4,408 results match your criteria: "the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology[Affiliation]"

Steps Toward Recapitulating Endothelium: A Perspective on the Next Generation of Hemocompatible Coatings.

Macromol Biosci

October 2024

Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Carrer de Baldiri Reixac, 10, 12, Barcelona, 08028, Spain.

Endothelium, the lining in this blood vessel, orchestrates three main critical functions such as protecting blood components, modulating of hemostasis by secreting various inhibitors, and directing clot digestion (fibrinolysis) by activating tissue plasminogen activator. No other surface can perform these tasks; thus, the contact of blood and blood-contacting medical devices inevitably leads to the activation of coagulation, often causing device failure, and thromboembolic complications. This perspective, first, discusses the biological mechanisms of activation of coagulation and highlights the efforts of advanced coatings to recapitulate one characteristic of endothelium, hereafter single functions of endothelium and noting necessity of the synergistic integration of its three main functions.

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Understanding the effects of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on the physical properties of brain lipid membranes.

iScience

July 2024

Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata (INIBIOLP), CCT- La Plata, CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, 60 y 120, (1900), La Plata, Argentina.

Article Synopsis
  • The study explores the relationship between omega-3 fatty acids (ω3 FAs) deficiency in the brain and its link to cognitive issues and behavioral changes.
  • Researchers provided ω3 FA supplements to spontaneously hypertensive rats, which led to significant increases in ω3 levels in their cerebral cortex, affecting the brain-cell membrane's properties.
  • The findings indicate that ω3 fatty acids alter the organization and stability of brain membranes, highlighting their importance in brain health and potential implications for dietary fat's effects on cognitive function and diseases.
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Protein aggregation is a pathological hallmark of more than fifty human diseases and a major problem for biotechnology. Methods have been proposed to predict aggregation from sequence, but these have been trained and evaluated on small and biased experimental datasets. Here we directly address this data shortage by experimentally quantifying the amyloid nucleation of >100,000 protein sequences.

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Rh-Catalyzed Enantioselective Single-Carbon Insertion of Alkenes.

J Am Chem Soc

August 2024

Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ-CERCA), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Països Catalans 16, 43007 Tarragona, Spain.

The interest in the discovery and development of skeletal editing processes that selectively insert, exchange, or delete an atom in organic molecules has significantly increased over the last few years. However, processes of this class that proceed through the creation of a chiral center with high asymmetric induction have been largely unexplored. Herein, we report an enantioselective single-carbon insertion in aryl- and alkyl-substituted alkenes mediated by a catalytically generated chiral Rh-carbynoid and phosphate nucleophiles that produce enantioenriched allylic phosphates (enantiomeric ratio (e.

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Addressing Reproducibility Challenges in High-Throughput Photochemistry.

JACS Au

July 2024

Chemical Capabilities, Analytical & Purification, Global Discovery Chemistry. Janssen-Cilag, S.A., E-45007 Toledo, Spain.

Light-mediated reactions have emerged as an indispensable tool in organic synthesis and drug discovery, enabling novel transformations and providing access to previously unexplored chemical space. Despite their widespread application in both academic and industrial research, the utilization of light as an energy source still encounters challenges regarding reproducibility and data robustness. Herein we present a comprehensive head-to-head comparison of commercially available batch photoreactors, alongside the introduction of the use of batch and flow photoreactors in parallel synthesis.

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De Novo Engineering of Pd-Metalloproteins and Their Use as Intracellular Catalysts.

JACS Au

July 2024

Centro Singular de Investigación en Química Biolóxica e Materiais Moleculares (CiQUS), Departamento de Química Orgánica, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela 15705, Spain.

The development of transition metal-based catalytic platforms that promote bioorthogonal reactions inside living cells remains a major challenge in chemical biology. This is particularly true for palladium-based catalysts, which are very powerful in organic synthesis but perform poorly in the cellular environment, mainly due to their rapid deactivation. We now demonstrate that grafting Pd(II) complexes into engineered β-sheets of a model WW domain results in cell-compatible palladominiproteins that effectively catalyze depropargylation reactions inside HeLa cells.

