Congratulations to the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology student Jordi Floriach-Clark and his supervisor Dr. Anna Laromaine Sagué for the excellent Treball de Final de Grau (Bachelor Degree Thesis). The work was on the use of bacterial cellulose for treatments in plants: “Bacterial Cellulose and its Nanocomposites for Applications in Regeneration and Infection Control in Plants.” and was awarded with excellent and distinction by the jury.
From the 3rd to the 8th of September of 2017 Irene Anton, a Ph.D. student from the N&N group, attended a big meeting of Colloids and Interfaces in Madrid (ECIS2017). The event was hosted by the UniversidadComplutense de Madrid. Irene participated with two posters and was awarded with one of the two prizes sponsored by the journal Polymers.
Testing nanocellulose as biomaterial for epithelial regeneration
Encapsulating endothelial progenitor cells’ secretome into magnetic nanocapsules for targeted angiogenic therapies
Jan Grzelak defended his Master thesis at the University of Warsaw on the 27th of July 2017. His supervisors Anna Laromaine and Martí Gich came to Poland for the defence.
Jan was enrolled in a Master’s in Nanostructure Engineering and the title of the thesis was ‘Synthesis of supports for catalysis with palladium nanoparticles templated by bacterial cellulose’.
He got the highest mark (excellent) for the defence and the final mark from the whole studies was 4.88/5. He will receive a diploma with distinction! Next academic year Jan will be back to the N&N group to do his PhD with a grant from La Caixa.
Anna Roig has been awarded with the Albus Award 2017, one of the Scientific Awards offered by Grifols, the pharmaceutical and chemical multinational company. The Award consists of 50,000 € to carry out the project “Albumin-iron oxide nanocages”.
The Albus Program is an annual international award focused on innovative ideas related to albumin and its role as a therapeutic product. The Program offers two awards of 50,000 € each year. The proposals are assessed by an independent review committee formed by world-wide recognized experts.
Anna’s “Albumin-iron oxide nanocages” project gets inspiration from the apoferritin nanoconstructs. It aims at investigating if albumin nanocages, consisting of a few units of albumin self-assembled and self-standing, can be formed by using inorganic iron oxide nanoparticles as semi-sacrificial templates. The albumin nanocages could then find application as a nanomedicinal product for imaging and drug delivery.
The winners will be given their Awards at a Ceremony that will take place on October 3rd, 2017 in Barcelona.
On the 19th of July of 2017, the second internal call of the Frontier Interdisciplinary Projects (FIP) within the FUNMAT Severo Ochoa program was resolved with very good news for the N&N group! Two researcher from the group, Anna Roig and Martí Gich, will participate in two of the eight awarded projects:
On 21st of June of 2017 in Madrid, the list of the most influential women talents of Spain was published by the association Mujeres & Cía. This list includes athletes, businesswomen, politicians, journalists, and a researcher from the N&N group: Anna Laromaine!
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 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 programpromoted 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 MartíGich. 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!
Congratulations Jan!
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.
Miquel Torras from the NN group at the ceremony for the Sant Jordi 2017 awards
As we announced before, on Friday 21st of April Miquel Torras received his Sant Jordi Price 2017 at the IEC: Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
The ceremony took place at the Prat de la Riba hall with the presence of Joandomènec Ros, president of the IEC, Jana Balacciu winner of the international price Catalònia and Carme Forcadell the president of the Catalan Parliment.
Miquel received two prices: one from the Catalan Society of Chemistry and a recognition from the Catalan Society of Physics.
Here Miquel says a word of thanks to the IEC and those how supported his work:
Benvolguts companys i amics, m’és difícil expressar l’emoció que he sentit i continuo sentint pel fet d’haver estat multi premiat als premis Sant Jordi 2017, però puc dir que veig recompensat l’esforç dedicat, provant que la bona feina i el treball rigorós són finalment reconeguts.
M’agradaria tornar a agrair els premis a l’Institut d’Estudis Catalans, i a les Societats Catalanes de Química i de Física. És el meu desig estar-ne a l’altura continuant aportant quelcom a la ciència (i a la ciència en català). També vull compartir-los amb vosaltres, ja que han estat possibles amb la vostra col·laboració i ajuts. Moltes gràcies!
El treball d’investigació presentat va ser el seu treball final de grau (TFG) “Nanomaterials amb propietats magnètiques i plasmòniques: nanotriangles d’or decorats amb nanopartícules d’òxid de ferro superparamagnètiques” supervisat per Anna Roig.
Els premis seran lliurats a la Sala Prat de la Riba de l’IEC el dia 21 d’abril a les 12 hores.
En Miquel Torras va realitzar el seu TFG durant el primer semestre del 2016. Actualment està cursant el màster a la UB en “Química de Materials Aplicada” i ha tornat al N&N Group per realitzar el treball de màster.
Estem molt contents per aquests premis! Esperem que els gaudeixis, Miquel!
From the 3rd to the 8th of September of 2017 
