Last 26th February 2019 Irene Anton, Anna Laromaine and Anna Roig met with our collaborators Ralph Michael and Justin D’antin, researchers from the Centro de OftalmologíaBarraquer for the follow-up of the project “Bacterial nanocellulose to treat ocular surface disorders”. This multidisciplinary work aims at finding clinical applications of bacterial nanocellulose in the field of ophthalmology and is part of the doctoral thesis of Irene Anton.
We are very excited to announce that the N&N researcher Martí Gich, has been awarded with a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant (CoG) for his project entitled “Ferrites-by-design for Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Technologies”(FeMiT). Martí Gich will carry out his project in the period 2019-2024 with a total of nearly 2 M€ to cover the project costs.
All the N&N members are very enthusiastic about the project and wish Marti a lot of success, congratulations!
From left to right:Pablo Fanjul (DropSens), Cesar Fernández (CNM), Martí Gich (NN Group), Carla Navarro (DropSens), Anna Roig (NN Group), Margaret McCaul (DCU)
A sensor platform to detect heavy metals has been developed within the COMMON SENSE project and presented during its final event, last Friday 27th January.
The partners that participated in the development of this sensor platform are Dublin City University (DCU), DropSens, National Center of Microelectronics (CNM-IMB) (CSIC), and the Nanoparticles and Nanocomposites Group (NN) at ICMAB (CSIC).
Highlights of the heavy metals sensor platform (photo):
Autonomous system for the detection of cadmium (Cd2+), lead (Pb2+), copper (Cu2+) and mercury (Hg2+) ions at trace level.
Modular design.
Adjustable flow control for heavy metals detection.
No pre-treatment of samples necessary.
No pre-concentraton of samples necessary. The sensor directly operates on-site and pre-concentrates the heavy metals on the surface of the electrode.
Complete mixing of the sample and buffer in a microfluidic chip.
Storage container for reagent waste designed for easy on-site maintenance.
Heavy metals sensor platform, with a TRL=7
Apart from this sensor, in which the NN Group has participated, the COMMON SENSE project has developed prototypes of other in situ next generation marine monitoring sensors:
Microplastics analyser
Underwater noise sensor
Eutrophication sensor
Autonomous pH and pCO2 sensors
Innovative temperature and pressure sensors
For more information, please visit the COMMON SENSE projectwebsite or contact the leader of the Dissemination and Knowledge Management Work Package, Cliona Ní Cheallachain (cliona@aquatt.ie).
This event will closure the COMMON SENSE project, in which the NN group has actively participated in the development of electrochemical sensors that are able to detect different heavy metals simultaneously.
Date and time:
Friday, January 27, from 9 am to 5 pm
Location:
Fundació Navegació Oceànica Barcelona (FNOB)
1 Moll de Llevant, 08039 Barcelona (View Map)
Martí Gich and Anna Roig will participate in a previous meeting on Thursday, with the project team, and on Friday on the public event.
Professionals working in the marine environment and citizens curious about the status of our oceans are invited!
The COMMON SENSE project is creating prototypes of next generation in-situ marine sensors to deliver vital information about the oceans. The project directly responds to the requirement for integrated and effective data acquisition systems by developing innovative sensors that will contribute to our understanding of how the marine environment functions. In doing so, COMMON SENSE results can support the implementation of European Union marine policies such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
As the COMMON SENSE project comes to a successful conclusion, the results will be presented at this final workshop, along with a demonstration of the novel sensors developed and tested during the project.
The COMMON SENSE sensors need less human operation and intervention than current technologies and create standardised data on eutrophication, underwater noise, heavy metals, and marine litter, with a focus on microplastics. Other important parameters considered are temperature, pressure, pH and pCO2.
INPhINIT is a new doctoral fellowship programme promoted by “la Caixa” Foundation devoted to attract international Early-Stage Researchers to the top Spanish research centres in the areas of Bio and Health Sciences, Physics, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
INPhINIT recruits per call 57 Early-Stage Researchers of any nationality, who enjoy a 3-year employment contract at the Research Centre of their choice among those selected and awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (“Severo Ochoa” centres of excellence and “Maria de Maeztu” units of excellence) and the Spanish Ministry of Health (“Carlos III centres of excellence”).
ICMAB-CSIC is one of the “Severo Ochoa” centers selected, and has published 24 PhD open positions under the INPhINIT programme.