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Herein, we describe nickel oxidative addition complexes (Ni-OACs) of drug-like molecules as a platform to rapidly generate lead candidates with enhanced C() fraction. The potential of Ni-OACs to access new chemical space has been assessed not only in C()-C() couplings but also in additional bond formations without recourse to specialized ligands and with improved generality when compared to Ni-catalyzed reactions. The development of an automated diversification process further illustrates the robustness of Ni-OACs, thus offering a new gateway to expedite the design-make-test-analyze (DMTA) cycle in drug discovery.

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Advancing Central Nervous System Drug Delivery with Microtubule-Dependent Transcytosis of Novel Aqueous Compounds.

Biomater Res

July 2024

Huaxi MR Research Centre (HMRRC), Functional and Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Department of Radiology and National Clinical Research Centre for Geriatrics, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.

The challenge of delivering therapeutics to the central nervous system due to the restrictive nature of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a substantial hurdle in neuropharmacology. Our research introduces a breakthrough approach using microtubule-dependent transcytosis facilitated by novel aqueous compounds. We synthesized a series of red-emitting pyran nitrile derivatives.

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Editorial: Micro/nanorobots in nanobiotechnology.

Front Bioeng Biotechnol

July 2024

Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Intelligent Morphing Mechanisms and Adaptive Robotics, School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, China.

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Rigidity percolation and active advection synergize in the actomyosin cortex to drive amoeboid cell motility.

Dev Cell

November 2024

Institut Pierre Gilles de Gennes, PSL Research University, 6 rue Jean Calvin, 75005 Paris, France; Institut Curie, PSL Research University, CNRS UMR 144, Paris, France. Electronic address:

Spontaneous locomotion is a common feature of most metazoan cells, generally attributed to the properties of actomyosin networks. This force-producing machinery has been studied down to the most minute molecular details, especially in lamellipodium-driven migration. Nevertheless, how actomyosin networks work inside contraction-driven amoeboid cells still lacks unifying principles.

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Switching Selectivity in Borylative Allyl-Allyl Cross-Coupling through Synergistic Catalysis.

J Am Chem Soc

August 2024

Centro Singular de Investigación en Química Biolóxica e Materiais Moleculares (CiQUS), Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

A Cu/Pd-catalyzed borylative coupling of allenes with allyl carbonates is reported. Synergistic Cu/Pd catalysis enables a divergent selectivity compared to Cu catalysis and allows for the regio-, diastereo-, and enantioselective formation of synthetically versatile chiral borylated 1,5-dienes featuring two adjacent tertiary stereocenters. DFT calculations support a closed inner-sphere S2' transmetalation between the catalytic allyl copper and allyl palladium intermediates and point at the reductive elimination of the resulting bis(allyl)Pd intermediate as the regio- and diastereo-determining step.

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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a significant threat to human health. Although vaccines have been developed to combat AMR, it has proven challenging to associate specific vaccine antigens with AMR. Bacterial plasmids play a crucial role in the transmission of AMR.

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Several pathogenic Escherichia coli strains cause diarrhea. Enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) strains are one of the diarrheagenic pathotypes.

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Cells exist in different phenotypes and can transition between them. A phenotype may be characterized by many different aspects. Here, we focus on the example of whether the cell is adhered or suspended and choose particular parameters related to the structure and mechanics of the actin cortex.

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Nanophotonic biosensors offer exceptional sensitivity in the presence of strong background signals by enhancing and confining light in subwavelength volumes. In the field of nanophotonic biosensors, antenna-in-box (AiB) designs consisting of a nanoantenna within a nanoaperture have demonstrated remarkable single-molecule fluorescence detection sensitivities under physiologically relevant conditions. However, their full potential has not yet been exploited as current designs prohibit insightful correlative multicolor single-molecule studies and are limited in terms of throughput.

