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Researchers of NANBIOSIS U3 working in a project to develop molecules with neutralizing properties of SARS-CoV-2

The research group of Chemical Multivalent Systems for Nanomedicine and NANBIOSIS U3 Sinthesys of Peptides Unit, of IQAC-CSIC and CIBER-BBN, participates in a new project that seeks to develop molecules with neutralizing properties of SARS-CoV-2, the cause of the COVID-19 disease, for the treatment of patients requiring hospitalization and clinical supervision due to the severity of the infection.

The project, led by the Public University of Navarra (UPNA) and Navarrabiomed, counts with the participation of researchers from institute of advanced chemistry of catalonia (Institute of Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia), IRB Barcelona (Institute for Biomedical Research), CIBER-BBN (Center for Networked Biomedical Research in the thematic area of Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine) and the IRTA (Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology).

With an expected duration of twelve months, the project brings together a multidisciplinary team: chemical synthesis, protein engineering, structural analysis, cell biology, as well as specialists in BSL3 biosafety conditions (the third level of biosafety for laboratories of a scale of four) to be able to test the potential of these molecules.

These molecules with neutralizing properties of SARS-CoV-2 are based on specific peptides of the ACE-2 receptor capable of reducing or nullifying the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2. The chemical part of the project will be carried out by Miriam Royo and Daniel Pulido (NANBIOSIS Unit 3), with the design and performance of the synthesis of ligands based on the ACE-2 receptor.

The consortium partners hope that “the availability of molecules with high inhibitory efficacy will help substantially to mitigate the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic, due to the persistence and / or future outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 or other potentially dangerous coronaviruses and routes of similar entry ”, in the words of Jacinto López Sagaseta (Navarrabiomed).

The project has been granted in the “Overcome Covid-19 Fund”. This inicitative was created by Crue Spanish Universities, CSIC and Banco Santander with 8.5 million to bust three strategic axes against covid-19: applied research on the virus and its prevention, social impact and strengthening the technological capacity of the universities, and reducing the digital gap. euros. 35 proposals were have been selected out of the 700 submitted.

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Electrochemical sensors for cortisol detections: Almost there

Researchers of NANBIOSIS Unit 8 Micro– Nano Technology Unit at the Microelectronic Institute of Barcelona, (of IMB-CNM, CSIC / CIBER-BBN) has recently published a review in the TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry entitled “Electrochemical sensors for cortisol detections: Almost there” highlighting:

  • Overview of electrochemical techniques for cortisol detection published in the last five years.
  • Recent advances in cortisol detection by electrochemical immunoassays.
  • Potential of biosensing techniques for cortisol detection in biological matrices.
  • Importance of cortisol quantification for clinical applications.

Abstract

Mostly known as “the stress hormone”, cortisol has many essential functions in humans due to its involvement in regulation of blood pressure, immune system, metabolism of protein, carbohydrate, adipose, and anti-inflammatory action. Since a right cortisol balance is essential for human health, many efforts are currently being made to monitor the cortisol level in the human body. Cortisol levels are usually monitored in blood, plasma, serum, oral fluid, sweat, and hair samples through immunochemical and analytical methods, but in the last decade, electrochemical measurements are proving to be reliable techniques for cortisol quantification in biological matrices with the advantages of a fast response by portable and wearable devices. This review gathers the most recent developments and works on electrochemical sensors for cortisol detection, highlighting their high technology maturity and potential for clinical applications.

Article of reference:

Miguel Zea,Francesca G. Bellagambi,Hamdi Ben Halima,Nadia Zine,Nicole Jaffrezic-Renault,Rosa Villa,Gemma Gabriel,Abdelhamid Errachid; Electrochemical sensors for cortisol detections: Almost there, TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry, Volume 132, November 2020, 116058. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2020.116058

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Laura Lechuga awarded the 2020 Rei Jaume I Prize in New Technologies

The Valencian Government (Generalitat Valenciana), together with the Foundation Premios Rei Jaume I, announced today the awardees of the 32th edition of the Rei Jaume I Awards, one of the highest recognitions for a research career in Spain. Prof. Laura M. Lechuga Gomez, Full Professor of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), head of the NANBIOSIS U4 Biodeposition and Biodetection Unit  and the Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group (of CIBER-BBN and the ICN2), has received the New Technologies Award.

