The first edition of the Scientific School on Materials for Biomedical Applications hosted by ICMAB starts on the 19th of June of 2017!
This summer school has a large participation of the N&N group: Several members of the N&N group are attending the workshop, Anna Laromaine was in the organization, Anna May helped in the dissemination and Anna Roig will be the chair of one of the sessions and will also give a talk about in vivo imaging.
Hope we all enjoy it!
We congratulate the autos Laura Gonzalez-Moragas, Si-Ming Yu, Núria Benseny-Cases, Stephen Stürzenbaum, Anna Roig and Anna Laromaine for their recently accepted paper: Toxicogenomics of iron oxide nanoparticles in the nematode C. elegans. This research arises from a collaboration of the N&N group, the ALBA Synchrotron Light Source (MIRAS line) and the King’s College London.
Here you can read the abstract of the paper:
We present a mechanistic study of the effect of iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) in C. elegans combining a genome-wide analysis with the investigation of specific molecular markers frequently linked to nanotoxicity. The effects of two different coatings were explored: citrate, an anionic stabilizer, and bovine serum albumin, as a pre-formed protein corona. The transcriptomic study identified differentially expressed genes following an exposure to SPIONs. The expression of genes involved in oxidative stress, metal detoxification response, endocytosis, intestinal integrity and iron homeostasis was quantitatively evaluated. The role of oxidative stress was confirmed by gene expression analysis and by synchrotron Fourier Transform infrared microscopy based on the higher tissue oxidation of NP-treated animals. The observed transcriptional modulation of key signaling pathways such as MAPK and Wnt suggests that SPIONs might be endocytosed by clathrin-mediated processes, a putative mechanism of nanotoxicity which deserves further mechanistic investigations.
Citation:
Toxicogenomics of iron oxide nanoparticles in the nematode C. elegans
Laura Gonzalez-Moragas, Si-Ming Yu, Núria Benseny-Cases, Stephen Stürzenbaum, Anna Roig and Anna Laromaine
Nanotoxicology, Accepted manuscript online: 15 Jun 2017. DOI: 10.1080/17435390.2017.1342011
Anna Laromaine has been selected as a candidate for being named as one of the Top100 female leaders in Spain in the category of researchers and academics.
The voting is already closed and the results will be announced on the 21st of June 2017 in Madrid. In this gala, 10 women will be priced for each different category. The event is organized by MujeresyCia and is aimed at making female talent visible.
On the 12th of June 2017, Prof. Prof. Orit Shefi (picture, right) was invited by the N&N groups to give an ICMAB periodical lecture entitled: “Nano-based platforms for controlling neuronal organization and growth” Prof Orit Shefi comes from the Bar-Ilan Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials in Israel. She has a large expertise in manipulating neuronal growth and differentiation using substrates with controlled nano-structures. All the N&N group members attended and enjoyed the talk! 🙂
On the 30th of May 2017, we got very good news: Jan has secured a Ph.D. position at the N&N group! Jan obtained a doctoral fellowship from the INPhINIT program promoted by the La Caixa Foundation. The fellowship is awarded to 57 outstanding international students for Ph.D. studies in top Spanish research centres. He will do his Ph.D. thesis under the supervision of Anna Roig and Martí Gich. All the members of the group congratulated Jan and did a toast with cava for him.
Jan Grzelak says:
The project that I chose is ‘Mesoporous magnetic nanorods for theranostics’ offered by Anna Roig and Martí Gich.
I am extremely happy to continue doing research in the N&N group for the next 3 years!
This same day, Mulling visited us in ICMAB. Mulling is a former Ph.D. student of the N&N group. She was the first one to work with bacterial cellulose.
Marcela, a collaborator of the N&N group, arrived the 15th May 2017 to ICMAB and will stay with us for a short time. Here a few words about her work:
“Hello, I am Marcela B. Fernández van Raap from the Instituto de Fisica de La Plata (IFLP), Argentina. I have joined Anna Roig’s group for a 18 day visit. My research interests are mainly focused on the synthesis and development of new nanomediators and nanocarriers for biomedical applications like magnetic hyperthermia, drug delivery and tissue repair.”
