All Microfluidics Cluster UPV/EHU members wish you all the best for the New Year 2024!

As every year at Xmas time the Faculty of Pharmacy celebrates its Christmas lunch.

It was a great opportunity to wish all faculty members Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Janire got a nice cup!!

Last Wednesday the 20th of December 2023 Lourdes gave an invited talk at the “Organic Chemistry Christmas Workshop” celebrated in the Auditorio Carlos Santamaría, Donostia, Spain.

Other speakers of the workshop included Prof. Jordi Llop from CICbiomagune (Donosti), Prof. Félix Rodriguez from the Unviersity of Oviedo and Prof. Mónica Carril from Biofisika Institute (Leioa).

It was a great opportunity to discuss with the organic department members about the concept of Lab on a chip, microfluidics, integrated optical sensors and the very important role of surface chemistry in microsystems.

Janire just published a manuscript entitled: A Conformable Organic Electronic Device for Monitoring Epithelial Integrity at the Air Liquid Interface by Sarah L. Barron, Sophie V. Oldroyd, Janire Saez, Alice Chernaik, Wenrui Guo, Frank McCaughan, David Bulmer and Róisín M. Owens in collaboration with University of Cambridge.

Congratulations!

Abstract

Air liquid interfaced (ALI) epithelial barriers are essential for homeostatic functions such as nutrient transport and immunological protection. Dysfunction of such barriers are implicated in a variety of autoimmune and inflammatory disorders and, as such, sensors capable of monitoring barrier health are integral for disease modelling, diagnostics and drug screening applications. To date, gold-standard electrical methods for detecting barrier resistance require rigid electrodes bathed in an electrolyte, which limits compatibility with biological architectures and is non-physiological for ALI. This work presents a flexible all-planar electronic device capable of monitoring barrier formation and perturbations in human respiratory and intestinal cells at ALI. By interrogating patient samples with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and simple equivalent circuit models, disease-specific and patient-specific signatures are uncovered. Device readouts are validated against commercially available chopstick electrodes and show greater conformability, sensitivity and biocompatibility. The effect of electrode size on sensing efficiency is investigated and a cut-off sensing area is established, which is one order of magnitude smaller than previously reported. This work provides the first steps in creating a physiologically relevant sensor capable of mapping local and real-time changes of epithelial barrier function at ALI, which will have broad applications in toxicology and drug screening applications.

We finally got our Cluster name at Lascaray Research Centre.

COME AND VISIT US!.... we are now easy to find!!

This morning we had the pleasure of hosting M.D. de Vicente from Osakidetza and member of Bioaraba in our laboratories. We had great discussions about how to bring the technology developed by the Microfluidics Cluster UPV/EHU to the clinic and patients at Osakidetza.

M.D de Vicente is leading the line: Obesity, Metabolism and Clinical Nutrition in Bioaraba.

What a great day! Thanks for your visit Nines!

UPV/EHUko Microfluidika Klusterreko ikertzaileak Lourdes Basabe eta Janire Saez agertu dira EiTB Teknopolis saioan, taldean minbiziaren arloan mikrofluidikan egindako ikerketei buruz hitz egiten. Elkarrizketak euskaraz eta gaztelaniaz daude eskuragarri esteka honetan:

23 minutuan

Lourdes Basabe and Janire Saez researchers at the Microfluidic Cluster UPV/EHU have appeared on the Teknopolis tv show of the basque autonomic television EiTB talking about the microtechnologies we develop for cancer research. You can follow the interview in Basque and Spanish in the following link:

Minute 23

Our last book chapter highlighted in CAMPUSA: In the book entitled Microfluidic Systems for Cancer Diagnosis, the UPV/EHU’s Microfluidics Cluster group describes the process for building a bioelectronic device consisting of gold electrodes coated with a smart polymer capable of capturing and releasing cells in a non-invasive, controllable way while monitoring the processes using conventional electrical measurements. These are the first steps towards developing universal platforms for early cancer screening.

Janire Saez was interviewed by Elhuyar, for Campusa magazine about her work on bioeletronic interfaces to assess colorectal cancer. You can read the whole interview in this link.

Good job Janire and team!

Enrique attended the 2023 Prisma Conference for LGTBIQA+ diversity in Science, Technology and Innovation the 17-18 November, Madrid, Spain.

He gave an oral presentation entitled: Test4Safe: Autonomous Microfluidic Device for the Naked-Eye Detection of Date-Rape Drugs in Beverages, by Enrique Azuaje-Hualde, Isabel Poves-Ruiz, Fernando Benito-López, and Lourdes Basabe-Desmonts.

Fernando gave an invited presentation at the 6th International Caparica Christmas Conference on Sample Treatment 2023.

His presentation entitled: Air bubble removal in microfluidic devices with magnetic materials by Fernando Benito-López, Udara Bimendra and Lourdes Basabe-Desmonts, was a great success.

