Victor Sebastian, researcher of NANBIOSIS Unit 9 Synthesis of Nanoparticles Unit, explains the production technologies in continuous (Microfluidic systems liquid phase or pyrolysis activated by laser, gas phase in which the nanoparticles are produced)
Jesús Santamaría, Scientific Director of NANBIOSIS Unit 9, Synthesis of Nanoparticles Unit, denounces the bureaucratic obstacles of the Law of Contracts, which are paralyzing the investigations whenever it is necessary to buy material or hire personnel. His research against cancer, which received one of the most powerful European funding of more than two million euros, is stranded because of this rule, which requires to take out any purchase over 15,000 euros. “You can not do research like that,” Santamaría said. “In other countries there are no obstacles and we have to compete with them”
With the entry into force on March 9 of Law 9/2017 of November 8, scientists encounter importan important problems to use not only their basic budgets but also to use funds obtained in open and competitive calls, so they have money available to investigate that can not be spent.
This situation of Spanish research has been reviewed internationally, for example in an article published by the prestigious journal Science: Accounting rules hobble Spanish institutes
Until now, spending limits were applied per researcher, project and year. (that is, public tenders or having to submit several budgets). Now the limit is computed at the institutional level. This makes it impossible, in practice, to execute budgets, given that once the border of 15,000 euros per institution is exceeded, the direct contract it is not possible but it is needed to undertake the procedures of a contest which can take months.
But all of this does not happen outside Spain, not even in Europe, even though this law is an adaptation of a European Directive. In the rest of the European Union, Science has been prevented from going through this “funnel”. Santamaria calls for a stronger reaction from the scientific community towards the administration.
These obstacles and their results in the R+D were explained in an article published in El Diario.es on April 4, titled “Why does the government make it difficult to carry out scientific research spending?”: “This measure, which may make some sense for laboratories Hospitals that carry out routine analyzes in a standardized manner are meaningless when we talk about independent research groups that work in very diverse areas within the same center, and that lack the administrative personnel necessary to manage this new form of bidding. make impossible, for example, the execution of expenses in other countries, something as common as the payment to a laboratory in North America for the performance of a chemical or genetic analysis: according to this law the foreign laboratory would have to be submitted to the contest. of billing of this type of services are tiny enough so that a laboratory i International, which is extremely busy with the processing of their samples and the calibration and maintenance of their equipment, bother to start the long and complex path of opting for a public tender so that a Spanish researcher can pay for the analysis of their samples. “
Scientists of NANBIOSIS Unit 9 Synthesis of Nanoparticles Unit are coauthors of of the New cover ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.
Sustainable Production of Drug-Loaded Particles by Membrane Emulsification. Albisa A, Piacentini E, Arruebo M, Sebastian V, Giorno L. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng., 2018, 6 (5), pp 6663–6674 March 13, 2018. DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b00401. IF: 5,951
Yesterday took place in Barcelona, at Barcelona School of Management, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, a meeting of resarch groups and units of NANBIOSIS and CIBER-BBN and companies in the third B2B Forum organized by NANBIOSIS, in this case together with NANOMED SPAIN.
Thirteen companies and twelve groups from CIBER-BBN and CCMIJU (ten of them coordinating NANBIOSIS units) got together to explain, through short presentations of ten minutes, those lines of their work aimed at finding synergies and potential collaborations in the area of Nanomedicine apllications in drug delivery and targeting. There was also a talk by a representative of CDTI (Spanish National Center for Industrial and Technological Development) to explain the financing opportunities for the companies as well as a presentation by the NANBIOSIS Coordinator, Jesús Izco, to show the new Cutting Edge Biomedical Solutions offered by the ICTS-NANBIOSIS.
After lunch, the groups and companies had the opportunity to discuss in more detail, during bilateral interviews coordinated by NANBIOSIS a, those aspects that had attracted their attention, as well as, in some cases, to draw potential collaborations. The event was successfully developed with 45 attendees and more than 50 individual B2B mettings.
Last 7 June 2018 took place in Zaragoza, the Sino-Spain Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Conference, as a result of years of cooperation with Chinese institutions, organizad by Zaragoza University and Aragonese Foundation for Research & Development of Aragon Government (ARAID), to promote initiatives and foster bilateral collaboration in biomedical and pharmaceutical sectors between Spain and China.