On May 10th, three bio-medical engineering students form the University of Vic visited ICMAB and its facilities. They are Laura Gonzalez students of the bio-materials course. Sole and Irene showed them the crystallography lab and other ICMAB facilities: NANOQUIM, electron microscopes among others. After that, several members of the N&N group gave a talk explaining to the students which are our main research lines.
Anna Roig (May 8th 2017) and Anna Laromaine (May 15th 2017) will also participate in this biomaterial course by giving two seminars in the University of Vic.
It is a tradition to celebrate each spring the anniversary of ICMAB. On the 5th of May 2017 we all celebrated the 31st anniversary of our research centre with a party in the institute for all its members. There were many activities organized for this day: gymkhana, Poker, chess, Party&Co., 3D holograms workshop, swing class and exhibition, photo-call, and even a Ping-Pong tournament. All these activities were accompanied by food and drinks and there were prices for the winners in each category.
We congratulate the winners of the gymkhana which were all members of the N&N group(above picture): Sole, Jordi, Olatz and Luo!
On Monday 8th of May, Natascia Vetura will give a seminar entitled:”C. elegans as screening tool to identify environmentally related nanomaterials targeting mitochondria“.The talk will take place in the Sala d’actes Carles Miravitlles at ICMAB. the seminar is organized by Anna Laromaine from the N&N group.
Natascia’s lab is interested in understanding the role of mitochondria in environmentally induced neuronal aging and diseases. To this end, Ventura’s team exploits C. elegans as a powerful genetic and screening tool to evaluate materials and chemical and unravel molecular mechanisms of mitochondria-associated diseases, with special attention revolved to the crosstalk between genetic and environmental interventions.
Good news for the N&N group! 🙂
The paper entitled: Materials and toxicological approaches to study metal and metal-oxide nanoparticles in the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans has been accepted in the journal Materials Horizons.
We congratulate the authors from the N&N group: Laura Gonzalez-Moragas, Anna Roig and Anna Laromaine. Also our collaborators
Abstract:
Understanding the in vivo fate and transport of nanoparticles (NPs) is challenging, but critical. We review recent studies of metal and metal oxide NPs using the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, summarizing major findings to date.
In a joint transdisciplinary effort, we highlight underutilized opportunities offered by powerful techniques lying at the intersection of mechanistic toxicology and materials science. To this end, we firstly summarize the influence of exposure conditions (media, duration, C. elegans lifestage) and NP physicochemical properties (size, coating, composition) on the response of the worm to NP treatment.
Next, we focus on the techniques employed to study NP entrance route, uptake, biodistribution and fate, emphasizing the potential of extending the toolkit available with novel and powerful techniques. Next, we review findings on several NP-induced biological responses, namely transport routes and altered molecular pathways, and illustrate the molecular biology and genetic strategies applied, critically reviewing their strengths and weaknesses.
Finally, we advocate the incorporation of a set of minimal materials and toxicological science experiments that will permit meta-analysis and synthesis of multiple studies in the future. We believe this review will facilitate coordinated integration of both well-established and underutilized approaches in mechanistic toxicology and materials science by the nanomaterials research community
Citation: L. Gonzalez-Moragas, L. L. Maurer, V. M. Harms, J. Meyer, A. Laromaine and A. Roig, Mater. Horiz., 2017, DOI: 10.1039/C7MH00166E
The N&N group participates in the @NextGEM_eu project, for which we prepared this video explaining how we work with c.elegans. 🪱
👉 Dr. @PolAlonso1 explains how we use these nematodes and why they are useful for assessing biological effects.
#BioEM #5G
We are thrilled to announce that Dr. @AnnaRoig8 from the @NNgroupICMAB research group (@icmabCSIC, Barcelona, Spain) will be offering a talk on "Opportunities of bacterial nanocellulose in healthcare". This Wednesday at 12.15h at the BBT Weekly Meetings, at @EEBE_UPC
