News

Biosensors for Pandemics

Next 6 of May wii take place the On-line Conference Biosensors for Pandemics: Reliable and efficient nanotech-based diagnostics in emergency situations, will gather worldwide well known experts in biosensing technologies currently working in COVID-19 diagnostics or having very relevant technologies in the field.

Prof. Laura Lechuga, Scientific Director of NANBIOSIS U4 Biodeposition and Biodetection Unit of CIBER-BBN and ICN2-CSIC, will be one of the speakers. Laura Lechuga is coordinating the European proyect CONVAT: advanced nanobiosensing platforms for point-of-care diagnostics and surveillance of coronavirus for rapid diagnosis and monitoring of COVID ー 19,

To join

Deadlines:

Abstract Submission (ePoster request): April 22, 2020

Author Submission Acceptance Notification: April 24, 2020

Flash Poster Acceptance Notification: April 24, 2020

Early Bird Registration Fee: April 24, 2020

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JUMISC will invest 7.3 million in the development of new surgical robots

The Jesús Usón Minimally Invasive Surgery Center (CCMIJU), partner of NANBIOSIS, has been granted the with the FID-CPI Innovative Public Procurement Program of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, as well as with the support of the Ministry of Economy, Science and Digital Agenda of the Board, for the development of the TREMIRS project “Minimally invasive robotic surgery systems” aimed at improve current techniques in laparoscopy and microsurgery

TREMIRS will improve current robotic surgical systems, providing better service to the patient, better ergonomics to the surgeon and greater benefits to the surgical team, achieving an increase in the quality of care. The project is endowed with 7,345,300 euros, and is co-financed 80 percent by the European Regional Development Fund-FEDER.

During the three-year duration of the project, a robotic platform for laparoscopic surgery will be developed that will facilitate new surgical approaches, improvements in the ergonomics of surgeons, advances in vision systems for the entire surgical team and the availability of new portable training tools. .

In the field of microsurgery, TREMIRS will develop a teleoperated robotic platform for reconstructive microsurgery, consisting of robotic microinstruments with high maneuverability and precision, the Board reports in a press release.

It will be used for soft tissue manipulation to perform microsurgical techniques such as anastomosis, suturing, and ligation of small anatomical structures such as blood vessels, nerves, and lymphatic ducts.

The development of both platforms will mean making new equipment available to the National Health System and the Extremadura Health System that is currently not available in the market and that will allow for the improvement of the quality of the services provided to the patient and improvements in surgical results.

Source: https://www.hoy.es/caceres/centro-cirugia-minima-20200419121007-nt.html#vca=fixed-btn&vso=rrss&vmc=tw&vli=C%C3%A1ceres

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Infrared sensitive hydrogels to control the regeneration of bone tissue.

NANBIOSIS U9 Synthesis of Nanoparticles Unit has participated in a research carried out bu researchers of CIBER-BBN group FIOBI-HULP at Hospital de la Paz, led by Nuria Vilaboa. reclently published in the scientific journal Biomaterials The researchers have used transgenic cells, which are incorporated into the scaffolding, to regulate the physiological production of bone growth factors and induce the osteoinduction process.

Achievement of spatiotemporal control of growth factors production remains a main goal in tissue engineering. In the present work, we combined inducible transgene expression and near infrared (NIR)-responsive hydrogels technologies to develop a therapeutic platform for bone regeneration. A heat-activated and dimerizer-dependent transgene expression system was incorporated into mesenchymal stem cells to conditionally control the production of bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2). Genetically engineered cells were entrapped in hydrogels based on fibrin and plasmonic gold nanoparticles that transduced incident energy of an NIR laser into heat. In the presence of dimerizer, photoinduced mild hyperthermia induced the release of bioactive BMP-2 from NIR-responsive cell constructs. A critical size bone defect, created in calvaria of immunocompetent mice, was filled with NIR-responsive hydrogels entrapping cells that expressed BMP-2 under the control of the heat-activated and dimerizer-dependent gene circuit. In animals that were treated with dimerizer, NIR irradiation of implants induced BMP-2 production in the bone lesion. Induction of NIR-responsive cell constructs conditionally expressing BMP-2 in bone defects resulted in the formation of new mineralized tissue, thus indicating the therapeutic potential of the technological platform.

