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Researchers of two NANBIOSIS units success in the Third Millennium Awards

Researchers of two NANBIOSIS units success in the Third Millennium Awards: the Young Research Talent award to Julia Ramirez (NANBIOSIS U27) and the Research and Future Award to the NFP group (NANBIOSIS U9)

Last November 8, four initiatives received the highest award in the eighth edition of the HERALDO contest Third Millennium Awards which represent the recognition of the Aragonese community from the youngest to the most consolidated trajectories in knowledge transfer, innovation, and scientific dissemination.

The Paraninfo of the University of Zaragoza hosted this event in which researchers CIBER-BBN – NANBIOSIS were recognised this year:

The Films and Nanostructured Particles (NFP) group of INMA and CIBER-BBN, directed by Jesús Santamaría and coordinating NANBIOSIS U9 “Synthesis of Nanoparticles Unit“, was recognised with the Research and Future Award: Manufacturing drugs inside tumors.

Julia Ramírez, from the BSiCoS group of the I3A and CIBER-BBN, coordinator of unit 27 “High Performance Computing Unit” of NANBIOSIS, received the “Young Research Talent” award for her work in the biomedical signal processing.

The Third Millennium Awards’ objective is to recognize the work of people, research centers and groups, institutions and companies in Aragon in three main axes:

Innovation:  Technological Innovation Award

Divulgation:  Best Science and Technology Dissemination Initiative

Research:

– Young Research Talent Awards

– Transfer of Science and University to Business Award

– Research and future award

Julia Ramirez

During her doctorate at Unizar (2017), she developed a methodology to quantify morphological variations in the electrocardiogram (ECG). This quantification led to the T-wave morphology restoration (TMR) index, which was shown to be a stronger predictor of sudden cardiac death than standard clinical indices.

After her doctorate, she moved to work at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) in London. This was a key point in her research career because she broadened her knowledge in engineering, gaining experience in genetics and bioinformatics. During those years, she obtained two highly competitive European Postdoctoral Fellowships: a WHRI-Academy Cofund (2017) and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie (2018). In recognition of her work, in April 2020, QMUL promoted her to Lecturer in Genetics and Cardiovascular Data Science.

Since January of this year, Julia Ramírez has been back in Zaragoza thanks to a María Zambrano International Talent Attraction Scholarship, giving up the highly competitive Category 2 Talent Attraction of the Community of Madrid, which she had also been awarded. In total, the researcher from Zaragoza has contributed to her field of research with 32 peer-reviewed publications in different disciplines, including bioengineering, cardiology and genetics (13 of her as first author).

In her speech recognized “being in a happy moment”, for being back in Zaragoza, “being away is not always easy” and also for collecting an award for her work that always motivates her to continue forward in a career as the researcher, long and complicated.

The Films and Nanostructured Particles (NFP) group:

«This initiative is the work of many people. It has been a fantastic trip”, said Jesús Santamaría, Principal researcher of the NFP Group

The NFP of the Group was created in 2007 by researchers from different backgrounds, with the aim of concentrating efforts in the development and application of nanostructured materials with an emphasis on nanoparticles, nanoporous interfaces and hybrid systems. Its members have made pioneering developments in the synthesis of nanomaterials and their application in fields ranging from medicine to energy and the environment.

The award recognised the group’s work in the cancer research throughout the project CADENCE (Catalytic Dual-Function Devices Against Cancer), that aims to find a new way to fight this disease, avoiding the problems associated with conventional chemotherapy and its devastating side effects. Three fundamental problems had to be solved. First, developing suitable catalysts (catalytic nanoparticles) capable of operating inside a tumour and manufacturing toxic molecules there. Alternatively, nanoparticles can operate in other ways (by heating remotely) and also produce tumour death. It is also necessary to selectively deliver these catalysts to the tumour, avoiding their accumulation in other organs. Finally, these catalysts must be selectively activated inside the tumour. The answers obtained to each of these problems have opened new paths in the fight against cancer: Catalysts capable of manufacturing toxic substances from within the tumour are used, minimising their diffusion through the body.