The themes of the forum were:
Researcher of three units of NANBIOSIS partcipated in the Conference: from U13. Tissue & Scaffold Characterization Unit, Manuel Doblaré and Iñaki Ochoa who gave a talk on “Organ On Chip: Applications for cancer research”, from U9. Synthesis of Nanoparticles Unit, Jesús Santamaría, who spoke on “Research on nanomedicine at the Nanostructured films and particles” and from U27. High Performance Computing, Esther Pueyo, who spoke about “Patterns of cardiac aging: Mechanisms and relation to disease” and Laura Ordovas, as moderator.
NANBIOSIS is organizing a Conference on Nanotoxicity in collaboration with Nanomed Spain and Materplat, next May 24 in the Parc Scientific of Barcelona, to debate about the efect of nanotoxicity of nanoparticles and nanotechnologies in health.
The increase of potential risks to health has created the new discipline of nanotoxicity, that is, the study of the toxicity produced by the effect of nanoparticles and nanomaterials. The objective of this day is to learn more about the lines that are being followed by researchers in the area of nanotoxicity, the progress of different projects in this field, as well as existing tools to know and reduce the toxicity of nanoparticles and nanomaterials.
Nanotechnology intervenes in the design, production and use of structures and objects that have at least one of its dimensions in the scale of 100 nanometers or less. This science is allowing the achievement of advances in various areas with great repercussions for society.
However, manufactured nanoparticles can have properties and effects very different from those of the same materials in conventional sizes, which may pose new risks to the health of man and other species. Some nanoparticles, which are used as a vehicle for drugs to reach the desired cells in greater quantities, to reduce the side effects of the drug in other organs or both, have the same dimensions as certain biological molecules and can interact with them.
The increase of potential risks to health has created a new discipline, nanotoxicity, that is, the study of the toxicity produced by the effect of nanoparticles and nanomaterials. The objective of this day is to learn more about the lines that are being followed in research in the area of nanotoxicity, the progress of different projects in this field, as well as existing tools to know and reduce the toxicity of nanoparticles and nanomaterials.
The event will count with the presentations of Jesús Izco, Executive Director of NANBIOSIS, Ibane Abasolo, Scientific Coordinator of NANBIOSIS U20 In Vivo Experimental Platform and Francisco Balas,Scientists of NANBIOSIS U09 Synthesis of Nanoparticles Unit
Last 13 and 14 of November, CIBER-BBN has celebrated its 11th Annual Conference in Hotel Santemar in Santander. In this conference there was a poster session with the participation of the following Units of NANBIOSIS. Special mention deserves Unit 1 with Neus Ferrer as Director and Paolo Saccardo as Coordinator (in the picture):
Posters:
Engineering protein complexes as nano- or micro-structured vehicles or drugs for human and veterinary medicine. Ugutz Unzueta, Naroa Serna, Laura Sánchez-García, José Vicente Carratalá, Olivia Cano-Garrido, Mercedes Márquez, Paolo Saccardo, Rosa Mendoza, Raquel Díaz, Héctor, López-Laguna, Julieta Sánchez, Anna Obando, Amanda Muñoz, Andrés Cisneros, Eric Voltà, Aida Carreño, José Luis Corchero, Neus Ferrer-Miralles, Esther Vázquez, Antonio Villaverde.
Intrinsic functional and architectonic heterogeneity of tumor-targeted protein nanoparticles. Mireia Pesarrodona, Eva Crosa, Rafael Cubarsi, Alejandro Sanchez-Chardi, Paolo Saccardo, Ugutz Unzueta, Fabian Rueda, Laura Sanchez-Garcia, Naroa Serna, Ramón Mangues, Neus Ferrer Miralles, Esther Vázquez, Antonio Villaverde.
Synthesis of different length monodisperse COL-PEG-PEPTIDE to increase biodisponibility of multifunctional nanovesicles for Fabry’s desease. Edgar Cristóbal-Lecina; Daniel Pulido; Solène Passemard; Elizabet González-Mira; Jaume Veciana; Nora Ventosa; Simó Schwartz; Ibane Abasolo; Fernando Albericio and Miriam Royo.
Preclinical behavior of medium-chain cyanoacrylate glue with two different surgical application forms for mesh fixation in abdominal wall repair. Gemma Pascual, Bárbara Pérez-Köhler, Marta Rodríguez, Claudia Mesa-Ciller, Ángel Ortillés, Estefanía Peña, Begoña Calvo, Juan M. Bellón.
Inspiration and Expiration Dynamics in Acute Emotional Stress Assessment. Javier Milagro, Eduardo Gil, Jorge M. Garzón-Rey, Jordi Aguiló, Raquel Bailón.
