation that both a deficiency and an excess of the protein have a considerable effect on this homeostasis.

Surprisingly, in both cases, the central nervous excitability threshold is altered to such an extent that an epileptic seizure may result. Thanks to this discovery, we now have more tools at our disposal that can help us to deepen our basic understanding of epilepsy.

The Cambrian Explosion is widely regarded as one of the most relevant episodes in the history of life on Earth, when the vast majority of animal phyla first appear in the fossil record.

However, the causes of its origin have been object of debate for decades and the question of what was the trigger for the single cell microorganisms Precambrian Age (500 Mio. Years ago) to assemble and organize into multicellular organisms (Metazoans) has remained unanswered until now.

The adhesion of cells to the various components of their environment is mediated mainly by molecules known as integrins.

Mediate adhesion with fibronectin, two integrins, α₅β₁ and α_vβ₃, which is present in the extracellular matrix. But why are 2 molecules involved in the adhesion to a single extracellular component?

Prof. José Antonio del Río, leader of the Molecular and Cellular Neurobiotechnology research line at IBEC, has participated in a study on neural regeneration published in the journal Chemistry and Biology of the Cell group.

IBEC researcher in collaboration with a Harvard-led team in PNAS

Imagine an opaque bag in front of you and you wish to figure out what’s inside, what would you do? You can’t open it. So you press and you feel the content, then you might be able to tell whether it is a bag of glass beads or soft balls.

Gabriel Gomila and Laura Fumagalli, from the Nanoscale bioelectrical characterization line at IBEC, are two of the authors of the study.

In any biological process, multiple interactions occurring at the molecular level make it impossible to observe live cells in real time, because light microscopes cannot focus light at scales of less than 350 nanometres. 

New breakthroughs in nanophotonics, however, will shortly enable us to visualise molecular processes at an optical resolution of ten nanometres, according to researcher María García-Parajo, head of the Bionanophotonics Laboratory at IBEC.

Un equip internacional d’investigadors liderat per Eduard Torrents de l’Intitut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya (IBEC), ubicat al Parc Científic de Barcelona, i Britt-Marie Sjöberg del Departament de Biologia Molecular i Genòmica Funcional de la Universitat d’Estocolm, en col·laboració amb científics de la Universitat de Western Ontario de Canadà, ha descobert com la síntesi d’algunes molècules precursores del DNA podria haver-se desenvolupat al llarg de l’evolució.

El treball, que s’ha publicat a l’edició electrònica de la revista Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), es basa en l’estudi de l’enzim responsable de la síntesi d’aquestes molècules en un virus bacterià.