AREAS & GROUPS
BIOMEDICINE
FOOD, POLLUTION AND HEALTH
NANOSCIENCE AND ADVANCED MATERIALS
Areas
The diseases that are now the leading causes of death in the developed world arise from failures in our own cells. Finding a cure to remedy them requires a deep understanding of their causes by bringing together genetics, cell biology, chemistry, physics, computer science and many other fields. These fields come together in an interdisciplinary way to address the resolution of these problems. CICA brings together researchers with a common goal: to learn how to translate the results of basic research into medical applications. This area is organised around five research challenges, namely cancer, neuronal diseases, ageing, metabolism and infection with the aim of deciphering why diseases develop and finding new ways of diagnosis, prevention and treatment. The strategic lines defined for this area are as follows:
Neuroscience
Non-pharmacological neuro-rehabilitation in the elderly and neuropsychiatric patients. The effects of physiotherapy on the elderly and neurodegenerative diseases. Nutrition and cognitive functioning. Feedback systems in vision and working memory in animal models.
Infectious diseases
Rapid diagnosis of multi-resistant micro-organisms. Search for relationships between pathologies and the microbiome. Study of bacterial resistance mechanisms.
Chronic diseases
Analysis of interactome data of proteins related to cancerous processes. Techniques for validation of interactomes. Study of hormonal alterations in obesity. Pituitary diseases: translational aspects. Chronic renal insufficiency.
Regenerative medicine
Study of osteoarthritis in human models of induced pluripotent stem cells. Generation of mesenchymal lines from osteoarthritis patients and healthy donors. Identification of osteoarthritis (OA) phenotypes using Big Data approaches. Personalised bone regeneration. Preclinical pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic study of the combined intra-articular injection of two drugs in a rat model of surgical osteoarthritis. Tissue engineering. Inflammatory mechanisms in joint destruction. Oxidative stress processes in inflammation. Human osteoarthritis models of mesenchymal lines and induced pluripotent stem cells.
Ageing
Effect of age on proinflammatory miRNAs contained in mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles. Role of autophagy in peritoneal membrane remodelling associated with patients treated with peritoneal dialysis. Effect of an antioxidant diet. Animal model of premature ageing.
In the context of a global health crisis, understanding people’s perceptions of their own health and how to behave in order to stay healthy are of great interest. The groups in this area study how aspects of pollution, proper nutrition and the use of responsible primary production have a major impact on improving human health. These are the lines on which all researchers in this area focus:
Functional Food and Healthy Nutrition
Development and evaluation of new functional foods. Sustainable marine agronomy. Molecular techniques in soil biology.
Responsible Primary Production (fisheries, forestry, agriculture, aquaculture)
Evaluation of phycological resources of industrial interest on the Galician coast. Physico-chemical processes for the valorisation of marine biomass. Population genetics and fisheries management. Genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics: evolution of gene expression and protein pathways in crustaceans. Biotechnological reuse of waste. Cover crops, land monitoring and management, and land and water conservation measures. Precision agriculture. Soil use and management: soil fertility and mineral nutrition. Chemical fractionation for the utilisation of lignocellulosic materials; identification and separation of bioactive compounds (pasting, fractionation, lignocellulose, cellulose, lignin, dissolving pastes, organosolv, biorefinery).
Pollution and Health
Urban and industrial wastewater treatment. Microbiology of thermal waters. Reduction of pollutants in water. Heavy metals in soils. Sustainability of water resources: reduction of organic pollutants. Environmental assessment: effect of urban, industrial and agricultural activities. Interactions between the environment and human health. Management and use of organic resources. Purification, management and recovery of wastewater resources. Elimination of odours, VOCs and CIVs by means of physical/chemical processes (mainly photoreactors, absorption and adsorption). Removal of greenhouse gases: CH4, CO2, NOX. Biogas treatment: H2S and siloxane removal studies.
The main lines of research deal with the design, preparation and characterisation of nanostructures, their biological evaluation in vitro and in vivo, to be used in the study of biological processes and the development of biomedical tools such as diagnostic or multitherapeutic platforms. To achieve these materials, synthesis processes, including catalysis, of small molecules, supramolecular structures or nanometric materials are studied. Another very important focus in this area is the production of polymers by sustainable processes. The most important lines are the following:
Nanotechnology
Support of electronic structure analysis by computational methods. Supramolecular chemistry and drug characterisation. Insertion of drugs in suitable carriers for transport.
New Materials
Synthesis and applications of carbon-derived nanomaterials: graphene, nanotubes, nanofibres and hybrids. Evaluation of new materials for the transport of anti-tumour drugs. Sensors as small molecule cancer biomarkers as a tool for early cancer detection. Organic-inorganic hybrid barocaloric materials with applications in photovoltaic power generation, photochromic devices, multifunctional sensors. Development of multifunctional compounds and materials with optical and magnetic properties (fluorescent probes, molecular switches, p-donor-acceptor systems). Insertion of organic compounds into carbon matrices. Production of volatile fatty acid (VFA) biopolymers from industrial waste and wastewater. Production of biopolymers (polyhydroxyalkanoates, PHA) from industrial waste and wastewater. New polymeric materials for the development of new antimicrobials.
Synthesis Methods
Catalytic methods in synthesis. Synthesis of compounds with thermochromic and photoluminescent properties. Synthesis of barocaloric materials. Development of advanced oxidation procedures, especially direct and/or photocatalysed photolysis. Green synthesis of metal nanoparticles. Metal complexes with biomedical applications: synthesis, characterisation, study of their toxicity and application. Synthetic biology.
Bioactive and Diagnostic Molecules.
Study of the in vitro toxicity of new contrast agents. Analysis of the in vivo activity of luminescent probes. Identification of new metabolites and new targets related to the interaction with the microbiota, for the treatment of cancer, cardiac alterations and pathologies such as Alzheimer’s disease. Identification and study of the mechanism of action of new anti-tumour agents against new therapeutic targets. Search for natural compounds as potential regenerative agents with applications in osteoarthritis. Metallic compounds of interest in biomedical imaging. Development of a new generation of antineoplastic metallopharmaceuticals. Search for genetic biomarkers using proteomic techniques for diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic efficacy. Search for antimicrobials. Synthesis of bioactive compounds (natural products and drugs).