Publications

Mycobacterium brumae is a rapid-growing, non-pathogenic Mycobacterium species, originally isolated from environmental and human samples in Barcelona, Spain. Mycobacterium brumae is not pathogenic and it's in vitro phenotype and immunogenic properties have been well characterized. However, the knowledge of its underlying genetic composition is still incomplete. In this study, we first describe the 4 Mb genome of the M. brumae type strain ATCC 51384T assembling PacBio reads, and second, we assess the low intraspecies variability by comparing the type strain with Illumina reads from three additional strains. Mycobacterium brumae genome is composed of a circular chromosome with a high GC content of 69.2% and containing 3,791 CDSs, 97 pseudogenes, one prophage and no CRISPR loci. Mycobacterium brumae has shown no pathogenic potential in in vivo experiments, and our genomic analysis confirms its phylogenetic position with other non-pathogenic and rapid growing mycobacteria. Accordingly, we determined the absence of virulence-related genes, such as ESX-1 locus and most PE/PPE genes, among others. Although the immunogenic potential of M. brumae was proved to be as high as Mycobacterium bovis BCG, the only mycobacteria licensed to treat cancer, the genomic content of M. tuberculosis T cell and B cell antigens in M. brumae genome is considerably lower than those antigens present in M. bovis BCG genome. Overall, this work provides relevant genomic data on one of the species of the mycobacterial genus with high therapeutic potential.Copyright © 2023 Renau-Mínguez, Herrero-Abadía, Ruiz-Rodriguez, Sentandreu, Torrents, Chiner-Oms, Torres-Puente, Comas, Julián and Coscolla.

JTD Keywords: antimicrobial susceptibility, bcg, identification, immunogenic, non-pathogenic, nontuberculous mycobacteria, resistance mechanisms, strain, therapeutic, Diversity, Immunogenic, Non-pathogenic, Nontuberculous mycobacteria, Therapeutic

The ability to engineer complex multicellular systems has enormous potential to inform our understanding of biological processes and disease and alter the drug development process. Engineering living systems to emulate natural processes or to incorporate new functions relies on a detailed understanding of the biochemical, mechanical, and other cues between cells and between cells and their environment that result in the coordinated action of multicellular systems. On April 3-6, 2022, experts in the field met at the Keystone symposium "Engineering Multicellular Living Systems" to discuss recent advances in understanding how cells cooperate within a multicellular system, as well as recent efforts to engineer systems like organ-on-a-chip models, biological robots, and organoids. Given the similarities and common themes, this meeting was held in conjunction with the symposium "Organoids as Tools for Fundamental Discovery and Translation".

JTD Keywords: computational, engineered living, engineered organs, multicellular, Brain organoids, Cell diversity, Computational, Dynamics, Engineered living, Engineered organs, Heart, Maturation, Model, Multicellular, Mycobacterium-tuberculosis, Quantitative-analysis, Systems, Tissue deformation

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication and repetitive patterns of behavior. Individuals affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may face overwhelming sensory hypersensitivities that hamper their everyday life. In order to promote awareness about neurodiversity among the neurotypical population, we have developed an interactive virtual reality simulation to experience the oversensory stimulation that an individual with autism spectrum disorder may experience in a natural environment. In this experience, we project the user in a first-person perspective in a classroom where a teacher is presenting a lecture. As the user explores the classroom and attends the lecture, he/she is confronted with sensory distortions which are commonly experienced by persons with ASD. We provide the users with a virtual reality headset with motion tracking, two wireless controllers for interaction, and a wristband for physiological data acquisition to create a closed feedback loop. This wearable device measures blood volume pulse (BVP) and electrodermal activity (EDA), which we use to perform online estimations of the arousal levels of users as they respond to the virtual stimuli. We use this information to modulate the intensity of auditory and visual stimuli simulating a vicious cycle in which increased arousal translates into increased oversensory stimulation. Here, we present the architecture and technical implementation of this system.

