News U25

Participation of NANBIOSIS U25 in the Valorisation Project MR-INITIATE

The Unit 25 of the ICTS NANBIOSIS will be enrolled, through its scientific coordinator Ana Paula Candiota, in a research valorisation project recently granted by CIBER: “Noninvasive MR-based ImagiNg of Immune sysTem action during glIoblastomA TreatmEnt (MR-INITIATE)”

Such project has the aim to increase the TRL of therapy response follow-up methods in glioblastomas, using technological approaches performed at U25 of NANBIOSIS NMR: Biomedical Applications I

The project will be financed with € 20,000.

The CIBER-BBN transfer program

The CIBER-BBN transfer program through its call for transfer and valorization projects has been designed to promote the transfer to the industrial sector of scientific or technological results derived from the research carried out by the CIBER-BBN groups. These transfer projects will make it possible to support the commercialization of said results, since there is a company that has shown interest in them and that provides at least, the same financing than CIBER-BBN for their achievement.

The call for valorization projects is in its fourth edition, having already financed a total of fourteen projects.

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NANBIOSIS Scientific Women in the International Day of Women and Girls in Science

Today February 11 is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, a day to raise awareness of the gender gap in science and technology.

According to the United Nations, while yet women and girls continue to be excluded from participating fully in science, science and gender equality are vital to achieve the internationally agreed development goals, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Thus, in recent years, the international community has made a great effort to inspire and promote the participation of women and girls in science.

NANBIOSIS wants to acknowledge the efforts made by scientific women who struggle every day to contribute their bit to Science and highlight their essential role in nowadays research. Especially we want to recognize the work of scientists women involved in NANBIOSIS, whatever is the nature of their contribution: technical, scientific development, management, coordination, direction, etc; just to mention some examples:
Neus Ferrer and Mercedes Márquez in the Scientific Direction and Coordination of Unit 1 Protein Production Platform (PPP)
Pilar Marco and Nuria Pascual in the Management and Scientific Coordination of U2 Custom Antibody Service (CAbS)
Miriam Royo in the Scientific Direction of U3 Synthesis of Peptides Unit
Nora Ventosa and Nathaly Segovia in the Scientific Direction and Technical Coordination of U6 Biomaterial Processing and Nanostructuring Unit
Isabel Oliveira and Teresa Galán in the Coordination of U7 Nanotecnology Unit
Rosa Villa and Gemma Gabriel in the Management and Scientific Coordination of U8 Micro – Nano Technology Unit
Gema Martínez in the Scientific Coordination of U9 Synthesis of Nanoparticles Unit
Fany Peña in the Scientific Coordination of U13 Tissue & Scaffold Characterization Unit
Mª Luisa González Martín and Margarita Hierro in the of Direction and Scientific Coordination of U16 Tissue & Scaffold Characterization Unit
Gemma Pascual and Isabel Trabado in the Coordination of the U17 Confocal Microscopy Service
Isolda Casanova in the Scientific Coordination of U18 Nanotoxicology Unit
Beatriz Moreno in the Scientific Direction of Unit 19 Clinical tests lab
Ibane Abásolo in the Scientific Coordination of Unit 20 In Vivo Experimental Platform t
Verónica Crisóstomo in the Scientific Direction of Unit 24 Medical Imaging
Ana Paula Candiota in the Scientific Coordination of Unit 25 Biomedical Applications I
Maria Luisa García in the Scientific Direction of U28 NanoImaging Unit from Bionand, recently incorporated to NANBIOSIS, Anna Aviñó in the Scientific Coordination of U29 Oligonucleotide Synthesis Platform (OSP) – and

Nerea Argarate in the coordination of NANBIOSIS

Thanks to all of you and your teams!

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12th Workshop on Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Imaging (MRI/MRS) Applied to Laboratory Animals

We are glad to inform that registration is now open for the 12th Workshop on Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Imaging (MRI/MRS) Applied to Laboratory Animals, organized by the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department (UAB) and the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility, which is also part of the NANBIOSIS ICTS U25 NMR: Biomedical Applications I. Workshop will take place February 15-18th, 2021.
This course combines a comprehensive series of lectures on the technology of Magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging (MRS/MRI) with hands-on laboratory sessions to provide practical demonstrations of key concepts and procedures for preclinical studies.
Whether you are considering MRI as a research tool in your lab or just would like to learn more about MRI, this workshop addresses practical aspects of experimental MRI with laboratory animals and provide valuable hands-on experience on a 7 Tesla Bruker BioSpec spectrometer.

