News U6

Synergies produced in NANBIOSIS multiply the value of its services and allow its users to have results with faster and superior reliability due to proven experience of the scientists and technicians involved, says Jaume Veciana, Scientific Director of NANBIOSIS, in an interview at July 2016 CIBER-BBN Bulletin.

In this interview, Jaume Veciana assesses the functioning of this Singular Scientific-Technical Infrastructure and its contribution to research and anticipates some of the guidelines of the NANBIOSIS Strategic Plan 2017-2020, which includes a clear commitment to internationalization.

“The scientific-technical capabilities available at NANBIOSIS must be exploited without limitation to our country. Therefore we are clear that we must promote the activity of NANBIOSIS both academic and industrial sector in the European Union and other countries, either directly or in association with other similar organizations actions. Some such initiatives have already started but we believe it should be given further boost to internationalization. As an example we can mention the participation in the European project INFRAIA that aims to integrate regional and national research infrastructures existing in Europe under the Horizon 2020”

Professor Veciana also talks about NANOMOL, the research group coordinator of Unit 6 of NANBIOSIS, and the main applications of their findings in the fields of nanomedicine and biomaterials.

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Synergies produced in NANBIOSIS multiply the value of its services and allow its users to have results with faster and superior reliability due to proven experience of the scientists and technicians involved, says Jaume Veciana, Scientific Director of NANBIOSIS, in an interview at July 2016 CIBER-BBN Bulletin.

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“a-Galactosidase A Loaded Nanoliposomes with Enhanced Enzymatic Activity and Intracellular Penetration”

Unit 1 of NANBIOSIS, Protein Production Platform (PPP), Unit 3, Synthesis of Peptides, Unit 20, In Vivo Experimental Platform and Unit 6, Biomaterial Processing and Nanostructuring Unit, have jointly developed the research conducted in relation with a CO2-based methodology for the one-step production of protein-nanoliposome conjugates as bio-active nanomaterials with therapeutic interest. The results have been published in Advanced Healthcare Materials: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26890358

“a-Galactosidase A Loaded Nanoliposomes with Enhanced Enzymatic Activity and Intracellular Penetration I. Cabrera, I. Abasolo, J. L. Corchero, E. Elizondo, P. Rivera, E. Moreno, J. Faraudo, S. Sala, D. Bueno, E. González-Mira, M. Rivas, M. Melgarejo, D. Pulido, F. Albericio, M. Royo, A. Villaverde, M. F. García-Parajo, S. Schwartz Jr., N. Ventosa,*, and J. Veciana,*

Lysosomal storage disorders (LSD) are caused by lysosomal dysfunction usually as a consequence of deficiency of a single enzyme required for the metabolism of macromolecules such as lipids, glycoproteins and mucopolysaccharides. For instance, the lack of alpha-Galactosidase A (GLA) activity in Fabry disease patients causes the accumulation of glycosphingolipids in the vasculature leading to multiple organ pathology.

Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT), which is the most common treatment of LSD, exhibits several drawbacks mainly related to the instability and low efficacy of the exogenously administered therapeutic enzyme. In this work, the unprecedented increased enzymatic activity and intracellular penetration achieved by the association of a human recombinant GLA to nanoliposomes functionalized with RGD peptides is reported. Moreover, these new GLA loaded nanoliposomes lead to a higher efficacy in the reduction of the GLA substrate named globotriasylceramide (Gb3) in a cellular model of Fabry disease, than that achieved by the same concentration of the free enzyme. The preparation of these new liposomal formulations by DELOS-SUSP, based on the Depressurization of a CO2-Expanded Liquid Organic Solution, shows the great potential of this CO2-based methodology for the one-step production of protein-nanoliposome conjugates as bioactive nanomaterials with therapeutic interest.

“a-Galactosidase A Loaded Nanoliposomes with Enhanced Enzymatic Activity and Intracellular Penetration”

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NANOMOL-CSIC of CIBER-BBN is one of the 54 accredited institutions in Catalonia with the new TECNIO seal

At an event held on April 7^th 2016 chaired by Hon. Mr. Jordi Baiget, Minister for Business and Enterprise of the Generalitat of Catalonia, were presented the first 54 organizations accredited with the TECNIO seal; one of which was NANOMOL-CSIC, the research group of CIBER-BBN coordinating Unit 6 of NANBIOSIS.

The accreditation is the hallmark TECNIO granted by the Government of Catalonia, through ACCIÓ to identify the developers and facilitators of differential technologies in Catalonia.

