The Institute for Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC-CSIC) held the 6th edition of its Annual Symposium, which more than 110 people attended, including predoctoral and postdoctoral researchers, technicians, and principal investigators. The scientific projects finished in 2023 were presented during the Symposium.
Xavier Gómez-Santacana, from the Medicinal Chemistry and Synthesis group, presented the results of a Chemical Biology project funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions COFUND / Tecniospring Industry in which he developed a novel modular approach to label aminergic G Protein-Receptors with fluorescent dyes with no genetic modification of the receptor and without affecting its functional activity.
Afterward, the researcher M.-Pilar Marco, from the Nanobiotechnology for Diagnostics group, showed the advances within the QS-Motion project funded by la La Marató which revealed the potential use of Quorum Sensing molecules as early diagnosis biomarkers from respiratory infections.
Lastly, Ramon Eritja, from the Nucleic Acids group, showed a novel approach based on the use of oligonucleotides as bioreceptors to produce biosensors based on triplex formation with a sensitivity equivalent to RT-PCR. Preliminary results using triplex-forming oligonucleotides as therapeutic agents revealed promising results in vivo.
In the second part of the Symposium, the IQAC Technical Vicedirector Carme Quero presented the CSIC-IQAC Chemical Library and the organization of the IQAC Facilities, divided in three scientific platforms
- Small molecules and biomolecules production
- Instrumental analysis and characterization of molecules and materials
- Biomedical and environmental assessment
The researcher Fina Casas, responsible of the High Resolution Mass Spectrometry facility, presented the new equipment for lipidomics techniques. Moreover, all the technical staff was invited to do a scientific poster of each facility, explaining the objectives, equipment, and target.
The IQAC Annual Symposium also had Jesús Cerquides as an invited speaker, a researcher from the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA-CSIC), who gave a talk on how AI is applied to different research lines in science. At the end of the event, a roundtable was held with Jesús Cerquides alongside the IQAC researchers Ramon Crehuet (Theoretical and Computational Chemistry) and Carla Ferrero (Nanobiotechnology for Diagnostics), and moderated by Sílvia Pujals (Supramolecular Chemistry), about emerging AI tools in different scientific fields and the ethical dilemmas it creates in our current society.
