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El passat 17 de març, el Rector de la UAB Francisco Javier Lafuente, vista la proposta de resolució del jurat, va atorgar el V Premi a l’Excel·lència Docent a Sònia Casillas. Aquest premi té per objectiu valorar l’activitat docent del professorat i impulsar la innovació i la millora constant de la docència universitària. Està orientat a identificar i valorar la trajectòria del professorat de la UAB que hagi destacat de forma remarcable en aquest àmbit. La Sònia Casillas va finalitzar el doctorat en Genètica a la UAB el 2008, sota la supervisió dels investigadors Antonio Barbadilla i Alfredo Ruiz. Posteriorment, es va dedicar uns anys a la gestió científica de projectes de transferència tecnològica i va realitzar una estada post-doctoral a la University of Washington. L’any 2011 ret

REVIEW article Front. Cell Dev. Biol., 23 February 2023Sec. Nuclear Organization and DynamicsVolume 11 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2023.1127440 Meiosis is a specialized cell division that generates haploid gametes and is critical for successful sexual reproduction. During the extended meiotic prophase I, homologous chromosomes progressively pair, synapse and desynapse. These chromosomal dynamics are tightly integrated with meiotic recombination (MR), during which programmed DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are formed and subsequently repaired. Consequently, parental chromosome arms reciprocally exchange, ultimately ensuring accurate homolog segregation and genetic diversity in the offspring. Surveillance mechanisms carefully monitor the MR and homologous chromosome syn

Les investigadores Aurora Ruiz Herrera i Nerea Roher van assistir el passat 8 de març a la reunió anual de coordinadors i coordinadores de la Societat Catalana de Biologia (SCB), a la seu de la societat a l'Institut d’Estudis Catalans. De les 19 Seccions Temàtiques de la SCB, l’Aurora Ruiz Herrera en coordina la secció de Biologia Evolutiva, mentre que la Nerea Roher coordina la secció d’Aqüicultura.

https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c06635 Hèctor López-Laguna, Ariana Rueda, Carlos Martínez-Torró, Lucía Sánchez-Alba, José Vicente Carratalá, Jan Atienza-Garriga, Eloi Parladé, Julieta M. Sánchez, Naroa Serna, Eric Voltà-Durán, Neus Ferrer-Miralles, David Reverter, Ramon Mangues, Antonio Villaverde*, Esther Vázquez*, and Ugutz Unzueta* Abstract Nanoscale protein materials show increasing applications in biotechnology and biomedicine, addressing catalysis, drug delivery, or tissue engineering. Although protein oligomerization is reachable through several engineering approaches, including the use of divalent cations for histidine-rich stretches, the effectiveness of cation-His binding is influenced by protein conformation, media composition, and chelating agents. Thus, lo

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(24), 15543; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232415543 This work was performed by the Nanobiotechnology group, from IBB/UAB and CIBER-BBN (group CB06/01/0014) Abstract Vaults are protein nanoparticles that are found in almost all eukaryotic cells but are absent in prokaryotic ones. Due to their properties (nanometric size, biodegradability, biocompatibility, and lack of immunogenicity), vaults show enormous potential as a bio-inspired, self-assembled drug-delivery system (DDS). Vault architecture is directed by self-assembly of the “major vault protein” (MVP), the main component of this nanoparticle. Recombinant expression (in different eukaryotic systems) of the MVP resulted in the formation of nanoparticles that were indistinguishable from native vault

Pharmaceutics 2023, 15(3), 727; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics15030727 Abstract Despite advances in the development of targeted therapies for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), most patients relapse. For that reason, it is still necessary to develop novel therapies that improve treatment effectiveness and overcome drug resistance. We developed T22-PE24-H6, a protein nanoparticle that contains the exotoxin A from the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa and is able to specifically deliver this cytotoxic domain to CXCR4+ leukemic cells. Next, we evaluated the selective delivery and antitumor activity of T22-PE24-H6 in CXCR4+ AML cell lines and BM samples from AML patients. Moreover, we assessed the in vivo antitumor effect of this nanotoxin in a disseminated mouse model generated fr

Investigadors de la UAB han desenvolupat nanoestructures esfèriques, biocompatibles i estables que s’uneixen a la proteïna spike del SARS-CoV2 amb una alta afinitat i impedeixen la infecció de les cèl·lules. L’estratègia modular i d’autoassemblatge que han fet servir permetria adaptar-les per combatre altres virus i dissenyar molècules amb una gran capacitat antiviral. La recerca s'ha publicat a la revista ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.  Els nanomaterials inspirats en proteïnes amiloides van guanyant interès en nanotecnologia, per la seva modularitat, autoassemblatge controlat i estabilitat. Un avantatge clau d’aquests materials és la possibilitat d’incorporar-hi molècules proteiques amb la funcionalitat desitjada mitjançant disseny genètic. Però molts no són adequ

Un equip de recerca amb participació de la UAB ha identificat la proteïna P116, gràcies a la qual el bacteri Mycoplasma pneumoniae obté colesterol i altres lípids necessaris per sobreviure. L’estudi, liderat per l’IBMB-CSIC i l’Institut Buchmann d’Alemanya, ha desxifrat l’estructura i el funcionament d’aquesta proteïna essencial del bacteri. Els resultats tenen implicacions biotecnològiques i ajudarien a desenvolupar noves eines contra les infeccions per Mycoplasma. Esquerra, cèl·lules fluorescents de Mycoplasma pneumoniae. Dreta, representació artística del mateix bacteri. Imatges de Marina Marcos i Jaume Piñol. El bacteri Mycoplasma pneumoniae és el causant del voltant del 30 % de les pneumònies atípiques i altres infeccions respiratòries a totes les

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsi.2022.10.067 Abstract Spring viremia of carp (SVC) remains as a vaccine orphan disease mostly affecting juvenile specimens. Young fish are especially difficult to vaccinate and oral administration of vaccine combined with food would be the election system to minimise stress and the vaccination costs associated to injection. However, administration of prophylactics with food pellets faces off several drawbacks mainly related with vaccine degradation and weak protection correlates of oral vaccines. Here we present a platform based on recombinant proteins (subunit vaccines) manufactured as highly resistant nanostructured materials, and providing excellent levels of protection against SVC virus in a preliminary i.p injection challenge. The G3 domain of S...

Front. Plant Sci., 16 January 2023Sec. Plant Proteomics and Protein Structural BiologyVolume 13 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.1060410 Prion-like domains (PrLDs) are intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) of low sequence complexity with a similar composition to yeast prion domains. PrLDs-containing proteins have been involved in different organisms’ regulatory processes. Regions of moderate amyloid propensity within IDRs have been shown to assemble autonomously into amyloid fibrils. These sequences tend to be rich in polar amino acids and often escape from the detection of classical bioinformatics screenings that look for highly aggregation-prone hydrophobic sequence stretches. We defined them as cryptic amyloidogenic regions (CARs) and recently developed an integrated