- This event has passed.
PhD Discussion Session: Ana María Solórzano and Joan Martí Muñoz
Friday, January 22, 2016 @ 10:00 am–11:00 am
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: Societal Impact, Physiological Mechanism and Associated Chemical Instrumentation
Ana María Solórzano, Signal and information processing for sensing systems groupThe hazardousness of carbon monoxide is based on the inability of humans to detect it. Carbon monoxide is not irritating and has no color, odor or either taste. The exposure to this gas can starve critical body organs specially vital organs like brain and heart.
The study and analysis of CO poisoning is not new. Even though in the last decades the society has been raised awareness on CO hazard, accidental deaths are still produced by exposure to this gas.
The health effects of the CO poisoning depend on its concentration and time exposure. Health problems are noticeable with concentrations since 0.01% (100ppm).; this is the reason that the medical Instrumentation is an essential tool for the detection of CO. There is a kind of instrumentation, which detects CO in the bloodstream, and in the atmosphere but the early detection of this compound still is a challenge.
We are exploring how multi gas sensor arrays can be an effective solution to detect CO faster than typical alarms.
Calcium releasing ormoglass coated PLA nanofibers: A new approach for bone regeneration
Joan Martí Muñoz, Biomaterials for regenerative therapies groupBone fracture healing has become a serious problem in the last decades in part due to the increase in life expectancy (1). The use of strategies that help body to restore bone are needed to increase the quality life of people suffering this problem. Among this strategies, the use of natural sources such as; bone, growth factors and other biomolecules has become an efficient option, but present some limitations like money cost, amount limitation and storage, extra surgeries, rejection and possible disease transmission (1).
The use of synthetic materials can be an effective option. However they need to be tuned to include the proper bioactive signals. Hybrid materials are and interesting alternative. Their organic phase, normally a biodegradable biopolymer, holds the mechanical stress while their inorganic phase, a glass or ceramic, provides the needed bioactivity to recruit cells and produce bone. In many cases, the masking of the bioactive inorganic phase embedded in the organic matrix and undesired phase-detachments must be solved to increase efectiveness (2). Another limitation is the poor vascularization that synthetic materials induce.
Previous studies in our group demonstrated that extracellular Ca2+ release can promote angiogenesis (3). Here we present two different strategies: the first one consisting in CaP Ti-doped degradable ormoglass nanoparticles embedded inside polylactic acid (PLA) electrospun bioresorbable nanofibers; the second one consisting in CaP Si-doped degradable ormoglass nanoparticles (2) covalently attached on the surface of PLA electrospun nanofibers. In both cases the Ca2+ release by the ormoglass nanoparticles may activate the proper cell responses while the polymer provides the needed support to hold the particles and allow tissue growth. In the second case the attempt is to solve nanoparticle masking and detachment.
1 M. Navarro et al. J. R. Soc. Interface (2008) 5, 1137-1158.
2 N. Sachot et al. J. R. Soc. Interface (2013) 10, 20130684.
3 A. Aguirre et al. European Cells and Materials Vol. 24 2012 (pages 90-106).