Prof. Laura M. Lechuga received her PhD in Chemistry from the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain) in 1992. The principal focus of her research is the development of novel nanobiosensor devices based on nanoplasmonics and silicon-based photonics principles, including surface biofunctionalization, microfluidics for automatic fluid delivery and complete lab-on-a-chip integration for point-of-care devices. The use of nanobiosensor devices for a wide range of challenging clinical and environmental applications is one of her main objectives.

She has published over 270 articles, book chapters and proceedings, has 8 families of patents, and has presented her work worldwide in more than 350 invited talks. She has co-founded two spin-offs companies. has been Adjunct Professor at The Artic University of Norway (2012-2016) and Distinguished Visiting professor at University of Campinas (Brazil) (2013-2017). Prof. Lechuga is Associate Editor of Analyst (RSC) and has been Associate Editor in other two Physics and Engineering Journals. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of several high-level research Centres around the world and has taken part in numerous international evaluation panels. Prof. Lechuga has also participated in many EU funded projects (some of them as Coordinator) and has been part of various EU Evaluation Panels in the 6th, 7th and H2020 Framework Programmes (including Adv. ERC panels).

The other awardees of this year’s edition are: 

  • In Basic Research: Francisco José García Vidal 
  • in Economy: Diego Puga Pequeño 
  • in Medical Research: Miguel Beato del Rosal
  • in Environment Protection: Fernando Maestre Gil
  • in Entrepreneur: Verónica Pascual Boé

Each of the six categories is awarded with 100,000 euros to be used mainly for research and innovation activities, a gold medal and diploma.

The prizes are aimed to recognize people whose work is highly significant and has significantly contributed to the advancement of their research field having been developed for the most part in Spain. Prof. Laura M. Lechuga Gomez receives the New Technologies Award for her long innovative career in the field of nanobiosensors.

The gury has specifically recognized hes important contributions to the design and development of new essential biosensors for early and rapid clinical diagnosis, hes outstanding groundbreaking research in silicon photonics and nanoplasmic results in ultrasensitive tagless detection, the microfluidics and lab integration on a chip, what enabled real devices at the point of care with many bioanalytical applications, as well as the creation of spin-off companies that impact our society and its economy.

Prof. Lechuga has previously received several prizes and recognitions along her career, such as the Prize of Physics, Innovation and Technology from the Spanish Royal Society of Physics and BBVA Foundation in 2016, the Fellow of the Optical Society (OSA) award in 2014,  the Ada Byron Prize for Technological Women in 2020 among others.

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Novel Quatsome nanovesicles, prepared using compressed CO2, for the development of advanced nanomedicines

Guillem Vargas Nadal, researcher at Nanomol Group – NANBIOSIS U6 (ICMAB-CSIC and CIBER-BBN) and Nanomol Technologies will defend his PhD thesis on Friday, 23 October 2020, at 11 am in an online session. The PhD Thesis Defense will be held by videoconference from the ICMAB Meeting Room. 

Further information and Registration to attend the PhD Thesis defense via Zoom nanoparticles at ICMAB-website.

Supervisors:

  • Nora Ventosa (Scientific Director of NANBIOSIS U6 Biomaterial Processing and Nanostructuring Unit and leader of Nanomol Group of CIBER-BBN
  • Lidia Ferrer (Nanomol Technologies S.L.)

Abstract: The nanovesicles are being developed and investigated to be used in the pharmaceutical world to deliver drug and detect diseases. However, there are some drawbacks related to the nanovesicles that must be considered, like their stability and their applicability. Concerning that, in this Thesis we have developed a new type of stable nanovesicles called MKC-Quatsomes to be used as intravenous drug delivery systems. Their production, physicochemical characteristics, and stability are strongly related to the dispersant medium. Furthermore, the MKC-Quatsomes were labeled with fluorescent organic dyes, which present FRET phenomenon in order to overcome the drawbacks of the single-dye-loaded nanoparticles.


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Women Technologist Ada Byron Award to Laura Lechuga, Scientific Director of NANBIOSIS U4.

The organizing committee and jury of the seventh edition of the Ada Byron Prize for Technological Women, from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Deusto, have awarded the 2020 award to Prof. Laura Lechuga Scientific Director of Nanbiosis U4 Biodeposition and Biodetection Unit of ICN2-CSIC and CIBER-BBN.