Poly-DL-lactic acid films functionalized with collagen IV as carrier substrata for corneal epithelial stem cells. Ana de la Mata, Miguel Ángel Mateos-Timoneda, Teresa Nieto-Miguel, Sara Galindo, Marina López-Paniagua, Xavier Puñet, Elisabeth Engel, Margarita Calonge.
Strategy for engineering myoglobin nano-traps for biomedical sensing technology. E. Laukhina, O. V. Sinitsyna, N. K. Davydova, V. N. Sergeev, A. Gomez, I. Ratera, C. Blázquez Bondia, J. Paradowska, X. Rodriguez, J. Guasch, Jaume Veciana.
Structure and nanomechanics of quatsome membranes. B. Gumí-Audenis, L. PasquinaLemonche, J.A. Durán, N. Grimaldi, F. Sanz, J. Veciana, I. Ratera, N. Ventosa and M.I. Giannotti
Bioreceptors nanostructuration study for early detection of Alzheimer. José Marrugo, Dr. Samuel Dulay, Dr. Mònica Mir, Prof. Josep Samitier.
RGD dendrimer-based nanopatterns promote chondrogenesis and intercellular communication for cartilage regeneration. Ignasi Casanellas, Anna Lagunas, Iro Tsintzou, Yolanda Vida, Daniel Collado, Ezequiel Pérez-Inestrosa, Cristina Rodríguez, Joana Magalhães, José A. Andrades, José Becerra, Josep Samitier.
Long-range electron transfer between redox partner proteins. Anna Lagunas, Alejandra GuerraCastellano, Alba Nin-Hill, Irene Díaz-Moreno, Miguel A. De la Rosa, Josep Samitier, Carme Rovira, Pau Gorostiza.
Miniaturized multi-sensing platform for pH and Dissolved Oxygen monitoring in Organ-On-aChip systems. M. Zea, A. Moya, I. Gimenez, R. Villa, G. Gabriel.
Electrochemical characterization of SWCNTs based microelectrodes fabricated by inkjet printing. M. Mass, A. Moya, G. Longinotti, M. Zea, M. Muñoz, E. Ramon, L. Fraigi, R. Villa, G. Ybarra, G. Gabriel.
In vivo imaging and local persistance of polymeric micro- and nanomaterials labelled with the near infrared dye IR820. Isabel Ortiz de Solórzano, Gracia Mendoza, Inmaculada Pintre, Sara García-Salinas, Víctor Sebastián, Vanesa Andreu, Marina Gimeno, Manuel Arruebo.
Cationic nioplexes-in-polysaccharide-based hydrogels as versatile biodegradable hybrid materials to deliver nucleic acids. Santiago Grijalvo, Adele Alagia, Gustavo Puras, Jon Zárate, Judith Mayr, José Luis Pedraz, Ramon Eritja
Perfluorocarbon-loaded Nanocapsules from Nano-emulsion Templates as Microbubble Precursors for Biomedical Applications. G. Calderó, A. González, M. Monge, C. Rodríguez-Abreu, M.J.García-Celma, C. Solans.
Biodistribution study of polymeric drug-loaded nanoparticles in murine model. Marta Monge, Aurora Dols, Stephane Fourcade, Aurora Pujol, Carlos Rodríguez-Abreu, Conxita Solans.
Behavior and a comparative study between tantalum and titanium alloy implant surfaces against bacterial adhesion. M.A. Pacha-Olivenza, M.L. González-Martín.
Bacterial adhesion on calcium ion-modified titanium implant surfaces. M.A. Pacha Olivenza, R. Tejero, M. Delgado-Rastrollo, M.L. González-Martín.
Bioactive coatings to promote tissue regeneration and ingrowth into 3D custom-made porous titanium endoimplants (COATREG-3D). Santos-Ruiz L; Granados JF; Ruiz F; Yáñez JI; González A; Cabeza N; Vida Y; Pérez-Inestrosa E; Izquierdo-Barba I; Vallet-Regí M; Rubio J; Orgaz F; Rubio N; González ML; Peris JL; Monopoli D; Becerra J.
Subcutaneous implantation of a biodegradable apatite/agarose scaffold: biocompatibility and osteogenesis characterization in a rat model. Natalio García-Honduvilla, Gemma Pascual, Miguel A. Ortega, Alejandro Coca, Cynthia Trejo, Jesús Román, Juan Peña, María V. Cabañas, Julia Buján, and María Vallet-Regí.
Dual T1/T2 NCP-based novel contrast agents for brain tumor MRI: a preclinical study. Suarez, S; Arias-Ramos, N; Candiota, AP; Lorenzo, J; Ruiz-Molina, D; Arús, C; Novio, F.
