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Fibrosens Project receives funds from AFM-Telethon to develop sensor devices for muscular dystrophy

IBEC researchers Chiara Ninfali (left) and Juanma Fernández (right).

IBEC researcher Juanma Fernández recently has received funding from the French AFM-Telethon to carry out the project “Monitoring of fibrotic processes in 3D skeletal muscle co-cultures for Muscular Dystrophies using plasmonic biosensors”. The objective is to develop multiplexing sensor devices to achieve online, real-time sensing capability to monitor fibrosis markers and evaluate drug response in muscular dystrophy in vitro models.

Biosensors based on olfactory receptors to decipher the human sense of smell

A study led by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the CIBER’s Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN) describes a method that mimics the physiological response to smell.  The system makes it possible to discriminate between odours with very similar characteristics based on the binding interaction with the receptor, which causes a change in the capacitive response of the receptor. The application of this methodology opens the door to the development of highly selective olfactory biosensors.

New biosensor detects inflammatory marker in muscle with high sensitivity

In a recent publication in the journal Nanophotonics, IBEC researchers present a new biosensor for the direct and sensitive detection of the protein interleukin-6 in muscle, an indicator of inflammation and potential disease, proving the high performance of the device on bioengineered 3D skeletal muscles. This new approach may result in a promising tool for measuring the efficacy of drug candidates for diseases where inflammation is present such as muscular dystrophy.