Laura Lechuga has a degree in Chemical Sciences and is currently a research professor at the CSIC of Barcelona, Head of the Group of Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications. Her research area focuses on Nanomedicine, Nanodiagnosis and the technological development of nanophotonic biosensors and their integration into portable Point-of-Care (POC) platforms, as well as their application in decentralized clinical and environmental diagnosis.

The award is aimed at women with a degree or a career in technological areas, engineering and other scientific fields that are closely related to technology.

This award aims to:

  • Give visibility to women in the world of technology recognising their outstanding work, still not widely known for society at large.
  • Enrich society with technological outreach events, providing female models to new generations.
  • Promote technological vocations by bringing technology closer to female young people, highlighting the positive aspects, especially on female vocations.
  • Make the importance of technology for economic growth and as a future value for society more socially visible.

Further information

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Job offer: FULLY-FUNDED PhD FELLOWSHIP at the University of Zaragoza

BSICoS Group at I3A- University of Zaragoza –NANBIOSIS U27 High Performance Computing offer a FULLY-FUNDED PhD FELLOWSHIP

Applications must be submitted before October 27th, 2pm (Spain time).

 Profile of the candidate:
Graduate/Master in Mathematics, Physics, Engineering or related disciplines.

 PhD contract and topic:
A PhD contract (former FPI program) is offered for a PhD position at the Biomedical Signal Interpretation and Computational Simulation (BSICoS) group of the Aragón Institute of Engineering Research, University of Zaragoza.
The PhD thesis is associated with the research grant “Towards improved management of cardiovas-cular diseases by integrative in silico-in vitro-in vivo research into heart’s structure, function and autonomic regulation”, funded by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, with reference PID2019-105674RB-I00.
As part of his/her PhD thesis, the candidate will work on some of the following lines:

  • Processing of signals acquired by patch-clamp and optical mapping as well as electrograms and electrocardiograms.
  • Incorporation into multi-scale computational models of the heart and the autonomic nerv-ous system of all the information extracted from the signals and from additional processing of histological images and molecular biology data.
  • Development of numerical methods for simulation of cardiac activity.
  • Application of artificial intelligence techniques for prediction of abnormalities in heart’s electrical behavior.

 Procedure and deadline for application submission:
Interested candidates should submit an application through the electronic website of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation: https://sede.micinn.gob.es/ayudaspredoctorales/
Application submission will be open from October 13th to October 27th, 2pm (Spain time).

 Full details about the call:

Call for PhD fellowship
https://www.unizar.es/gobierno/vr_investigacion/sgi/doc/Convocatoriaayudascontratospredoctorales2020.pdf

Summary of the PhD fellowship program
https://www.unizar.es/gobierno/vr_investigacion/sgi/doc/ExtractoboeFPI.pdf

 Additional information:
Although the candidate should submit his/her application through the electronic website of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, as indicated above, he/she is advised to send CV and academic transcripts by email to Esther Pueyo (epueyo@unizar.es).
For additional information, please contact Esther Pueyo (epueyo@unizar.es).

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#QueSigaLaCiencia #ScienceMustGoOn!

#Quesigalaciencia is an initiative of the Centro de Investigación Biomedica en Red (CIBER), partnert of NANBIOSIS) to convey, from the optimism, the importance of continuing to research. From this initiative, CIBER researchers are encouraged to disseminate videos explaining their work and why it is important. The campaign will begin during the Madrid Science Week, but will continue later.

To participate, consult the terms of the call

The deadline for the call # QuéSigaLaCiencia is October 13

The Science and Innovation Week in Madrid is an event for scientific dissemination and citizen participation that aims to actively involve citizens in science, technology and innovation and, in a special way, the youngest to promote scientific vocations eliminating gender barriers.

Since its creation, CIBER has participated in the Science Week through different events in which it has shown some of its research of greater social interest in the hands of other more recreational activities such as cinema, theatrical improvisation, gastronomy or role-playing games, to try to bring science closer to the general public. This year, adapting to the current circumstances, the CIBER activity of the Science Week will be exclusively online .

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Workshop “Translational issues in nanomedicine” with NANBIOSIS U6 researchers at ETPN2020

ETPN2020, the 15th annual event of ETPN, European Technology Platform on Nanomedicine will take place, fully virtual on Oct. 14-15 to share the latest trends and success stories in Nanomedicine and emerging Medtech.