Metronomic treatment in immunocompetent preclinical GL261 glioblastoma: effects of cyclophosphamide and temozolomide. Ferrer-Font, L; Arias-Ramos, N; Lope-Piedrafita, S; Julià- Sapé, M; Pumarola, M; Arús, C; Candiota, AP.
Gated nanodevices for innovative medical therapies. Maria Alfonso, Irene Galiana, Beatriz Lozano, Borja Diaz de Greñu, Cristina de la Torre, Andrea Bernardos, Sameh El Sayed, Daniel MuñozEspin, Miguel Rovira, José Ramón Murguía, Manuel Serrano, Ramón Martínez-Máñez.
NANOPROBE: Gated sensing materials and devices for the detection of infectious diseases and urological cancer. Ángela Ribes, Luís Pla, Sara Santiago-Felipe, Alba Loras-Monfort, M.Carmen Martínez-Bisbal, Elena Aznar, Guillermo Quintás-Soriano, José Luis Ruiz-Cerdá, María Angeles.
Jesus Santamaría, Scientific Director of Unit 9 of NANBIOSIS has participated in a study that shows the ability of gold nanoparticles to generate in situ potent anticancer drugs from inert molecules thanks to a mechanism of elimination of terminal chemical groups that nanometric gold is able to catalyze. Gold is ideal for this catalytic role due to its high biocompatibility.
These results, published in the journal Angewandte Chemie, offer new hope in the fight against cancer and have been obtained thanks to the collaboration of scientists of Unit 9 of NANBIOSIS and, Víctor Sebastián, Silvia Irusta and Jesús Santamaría, with researchers from the Center for Cancer Research at the University of Edinburgh, led by Dr. Unciti-Broceta.
The work reveals the possibility of carrying out catalysis in biological means using tiny particles of gold. These gold nanoparticles, camouflaged in a resin microcapsule implanted in the brain of a zebrafish, have succeeded in catalyzing a chemical reaction generating fluorescent compounds.
Significant practical importance
“The main problem of chemotherapy treatments are the side effects in various organs due to the toxicity of the molecules that are used to fight cancer. For this reason, alternative routes are explored from nanotechnology, for example, transporting drugs to the tumor using nanoparticles or alternative treatments to drugs, such as hyperthermia, elevation of local temperature, obtained with nanoparticles”, says Jesús Santamaría.
The conclusions of this work suggest a different way: the drug would be supplied to the patient in its inert form and only converted to the toxic form locally, thanks to the catalysis of the nanoparticles that a surgeon would implant in the tumor.
Article of reference
Pérez-López, A. M., Rubio-Ruiz, B., Sebastián, V., Hamilton, L., Adam, C., Bray, T. L., Irusta, S., Brennan, P. M., Lloyd-Jones, G. C., Sieger, D., Santamaría, J. and Unciti-Broceta, A. (2017). “Gold-Triggered Uncaging Chemistry in Living Systems”. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. doi:10.1002/anie.201708379
The Platform2nano research project (2012-2016) has just been awarded a second prize in the “Contribution for a better society” category, at the “Mobility Takes Research Further” conference organized by Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA 2017) in the framework of the Presidency of Malta of the Council of the European Union. More than 195 researchers from 30 nationalities who have developed their scientific work through the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Scholarships were presented to these awards.
The project “Development of a microfluidic platform to produce nanomaterials and assessment on new nanotechnology applications” in which participate the researchers Manuel Arruebo, Laura Usón, Isabel Ortiz de Solorzano y Jesús Santamaría members of the group Nanostructured Films and Particles -NFP, coordinator of Unit 9 of NANBIOSIS, was rated as excellent for its outstanding contribution to the design of a wide variety of nanomaterials through efficient technologies and for its multiple applications in different fields of great social interest such as biomedicine or energy processes.
Yesterday, at the University of Zaragoza, Prof. Nuria Vilaboa (CIBER-BBN– Hospital Universitario de La Paz) gave a talk on “Nanotechnology and biomedical applications. Gene therapy“.
The event was organized by Manuel Arruebo II Institute of Nanoscience of Aragon), researcher of the coordinating group of Unit 9 of NANBIOSIS.
In recent years, a multitude of materials of nanometric size have been explored, which because of their small size have properties that give them a great attraction for a wide range of biomedical applications. Prof. Vilaboa reviewed gene therapy technology, where materials at nanoscale offer interesting alternatives.