Online registration:
(http://sermn.uab.cat/wiki/doku.php?id=formulari_curs_mri_mrs)

For more detailed information, please go to:
http://sermn.uab.cat/2021/01/12th-workshop-mrs-mri-small-animals/

Please note that a limited number of attendants is currently allowed (maximum 4). Anticipated reservation is strongly recommended.

See the workshop brochure

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Robust Conditional Independence maps of single-voxel Magnetic Resonance Spectra to elucidate associations between brain tumours and metabolites

Scientists of CIBER-BBN, Ana Paula Candiota and Margarida Juliá managing Nanbiosis ICTS U25 NMR: Biomedical Applications I have participated in the research carried out by Liverpool John Moores University and University of Valencia to elucidate associations between brain tumours and metabolites, published by the journal Plos One.

The aim of the paper is two-fold. First, to show that structure finding with the PC algorithm can be inherently unstable and requires further operational constraints in order to consistently obtain models that are faithful to the data. The authors propose a methodology to stabilise the structure finding process, minimising both false positive and false negative error rates. This is demonstrated with synthetic data. Second, to apply the proposed structure finding methodology to a data set comprising single-voxel Magnetic Resonance Spectra of normal brain and three classes of brain tumours, to elucidate the associations between brain tumour types and a range of observed metabolites that are known to be relevant for their characterisation. The data set is bootstrapped in order to maximise the robustness of feature selection for nominated target variables. Specifically, Conditional Independence maps (CI-maps) built from the data and their derived Bayesian networks have been used. A Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) is built from CI-maps, being a major challenge the minimization of errors in the graph structure. This work presents empirical evidence on how to reduce false positive errors via the False Discovery Rate, and how to identify appropriate parameter settings to improve the False Negative Reduction. In addition, several node ordering policies are investigated that transform the graph into a DAG. The obtained results show that ordering nodes by strength of mutual information can recover a representative DAG in a reasonable time, although a more accurate graph can be recovered using a random order of samples at the expense of increasing the computation time.

Article of reference:

Robust Conditional Independence maps of single-voxel Magnetic Resonance spectra to elucidate associations between brain tumours and metabolites. Raúl Vicente Casaña-Eslava, Sandra Ortega-Martorell, Paulo J. Lisboa, Ana Paula Candiota, Margarida Julià-Sapé, José David Martín-Guerrero, Ian H. Jarman 2020, PLoS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235057

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The ATTRACT Online Conference open for registration

The on line Conference ATTRACT – Igniting the Deep Tech Revolution will take pace on 22-23 Sep 2020. The ATTRACT Online Conference website is now live! Please register before 28 August at https://attract-eu-conference.cern.b2match.io/

The ATTRACT Conference offers multiple opportunities to understand the dynamics and contribute to the emergence of a strong European deep tech ecosystem for detection and imaging technologies. The ATTRACT Project is an EC funded initiative led by a consortium of leading European research infrastructures and universities.

CIBERBBN and Nanbiosis are involved in MAGRes : Multiparametric MR approaches for non-invasive glioblastoma therapy response follow-up, one of the 170 projects using sensing and imaging technology
to enable breakthrough innovation funded by ATTRACT and headed by Ana Paula Candiota, Scientific Coordinator of NANBIOSIS U25 NMR: Biomedical Applications I

MAGRes Project:

Glioblastoma (GB) is the major aggressive primary brain tumour in adults showing disproportion between high mortality compared to low overall incidence. Survival after detection is below 18 months even after standard aggressive treatment and no cure has been reported. Novel therapies (e.g. immunotherapy) may be very expensive and it may be relevant to have in vivo, early efficiency, non-invasive imaging biomarkers (IB) to halt unsuccessful use of such therapeutic agents and allowing early evidence-based therapy-related decisions.

Researchers involved in Magret project believes that Magnetic Resonance (MR)-derived data (MRI, MRSI, i.e. imaging, spectroscopic imaging) can be translated into IB of successful GB therapy through in vivo monitoring.

MAGRes proposes a breakthrough innovative hashtag combining MRI and MRSI data acquisition. MRSI data will be used as decoding agent to translate MR-derived information into surrogate IB of successful therapeutic outcome, which definitely represents a step beyond in comparison with present follow-up therapy response strategies based in volume changes of the tumour mass.