Thanks to the participation of NANBIOSIS U9 Synthesis of Nanoparticles Unit it has been possible to explore the use of gold plasmonic nanoparticles, capable of absorbing light in the near-infrared (NIR) area and converting it into heat

Article of reference:

Sánchez-Casanova, S., Martin-Saavedra, F.M., Escudero-Duch, C., Falguera Uceda, M.I., Prieto, M., Arruebo, M., Acebo, P., Fabiilli, M.L., Franceschi, R.T., Vilaboa, N. Local delivery of bone morphogenetic protein-2 from near infrared-responsive hydrogels for bone tissue regeneration. Biomaterials 241:119909. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2020.119909

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A new strategy to synthesize Chol-PEG “on demand”

Researchers of NANBIOSIS U3 Synthesis of Peptides Unit of CIBER-BBN at IQAC-CSIC, led by Miriam Royo, have published an article in the scientific journal ACS Omega that develops a method for the production of cholesterol conjugates to peptide ligands through polyethylene glycol (ND-PEG) not dispersed through a non-hydrolyzable bond.

The developed methodology allows to generate stable, highly pure and well defined Chol-PEG compounds, linked to different lengths of PEG from 4 to 20 units of ethylene oxide through an ether bond. These Chol-PEG compounds were conjugated with different peptides, such as cyclic peptide (RGDfK), gluturation and a Tf1R peptide ligand, preserving the oligomeric purity of the precursors, as demonstrated by analysis by HRMS and NMR. This method allows the systematic synthesis of stable, high-purity Chol-PEGs, bypassing the use of activation groups at each elongation step and thus reducing the number of synthesis steps.

The use of Chol-PEG conjugates has increased in recent years as a component of nanoformulations for applications such as drug administration or imaging systems, due to the ability of Chol to insert into artificial and cell membranes. This ability facilitates the stability of nanovesicles, such as liposomes or others, and entry into cells.

The synthesis of the peptides used in this work was carried out in Unit 3 of NANBIOSIS – ICTS Peptide Synthesis Unit and was developed within the framework of the HORIZON 2020 Smart4Fabry project.

Article of referrence:

Synthesis of Stable Cholesteryl–Polyethylene Glycol–Peptide Conjugates with Non-Disperse Polyethylene Glycol Lengths. Edgar Cristóbal-Lecina, Daniel Pulido, Pau Martin-Malpartida, Maria J. Macias, Fernando Albericio, and Miriam Royo. ACS Omega 2020 5 (10), 5508-5519 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.0c00130

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Nanbiosis among the European Research Infrastructures working for COVID-19 Pandemics

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, several research infrastructures (RIs) NANBIOSIS among them, have set up specific services, such as rapid or fast track access, to allow researchers to obtain results as soon as possible.

The Association of European-Level Research Infrastructures Facilities (ERF-AISBL), collects the relevant information about the initiatives on a dedicated website.

NANBIOSIS provides rapid access for COVID-19 research. The ICTS offers preclinical stages services of biomedical product development, specifically, synthesis and preparation of biomolecules like antibodies, peptides, recombinant proteins, oligonucleotides for diagnostic therapeutic and prophylactic purposes.

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Rosa Villa, Scientific Director of NANBIOSIS U8, New CIBER-BBN group leader

Rosa Villa Sanz, the Scientific Director of NANBIOSIS U8 Micro– Nano Technology Unit was appointed group leader the CIBER during the last meeting of the Permanent Commission of CIBER-BBN, replacing Prof. Jordi Aguiló.

Rosa Villa Sanz, graduated in Medicine from the University of Barcelona and has a doctorate from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1993 and a specialist in Nuclear Medicine (MIR-Hospital de Bellvitge-Barcelona), is a scientific researcher at the CSIC and leader of the Biomedical Applications Group of the Barcelona Institute of Microelectronics (CSIC), whose main research interests are the design and manufacture of Micro and Nano Systems for Biomedical Applications.

Prof. Villa has participated in more than 30 national and European projects, being a principal researcher in 10 of them, she has obtained the approvals by the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices (AEMPS) for the conduct of 4 clinical trials in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies and clinical groups and is the founder of a spin-off (Barcelona Liver Bioservice SL). Rosa Villa also directs a consolidated research group recognized by the Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca since 2014 (Bio-Micro-Nano-Systems group [2019 SGR 988]) and since 2016 co-directs the BioMEM TECNIO group of the Generalitat de Catalunya. Rosa Villa is Scientific of NANBIOSIS Unit 8 since the creation of NANBIOSIS.