This research was funded for five years through an ERC Advanced Grant project endowed with 2.5 million euros. The ERC Advanced Grants are the most prestigious European projects, awarded by the European Research Council in a highly competitive international competition.

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Ignacio García and Javier Bonet present their work on the CADENCE project in a one-minute video

Ignacio García and Javier Bonet, researchers from the Nanoporous Films and Particles (NFP) group and Nanbiosis U9 Synthesis of Nanoparticles Unit of the CIBER-BBN and the Institute of Nanoscience and Materials Science at the University of Zaragoza have presented their work on the CADENCE project in a video of a minute of duration that has been submitted to the #QueSigalaCiencia scientific dissemination contest promoted by the CIBER-BBN.

#QueSigaLaCiencia is a campaign on social networks that wants to explain to society, from an optimistic perspective, the importance of research and the work carried out by the research staff of the CIBER. The call -associated with the campaign- has had a high participation of the groups, who have presented 69 videos from all the scientific areas of the center. Researchers took on the challenge of telling their research in one minute. The works presented in the #QueSigaLaCiencia call have the possibility of opting for the prize that the public will give through Twitter (highest number of likes).

Their research work in the project CADENCE consists of designing and manufacturing nanopharmaceuticals that will fight cancer, not only in a more effective way, but also in a more selective way , avoiding damaging healthy cells. “By striking the tumor with light, which, for example, comes from a laser, the particles created by these researchers are capable of creating toxic substances for the cancer cell and, in addition, eliminating essential nutrients for the tumor to continue its growth ·.

The work carried out in NANBIOSIS is recognized by these researchers as “fundamental to continue innovating, advancing and providing solutions to different problems”.

CADENCE is a European Project (Catalytic Dual-Function Devices Against Cancer) that aims for a breakthrough in cancer therapy by developing a new therapeutic concept. The central hypothesis is that a growing tumor can be treated as a special type of reactor in which reaction conditions can be tailored to achieve two objectives: i) molecules essential to tumor growth are locally depleted and ii) toxic, short-lived products are generated in situ

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J. Santamaría, U9 NANBIOSIS gets 2.5M € to develop a revolutionary cancer treatment

Jesús Santamaría, Scientific Director of Unit 9 of NANBIOSIS, has obtained, for the second time in six years, an ERC Advanced Grant, one of the most prestigious and extremely competitive European research grants, restricted to senior researchers with a research trajectory of high quality for more than ten years.

The CADENCE (Catalytic Dual-Function Devices Against Cancer) project will be financed by the EU with 2.5M € to work for five years with a powerful team: four own researchers and seven others to be selected from candidates from all over the world.

With this project the researchers propose a revolutionary cancer treatment to be developed and tested. “The central idea of ​​the project is to consider the tumor as a chemical reactor in which catalysts can be introduced. A catalyst is agent  capable of directing chemical reactions and, in this case, would destroy molecules that are useful for the tumor and generate toxic products inside the tumor. The project thus has the potential to add a new member -catalysis- to the toolbox in oncology And if we could do within the tumor cells themselves we would have a very powerful tool. It would be to use catalysis as an arsenal in oncology “,  explained Jesús Santamaría.  But in addition to developing catalysts that can work successfully under intratumoral conditions (temperature, oxygen concentration, pH), a method must be devised to bring those catalysts selectively into the tumor either through the capillaries by which it extends or Or inside mesenchymal stem cells, as a Trojan horse. Finally, the project contemplates activating the catalysts remotely by infrared radiation, once they have achieved their goal. There are already initial results of the group that allow to glimpse possibilities of achieving these three objectives. A central part of the project will be the synthesis of catalytic nanomaterials. For this, the capabilities of NANBIOSIS-ICTS will be intensely used”

Jesús Santamaría, believes that CADENCE has been selected because it is a new idea and, a priori, could be used in all types of tumors. “It’s new, it’s interesting and we’re going to contract the best researchers, because we’re going to need them,” he said. Among others, they will need experts in oncology, in photocatalysis and in modulation of bioreactors.  .

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