Nanbiosis-U6 -NANOMOL-CSIC of CIBER-BBN accredited with TECNIO seal

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The Scientific Director and the Coordinator of NANBIOSIS, Jaume Veciana and Jesús Izco, were invited by Professor Stefano Geuna (Professor of Human Anatomy at the Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences of the University of Torino) last 9th of March 2016 to present the CIBER-BBN, its scientific program and its technologies to researchers of l’Università di Torino, in order to explore the possibilities of collaboration between the two institutions and promoting joint projects.

The meeting took place at the Molecular Biotechnology Center of the Molecular Biotechnology and Health Science department (www.mbc.unito.it/en ). The audience was made up of members representing six departments such as Department of Molecular Biotechnology and Health Sciences, Department of Neurosciences or the Department of Medical Sciences among others. After the presentations, up to ten face to face meetings were organized with research groups and staff of the Internalization Office from different departments to look for synergies and find out ways of collaboration. Topics such as nanoencapsulation for drug delivery, functionalization of biomaterials for regenerative medicine, especially for nerve regeneration or cell therapy for cancer were discussed and many common interests were detected. Following up the meeting, several actions were agreed and some of them have been already initiated to start new collaborations between both institutions.

L’Università di Torino is actively developing biotechnologies in the field of biomedical sciences, with specific focus on the study of the molecular mechanisms at the basis of physiopathological processes that have a great impact on human health, such as cardiovascular diseases, inflammation, stem cell biology and cancer. These researches are based on experimental work carried out by the biomedical departments of l’ Università di Torino.

Nanbiosis U6_Partnering opportunities with l’Università degli studi di Torino 9March2016

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Recently, the COST Action CA15126 "Between Atom and Cell: Integrating Molecular Biophysics Approaches for Biology and Healthcare (MOBIEU)" has been approved. In this action, the Nanomol Group, coordinator of Unit6 of NANBIOSIS, represented by Imma Ratera has been directly involved being part of the Management Committee.

Molecular-scale biophysics is a dynamic and ever-expanding interdisciplinary field that aims to study biological macromolecules and assemblies as a whole, at an intermediate level between atomic-resolution structural descriptions and cellular-level observations (“Between Atom and Cell”), with significant applications in biomedicine and drug discovery. The MOBIEU Action aims to seed a large-scale pan-European interdisciplinary synergistic clustering, allowing to ally and synergize the power of spectroscopic, hydrodynamic, real-time microfluidic, thermodynamic and single-molecule approaches.

This novel open network will create an optimal environment for the development of innovative integrative biophysical approaches, at the level of data acquisition, analysis and modelling, as well as for the design of unprecedented and ambitious combinations of methodologies, to decipher more efficiently crucial biological phenomena and to overcome significant biomedical challenges.

Nanbiosis U6_Nanomol Group_ARBRE Zaragoza meeting - feb 2016

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Concepció Rovira from ICMAB (CSIC/CIBER-BBN) has been awarded with the Prize of Research Excellence of the RSEQ

Concepció Rovira from ICMAB (CSIC/CIBER-BBN) has been awarded with the Prize of Research Excellence of the RSEQ (Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry). The prize was delivered by Marina Villegas, General Director of Research of MINECO and Jesús Jiménez-Barbero, President of the RSEQ.

The Prizes of the RSEQ in 2015, in the modality of Medal of the RSEQ, Prizes of Research Excellence and Prizes of Dissemination have been for:

Medal of RSEQ:

Prof. José Luis Mascareñas Cid (Centro Singular de Investigación en Química Biológica y Materiales Moleculares (CIQUS) – Universidad de Santiago de Compostela)

Prizes of Research Excellence:

Prof. Nuria López Alonso, Instituto Catalán de Investigación Química (ICIQ).
Prof. Rubén Martín Romo, Instituto Catalán de Investigación Química (ICIQ).
Prof. Kilian Muñiz Klein, Instituto Catalán de Investigación Química (ICIQ).
Prof. Concepció Rovira Angulo, Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC).
Prof. Félix J. Zamora Abanades, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, (UAM).

Prizes of Dissemination:

Dña. María Luisa Prolongo Sarria, I.E.S. Manuel Romero. Villanueva de la Concepción, Málaga

Nanbiosis-U6-Concepció Rovira from ICMAB Prize of Research Excellence of the RSEQ

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Symposium on rare diseases June 9th 2015 – Nanofabry project

On June 9th 2015,16th Symposium on rare diseases was held at the Institute of Catalan Studies, in which the results of 20 research projects funded by TV3 Marathon Foundation in its edition of 2009 were presented.