The project aims at developing high aspect ratio magnetic silica-based materials as multimodal agents for theranostic purposes. The targeted materials are mesoporous silica rods containing inorganic nanoparticles to serve as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography and at the same time encapsulating selected drugs. The project aims at demonstrating that engineered magnetic objects in the rod shape can constitute a new family of carriers for therapeutic agents with radically new properties and advantages compared to the magnetic nanoparticles used so far.
Follow-up meeting after seven months of starting the E-BCN project (Engineering Bacterial Cellulose Nanocomposites).
Two PhD students, Soledad Roigand Irene Anton, will be added to the project team. Soledad will work in structuring and patterning bacterial cellulose, and Irene in applying bacterial cellulose nanocomposites for skin regenaration.
Participants of the project include: Anna Roig, Dino Tonti, Jordi Faraudo, Anna Laromaine, Martí Gich, Anna May, Soledad Roig and Irene Anton.
New Ph.D. Students: Ma, Irene, Sole, Yajie and Luo.
Today during the Group Meeting we welcomed the 5 new Ph.D. students that will start their Ph.D. thesis in the N&N Group! We hope you enjoy your stay with us!
Ma Zheng: BSc. Electronic Information Science and Technology at Taishan University (Taian, China) and MSc. Condensed Matter Physics at University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC, Chengdu, China). His Ph.D. thesis topic will be “Physics of ε-Fe2O3” supervised by Martí Gich.
Irene Anton: BSc.Biotechnology at Universitat de Barcelona and MSc. Biomedical Research at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. She will work on “Functionalized bacterial cellulose for skin tissue regeneration” with Anna Roig and Anna Laromaine.
Soledad Roig: BSc. Chemistry at Universidad de Valencia and MSc. Nanoscience, Materials and Processes at Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Research work at Northeastern University, USA). During her Ph.D. she will work on “Engineering bacterial cellulose nanocomposites” with Anna Roig and Anna Laromaine.
Yajie Zhang: BSc. Applied Chemistry at the Institute of Surface Micro and Nanomaerials at Xuchuang University (China) and MSc. Applied Chemistry in the Key Laboratory Marine Chemistry and Technology, at Ocean University of China, and will work on “Nanocapsules as drug delivery carriers for pro-angiogenic therapies” with Anna Roig and Anna Rosell (Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR)).
Zhongrui Luo: BSc. Bioengineering at Nanjing Agricultural University (China) and MSc. Applied Chemistry at Yunnan University (China). His Ph.D. research will be on “Assessment of nanoparticles toxicity using C. elegans as model organism”, with Anna Laromaine.
Anna Laromaine is one of the five scientific women granted by L’Oréal in the iniciative “For Women in Science” #Ponlescara, to visualize scientific women in various disciplines and bring them close to society and to students.
During the day, the five scientific women, with other three more, have answered the questions of more than 100 highschool students. The idea is to see that women are in all the scientific areas, and that the scientific career is a possibility to consider.
The five scientific women have received 15.000 € to spend in Research Projects in their scientific areas within the XI Edition of the “Bolsas de Investigación 2016” program. Apart from Anna Laromaine, the other granted women are Vanesa Esteban, Azucena Bardaji, Jaione Valle and Anna Shnyrova. The ceremony took place in Madrid, with Cristina Cifuentes, president of the Comunidad de Madrid, and Carmen Vela, secretaria de Estado in Research, Development and Innovation.
Martí Gich is at the COMMON SENSE 36 Month meeting, which will take place in Oristano, Sardinia, on September 29-30. The COMMON SENSE project aims at developing low cost sensors that will revolutionise current marine monitoring strategies.
Yesterday, March 1st, was the day for the Kick-off Meeting of the project E-BCN: Engineering Bacterial Cellulose Nanocomposites(MAT2015-64442-R). The project will have a duration of three years and the team that will be working on it is formed by Anna Roig (PI), Martí Gich, Anna Laromaine, Jordi Faraudo (Materials Simulation and Theory Dept.), Dino Tonti (Solid State Chemistry Dept.), Laura Asturias and Anna May. The main objective of the project is to develop new nanocomposites of bacterial cellulose (BC) by innovative cost-effective approaches. We will engineer BC at the biosynthesis stage, form nanocomposites with BC and nanoparticles, model relevant aspects of BC structure and its interaction with nanoparticles, and provide the proof of concept for novel devices and products. If you want to know more about the project, keep following our activities in our website. You can also check our publications and/or contact us for any further question.
