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Summer 2013 / Issue 6 INSIDEIBEC The newsletter of the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia Kenotaxis, cells playing tag, photo-sensitive peptides, and other scientific breakthroughs page 3 INSIDE this issue... Making Getting the Pictures from the headlines inside 6th IBEC Symposium – IBEC’s scoop on on Bioengineering latest Horizon and Nanomedicine media 2020 in May coverage page 6 page 4 page 5 ...and much more! All change at the top o sooner had IBEC welcomed new Photo: Christine Panagiotidis NManaging Director David Badia into the fold than the news came that founding director Josep A. Planell would be leaving to take up his new position as Rector of the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). By May, though, the Board of Trustees had appointed Associate Director Josep Samitier as the new Director of IBEC from a total of nine candidates, four of them from abroad, of which three were shortlisted for Meet the directors... consideration. n If you don’t already know Josep n David Badia studied Business Admin- “Changes in direction and management Samitier, you haven’t been at IBEC very istration and Management Development, that all come at once are invariably going long. Associate Director since the institute’s and previously held positions at IRTA and to cause a measure of uncertainty,” says birth in late 2005, Josep also heads IBEC’s CNAG. “IBEC is already a key player in Josep. “Now, though, we’re back on track Nanobioengineering lab, is Full Professor of Catalan research, and it’s a privilege to be with a strong sense of direction, including Electronics at the University of Barcelona’s part of it,” says David, who’s keen to stress plans to develop the next mid- to long- Physics Faculty, coordinates the joint Mas- that his door is always open for dialogue term strategy for the institute.” ter in Biomedical Engineering at the UB and discussion. “There are many challenges In his farewell message to staff, Josep and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia to face that will require total involvement. A. Planell described his seven years (UPC), and is Director of the UB’s Health Our objective in Support is to offer the best at IBEC as ‘the most fulfilling of my Campus of Excellence (HUBc). “As Direc- possible service to our research community life from a professional point of view’, tor of IBEC I will maintain a continuity of – improving efficiency while maintaining and conveyed his confidence in Josep the institute’s existing objectives, while also proximity to the researcher – and to facili- Samitier’s ability and dedication to help reviewing and renewing our direction to tate decision-making by the Board. IBEC the institute progress towards even higher incorporate new ideas to meet current chal- has huge potential for improvement regard- achievements. lenges,” he says. ing internal integrated processes.” // Support services reshuffle ne of David Badia’s first changes as will be facing in the future,” he explains. port areas to seven, with the Funding Ser- OMD has been a reorganisation of the “In Research Affairs, headed by Teresa San- vices Unit (Esther Gallardo) now integrated Support Services units. “We’ve renamed chis, Javier Adrían will now coordinate the into Research Affairs, so that every step of some units, with General Projects becoming Project Managers so that Teresa can focus the project process is the responsibility of a Research Affairs, and Corporate Projects be- more on any internal and cross-cutting sup- single unit.” coming Knowledge Exchange (see page 7), port projects related to IBEC’s Corporate In addition, as the position of Associate Development. to better reflect the responsibilities of the Director has disappeared for the moment, units in light of the new challenges IBEC “We’re also reducing the number of sup- the Associate Director’s Assistant position is also eliminated, and Judith Forné will Some of the Support Services staff, with IBEC’s directors, pictured at the 6th IBEC symposium support the unit. Since the adoption of the Nanotechnol- ogy Platform at the beginning of this year, the Infrastructures unit has become Core Facilities under the leadership of Isabel Oliveira. More details about the staffing of this unit can be found on page 8. The other units – Communications and Outreach (Vienna Leigh), Finance (Ana González), Human Resources (Carol Marí) and IT (Juli Bafaluy) – have no changes in leadership or responsibilities. // 2 ı INSIDEIBEC ı Issue 6 Summer 2013 INSIDEIBEC ı Issue 6 Summer 2013 ı 3 SCIENTIFIC ROUNDUP A journal cover in July... ...and one in The Nanoprobes and and their teams synthesized two peptides Nanoswitches group’s which change shape upon irradiation with March Angew Chem paper light, so allowing or preventing specific The Nanobioengineer- published in June, which protein-protein interactions. “Photo-sensi- ing group began the year describes a strategy to