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COVIDー 19: diagnosis advantages and limitations of different techniques

Prof. Laura Lechuga, Scientific Director of NANBIOSIS U4 Biodeposition and Biodetection Unit of CIBER-BBN and ICN2-CSIC, who is coordinating the European proyect CONVAT for rapid diagnosis and monitoring of COVID ー 19, will be one of the speakers at the webinar organized next tuesday, 16 by the Young Academy of Spain, (JAE) about How Spanish science is contributing to the fight against COVID-19.

The talk by Prof Lechuga is titled “COVIDー 19 diagnosis: advantages and limitations of different techniques”

Global Young Academy (GYA) was created in 2010 at the initiative of young scientists and researchers from around the world who met in 2008 and 2009 during the “Annual Meeting of the New Champions”, known as “Summer Davos”. One of the objectives of the GYA is to promote the creation of National Young Academies around the world. JAE was created in march 2019 with the aim of representing and giving visibility to young scientists, preferably from the field of experimental sciences. The profile of the members of this Academy will coincide with the average of 40 years of age and 12 years from the attainment of the title of doctor, since a young scientist is understood as one who has reached maturity and is in the phases initials of his independent research career. Jesús Martínez de la Fuente, Principal Investigator of a CIBER-BBN group is Member of the Governing Board of the Young Academy of Spain.

Event Program

Link to the event

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NANBIOSIS U2, U3 & U29 participate in the POC4CoV project to develop diagnostic technologies for SARS-COV-2

The Spanish Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) will finance the project Point-of-care tests for the rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 (POC4CoV), whose objective is to have effective diagnostic technologies for Covid-19. The Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona (IMB-CNM-CSIC), the Institute of Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC-CSIC) and the Institute of Materials Science of Aragon (ICMA) participate in it.

The POC4CoV project aims to develop Point-of-Care (POC) devices for the in vitro diagnosis of SARS-COV-2 infection quickly and reliably, thanks to the use of multiplexed systems and the use of particular biomolecular probes. To do this, POC technological platforms will be used in combination with specific capture biomolecules and nanobiotechnological probes (enzyme bioconjugates and biofunctional plasmonic and magnetic nanoparticles), which will allow the simultaneous detection of different biomarkers (viral RNA and antigens, IgM and IgG) related to Covid-19 disease. The biomolecular complexes will be collected at specific points on the devices where the electrochemical or optical signals will be recorded.

The developed POC platforms will undergo analytical and clinical validation in a clinical setting.

Three units of NANBIOSIS (form CIBER-BBN and IQAC-CSIC) will will take an active participation in the project.

NANBIOSIS Unit 2 Custom Antibody Service (CAbS), will produce antibodies against the Spike protein and other virus proteins, trying to maximize the recognition of those epitopes that differentiate SARS-CoV-2 from other Coronaviruses

NANBIOSIS Unit 3 Synthesis of Peptides Unit will synthesize peptidic sequences that will allow to identify towards which epitopes the immune response is directed, which will allow to develop more specific diagnostic methods.

NANBIOSIS Unit 29 Oligonucleotide Synthesis Platform (OSP) has designed probes with oligonucleotide sequences that will allow the capture of viral RNA through the formation of high affinity triplex complexes

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Stem cells and COVID-19 research.

The Malaga Academy of Sciences has published an interesting review by Dr. José Becerra Ratia on Spanish biomedical research in relation to COVID-19 virus and, in particular, with two therapeutic novelties that have stem cells as protagonists, in one case the mesenchymal cells and in the other case the embryonic ones.

Professor Becerra is Professor of Cellular Biology at the University of Malaga and Vice President of the Malaga Academy of Sciences, as well as Researcher in charge of the Bioengineering and Tissue Regeneration Laboratory that belongs to BIONAND, IBIMA CIBER-BBN and TerCel (unit 28 of NANBIOSIS U28 Nanoimaging Unit)

Dr Becerra, enfasizes how the development of Biology in recent decades as well as the powerful tools provided by molecular biology and artificial intelligence, will be very useful now to combat Covid-19 Pandemia.

Here you can read the article in Spanish, Science, a well-founded hope against COVID19

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COVID-19 research: preferent access to NANBIOSIS

Due to the current pandemic outbreak of COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, knowledge about the virus characteristics and the development of its possible diagnostic, treatment and prophylactic devices and systems are high priority in all research institutions worldwide.

NANBIOSIS assigns high priority to the projects related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus offering preferential access. Some of the NANBIOSIS’s services have been suspended or postponed. However the call is open and the proposals will be processed and services required will be provided as soon as possible.

For that purpose, A “COVID-19 Rapid Access” call has been established, valid through the year 2020. Urgent procedure will be applied to review and admission of the proposals.

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