JTD Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, neurodiversity, physiology, Autism, Autism spectrum disorder, Neurodiversity, Physiology, Virtual reality

Supramolecular chemistry is the quintessential backbone of all biological processes. It encompasses a wide range from the metabolic network to the self-assembled cytoskeletal network. Combining the chemical diversity with the plethora of functional depth that biological systems possess is a daunting task for synthetic chemists to emulate. The only route for approaching such a challenge lies in understanding the complex and dynamic systems through advanced analytical techniques. The supramolecular complexity that can be successfully generated and analyzed is directly dependent on the analytical treatment of the system parameters. In this review, we illustrate advanced analytical techniques that have been used to investigate various supramolecular systems including complex mixtures, dynamic self-assembly, and functional nanomaterials. The underlying theme of such an overview is not only the exceeding detail with which traditional experiments can be probed but also the fact that complex experiments can now be attempted owing to the analytical techniques that can resolve an ensemble in astounding detail. Furthermore, the review critically analyzes the current state of the art analytical techniques and suggests the direction of future development. Finally, we envision that integrating multiple analytical methods into a common platform will open completely new possibilities for developing functional chemical systems.

JTD Keywords: analytical techniques, dynamic self-assembly, high-speed afm, liquid cell tem, Analytical technique, Analytical techniques, Biological process, Chemical analysis, Chemical diversity, Complex networks, Cytoskeletal network, Dynamic self-assembly, High-speed afm, Hydrogels, In-situ, Liquid cell tem, Metabolic network, Microscopy, Nanoscale, Proteins, Self assembly, Supramolecular chemistry, Supramolecular systems, System chemistry, Systems chemistry

Purpose: This paper aims to explore how the cross-fertilization of knowledge and technologies in EU-funded research projects, including serious games and gamification, is influenced by the following variables: multidisciplinarity, knowledge base and organizations (number and diversity). The interrelation of actors and projects form a network of innovation. The largest contribution to cross-fertilization comes from the multidisciplinary nature of projects and the previous knowledge and technology of actors. The analysis draws on the understanding of how consortia perform as an innovation network, what their outcomes are and what capabilities are needed to reap value. Design/methodology/approach: All the research projects including serious games and/or gamification, funded by the EU-Horizon 2020 work programme, have been analyzed to test the hypotheses in this paper. The study sample covers the period between 2014 and 2016 (June), selecting the 87 research projects that comprised 519 organizations as coordinators and participants, and 597 observations – because more organizations participate in more than one project. The data were complemented by documentary and external database analysis. Findings: To create cross-fertilization of knowledge and technologies, the following emphasis should be placed on projects: partners concern various disciplines; partners have an extensive knowledge base for generating novel combinations and added-value technologies; there is a diverse typology of partners with unique knowledge and skills; and there is a limited number of organizations not too closely connected to provide cross-fertilization. Research limitations/implications: First, the database sample covers a period of 30 months. The authors’ attention was focused on this period because H2020 prioritized for the first time the serious games and gamification with two specific calls (ICT-21–14 and ICT-24–16) and, second, for the explosion of projects including these technologies in the past years (Adkins, 2017). These facts can be understood as a way to push the research to higher technology readiness levels (TRLs) and introducing the end-user in the co-creation and co-development along the value chain. Second, an additional limitation makes reference to the European focus of the projects, missing strong regional initiatives not identified and studied. Originality/value: This paper has attempted to explore and define theoretically and empirically the characteristics found in the cross-fertilization of collaborative research projects, emphasizing which variables, and how, need to be stimulated to benefit more multidisciplinary consortia and accelerate the process of innovation. © 2021, Manel González-Piñero, Cristina Páez-Avilés, Esteve Juanola-Feliu and Josep Samitier.

JTD Keywords: absorptive-capacity, business model, cross-fertilization of knowledge, diversity, front-end, impact, innovation systems, knowledge management, management research, science, social networks, team, technology, Cross-fertilization of knowledge, Innovation, Knowledge management, Management research, Research-and-development, Technology

This paper addresses how impairments in prediction in young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) relate to their behavior during collaboration. To assess it, we developed a task where participants play in collaboration with a synthetic agent to maximize their score. The agent’s behavior changes during the different phases of the game, requiring participants to model the agent’s sensorimotor contingencies to play collaboratively. Our results (n = 30, 15 per group) show differences between autistic and neurotypical individuals in their behavioral adaptation to the other partner. Contrarily, there are no differences in the self-reports of that collaboration.