tive peptides act like traffic lights – they can with some results in quickly and reversibly be made to give a green or red light for cell high-ranking journals, impair the function of specific proteins endocytosis,” says Pau. “They allow the use publishing their work on using light-regulated inhibitory peptides, of focalized light to control and study bio- surface-applied continu- made the cover and ‘Very Important Paper’ logical processes. It opens up the possibility ous chemical gradients selection in the journal, as well as being of designing light-regulated drugs whose for the study of dose-dependent effects extensively publicised both here and abroad. effects can be restricted by region and time, on cells in Nanomedicine NBM (Anna Pau Gorostiza and the IRB’s Ernest Giralt thus reducing side effects in other areas.” // Lagunas et al., 2013). Later, the group’s work on the solid-phase synthesis of alkanethiols for biological applications, which they did in collaboration with This image is a reconstruction of tissue researchers at the IRB and the UB, was behaviour around a nonadhesive region – the black featured on a March cover of the Eur. J. area – showing kenotaxis, a new process revealed in Org. Chem. (Prats-Alfonso et al., 2013). Nature Materials by Xavier Trepat and his collaborators in June. When an obstacle – such as a gel providing no traction – And in May, senior researcher Mateu is placed in the path of an advancing cell layer, the cells move Pla saw work he completed just before around it, hugging it as they pass. What is surprising, though, coming to IBEC published in Small. is that they also continue to pull themselves collectively back Mateu and his colleagues at McGill towards the gel, as if yearning to fill the space. In the same month, the Integrative Cell and Tissue Dynamics group also published University developed an easy, low-cost in Nature Cell Biology their findings that, during develop- nanopatterning method based on lift‐off ment, neural crest cells ‘chase’ placodal cells which dash nanocontact printing with various bio- away when approached, thus propelling the cell sheet logical and medical applications. // in a certain direction. The group’s research into cell motility aims to shed light on this critical process in development and healing which is also inherent to the development of many diseases. Autophagy key In a Nature Neuroscience paper in March, IBEC researchers uncovered a ‘double- More findings in cell migration whammy’ attack inhibiting autophagy that could underlie toxicity in Parkinson’s disease. Ángel Raya of the Control of Stem Cell Potency group and his collaborators in Italy and the USA revealed that dardarin – muta- Shedding light on MS tions of which are the most common cause of familial Parkinson’s – is broken down by ostdoc Ana Bribián finished her time at to remyelinate; but the enzyme PDE7 com- autophagy. But dardarin uses a very specific PIBEC with a publication in Cell. Mol. promises OPCs’ proliferation, differentation type of autophagy in a rather peculiar way, Life Sci. in May that revealed a new lead in and survival. Ana, who carried out the study so that its mutations are also able to strike the quest to understand neurodegenerative while in IBEC’s Molecular and Cellular out at the process itself and undermine its diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Neurobiotechnology group, and her collabo- efficiency. This also has an effect on another MS is known to result from the progres- rators found two new inhibitors for PDE7 crucial process that can lead to Parkinson’s: sive breakdown of myelin – which insulates which, when applied, reduced the OPCs’ the build-up of a protein called a-syn. the nerve cells – in the central nervous death rate and accelerated their maturation When autophagy is compromised by darda- system. Ana looked at the role played by the into oligodendrocytes which could then rin, a-syn is able to accumulate. enzyme PDE7 in regulating OPCs, which carry out the remyelination process. “Our findings mean that interventions differentiate into oligodendrocytes, which “This reveals new roles for PDE7 in regu- aimed at enhancing autophagy activity or at produce myelin. When demyelination oc- lating OPC survival and differentiation dur- preventing its decrease in pathologies and curs, the CNS reacts by using proliferating ing brain development and in adulthood,” with age may prove to be valuable in iden- adult OPCs, which represent about 5-7% of says Ana, who left in April for Toledo’s tifying promising strategies for Parkinson’s the total number of cells in the adult brain, Hospital Nacional de Parapléjicos. // treatment,” says Ángel. // SCIENTIFIC ROUNDUP continued Our market forces New technologies unveiled during 2013 A gadget to help save lives on the road A new technology to combat dozing off when driving developed by IBEC, UB and industry partner Ficosa was unveiled at February’s GSMA World Mobile Congress in Barcelona.