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CRISPR Knock-Ins in Organoids to Track Tumor Cell Subpopulations.

Methods Mol Biol

July 2024

Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona, Spain.

The integration of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing techniques with organoid technology has revolutionized the field of tumor modeling, enabling the creation of diverse tumor models with distinct mutational profiles. This protocol details the application of CRISPR knock-ins to engineer tumor organoids with reporter cassettes, which are regulated by endogenous promoters of specific genes of interest. This approach facilitates the precise fluorescent labeling, isolation, and subsequent manipulation of targeted tumor cell subpopulations.

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Article Synopsis
  • - LAP1 is a nuclear envelope protein crucial for cell homeostasis, with mutations in its gene linked to severe diseases and early mortality, yet its specific functions in humans remain underexplored.
  • - This study analyzed the proteome of fibroblasts with a pathogenic LAP1 mutation (LAP1 E482A) to identify global changes in protein levels compared to normal fibroblasts, and conducted functional assays to determine disrupted biological processes.
  • - The findings indicate that LAP1 deficiency affects various cellular functions, including DNA repair and protein metabolism, potentially illuminating new roles for LAP1 and suggesting targets for future therapies for related diseases.
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Symmetric and asymmetric DNA N6-adenine methylation regulates different biological responses in Mucorales.

Nat Commun

July 2024

Departamento de Genética y Microbiología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain.

DNA N6-adenine methylation (6mA) has recently gained importance as an epigenetic modification in eukaryotes. Its function in lineages with high levels, such as early-diverging fungi (EDF), is of particular interest. Here, we investigated the biological significance and evolutionary implications of 6mA in EDF, which exhibit divergent evolutionary patterns in 6mA usage.

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Prostate cancer exhibits high prevalence and accounts for a high number of cancer-related deaths. The discovery and characterization of molecular determinants of aggressive prostate cancer represents an active area of research. The Immediate Early Response (IER) family of genes, which regulate Protein Phosphatase 2A (PP2A) activity, has emerged among the factors that influence cancer biology.

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The Catalan Initiative for the Earth BioGenome Project (CBP) is an EBP-affiliated project network aimed at sequencing the genome of the >40 000 eukaryotic species estimated to live in the Catalan-speaking territories (Catalan Linguistic Area, CLA). These territories represent a biodiversity hotspot. While covering less than 1% of Europe, they are home to about one fourth of all known European eukaryotic species.

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The Subtle Mechanism of Nickel-Photocatalyzed C(sp)-H Cross-Coupling.

Inorg Chem

July 2024

Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ-CERCA), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Avenida Països Catalans 16, Tarragona 43007, Spain.

This computational study revises and reformulates the mechanism for the cross-coupling reaction between chlorobenzene and tetrahydrofuran catalyzed by a Ni complex with the assistance of an Ir photocatalyst. This is a representative process of transition-metal photocatalysis, and variations of it have been reported by different experimental authors. It has been also the subject of previous computational studies, which we revise and extend.

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Ewing sarcoma (EwS) is a cancer that arises in the bones and soft tissues, typically driven by the Ewing's sarcoma breakpoint region 1-Friend leukemia virus integration 1 (EWS-FLI) oncogene. Implementation of genetically modified animal models of EwS has proved difficult largely owing to EWS-FLI's high toxicity. The EWS-FLI frameshift variant that circumvents toxicity but is still able to perform key oncogenic functions provided the first study model in .

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Article Synopsis
  • * The study investigates environmental effects on known gravitational wave events and finds no evidence to support significant impacts, ruling out certain star formation scenarios.
  • * Future observatories like the Einstein Telescope and B-DECIGO are expected to explore the influence of environmental factors, such as accretion disks and boson clouds, on compact binary formations.
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