Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kanlaya Katewongsa visited the Nanoparticles and Nanocomposites Group from June 12 – 14. Katewongsa is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at Mahidol University (Thailand) and holds an adjunct role at the School of Materials Science and Innovation. She delivered a seminar on June 12 called In vitro Studies of Riboflavin Functionalized Magnetic Nanoparticles for Breast Cancer Delivery.
New paper “Copper Oxide Nanocubes Wrapping Metals by Microwave Synthesis“ has been published in the journal Crystal Growth & Design.
This month the N&N Group acquired three new students – and each of them will work on a different research line. Say hello to Thomas, Andrea and Marc!
Miquel Torras, PhD candidate at N&N Group, attended the E-MRS Fall Meeting held at Warsaw University of Technology (Warsaw, Poland) from 16th to 19th September 2019.
El projecte “Nanopartículas sintéticas como tratamiento innovador en la sepsis (SPRINT-4-SEPSIS)” serà finançat per la Fundación Ramón Areces en el marc del XIX Concurso Nacional de Ayudas a la Investigación en Ciencias de la Vida y de la Materia.
Last 11th Decembre 2018 Anna Roig travelled to San Sebastián to be part of a PhD thesis committee.
The paper entitled “Nanoclusters of crystallographically aligned nanoparticles for magnetic thermotherapy: aqueous ferrofluid, agarose phantoms and ex vivo melanoma tumour assessment” has recently been published on the Nanoscale Journal. We congratulate Anna Roig and our collaborator Marcela Fernández for being authors of this nice study!
Abstract: Magnetic hyperthermia is an oncological therapy where magnetic nanostructures, under a radiofrequency field, act as heat transducers increasing tumour temperature and killing cancerous cells. Nanostructure heating efficiency depends both on the field conditions and on the nanostructure properties and mobility inside the tumour. Such nanostructures are often incorrectly bench-marketed in the colloidal state and using field settings far off from the recommended therapeutic values. Here, we prepared nanoclusters composed of iron oxide magnetite nanoparticles crystallographically aligned and their specific absorption rate (SAR) values were calorimetrically determined in physiological fluids, agarose-gel-phantoms and ex vivo tumours extracted from mice challenged with B16-F0 melanoma cells. A portable, multipurpose applicator using medical field settings; 100 kHz and 9.3 kA m−1, was developed and the results were fully analysed in terms of nanoclusters’ structural and magnetic properties. A careful evaluation of the nanoclusters’ heating capacity in the three milieus clearly indicates that the SAR values of fluid suspensions or agarose-gel-phantoms are not adequate to predict the real tissue temperature increase or the dosage needed to heat a tumour. Our results show that besides nanostructure mobility, perfusion and local thermoregulation, the nanostructure distribution inside the tumour plays a key role in effective heating. A suppression of the magnetic material effective heating efficiency appears in tumour tissue. In fact, dosage had to be increased considerably, from the SAR values predicted from fluid or agarose, to achieve the desired temperature increase. These results represent an important contribution towards the design of more efficient nanostructures and towards the clinical translation of hyperthermia.
On Monday, July 16, 2018, the first ICMAB-CRAG meeting took place at CRAG. The goal of this meeting was to promote new collaborations among researchers from the ICMAB and the CRAG.
Anna Laromaine, who already collaborates with CRAG with the project “Plant nano-healing“, gave an overview about the C.elegans and the bacterial cellulose research lines in the N&N group. Later, Anna Roig presented the library of nanoparticles and its diverse applications that the N&N group has developed in the recent years.
Today we introduce the latest entry at the N&N group: the master’s student Oriol Torrecilla:
“Hi, my name is Oriol Torrecilla and I am from Barcelona, Spain. In 2015 I got my B.Sc. in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). I spent half a year in Denmark doing my bachelor’s thesis at the iNANO center. After I received my degree, I worked at ICMAB on synthesis and functionalization of gold nanoparticles in the FunNanoSurf group. Right now I am studying a Master’s degree in Applied Material Chemistry at UB and I will be doing my thesis in the N&N group with Ana Larromaine and Soledad Roig. My project is about synthesis and characterization of cellulose spheres functionalized with different nanoparticles which have promising applications, especially in biomedicine.”
Welcome to the group Oriol, we hope you enjoy your time here!
Lyon 10th October.
Anna Roig participated in the 11th Collaborative Day of Lyonbiopôle organized by Lyonbiopôle, with the support of Biocat.
This 11th Collaborative Day where Anna participated aims at promoting R&D partnerships and catalyze the emergence of new tools for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of pathologies. The day gives a framework to discuss the major challenges in the medical field, technological & scientific advances and to design partnerships and innovation projects to improve the management of diseases. This year more than 300 participants were registered.
In the morning, thematic roundtables took place, gathering around 20 persons each one from SMEs, research, industry, hospitals to brainstorm. The purpose of these is to support emergence of discussions and potential ideas of collaborations. A dedicated brainstorm methodology to stir the discussion is used. Anna Roig chaired the round table TR14: Use of nanoparticles in targeted therapies: what added value?
In the afternoon, blue sky meetings gave the opportunity to 10 SMEs to present their innovative technology looking for strategic collaborations and 10 project leaders to present their R&D project idea looking for partners.