News

Understanding between doctors and engineers: essential to advance in health

Pablo Laguna Lasaosa, New Director of I3A and scientific director of NANBIOSIS U27 High Performance Computing talks about Biomedical Engineering in the radio programm “La Brujula de Aragón” @OndaCero_

Professor of signal and communications, expert of biomedical signals in the cardio vascular domain, Pablo Laguna talks about engineering today and how the relative weight of engineering is nowadays repesented by the information engineering, computer engineering and the treatment of information to be applyed in different domains, new materials and new ways of addressing and solving problems.

For the recently appointed director of the I3A, there is an opportunity in this updated concept of enineering to try to attract the female sector. “In the I3A -says Pablo Laguna- there are a good number of female engineers, pioneer women, of recognized national and international prestige, who make the effort of diffusion so that other women are encouraged to continue their way”.

Doctor Laguna also explains the I3A research which groups forty or fifty research groups in four work domains:

Chemical engineering, what is known as processes and recycling, (recycling, sludge management or new chemical processes to obtain new materials …), with a very close relationship with the recycling industry.

More classic industrial technologies, the mechanical part, where the great chanllenges are in knowledge, in simulations… to give value to companies.

Information and telecommunications technologies, which brings together the technologies of communication, computer science, data management and artificial intelligence.

Engineering applied to the resolution of biological problems, diagnosis of diseases, therapy … interdisciplinarity and understanding between the doctor and the engineer are nowadays essential to advance in the field of health.

To follow the interview in spanish: from min 13:15
https://www.ondacero.es/emisoras/aragon/audios-podcast/brujula/la-brujula-de-aragon-12112019_201911125dcb01af0cf235944927d27e.html

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Pablo Laguna, new director of the Aragon Engineering Research Institute

Pablo Laguna Lasaosa, Scientific Director of Unit 27 High Performance Computing has been elected new director of the Aragon Engineering Research Institute (I3A).

Pablo Laguna Lasaosa, Professor of Signal Theory and Communications at the School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA) of the University of Zaragoza, develops its research activity in the field of signal processing, particularly applied to biomedical applications. Laguna is co-author of more than 150 research articles on this subject, more than 10 book chapters, more than 300 international conference documents and director of 15 doctoral theses. He has led a good number of projects on the interpretation of biomedical signals, especially in the cardiovascular domain, most of them with international collaborations with clinical centers, academia and engineering companies.

Proff Laguna holds some international scientific responsibilities as a member (2008-2019) and president (2015-2018) of the board of directors of the Computing in Cardiology conference, as editor of the Digital Signal Processing (Eurasip) and Medical and Biological Engineering (Springer), In addition to organizing different scientific conferences. Select member (fellow) of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), of the European Alliance for Medical and Biological Engineering & Science (EAMBES) and of the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE). He is co-author, together with Dr. L. Sörnmo, of the book Bioelectrical Signal Processing in Cardiac and Neurological Applications (Elsevier, 2005), considered a reference in his field.

Within the field of university management and research, Professor Laguna has been a member of I3A since its inception, deputy director of International Relations of EINA (1999-2002), principal investigator of the Biomedical Signal Interpretation and Computational Simulation (BSICoS) group of the I3A, coordinator of the Biomedical Engineering division of the I3A (2000-2011) and its deputy director, responsible for the Master in Biomedical Engineering (2003-2010) and of the Doctoral Program in Biomedical Engineering of the I3A since its creation in 2002 until the present. He has also been the scientific director of the Network Biomedical Research Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine CIBER-BBN (2011-2015), where he is still a member.

His work program as director of the I3A over the next four years will focus on this important institute of the University of Zaragoza advancing as a reference structure for quality research, multidisciplinary and with a vocation to transfer its results to society.

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III Conference on the Disclosure of Biomedical and Experimental Sciences

The III Conference for the Disclosure of Biomedical and Experimental Sciences will take place at the Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery Jesús Usón of Cáceres, on December 5, 2019. It will be attended by Francisco Miguel Sanchez Margallo, Deputy Scientific Director of NANBIOSIS and Beatriz Moreno Lobato, Scientific Director of Unit 19 of NANBIOSIS

FREE ACTIVITY – Requires prior registration until full capacity is reached

Pre- registration: https://www.ccmijesususon.com/formacion/preinscripcion/1173/

Program:

Detalle de Curso

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Jesús Santamaría new Corresponding Academician of the Royal Canary Academy of Sciences

Jesús Marcos Santamaría Ramiro, Scientific Director of NANBIOSIS Unit 9 Synthesis of Nanoparticles Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Zaragoza and Deputy Director of the University Institute of Nanoscience of Aragon has been appointed new Corresponding Academician of the Royal Canary Academy of Sciences.