At the end of the ceremony, Dr. Gabriel Capellà, coordinator of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Foundation, mentioned five outstanding results from all developed projects. Among them, he spoke about the nanoconjugate developed by the NANOFABRY project through the collaboration of the CIBER-BBN groups headed by Dr. Simó Schwartz (VHIR), Prof Jaume Veciana and Dr. Nora Ventosa (Nanomol, CSIC), Dr. Miriam Royo (PCB-UB), and Dr. Pepe Corchero (IBB-UAB) for the treatment of the Fabry’srare disease.

This nanoconjugateis based on unilamellar lipid vesicles, or nanoliposomes, carrying the alpha-galactosidase enzyme as part of an enzyme replacement therapy for the Fabry’s disease. Dr.Capellà highlighted the submission and license of a patent protecting this nanoconjugate, recently licensed to the company Biopraxis Research,together with efforts done by the researchers to bring it to a regulatory pre-clinical stage, and the additional funding achieved by means of two new competitive projects, Lipocell and Terarmet, achieved by the same consortium.

Symposium on rare diseases 9th June 2015

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Kondo effect in a neutral and stable all organic radical single molecule break junction

Riccardo Frisenda, Rocco Gaudenzi, Carlos Franco, Marta Mas-Torrent, Concepció Rovira, Jaume Veciana, Isaac Alcon, Stefan T. Bromley, Enrique Burzurí, Herre S. J. van der Zant

Nano Lett., 2015, 15 (5), pp 3109–3114

It is shown that the paramagnetism of the polychlorotriphenylmethyl (PTM) radical molecule in the form of a Kondo anomaly is preserved in two- and three-terminal solid-state devices, regardless of mechanical and electrostatic changes. Indeed, reported evidences demonstrate that the Kondo anomaly is robust under electrodes displacement and changes of the electrostatic environment pointing to a localized orbital in the radical as the source of magnetism. Strong support to this picture is provided by DFT calculations and measurements of the corresponding non-radical species. These results pave the way towards the use of all-organic neutral radical molecules in spintronics devices and open the door to further investigations into Kondo physics.

U6.News Kondo effect in a neutral and stable all organic radical single molecule break junction

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Dr. Concepció Rovira Angulo receives the award from the Real Sociedad Española de Química of Research Excellence 2015

The Junta de Gobierno of the Real Sociedad Española de Química agreed to approve the Award for Excellence in Research RSEQ 2015 to Dr. Concepció Rovira Angulo in recognition of his outstanding contributions to chemistry, embodied in conceptual developments and studies on multifunctional molecular materials, particularly electronic and / or magnetic properties.

His interdisciplinary research has a substantial effect on the development of nanoscience and molecular nanotechnology. Dr. Concepció Rovira is Research Professor of CSIC, under the Department of Molecular Nanoscience and Organic Materials Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC). Recently, he has been awarded the “2013 Distinguished Women in Chemistry” IUPAC Prize.

She is the author of over 300 publications, over 50 in the last five years, with very strong presence in the most important journals in the field of materials and notorious visibility in multidisciplinary chemistry with high impact factor with tens of publications (Journal of the American Chemical Society / Angewandte Chemie / Chemical Science / Nature Chemistry), 8 of them in the last five years. She is the author of numerous patents, including two international and another in operation. In the last five years it has been principal investigator of three European projects and other with state funding; in that five-year period, he has given more than 30 lectures at conferences and national and international centres of research. He has directed 13 doctoral theses, 3 in the last five years.

U6.News Dr. Concepció Rovira Angulo receives the award

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A pyrene based dyad and triad leading to a reversible chemical and redox optical and magnetic switch

C. Franco, M. Mas-Torrent, A. Caballero, A. Espinosa, P. Molina, J. Veciana and C. Rovira
Chemistry A european Journal, 2015, 21, 5504 – 5509 DOI: 10.1002/chem.201405993

Two new pyrene-polychlorotriphenylmethyl (PTM) dyads and triads have been synthesized and characterized by optical, magnetic and electrochemical methods. The interplay between the different electronic states of the PTM moiety in the dyads and triads and the optical and magnetic properties of the molecules have been studied. The electronic spectra of the radicals show the intramolecular charge-transfer (ICT) transition at around 700 nm due to the acceptor character of the PTM radical. In the diamagnetic protonated derivatives, the fluorescence due to the pyrene is maintained, whereas in the radicals and the corresponding anions there is a clear quenching of the fluorescence. The redox activity of PTM radicals that are easily reduced to the corresponding carbanion has been exploited to fabricate electrochemical switches with optical and magnetic response.

U6.News A pyrene based dyad and triad leading to a reversible chemical

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