news 2021

Scientists at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) have developed the first photo-electrochemical aptasensor that detects the SARS-CoV-2 virus in a saliva sample. This sensor, which uses aptamers (a type of artificial antibody), is more sensitive that antigen-based sensors and detects the virus more quickly and cheaply than PCR tests.

Alfonso Martínez Arias, head of the Stembryo Engineering Lab at UPF, participates in a review published in Science in which the authors offer offer a new perspective of the role of a structure in embryonic development known as the primitive streak. In a review published in the journal Science , the researchers Guojun Sheng (Kumamoto University, Japan), Alfonso Martínez Arias (UPF) and Ann Sutherland (University of Virginia Health System, USA) offer a new perspective of the role of a structure in embryonic development known as the primitive streak.

A new automated system that involves deep learning technology enables the detection of COVID-19 lesion via the analysis of a computed tomography (CT) scan. This system, described in a study published in the journal Computers in Biology and Medicine, has been carried out by researchers of the UB, the EURECAT Technology Centre of Catalonia, and the Computing Vision Center (CVC).

A study published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science reveals the presence of murine coronavirus -the murine hepatitis virus or M-CoV- in mice of the Canary archipelago that could have reached the islands by maritime transport from the European continent. This is the first ecoepidemiological study to examine the presence of coronaviruses that circulate in mice and rats of the natural and urban environment of the islands of La Palma, El Hierro, Tenerife and Lanzarote.

The cover of this week's edition of Nature , with the eye-catching title "Matters of the heart", features a basic research study carried out exclusively by the Research Group on Evolution and Development (Evo-Devo) of the Genetics Section of the Faculty of Biology of the UB. The study deciphers one of the remaining enigmas about the transition between free and sedentary lifestyle in the ancestors of our own phylum: chordates.

Hospital Gregorio Marañón and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) have presented a navigation system that will improve planning, precision, and personalisation in surgical correction of craniosynostosis (a congenital defect causing cranial malformations). Developed by doctors and engineers from both institutions, it combines surgical navigation, three-dimensional photography, and augmented reality so that surgeons can estimate and correct the position of bone fragments during surgery.

Alzheimer's disease is the main neurodegenerative disease in old people for which there is no treatment or efficient prevention yet. Current diagnostic methods do not detect one of the earliest and most relevant alterations of the disease: the degree of synaptic dysfunction that shows the neuronal damage.

Corpora amylacea (CA) are complex aggregates described in different organs and tissues associated with ageing and degenerative processes. Described for the first time in 1779 by Giovanni Battista Morgagni in the prostate and in 1837 by Jan Evangelista Purkinje in the brain, these were named corpora amylacea (in Latin, starch bodies) by Rudolf Vichow in 1854 for their similiarities with this polysaccharide.

Researchers from the BCN Medtech Research Unit have participated in its development, which will facilitate interventional treatment of ventricular tachycardias through safer, more efficient procedures. A multidisciplinary team of researchers and physicians has developed a new commercial tool that is able to identify the exact location of ventricular arrhythmias prior to an ablation procedure.

A team of physicians and researchers from UPF and from the hospitals Santa Creu i Sant Pau and Clínic de Barcelona, shows that the use of this innovative technique can help patients suffering from this disease not to develop thrombotic episodes Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common arrhythmias, especially among the elderly, occurring in the left atrium.

Researchers led by Pura Muñoz-Cánoves, ICREA professor and principal investigator at UPF and the CNIC, describe a new mechanism for muscle repair after physiological damage relying on the rearrangement of muscle fibre nuclei, and independently of muscle stem cells. This protective mechanism paves the way to a broader understanding of muscle repair in physiology and disease.

A study published in the journal Clinical Nutrition provides new knowledge on the health effects of a diet rich in nuts. According to the study, focused on the consumption of peanuts, the daily intake of products from this nut could have beneficial effects on the cognitive function and stress response in young and healthy individuals.

A study led by the UB with the participation of UPF has characterized an animal model of NDAN pathology, in which patients present senile plaques in the brain, but do not develop dementia. Alzheimer's is a neurodegenerative disease that features the accumulation of the beta-amyloid peptide and Tau protein in the brain, which are associated with deficits in the neuronal connections and with dementia.

A study published in the journal Cell Reports describes a new pathway related to the activity of receptors that are associated with several metabolic or cardiovascular diseases such as diabetes, obesity and hypertension. According to the conclusions, many antidiabetic effects of the activators of the PPAR?/- receptors -potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of type 2 diabetes- are regulated by cytokine GDF15, a protein expressed under conditions of physiological stress.

Photopharmacology is an emerging area of science based on the development of photosensitive drugs, that is, drugs that activate with light. A team from IDIBELL and the University of Barcelona has worked on two treatments based on this innovative technology: a morphine derivative that does not create addiction and a new treatment against psoriasis.

The comparative genomic study, the largest to date, includes genetic and phenotypic information of 57 species of mammals and identifies the greater stability of proteins as a common feature in the longest-living species. What determines the life expectancy of each species? This is a fundamental and highly complex question that has intrigued the field of research throughout history.

A multidisciplinary team has managed to create a genetic circuit that allows living cells to reach critical states, stimulating new patterns of behavior. This study, published , may help to better understand the origin of cognition, and even improve the administration of drugs against tumors. These summer days it is very common to find children on the beach playing and making sand piles, creating bigger and bigger mounds, and observing the small avalanches that are created on their slopes.

Mitofusin 2 is a key protein in the regulation of the physiology of mitochondria -cellular organelles that produce energy- involved in several neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases, as well as in cancer.

From the vocal cords that produce our voice to the beating of our heart, the cells of our body are subjected to mechanical forces that change cellular response constantly, regulating essential processes both in healthy individuals and in disease conditions such as cancer. Yet, despite their importance, we remain largely unaware of how cells sense and respond to these forces.

An international research team has defined the molecular mechanism that drives the initial step of tumour metastasis -intravasationwhen tumour cells enter vascular and/or lymphatic vessels. Understanding tumour cell intravasation is the key to future therapeutic developments to block the spread of tumour cells from their primary site, before the onset of metastasis.