Tag: C. elegans

Book chapter: What We Learned From Caenorhabditis elegans and Hydra vulgaris

6th of December 2018 the first edition of the book entitled “Nanomaterials for Magnetic and Optical Hyperthermia Applications” was published by Elsevier. This book focuses on the design, fabrication and characterization of nanomaterials for in vitro and in applications. Anna Laromaine, researcher at the N&N group, and Laura González-Moragas, graduated PhD student at the N&N group, are coauthors of the chapter nine included in this book: Invertebrate Models for Hyperthermia: What We Learned From Caenorhabditis elegans and Hydra vulgaris.

 

Congratulations girls for your nice work!

Welcome Gerrit!

This spring we have a new member in the N&N group: Gerrit, from Germany! 

Hi, my name is Gerrit and I’m a master’s student of toxicology from Düsseldorf, Germany. In 2016, I got my bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical chemistry in Cologne. Now, I am glad to enter the Group of Nanoparticles and Nanocomposites for an internship of six months under the supervision of Dr. Anna Laromaine. My topic will be the investigation of the effects of cellulose on the nematode C. elegans and vice versa. I’m looking forward to meeting you! 

Good luck with your project Gerrit and we all hope you enjoy your time at the N&N group! 

Hot off the press: Accepted paper in Nanotoxicology!

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

Good job! 🙂 

 

Dr. Natascia Ventura gives a ICMAB Periodical Lecture

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. 

Dr. Natascia Ventura

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.

Hope to see you all there! 

Hot off the press: New accepted paper in Materials Horizons!

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

Anna Laromaine has been invited to the Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine to give a seminar on “Evaluation of inorganic nanoparticles in C. elegans”

On May 2nd Anna Laromaine was invited by Prof. Ventura Lab to give a talk in their facilities. The Group of Natascia Ventura uses C. elegans as a screening tool to unravel molecular mechanisms of mitochondrial-stress, with special attention paid to the cross-talk between genetic and environmental interventions. 

The seminar will take place in the IUF Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine in Düsseldorf, Germany and will be sponsored by EMBO. Anna Laromaine will talk about her experiments in the evaluation of inorganic nanoparticles using the model organism C.elegans.
 
 
Enjoy your visit to Düsseldorf Anna!

Zhongrui Luo presented a poster and Anna Laromaine gave a talk at the VI Spanish Worm Meeting in Valencia

Zhongrui Luo

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 Caenorhabditis elegans (Laura González-Moragas, Zhongrui Luo, Anna Roig, Anna Laromaine). It was his first time in Valencia and he really enjoyed the meeting!