In the context of the PreDeSTom project, we have received a visit from Researcher Francesca Longo, from the ncRNA lab, i2sysBio, CSIC (Valencia), at the facilities of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the UPV/EHU. This visit has been very productive for the development of the project, entitled: Development of a dual strategy for the mitigation of the damage associated with stress, in tomato productive systems.

We have advanced in the design of tests for the detection and quantification of stress mediators in plants, using nylon and paper as main supports, employing DNA/RNA-zymes technology as well as antibody labelling and enzymatic revealing.

Thank you very much Francesca for your visit, it has been a pleasure!

Proyecto TED2021-129273B-C33 financiado por MCIN/ AEI/10.13039/5011000110/UniónEuropeaNextGenerationEU/PRTR

Very happy to welcome Dr. Pablo Pérez Merino from the University of Ghent (Belgium) to the Microfluidics Cluster UPV/EHU.

Dr. Pérez Merino is visiting our premises in the frame of an international research collaboration funded by Ghent University.

The project, entitled "Pressure-triggered microfluidic implant for intraocular pressure control," aims to combine the expertise of the Microfluidics Cluster UPV/EHU for developing self-powered microfluidic networks with implantable electro-active sensing platforms for smart intraocular applications.

Exciting times ahead! Thank you, Pablo, for your initiatives.

Naiara Lartitegi and Janire Saez have contributed with two posters to the ASEICA congress held in A Coruña, Spain between the 13th to the 16th of November.

Naiara presented her work “Pattern formation of cancer cell: monitoring new therapeutic targets” and Janire presented her work “Assessing colorectal cancer in vitro through smart bioelectronics”.

Fernando Benito attended the Fernando the 3º BASQUE GREENTECH - FORO DE INNOVACIÓN Y TRANSFERENCIA TECNOLÓGICA AMBIENTAL held at BEC, Baracaldo the 29th of November 2023.

The meeting was organised by  ACLIMA de Basque Environment Cluster.

Lourdes Basabe gave an invited lecture at the NanoBiotech in Montreux, Switzerland entitled: MICROSYSTEMS FOR DYNAMIC MONITORING OF CELL AFFINITY TO SUBSTRATES AND TOXIC EFFECTS.

What a great meeting! Thanks for the invitation!

Last Thusday 23rd of November the Microfluidics Cluster UPV/EHU organised a Workshop entitle: Workshop: TECNOLOGÍAS Y SISTEMAS FOTÓNICOS PARA APLICACIONES BIOMÉDICAS at UPV/EHU campus Vitoria-Gasteiz.

The agenda:

9.00-9.45: Presentación UPV/EHU: Dispositivos "Lab on chip" para estudiar sistemas biológicos (L. Basabe)

10.00-10.45: Presentación Biomagune: Detección e Imagen por Dispersión Raman Amplificada en Modelos Celulares 3D (L. Marzán)

10:45-11:30: Café

11.30-12.15: Presentación UNavarra: Sensores basados en resonancias ópticas de modos con pérdidas (LMR) (N. Matías)

12.30- 13:15: Presentacion Tekniker: Diagnóstico en salud, alimentación y medio ambiente mediante sistemas PoC (S. Merino)

13:30-15:00: Comida

15:00-15:45: Presentación SAL (Título: Photonic system-level integration: Capabilities at Silicon Austria Labs, A. Llobera)

16:00-: Discusión

It was a great apportunity to meet with researchers from SAL in Austria, Tekniker, CIC biomaGUNE, Universidad pública de Navarra and UPV/EHU.

Zukayna presented a poster at the  XIX Simposio de Jóvenes Investigadores Químicos de la RSEQ in Murcia 13-16 of November 2023.

The tittle of her poster: fiber-optic monitoring of streptavidin-biotin interaction using gold nanoparticles by Z. Ezquerro-Berdouzi, R. Catalan-Carrio, F. Benito-Lopez, J. Villatoro, C. Alonso, L. Basabe-Desmonts presents a novel low-cost set-up ultrasensitive portable optical system for monitoring non-covalent biological interactions.

From the 8th to the 12th November we all enjoyed Zientzia Astea 2023!!

This year's theme was planetary health, so we decided to talk about the different types of pollutants affecting our planet and health, but in a more interactive way. Therefore, during the month of October we met to create an escape room that included the main axis of the Zientzia Astea and, of course, microfluidics!!

This workshop called "Escape lab: en busca del antídoto perdido" was held on Friday 10th November in Bilbao and Saturday 11th November in Gasteiz being a great success.

All the teenagers participants managed to get out!

Janire Saez presented her research with an invited talk at the Bioelectronics symposium of MATSUS 2023 congress celebrated between the 16th and 20th of October in Torremolinos, Spain. She presented her research line that focuses on the development of smart bioelectronics and microfluidics for cancer research.