In the frame of ETPN2020, on thursday Oct, 15, 12:00 will tak place the Workshop “Translational issues in nanomedicine” the workshop “Translational issues in nanomedicine” organized jointly by ETPN2020 and NMBP projects. Nora Ventosa, Scientific Director of NANBIOSIS U6 Biomaterial Processing and Nanostructuring Unit, will participate as coordinator of the european project Smart 4 Fabry

The workshop chairs will be Fabrice Navarro (Head of Laboratory at CEA LETI, France) and Alan Boyd (CEO & Founder of Boyds) (NEW DEAL H2020 project)

Registration deadline: Monday 12th October 2020 16:00 CET

Registration for free for the workshop for the NMBP projects, here:

To follow the complete ETPN event (ETPN members are free), click here

The latest version of the agenda is now to be found on: http://www.etpn2020.eu/e-program/

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New test trials to diagnose Covid 19: Ramon Martinez, Scientific Director of CIBER-BBN is interviewed by Spanish Television

Ramón Martinez, Scientific Director of CIBER-BBN and NANBIOSIS unit 26 NMR: Biomedical Applications II is interviewed by Spanish Television about the research he is coordinating at the Polytechnic University of Valencia to develop new tests as an alternative to PCR.

Dr. Elena Aznar CIBER researcher at IQMA-IDM-UPV group explains how work these test that allow to diagnose quickly, easily, reliably and cheaply if a person is or has been infected by the SARS-COV-2 virus. Ramón Martínez Máñez, leader of the project, reports on the point where the investigation is, as well as the difference of these tests with PCR or antigen tests. These tests implement a technology of the research group that has already been used for other pathogens and that they try to adapt to the COVID virus. “My impression – explains Dr. Martínez – is that the time will come when these tests can be sold in pharmacies and can be used by the users themselves. At the moment we have to see if they work in patient samples and then adapt it so that be a marketable kit by an interested company “

The interview can be whatched here:

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Impact of Extracellular Vesicle Isolation Methods on Downstream miRNA Analysis in Semen

An article by Sara Larriba of the Human Molecular Genetics Group of Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), recently published by the International Journal of Molecular Science. entitled “Impact of Extracellular Vesicle Isolation Methods on Downstream miRNA Analysis in Semen: A Comparative Study“, acknowledges NANBIOSIS ICTS for its participation in the research results. The nanoparticle tracking analysis was performed by the ICTS NANBIOSIS U6 Biomaterial Processing and Nanostructuring Unit.

Abstract:

Seminal plasma (SP) contains a unique concentration of miRNA, mostly contained in small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) such as exosomes, some of which could be clinically useful for diagnosis and/or prognosis of urogenital diseases such as prostate cancer (PCa). We optimized several exosome-EV isolation technologies for their use in semen, evaluating EV purifying effectiveness and impact on the downstream analysis of miRNAs against results from the standard ultracentrifugation (UC) method to implement the use of SP sEV_miRNAs as noninvasive biomarkers for PCa. Our results evidenced that commercial kits designed to isolate exosomes/EVs from blood or urine are mostly applicable to SP, but showed quantitative and qualitative variability between them. ExoGAG 3500× g and the miRCURY Cell/Urine/CSF 1500× g methods resulted as equivalent alternative procedures to UC for isolating exosomes/sEVs from semen for nanoparticle characteristics and quality of RNA contained in vesicles. Additionally, the expression profile of the altered semen sEV-miRNAs in PCa varies depending on the EV isolation method applied. This is possibly due to different extraction techniques yielding different proportions of sEV subtypes. This is evidence that the exosome-EV isolation method has a significant impact on the analysis of the miRNAs contained within, with important consequences for their use as clinical biomarkers. Therefore, miRNA analysis results for EVs cannot be directly extrapolated between different EV isolation methods until clear markers for delineation between microvesicles and exosomes are established. However, EV extraction methodology affects combined models (semen exosome miRNA signatures plus blood Prostate specific antigen (PSA) concentration for PCa diagnosis) less; specifically our previously described (miR-142-3p + miR-142-5p + miR-223-3p + PSA) model functions as molecular marker from EVs from any of the three isolation methods, potentially improving the efficiency of PSA PCa diagnosis..

Article:

Impact of Extracellular Vesicle Isolation Methods on Downstream miRNA Analysis in Semen: A Comparative Study. Marina Mercadal, Carolina Herrero, Olga López-Rodrigo, Manel Castells, Alexandre de la Fuente, Francesc Vigués, Lluís Bassas and Sara Larriba. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2020, 21, 5949; doi:10.3390/ijms21175949

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