ICMAB organizes the summer school “Materials for Biomedical Applications”, which will present the design, development and application of new materials for a wide range of biomedical applications. The summer school is addressed to last year undergraduate, master and PhD students.
The school includes lectures from international and local speakers, hands on and management activities. As a consequence, this scientific school is an optimal opportunity to discover, learn and practise on material science focusing on fundamental science and applied research in the field of biomedicine.
The local organizing committee is formed by Arantzazu González, Anna Laromaine, Rosario Núñez, Jose Vidal-Gancedo and Gerard Tobias.
Application deadline: May 21, 2017
Places available: 50
Registration fee: 100 € (Scholarships available! Send your CV and motivation letter to matbio2017@icmab.es)
Anna Laromaine and Zhongrui Luo attended last week the VI Spanish Worm Meeting in Valencia (Spain), a biennial gathering of the scientific communitiy working with C. elegans. This meeting covers a wide range of topics, including development, neurobiology, aging and disease, metabolism and new technologies applied to C. elegans.
Anna gave the talk on “Evaluation of albumin pre-coated SPIONS in cell culture and C. elegans“ (Laura González-Moragas, Si-Ming Yu, Maria Milla, Anna Roig, Anna Laromaine) on Friday 10th March.
Anna Laromaine
Luo presented the poster “Evaluation of the nano-bio interactions between Au-NPs and Caenorhabditiselegans“ (Laura González-Moragas, Zhongrui Luo, Anna Roig, Anna Laromaine). It was his first time in Valencia and he really enjoyed the meeting!
Anna will give the talk on “Evaluation of albumin pre-coated SPIONS in cell culture and C. elegans“ on Friday, 10th March, at 9 am.
Luo will present the poster on “Evaluation of the nano-bio interactions between Au-NPs and Caenorhabditiselegans“ (Laura González-Moragas, Zhongrui Luo, Anna Roig, Anna Laromaine).
The Spanish Worm Meeting (SWM) is a biennial gathering of the scientific communitiy working with C. elegans. It covers a wide range of topics, including development, neurobiology, aging and disease, metabolism and new technologies applied to C. elegans.
In the website www.gusano.info you can find information about previous Spanish Worm Meetings and resources related to C. elegans (research groups, wormbase, wormbook, etc.).
Anna Laromaine (NN Group, ICMAB-CSIC), Pedro Serena (Delegate of the CSIC in the Community of Madrid) and Javier Maira (Head of the Technology Marketing Unit of the CSIC)
The participation of Anna Laromaine at NanoTech 2017 (International Nanotechnology Exhibition and Conference)in Tokyo has appeared at the ICMAB website.
Anna could present there the patent “Method for the regeneration of plant tissues” developed by ICMAB-CSIC and CRAG(Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics) to several companies.
On Monday she gave an ICMAB Seminar at 12 pm at Sala d’actes “Carles Miravitlles”, entitled “Crystalline phase dependency of the electrical performance of oxide dielectrics for semiconductor applications”.
Short abstract:
Continuous dimensional downscaling of dielectrics and metals in semiconductor industry requires improved, non-defective metal-dielectric interfaces in order to preserve the intrinsic properties of the nanomaterials at thicknesses ranging between 5 and 10 nm. For such thin films, atomic layer deposition (ALD) is nowadays envisaged as the most suited deposition technique to deliver conformal layers in high aspect ratio structures. The crystalline phase often determines the dielectric constant and the bandgap energy and consequently electrical characteristics such as capacitance and leakage current density in metal-insulator-metal capacitors. Other specific properties like ferroelectricity seems to be driven by the presence of a particular phase (e.g. orthorhombic) with potential applications in ferroelectric field effect transistor fabrication.
Graphical Abstract from: Understanding the EOT–Jg degradation in Ru/SrTiOx/Ru metal–insulator–metal capacitors formed with Ru atomic layer deposition (Microelectronic Engineering, 147, 108-112, 2015).
Short Bio:
Mihaela Popovici is a Senior Researcher in the Semiconductor Technology and Systems Unit at IMEC, Belgium. She received her PhD in Materials Science and Engineering in 2004, at the Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania. She had a Marie Curie fellowship at ICMAB in 2002-2003 in the field of magnetic aerogels and was post-doctoral fellow at Philips Research Eindhoven in Photonic Materials and Devices during 2005-2007. She has been working for almost a decade at the nano-electronics R&D center of IMEC in Leuven, Belgium on memory chip scaling. At present she is the technical leader of the metal-insulator-metal capacitor project for DRAM applications. Her main expertise resides in dielectric oxides and metal thin films development, physical and electrical characterization and design of complex materials stacks with applications in nano-electronic devices.
The CSIC will be one of the exhibitors, presenting novel products in nanotechnology: new functionalized composites of nanocellulose and fibrous clays, biosensors for simultaneous detection of several biological samples in solution, nanostructured networks for applications in energy, optical devices, microelectronics, etc., or devices to induce hyperthermia in cells through magnetic nanoparticles, among others.
NANO TECH 2017 will take place in Tokyo (Japan), at the Tokyo Big Sight, from 13-15 February 2017.
The JIPI is a meeting point for PhD researchers in Catalonia, where they can present their work and meet researchers of different fields.
