Anna Laromaine gave an invited lecture at the Congreso Anual de Biotecnologia (BioBAC) that took place in Girona the last 11th-13th July of 2018. She gave an overview of our activities in the biotechnology field with special focus on the research related with bacterial cellulose. It was very encouraging to see the interested and motivated students which participated at the conference.
Congratulations to Anna Laromaine, Anna Roig and their collaborators from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Tina Tronser (first author) and Pavel A. Levkin for their new paper: Bacterial Cellulose Promotes Long-Term Stemness of mESC! This manuscript was published on ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces the 20th of April 2018.
Abstract: Stem cells possess unique properties, such as the ability to self-renew and the potential to differentiate into an organism’s various cell types. These make them highly valuable in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Their properties are precisely regulated in vivo through complex mechanisms that include multiple cues arising from the cell interaction with the surrounding extracellular matrix, neighboring cells, and soluble factors. Although much research effort has focused on developing systems and materials that mimic this complex microenvironment, the controlled regulation of differentiation and maintenance of stemness in vitro remains elusive. In this work, we demonstrate, for the first time, that the nanofibrous bacterial cellulose (BC) membrane derived from Komagataeibacter xylinus can inhibit the differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESC) under long-term conditions (17 days), improving their mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF)-free cultivation in comparison to the MEF-supported conventional culture. The maintained cells’ pluripotency was confirmed by the mESCs’ ability to differentiate into the three germ layers (endo-, meso-, and ectoderm) after having been cultured on the BC membrane for 6 days. In addition, the culturing of mESCs on flexible, free-standing BC membranes enables the quick and facile manipulation and transfer of stem cells between culture dishes, both of which significantly facilitate the use of stem cells in routine culture and various applications. To investigate the influence of the structural and topographical properties of the cellulose on stem cell differentiation, we used the cellulose membranes differing in membrane thickness, porosity, and surface roughness. This work identifies bacterial cellulose as a novel convenient and flexible membrane material enabling long-term maintenance of mESCs’ stemness and significantly facilitating the handling and culturing of stem cells.
Congratulations to the authors: Anna Laromaine, Tina Tronser, Ivana Pini, Sebastià Parets, Pavel A. Levkin and Anna Roig for their new publication on Soft Matter. The paper entitled “Free-standing three-dimensional hollow bacterial cellulose structures with controlled geometry via patterned superhydrophobic–hydrophilic surfaces” was published on the 17th of April 2018.
Abstract
Bacteria can produce cellulose, one of the most abundant biopolymer on earth, and it emerges as an interesting candidate to fabricate advanced materials. Cellulose produced by Komagataeibacter Xylinus a bacterial strain, is a pure water insoluble biopolymer, without hemicelluloses or lignin. Bacterial cellulose (BC) exhibits a nanofibrous porous network microstructure with high strength, low density and high biocompatibility and it has been proposed as a cell scaffold and wound healing material. The formation of three dimensional (3D) cellulose self-standing structures is not simple. It either involves complex multi-step synthetic procedures or uses chemical methods to dissolve the cellulose and remold it. Here we present an in situ single-step method to produce self-standing 3D-BC structures with controllable wall thickness, size and geometry in a reproducible manner. Parameters such as hydrophobicity of the surfaces, volume of the inoculum and time of culture define the resulting 3D-BC structures. Hollow spheres and convex domes can be easily obtained by changing the surface wettability where the BC grows. The potential of these structures as a 3D cell scaffold is exemplified supporting the growth of mouse embryonic stem cells within a hollow spherical BC structure, indicating its biocompatibility and future prospective.
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.
Last June 2017, Anna May and Sole Roig filmed a video for the JoVe contest: Film your research. Although the video on entitled “A Story on Bacterial Cellulose” didn’t make it to the final, we have just received the notice that it is one of the Top 15 critically acclaimed videos by the jury!
Beginning of July was a very busy week for Anna Laromaine! She was invited to two conferences as speaker. fisrt at the VIII International Congress on Analytical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (NyNA) 2017 held at the Casa Convalescencia in Barcelona from 3-5th of July. Then, from the 6-7th of July, she was invited at the VII Iberian Meeting on Colloids and Interfaces (RICI7) in Madrid. Anna Laromaine’s talks were related to our work on the use of bacterial cellulose and their composites with nanoparticles which were attended with great interest from the audience.
From the 25th to the 29th of June of 2017, Sitges hosted the XXVI Biennial Meeting of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry. Soledad Roig, from the N&N group, attended this big congress and gave a talk entitled: Engineering Bacterial Cellulose. She presented her results on the creation of multi-functional materials combining layers of functionalized bacterial cellulose with diverse nanoparticles.
From 17th to 21th of April, Phoenix will host the Spring Meeting and Exhibit of the Materials Research Society (MRS). In this huge congress the following topics will be addressed:
Anna Roig is invited to give a talk named:
The N&N group has a great expertise in producing and characterizing bacterial cellulose, and in creating multiple nanocomposites based on this biopolymer. The group will also be represented by Anna Roig with two more oral communications:
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).
Jordi has 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!
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