Reception of the new Corresponding Academician took place last November 7th at the Hall of the Canary Islands Advisory Council in La Laguna the entry speech of the new Corresponding Academician was tittled “Heterogeneous Catalysis 4.0: Opportunities for catalysts when they leave the reactor”

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Non-Hodgkin lymphoma treatment with protein nanoparticles

A study result of collaboration between researchers of two NANBIOSIS units managed to produce a potent antitumor effect in an animal model with non-Hodgkin lymphoma

A non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, NHL is a cancer that starts in white blood cells called lymphocytes, which are part of the body’s immune system.
Lymphoma. NHL is a term that’s used for many different types of lymphoma that share some characteristics. The most prevalent type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma is called diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (LDCGB). Although there are treatments for this pathology, there are non-responders.

This nanoparticle can be developed as a nanopharmaceutical, in order to introduce a new treatment, which could be used in 40 percent of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma who do not respond to current therapy, and avoiding the adverse effects associated with conventional treatment.

The research conducted by the CIBER-BBN at the Hospital de Sant Pau, led by Ramón Mangues (Nanbiosis U18 Nanotoxicology Unit) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, led by Antoni Villaverde Nanbiosis U1 Protein Production Platform (PPP) has demonstrated the high selectivity of a protein-based nanomedicine and created by the researchers themselves, for the targeted delivery of a toxin in the tumor cells to induce their selective death. The objective is that these nanoparticles can be developed as a nanopharmaceutical, which could be used in 40 percent of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma who do not respond to current therapy, avoiding the adverse effects associated with conventional treatment

This selective effect of the nanopharmaceutical is due to the specific interaction between a targeting peptide that contains the protein nanoparticle that carries the toxin and the CXCR4 cell receptor that is highly overexpressed in lymphoma cells. This is the first time that the uptake of protein nanoparticles in different organs of a hematological neoplasm is quantified.

This observation has shown that 86 percent of the administered dose accumulates in cancer cells, a substantial improvement compared to other non-protein nanoparticles or other drug targeting systems such as drug-antibody conjugates, which only reach 1 percent of the dose in the tumor.

As Ramón Mangues, Scientific Director of Nanbiosis U18 Nanotoxicology Unit, explains, “the new protein nanoparticle contains a ligand that identifies a CXCR4 receptor on the surface of cancer cells in which it enters selectively, reaching a very high uptake of the tumor and very low in the rest of the body, which greatly exceeds the tumor uptake of drugs used for this type of lymphoma.”

The bioluminescent follow-up of cancer cells and nanoparticle biodistribution and toxicity studies has been performed in the ICTS NANBIOSIS Nanotoxicology Unit Protein production has been partially performed by the ICTS “NANBIOSIS”, more specifically by the Unit of Protein Production Platform.

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NANBIOSIS expertise on Nanoparticles Characterization by Amable Bernabé.

Amable Bernabé, Technical Coordinator of NANBIOSIS U6 Biomaterial Processing and Nanostructuring Unit has given a course from Monday, 7 October, to Wednesday, 9 October on “Characterization techniques for particulate materials”. The course has counted with 12 participants from different CSIC centers (including ICMAB, IBM-CNM, ICM, IQAC…) and has introduced the participants to different techniques to characterize nanoparticles and other particulate matter, including the basic fundamentals, sample preparation, practical examples and results interpretation.

It is the second time that Amable Bernabé, technician from the Sof tLab, has decided to offer this course to all the CSIC community, so they can learn new methods to characterize nanoparticles, the theory behind the techniques, and how to manage the equipment.

Specifically, the techniques shown are:

Theory:

Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) with Zetasizer Nano ZS (Malvern Instruments)
- Size distribution
- Z Potential
Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) with Nanosight NS300 (Malvern Instruments)
- Size distribution
- Particle concentration
- Fluorescence
Light Scattering (LS) with Mastersizer 2000 (Malvern Instruments)
- Size distribution

Practice:

Sample analysis and practical cases of Dynamic Light Scattering with the Zetasizer Nano ZS (Malvern Instruments) equipment.
Samples analysis and practical cases of the Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) technique with the Nanosight NS300 (Malvern Instruments) equipment.
Sample analysis and practical cases of the Light Scattering (LS) technique with the Mastersizer 2000 (Malvern Instruments) instrument.

