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A research team develop biotransistors able to hear small beats of live

Researchers at IBEC and ICMAB develop a flexible, cheap and biocompatible transistor platform able to record an electrocardiogram of cells and micro-tissues during long periods of time.

The platform, based on organic transistor technology (EGOFET), can also measure the effect of drugs on beating cells, as cardiomyocytes, opening the door to several applications such as implantable devices for health.

Water can be dead, electrically speaking

Research led by the University of Manchester’s National Graphene Institute, with the collaboration with IBEC, reveals that water that’s only a few molecules thick – like the water that covers every surface around us – behaves very differently to normal, ‘bulk’ water.

Water is one of the most fascinating substances on Earth.  At the heart of its many unusual properties is its high polarizability – that is, its strong response to an applied electric field.

Training the next generation of advanced microscopy experts

An IBEC group has been awarded EU funding to coordinate a project that aims to train a new generation of researchers in the science and technology of Scanning Probe Microscopes.

Thanks to the Marie Curie ITN funding, the ten consortium members of the SPM2.0 European Training Network – located in Spain, France, Austria, the UK and Italy – will be able to provide researchers with state-of-the-art multidisciplinary scientific training in the field of Scanning Probe microscopies, covering basic science to industrial applications, which should enable them to generate new scientific knowledge.

Using EFM to probe the secrets of bacterial endospore survival strategies

acs-nano-gabrielwebAn IBEC group has demonstrated, for the first time, that the hydration properties of a single bacterial endospore in varying environmental relative humidity can be determined with high accuracy and reproducibility, and in a non-destructive way, shedding new light on endospore survival strategies.

Endospores are recognized as the hardiest form of life on Earth, and are produced by certain bacterial cells in response to a lack of nutrients.