The extremely large amount of multi-parametric data acquired for each preclinical subject (mice), longitudinal explorations with several acquisitions will allow us to benefit from powerful state-of-the-art multiparametric data analysis methods based on Deep-Learning (DL). This, together with feature selection and interpretation methods will lead to extraction of MR- based significant IB.

At present, there is no software approach allowing both fast, user-friendly post-processing of conventional MRI and MRSI, and encompassing sophisticated developments in the area of pattern recognition (PR), automated MRSI artifact removal, as well as the weighted combination of multi-parametric images.

Accordingly, MAGRes targets the development and implementation of user-friendly software with capabilities to compute 2D and 3D MR-derived parametric images and to visualise them overlaid on high resolution MR structural images. Moreover, this will be implemented in an open-source software imaging platform as a plugin, paving the way to a scalable system, which could also handle clinical patient data in the immediate future.

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The Autonomous University of Barcelona, in the elite of the 300 best universities in the world

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), known as Shanghai Ranking, which was made public on August 15, places the Autonomous University of Barcelona among the elite of the 300 best universities in the world and the first of the Spanish universities.

This indicator organizes up to 20,000 university centers worldwide,
based on transparent methodology and objective third-party data. ARWU is regarded as one of the three most influential and widely observed university rankings

The Autonomous University of Barcelona houses two of NANBIOSIS Units:

U1 Protein Production Platform (PPP), led by Toni Villaverde, Neus Ferrer and Paolo Saccardo, offer an “tailored” service for the design, production and purification of recombinant proteins using both prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression systems

U25 NMR: Biomedical Applications I, led by Carles Arús and Ana Paula Candiota, with a recognized research track record in the use of NMR as a tool for biomedical applications, and more especifically to identify biomarkers of different pathologies, the main objective of this unit is the acquisition, processing and/or interpretation of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance data

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Open call for contribution to the Special Issue by MDPI in IJMS about “In Vivo Biomarkers for Immunotherapy Efficacy in Brain Tumours”

Ana Paula Candiota, Scientific Coordinator of NANBIOSIS U25 NMR: Biomedical Applications I Unit (from CIBER-BBN and Autonomous University of Barcelona), is the Guest Editor of a special issue launched by MDPI in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IF 4.183). This special issue is about “In Vivo Biomarkers for Immunotherapy Efficacy in Brain Tumours”

Contributions with papers or reviews to this issue, can be fowarded to the Guest Editor (AnaPaula.Candiota@uab.cat) with a tentative title and/or abstract.

Final deadline for submission: 31/10/2020

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Preclinical brain tumour therapy response assessment with MRSI approaches: Oral presentation awarded to Ana Paula Candiota

NANBIOSIS U25 scientific coordinator, Ana Paula Candiota, has recently presented a scientific work about preclinical brain tumour therapy response assessment with MRSI approaches in the 36th annual meeting of ESMRMB held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, October 3-5. Work was entitled “Oscillatory pattern of response in MRSI-based Glioblastoma therapy follow-up: an immune system biomarker?” and was awarded an oral presentation in the scientific session of Animal Models: Brain & others

Article of refrence:
L. Villamañan, P. Calero, S. Wu, N. Arias-Ramos, M. Pumarola, S. Ortega-Martorell, M. Julià-Sapé, C. Arús, A.P. Candiota. Oscillatory pattern of response in MRSI-based Glioblastoma therapy follow-up: an immune system biomarker? European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology (ESMRMB) 2019. Rotterdam, NL. Oct 2019.

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The Autonomous University of Barcelona, in the elite of the 300 best universities in the world

The Autonomous University of Barcelona houses two of NANBIOSIS Units:

Here you can check the results of the University of Zaragoza in this year’s Shanghai Ranking:
http://www.shanghairanking.com/World-University-Rankings/Autonomous-University-of-Barcelona.html

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Multiparametric MR approaches for non-invasive glioblastoma therapy response follow-up (MAGRes)

Ana Paula Candiota, Scientific coordinator of U25 of NANBIOSIS, is the IP of the granted project Multiparametric MR approaches for non-invasive Glioblastoma therapy response follow-up (MAGRes), selected for funding in the ATTRACT call https://attract-eu.com/the-project/

The kick-off meeting for is taking place at CERN, Switzerland, days 20-21th May with talks of all selected projects. Unit 25 will have a relevant role in the development of MAGRes. MRI/MRSI from preclinical brain tumors will be acquired at NANBIOSIS U25, NMR: Biomedical Applications I

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