Tag: nanoparticles

Miquel awarded for his oral contribution at E-MRS Fall Meeting in Warsaw

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. 

His oral contribution was titled “Mechanistic insights on fast microwave-assisted polyol synthesis of silver nanoparticles with controlled size” and it was awarded with the 3rd best oral talk of his symposium (Q Nanoparticles: advances in synthesis, characterization, theoretical modelling, and applications).
 
Congratulations Miquel! 

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Hot off the press: published paper on Nanoscale!

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.

Anna Roig and Anna Laromaine presented our research at the nanoMATERIALS & PLANTS: ICMAB-CRAG meeting

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.

Anna Laromaine during her talk at CRAG
Anna Roig showing the different types of nanoparticles produced by the N&N group

Welcome Oriol!

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!

Anna Roig participates in the 11th Collaborative Day of Lyonbiopôle

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.

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