Apart from the flash talks, divided in different topics (Applied sciences, Social sciences, Life sciences and Humanities), and given by 1, 2 or 3 speakers together, the attendees can participate in a speed-networking session, and in interesting debates. The topics of the debates of this year are “Women in research”, “Doctors and the private sector” and “Education in science”.
Irene, Ma Zheng, Sole, Júlia, Pengmei Yu and Alex
Irene Anton, Sole Roig and Ma Zheng from the N&N Group have attented the conference. From ICMAB, Júlia Jareño and Alexander Stangl, who presented the talk “Hot future for cold superconductors”,won the award of their session. Congrats!
Ma, Sole and Irene sitting in the left-background.Speed-networkingAlex and Júlia
You can follow the #JIPI2017 activities on twitter at @jipi_bcn and see the abstracts of the flash-talks and more information at their webpage and facebook page.
It is a pleasure for us to invite you to the ICMAB Lecture entitled: “Juggling essential and toxic metals – a worm’s eye view of a Toxicogenomic challenge”
Date: Friday, January 20th Time: 12.00 pm Place: ICMAB – Sala d’actes Carles Miravitlles
Abstract: Some metals are exclusively toxic to biological systems and classified as being non-essential, others are essential for life. Nevertheless, above certain threshold concentrationsall (including the essential ones) become toxic. Homeostasis of essential elements and detoxification of non-essential elements are thus vital drivers of well-being, longevity and survival. By exploiting genomic, transcriptomic and toxicological tools within the model nematode C. elegans we identified and characterized intricate pathways that not only form the foundations of metallomics but facilitate further explorations within the field of nanomaterials.
Short bio: Professor Stephen Sturzenbaum holds a personal chair in Toxicogenomics at King’s College London and was recently awarded a Senior Doctorate (DSc) from Cardiff University for his work on “Toxicogenomics on Terrestrial Worms”. Stephen pioneered the use of molecular genetic tools in the common earthworm, and in doing so was instrumental in establishing the earthworm as a sentinel soil macroinvertebrate model organism of environmental importance. Stephen’s second stream of work has focussed on promoting the use of the more established C. elegans model organism to address the burgeoning themes of metallobiology, toxicogenomics and nanoparticle toxicology.Laura González, from our group, who did her thesis on evaluating nanoparticles’ toxicity on C. elegans, did aninternship at his laboratory during Feb-May 2016.
If you would like to arrange a meeting with Prof. Stephen Stürzenbaum please contact: Dr. Anna Laromaine (alaromaine@icmab.es)
Jordi, student of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at UAB, will present his work entitled “Techniques for Bacterial Cellulose Production, Modification and Characterisation“, next January 19th, at 9.30 am, at Sala de Graus II C5/1068 (Science Faculty, UAB).
Bacterial cellulose drops functionalized with nanoparticles
Jordihas been with us for nearly 7 months, and he has been working under the supervision of Anna Laromaine, as part of his practical studies (UAB coordinator is Dolors Baró).
We are very happy that he will continue with us to do his Bachelor’s Final Project until next summer!
Prof. Joel N. Meyer will give a Seminar entitled “Mechanisms of uptake and toxicity of silver nanoparticles in Caenorhabditis elegans“, today, December 15, at 12 pm at ICMAB Conference Room Carles Miravitlles.
Engineered nanomaterials offer great opportunities due to their novel properties. However, there is concern that these novel properties may also result in deleterious effects on human and ecological health that are difficult to predict based only on an understanding of the chemical makeup. We tested a number of nanoparticles (NPs) for toxicity in the nematode model Caenorhabditis elegans, and found that certain silver NPs (AgNPs) were the most toxic of the NPs that we had tested. We therefore extended our studies to characterize environmental factors that might alter AgNP toxicity, as well as the uptake and mechanism of toxicity of AgNPs in C. elegans.
Because much AgNP waste is expected to end up in aquatic ecosystems, we tested the influence of environmental variables on toxicity. We found that higher ionic strength, the presence of natural organic matter, and sulfidation of the AgNPs (expected to occur in many environments after AgNP release) all significantly reduced Ag NP toxicity. Using physicochemical, genetic, and pharmacological rescue approaches, we found that the most toxic AgNPs -generally, the smallest- caused their effects largely via dissolution. Some AgNPs (typically less soluble due to size or coating) also caused toxicity via generation of reactive oxygen species, an effect specific to nanoparticulate silver. This effect was masked by the toxicity of silver ions except when dissolution was very limited. The toxicity of the tested AgNPs was almost never greater than would result from complete dissolution of the same mass of silver. We also found that endocytosis was an important mechanism for AgNP uptake. However, the specific mechanisms by which AgNPs or released silver ion cause toxicity remain unclear. Because AgNPs are used to kill microbes, and mitochondria are endosymbiotic descendants of bacteria, current studies are focused on testing the possibility that AgNPs cause some of their toxicity via disruption of mitochondrial function.
If you would like to arrange a meeting with Prof. Joel N. Meyer please contact: Dr. Anna Laromaine(alaromaine@icmab.es).
ICMAB organizes the summer school “Materials for Biomedical Applications”, which will present the design, development and application of new materials for a wide range of biomedical applications. The summer school is addressed to last year undergraduate, master and PhD students. 
