On May 2nd Anna Laromaine was invited by Prof. Ventura Lab to give a talk in their facilities. The Group of NatasciaVentura 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.
Miquel Torras from the NN group at the ceremony for the Sant Jordi 2017 awards
As we announced before, on Friday 21st of April Miquel Torras received his Sant Jordi Price 2017 at the IEC: Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
The ceremony took place at the Prat de la Riba hall with the presence of Joandomènec Ros, president of the IEC, Jana Balacciu winner of the international price Catalònia and Carme Forcadell the president of the Catalan Parliment.
Miquel received two prices: one from the Catalan Society of Chemistry and a recognition from the Catalan Society of Physics.
Here Miquel says a word of thanks to the IEC and those how supported his work:
Benvolguts companys i amics, m’és difícil expressar l’emoció que he sentit i continuo sentint pel fet d’haver estat multi premiat als premis Sant Jordi 2017, però puc dir que veig recompensat l’esforç dedicat, provant que la bona feina i el treball rigorós són finalment reconeguts.
M’agradaria tornar a agrair els premis a l’Institut d’Estudis Catalans, i a les Societats Catalanes de Química i de Física. És el meu desig estar-ne a l’altura continuant aportant quelcom a la ciència (i a la ciència en català). També vull compartir-los amb vosaltres, ja que han estat possibles amb la vostra col·laboració i ajuts. Moltes gràcies!
In this week’s Group Meeting we welcomed Olatz Arriaga, an undergraduate student from the Basque Country. Olatz is studying “Nanoscience and Nanotechnology” at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and will do her Final Bachelor’s Project under the supervision of Anna Roig, working in the synthesis of gold and titanium oxide nanoparticles.
We also said goodbye to Dani Beltran and Valentin Natarov, who are leaving this week the ICMAB. Dani will continue his Master in Biomedical Engineering at UB-UPC, and Valentin will go back to Belarus to continue his Master in Chemistry at Belarusian State University.
They both gave a very nice presentation on the work they have been doing in our group, about stabilizing non-stable polymorphs in mesoporous silica, and synthesizing iron oxide and silica nanocomposites for biomedical applications, under the supervision of Martí Gich and Anna Roig.
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!
The video shows how the synchrotron light is used to verify the design of the catalysts and photocatalysts used either for hydrogen generation (to be used in energy applications, instead of fossil fuels), or for the removal of air pollutants (especially coming from the exhaust pipes of cars, trucks, and public transportation in cities).
In our group we synthesize some of these photocatalysts used for hydrogen generation from water/ethanol gaseous mixtures under UV-light irradiation.
The NN group members would like to congratulate Laura González for her excellent work on the Ph.D. thesis defense!
Laura’s thesis is entitled “Evaluating inorganic nanoparticles in the living organism Caenorhabditis elegans” and has been supervised by Dr. Anna Laromaine and Dr. Anna Roig, from the NN group.
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).
This Friday 16th of December Laura González is going to defend her Doctoral Thesis entitled “Evaluating inorganic nanoparticles in the living organism Caenorhabditis elegans”, supervised by Dr. Anna Laromaine and Dr. Anna Roig.
Abstract: In this thesis, we have used the simple model organism Caenorhabditis elegans as an in vivo biological system to screen inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) with biomedical uses. In particular, we have assessed the behaviour of two types of particles with different composition, size and surface properties: iron oxide NPs coated with citrate and bovine serum albumin, and gold nanoparticles of two different sizes. We have studied their interactions with C. elegans including their uptake, fate, biological effects and NP-responsive molecular mechanisms, and compared our results with previous studies. To this end, we have combined toxicity tests, materials science and imaging techniques and gene expression analysis. We have been able to perform this biological evaluation in the synthetic laboratory where the particles were synthesized and characterised due to the advantageous experiments features of C. elegans.In summary, this thesis exploits the potential of C. elegans as a simple animal model to evaluate NPs in the initial stages of development and contributes to: (i) a systematic and comprehensive evaluation of NPs in C. elegans, in particular studying the influence of NP properties (size, surface coating and core composition) on their in vivo effects, (ii) extend the toolkit of techniques available to characterise nano-bio interactions in small organisms.
Everyone is invited to join the presentation, that will be held at 12 pm at ICMAB Conference Room Carles Miravitlles. After the defense, there will be a “pica-pica” for everyone in the dining room.
Anna Laromaineappears in the MUY INTERESANTE magazine number 427 (December 2016). The magazine article highlights Anna’s carrer: from studying Chemistry at Universitat de Girona, to her PhD at ICMAB, and her multiple Postdoctoral Fellowships at University College London, MIT and Harvard, where she worked in different fields related to nanomaterials and biomedicine, before returning to ICMAB.
The article also emphasizes the fact that Anna is not only a prolific researcher; she also teaches at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, gives seminars and talks in high schools, and has founded her own startup company.
We hope you enjoy the article and learn a little bit more of one of our group members! Congratulations Anna!
In summary, this thesis exploits the potential of C. elegans as a simple animal model to evaluate NPs in the initial stages of development and contributes to: (i) a systematic and comprehensive evaluation of NPs in C. elegans, in particular studying the influence of NP properties (size, surface coating and core composition) on their in vivo effects, (ii) extend the toolkit of techniques available to characterise nano-bio interactions in small organisms.