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A Minimally Invasive Microsensor Specially Designed for Simultaneous Dissolved Oxygen and pH Biofilm Profiling

Ana Moya, Xavi Illa, Rosa Villa and Gemma Gabriel, researchers of the Biomedical Application’s Group (GAB) of CIBER-BBN and the Microelectronics Institute of Barcelona, which main interests are the design and fabrication of Micro and Nano Systems for Biomedical Applications, have recently published, in collaboration with other authors an article in the Special Issue Advanced Electrochemical Sensors and Environmental Monitoring

The authors thank in the Acknowledgements the participation of the ICTS NANBIOSIS U8 Micro– Nano Technology Unit of the CIBER in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN) at the IMB -CNM (CSIC)

The work reports the development of a novel multi-analyte microsensor based on MEMS technologies for simultaneous monitoring of DO and pH. Results showed the capacity of microsensors to quantify concentration gradients of dierent species within biofilms. In addition, the possibility of integrating two microsensors, specially designed to obtain a seven-point profile in a single measurement, introduced in this paper for the first time, clearly simplifies the equipment and the procedure necessary to record concentration profiles within biofilms. Critical future prospects have been established

Article:

Xavier Guimerà , Ana Moya, Antonio David Dorado, Xavi Illa, Rosa Villa, David Gabriel, Xavier Gamisans and Gemma Gabriel. A Minimally Invasive Microsensor Specially Designed for Simultaneous Dissolved Oxygen and pH Biofilm Profiling Sensors 2019, 19(21), 747; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19214747

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NANBIOSIS Scientific Director, Jaume Veciana, coauthor of an article highlighted in Chemistry Views

Jaume Veciana, Scientific Director of NANBIOSIS is coauthor of an article chosen to be highlighted on the ChemistryViews newsletter: “Organic Free Radicals as Circularly Polarized Luminescence Emitters”, published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, and is about the intrinsic chiral emission of enantiometric organic free radicals.

The short news about the paper is entitled “Circulary Polarized Light from Organic Radicals” is available here.

Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) can occur when a luminescent compound has a chiral structure. Organometallic structures are leading in CPL activity. However, purely organic CPL emitters are promising alternatives in several applications where low toxicity is important
(i.e., bioimaging).

Jaume Veciana (Institut de Ciéncia de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB), Spain), Araceli G. Campaña (University of Granada, Spain) and colleagues have found a new approach for the optimization of organic emitters with intrinsic chirality. In particular, tris(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl)methyl (TTM) and perchlorotriphenylmethyl (PTM) radicals, which both have a chiral propeller-like shape, were used. In addition to their chirality, these materials are magnetically active. They are also easy to modify in order to optimize their properties.

The team separated the two racemic compounds into their enantiomers using chiral stationary phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The CPL spectra of the four resulting fractions (examples pictured) were recorded and the researchers found highly efficient chiral emission for both pairs of enantiomers. According to the researchers, this is the first time results about the intrinsic chiral emission from enantiomeric organic free radicals have been reported. The work might be a starting point for the development of improved chiral organic radical emitters.

Reference article:Organic Free Radicals as Circularly Polarized Luminescence Emitters
Paula Mayorga Burrezo, Vicente G. Jiménez, Davide Blasi, Imma Ratera, Araceli G. Campaña, Jaume Veciana,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.2019.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201909398

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Unit 16 of NANBIOSIS will expand its capabilities with cofinancing of FEDER funds

On October 25, the Monitoring Commission of the agreement signed on July 15 was established by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness and the University of Extremadura for the acquisition of new equipment that will expand the capabilities of Unit 16 of NANBIOSIS.

One of the 26 Units that constitute NANBIOSIS is Unit 16 “Unit of Surface Characterization and Calorimetry” of CIBER-BBN and the University of Extremadura. The application of this FEDER cofinancing will allow the expansion of the capabilities of this unit for the chemical, physicochemical, and topographic characterization of surfaces, improving the competences in mass spectrometry by time of flight of secondary ions (TOF-SIMS), photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and extending them to the profilometry goniometry and goniometry. The requested equipment will be located on the Badajoz campus of the University of Extremadura, where Unit 16 of NANBIOSIS is located.

The total budget of the project is € 1,380,000, 80% of which are co-financed with funds from the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) corresponding to the Spanish Multi-Regional Operational Program 2014-2020, allocated to the General Secretariat for Coordination of Scientific Policy of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities destined to finance projects and actions related to infrastructures included in the current ICTS Map. The remaining 20% is contributed by the Junta de Extremadura.

Further information here

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New inside backcober by researchers of NANBIOSIS U9

Researchers of NANBIOSIS U9 Synthesis of Nanoparticles Unit Ignacio Julian, José L. Hueso, Reyes Mallada and Jesús Santamaría, are co-authors of an article with inside backcover recently published by the scientific magazine Catalysis, Science and Tecnology.

The synthesis of the materials has been performed at the Platform of Production of Biomaterials and Nanoparticles of the NANBIOSIS ICTS, more specifically at the Nanoparticle Synthesis Unit 9 of the CIBER in BioEngineering, Biomaterials & Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN)

Article: Polyoxometalates as alternative Mo precursors for methane dehydroaromatization on Mo/ZSM-5 and Mo/MCM-22 catalysts. Julián I, Hueso J.L, Lara N, Solé-Daurá A, Poblet J,M, Mitchell S.G, MalladaR, Santamaría J.Catal. Sci. Technol., 2019, 9, 5927
DOI: 10.1039/C9CY01490J

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Specifically, the techniques shown are:

Theory:

Practice: