Project Summary

Project Number: 701852

Project Acronym: BIDMAG

Project Title: Biological detection with functionalized Magnetic Sensor

Summary

The key goals of the BIDMAG project are: a) the training of a talented experienced researcher, Dr Lopes, in the fast growing field of science, technology and industrial applications of magnetic biosensors, where the host has a critical knowledge and expertise; and, b) design, development and optimisation of cost-efficient smart hybrid surfaces onto magnetic substrates, able to present magnetic response for detecting bacteria. The interdisciplinary training program includes magnetic materials surface modification, fabrication, modelling, characterisation of Magnetoelastic Resonators (MER), surface biofunctionalisation and detection of the biological parameters, which will enhance and broaden her expertise and increase her exposure to both academic and industrial collaborations. She is a talented researcher who has gained much expertise in interdisciplinary area of electroactive polymer composites during her postgraduate career. This background is invaluable for applying in preparation and characterisation techniques of smart materials. To further her career in magnetic biosensors Dr Lopes needs to gain expertise in functional materials and magnetic characterisation, fields in which BCMaterials has a worldrecognised expertise. Additionally, through secondments at academic and industrial co-hosts, at ACREO and VAC, respectively, she will gain additional training in: industrial production of MER and Optimization of compact and commercial MER interrogation systems.The impact of the project will be multidisciplinary, since it has applications ranging from environmental monitorization and food quality control to fast medical diagnostics. Besides, to further boost her career, Dr Lopes needs to increase her supervision and teaching experience, gain project and intellectual property management expertise, research funding and proposal writing skills. Multidisciplinary activities will assist her in acquiring necessary competences and reaching professional maturity.

You can locate information about this project at the CORDIS portal.

More information about MSCA

Wednesday 8 March 2017

Welcome to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), by Eduardo Fernández

Eduardo Fernández is a post-doctoral researcher of BCMaterials working at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Kindly, he decided to tell us a little bit about this fantastic experience...

"It was almost two years ago now when I arrived to Boston, in one of the coldest winters of the last decade. The Charles River was frozen, everything was covered with several inches of snow, and most of the people preferred to stay indoors rather than get frozen while crossing Harvard Bridge. A mistake that you only make once, or twice if you are in a hurry and you want to go from MIT to Boston. And that was the start of my two years adventure in US soil, the beginning was closer to “Fargo” than to “A beautiful mind” movie.
It was my first time in the US and apart from the usual cultural misunderstanding with the Spanish culture, never give a kiss if you barely know that person, just shake hands if you don’t want to freak them out. And if someone told you: How are you doing?, do not tell them what an awful day you had at the lab. They just want to be nice and say hi. Once you surpass the cultural differences, what surprise me most was how proud people from Boston are of MIT. Every year MIT is the first or is between the top five of world universities. Here people know the importance of knowledge and when they know that you do research, they always say something like: I would like to be that smart…It is totally the opposite response that you would receive at Spain, where they always ask you why? (Meaning that research is useless). Which is horrible way of thinking and totally far from reality. For example, in 2012, American universities earned $2.6 billion from patent royalties, according to the Association of University Technology Managers.
At MIT it possible to know someone who has started a start-up, after its PhD or even before finishing the PhD, and relative easy to known someone who got a job in a company to do research. On the other hand, in Spain most of the times if you have a PhD you will be probably seen as overqualified for an I+D position. In Spain, universities and companies are two entities that hardly interact and keep doing things in the old fashioned way, as always has been done. In general in Spanish companies innovation is advertised, but it is not part of its dna, yet. One of the things that shock me the most from the beginning at MIT, was that all type of companies come to recruit people, problem solvers, generator of new ideas, leaders,…. They look for people that can add value to their companies, rather than mere tools. I hope that this mentality will change, if we want to improve we must get out of our comfort area.

In part it is our fault, as scientists, for not being able to transmit to society the importance of science in everyday life. We are seen as outsiders living at its own science world. We should also fix the lack of knowledge transference from university research to industry. We are normal people who like talking with passion about what they like most. We should be proud of it, but we should at least try to find ways to normalize it. As I fell that happens here at MIT, where they always try to merge their passion for science into society."

Thank you Edu... We hope to see you soon...

Tuesday 28 February 2017

Successfull PhD Thesis defense - Nuria García

After four years of hard work, Nuria García finished her PhD. 

Her work consisted in the "Development and applications of
semicrystalline polymers: from shape memory to self-healing materials" and was suppervised by Luis Manuel León and Manuel Laza. 


During the presentation of the thesis Nuria had the oportunity to show many of the research results and knowledge acquired during the last years as well as clearly respond to all the questions presented by the members of the jury.

Zorionak  Dra Nuria!! We hope you a very successfull future :)

BCMaterials Fortnightly Seminar #56

On 18 January, Oihane Arriortua presented her work about "Magnetic nanoparticle approaches for magnetic hyperthermia". It was a very interesting presentation where Oihane told us about the latests advances in the area of magnetic hiperthermia. Well done Ohiane!

BCMaterials Fortnightly Seminar #55


Once again, the fortnightly seminar took place in BCMaterials. Ariane Sagasti presented a work entitled "Two examples of functionalization of magnetoelastic resonant platforms for sensing purposes: Zeolites and zinc oxide deposition processes" while Javier Alonso preseted his work about the "Exchange bias effect in iron oxide-based nanoparticles systems". Thanks Ariane and Javi for your great presentations!!




Sunday 5 February 2017

Christmas Lunch

The Christamas lunch in BCMaterials is already an "old" tradition...
This is an opportunity to join all the members of BCMaterials and to hear  J.M.Barandiarán, BCMaterials's director, telling us about the achieved goals throughout the last year as well as the future goal of the new year!!
Many articles, many projects, many new collaborations...



Christmas Dinner

BCMaterials is a quite recent center, so some traditions are just appearing... That is the case of the Christmas dinner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a year of work we deserve to enjoy a delicious meal.......... :)


New Materials For a Better Life 2016- Smart and Functional Polymers

The 5th anual workshop of BCMaterials was held on November 18th in the Paraninfo of the Science and Technology Faculty of the Basque Country University (UPV/EHU). This year the New Materials for a Better Life workshop was about Smart and Functinal Polymers. The invited speakers came from different universities and from others important research centers of the Basque Country. More than one hundred people joined us in this important initiaitve.



Here is some information about the taks:

Senentxu Lanceros-Mendez (BCMaterials), "Smart and Functional Polymer Based Materials for a Better life"

Eurico Sowade (TUChemitz, Germany), "Printing of materials for smart applications"

Nieves Murillo Hernandes (Tecnalia), "Nanofibras luminiscentes: Uso y applicaciones en biosensores"

Vanessa Cardoso (UMinho, Portugal), "Microfluidic systems for biomedical applications"

José Luís Gómez Ribelles (UPValencia), "Polymeric Biomaterials in Tissue Engineering"

Sohini Kar-Narayan (UCambridge, UK), "Polymer-based piezoelectric nanomaterials for energy harvesting"

José Luis Vilas (UPV/BCMaterials), "Shape memory and self-healing polymers"

Anna Llordeés (EnergiGine), "Combining ceramic and polymer electrolytes for better and safer Li-ion batteries"

David Mecerreyes (Polymat, UPV), "Sustainable poly(ionic liquid)s for environamental applications"

You can find some more information in the following website: http://www.nm4bl.org/


I hope to see you in the next workshop!!




BCMaterials Fortnightly Seminar #54

On 30 November morning I was traveling from Munich to Bilbao so, unfortunately, I couldn't attend the 54th BCMaterials Fortnightly Seminar where, once again, new research results from the BCMaterials members were presented.
Cristina Echavarria presented her work about "Sm-based 1:12 systems: induction of a low melting phase" and Nuria Garcia, that is about to finish her PhD presented her last results on "Shape memory systems based on polycyclooctene". It was the first presentation of Cristina in BCMaterials and probably the last of Nuria before the presentation of her thesis.
As usually, an interesting discussion about the results followed both presentations.



See you soon...

Tuesday 27 December 2016

IPR workshop for Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellows

On 28 and 29 November, the European Patent Office and the Research Executive Agency of the European Commission organised an Intellectual Property Right (IPR) Workshop for Marie Curie fellows in Munich, Germany. More specifically, it was a result of cooperation between the European Patent Academy and the European Commission Research Executive Agency.
EPO building

29 Marie Curie fellows coming from 11 different counties had the opportunity to clarify all the questions on Intellectual Properties Rights (IPR), contacting directly with European Patent examiners and attorneys. They talked about the strategies used in a patent application (when, where and what to file) and taught us how to search for a patent as well as how to recognise, protect and exploit our ideas, developing an intelectual property strategy.
In addition to the interest of the workshop thematic, the opportunity to know other Marie Curie fellows and to explore with them some of the beauty places of Munich was also one enriching experience.
Here are some photos of the city and of us tasting the traditional warm wine in the Munich's Christmas Market.

See you soon....

Tuesday 20 December 2016

Zientzia Astea- Week of Science

As in the past years, the XVI Week of Science, Tecnology and Inovation (Zientzia Astea, Teknologiaren eta Berrikuntzaren, in Euskera), took place in the cities of Bilbao, San Sebastian and Vitoria.

This year, BCMaterials participated in the event that was held in Bilbao from the 2 to 6 of November in the Bizkaia Aretoa.
Many researches, from post-doc researchers to PhD students, worked to capture the attention of all who went to this action, spreading knowledge and creating space for dissemination of scientific thought.
The event was a success with thousands of people attending, among which were many curious students showing interest about the world of materials science.
BCMaterials stand presented experiences in the area of magnetism, photolithography, nanoparticles and shape memory materials.

Here are some pictures from the BCMaterials stand which achieved the main objective of this week... To popularize the science!!!




BCMaterials Fortnightly Seminar #53

This time, the typical seminar was a little bit different... On 16 November it was the turn of Eduardo Fernadez and Roberto Fernandez to present their work. However, Eduardo is a Post-doctoral student from BCMaterials currently working in the prestigious MIT- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Boston what, usually, makes necessary to resort to the new technologies to perform the presentation. So, through Skype, Eduardo told us about his work on "Self-Assembled copolymers" while Roberto, presently, showed us the interesting results obtained in his work on "Composite AgVO3@VO hydrogels and xerogels: Itrinsic properties and applications".


See you...

BCMaterials Fortnightly Seminar #52

On 9 November, me, Catarina Lopes, and Daniel Salazar presented the results of our work to all the  present members of BCMaterials.
I talked about "The contribution of ionic liquids in the development of nanogenerators" while Daniel showed his work on the "Development of new tetragonal ThMn 12-Type phases with low rare earth contents for permanent magnet applications".
It was a very interesting seminar where, once again, many questions have been raised.



See you...

Tuesday 22 November 2016

Farewell drink of Maria and Sofia

BCMaterials team is formed by a high number of people, but, personally, it is difficult to imagine it without some of them...
One year ago, when I started working at BCMaterials, Maria San Sebastian and Sofia Peñafiel were already part of it.
Maria, a research associate, shared with me not only the office but also scientific knowledge and several guffaws!! Sofia, the website technician, was always ready to help everyone with a smile.

Now, both decided to begin new projects out of this research center... In this way, a farewell drink was organized and many members of BCMaterials met at Somera street, in Bilbao, to toast beer and commemorate the good moments shared with Maria and Sofia...

See you soon girls...

Monday 21 November 2016

BCMaterials Fortnightly Seminar #51

On 5 of October, new presentations in BCMaterials' seminar room toke place.
It was time for Maite Goiriena and Eugen Seife. Maite presented a work entitled "Nanodiscs manufacturing by self-assembled templates" developed in the last months, while Eugen presented the final work of his master thesis entitled "Magnetothermomechanical properties of Ni-Mn-Ga/Polymer Composites: Experiment and Modelling". Both presentations were very interesting and followed by several questions done by the other members of BCMaterials.


Well done Maite and Eugen!!

Wednesday 2 November 2016

ICONAN 2016

Irati Rodrigo Arrizabalaga is a BCMaterials' PhD student researching on the design and development of novel experimental techniques for magnetic hyperthermia. Despite her youth, Irati decided to do an oral presentation in the International Conference On Nanomedicine And Nanobiotechnology, held from 28 to 30 of September.

This conference took place at the University Pierre and Marie Curie in the beautiful city of Paris and host high-profile plenary speakers, world class researcher, oral and poster presentations, worshops, sponsor exhibits and afterworks.

The work presented by Irati was entitled "Magnetic-nanoparticles as a theranostic tool for liver metastases in a murine model", and it is fruit of her last year of work.
It was a successful presentation and, at the end, Irati has the opportunity to answer to all the questions done by the experts.

As always, there was also time to visit some places of interest... and Paris is full of them!!

In this case, it is evident the interest of Irati in the world of science... She decided to visit the Patheon of Paris, where the Marie and Pierre Curie grave are located as well as the famous Foucault's Pendulum.

Here there are some photos provided by Irati...


See you soon...