JTD Keywords: Autism, Prediction, Collaboration, Sensorimotor contingencies, Neurodiversity

Nanotechnology is an emerging and promising field of research. Creating sufficient technological diversity among its alternatives is important for the long-term success of nanotechnologies, as well as for other emerging technologies. Diversity prevents early lock-in, facilitates recombinant innovation, increases resilience, and allows market growth. Creation of new technological alternatives usually takes place in innovation projects in which public and private partners often collaborate. Currently, there is little empirical evidence about which characteristics of innovation projects influence diversity. In this paper we study the influence of characteristics of EU-funded nanotechnology projects on the creation of technological diversity. In addition to actor diversity and the network of the project, we also include novel variables that have a plausible influence on diversity creation: the degree of multi-disciplinarity of the project and the size of the joint knowledge base of project partners. We apply topic modelling (Latent Dirichlet allocation) as a novel method to categorize technological alternatives. Using an ordinal logistic regression model, our results show that the largest contribution to diversity comes from the multi-disciplinary nature of a project. The joint knowledge base of project partners and the geographical distance between them were positively associated with technological diversity creation. In contrast, the number and diversity of actors and the degree of clustering showed a negative association with technological diversity creation. These results extend current micro-level explanations of how the diversity of an emerging technology is created. The contribution of this study could also be helpful for policy makers to influence the level of diversity in a technological field, and hence to contribute to survival of emerging technologies.

JTD Keywords: Innovation projects, Multi-disciplinarity, Nanotechnology, Social networks, Technological diversity, Topic models

Abstract In this paper we study the role of redundant sensory information to prevent the performance degradation of a chemical sensor array for different distributions of sensor failures across sensor types. The large amount of sensing conditions with two different types of redundancy provided by our sensor array makes possible a comprehensive experimental study. Particularly, our sensor array is composed of 8 different types of commercial MOX sensors modulated in temperature with two redundancy levels: (1) 12 replicates of each sensor type for a total of 96 sensors and (2) measurements using 16 load resistors per sensors for a total of 1536 redundant measures per second. We perform two experiments to determine the performance degradation of the array with increasing number of damaged sensors in two different scenarios of sensor faults distributions across sensor types. In the first experiment, we characterize the diversity and redundancy of the array for increasing number of damaged sensors. To measure diversity and redundancy, we proposed a functional definition based on clustering of sensor features. The second experiment is devoted to determine the performance degradation of the array for the effect of faulty sensors. To this end, the system is trained to separate ethanol, acetone and butanone at different concentrations using a PCA–LDA model. Test set samples are corrupted by means of three different simulated types of faults. To evaluate the performance of the array we used the Fisher score as a measure of odour separability. Our results show that to exploit to the utmost the redundancy of the sensor array faulty sensory units have to be distributed uniformly across the different sensor types.

JTD Keywords: Gas sensor arrays, Sensor redundancy, Sensor diversity, Sensor faults aging, Sensor damage, MOX sensors, Large sensor arrays

This paper presents a chemical sensing system that takes inspiration from the combination of sensory diversity and redundancy at the olfactory epithelium to enhance the chemical information obtained from the odorants. The system is based on commercial MOS sensors and achieves, first, diversity trough different types of MOS along with modulation of their temperatures, and second redundancy including 12 MOS sensors for each type (12×8) combined with a high-speed multiplexing system that allows connecting 16 load resistors with each and every one of the 96 sensors in about two seconds. Exposition of the system to ethanol, ammonia, and acetone at different concentrations shows how the system is able to capture a large amount of information of the identity and the concentration of the odorant.

JTD Keywords: Gas sensor array, Biologically inspired system, Redundancy, Diversity, MOX sensors, Temperature modulation

Fundamental biological processes including morphogenesis, tissue repair and tumour metastasis require collective cell motions(1-3), and to drive these motions cells exert traction forces on their surroundings(4). Current understanding emphasizes that these traction forces arise mainly in 'leader cells' at the front edge of the advancing cell sheet(5-9). Our data are contrary to that assumption and show for the first time by direct measurement that traction forces driving collective cell migration arise predominately many cell rows behind the leading front edge and extend across enormous distances. Traction fluctuations are anomalous, moreover, exhibiting broad non-Gaussian distributions characterized by exponential tails(10-12). Taken together, these unexpected findings demonstrate that although the leader cell may have a pivotal role in local cell guidance, physical forces that it generates are but a small part of a global tug-of-war involving cells well back from the leading edge.

JTD Keywords: Focal adhesions, Granular matter, Bead packs, Morphogenesis, Sheets, Actin, Fluctuations, Fibroblasts, Microscopy, Diversity