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Se realizan nueve visitas guiadas por el instituto en las primeras Puertas Abiertas de 2022
El Instituto de Microelectrónica de Barcelona abrió sus puertas de miércoles 18 a viernes 20 de mayo para acoger a todas las personas interesadas en conocer por dentro el funcionamiento de un centro de investigación y una ICTS. Unas 30 personas se inscribieron para sumarse a las nueve visitas guiadas que se programaron.
El transistor cumple 75 años mientras Europa se plantea la fabricación de chips para tener mayor soberanía tecnológica
El transistor es un componente microelectrónico que se cuenta a millones dentro de ordenadores, móviles, cohetes o lavadoras. Está en el centro de la revolución digital, es fundamental para la microelectrónica y clave para entender la crisis actual de semiconductores. El Instituto de Microelectrónica de Barcelona celebra la efeméride el martes 24 de mayo en el Institut d’Estudis Catalans de Barcelona. Habrá una charla de su director, Luis Fonseca, sobre las causas de la crisis, y una conferencia divulgativa del catedrático Ignacio Mártil.
Agenda
Highlights

Current advances in materials science have demonstrated that extracellular mechanical cues can define cell function and cell fate. However, a fundamental understanding of the manner in which intracellular mechanical cues affect cell mechanics remains elusive. How intracellular mechanical hindrance, reinforcement, and supports interfere with the cell cycle and promote cell death is described here. Reproducible devices with highly controlled size, shape, and with a broad range of stiffness are internalized in HeLa cells. Once inside, they induce characteristic cell-cycle deviations and promote cell death. Device shape and stiffness are the dominant determinants of mechanical impairment. Device structural support to the cell membrane and centering during mitosis maximize their effects, preventing spindle centering, and correct chromosome alignment. Nanodevices reveal that the spindle generates forces larger than 114 nN which overcomes intracellular confinement by relocating the device to a less damaging position. By using intracellular mechanical drugs, this work provides a foundation to defining the role of intracellular constraints on cell function and fate, with relevance to fundamental cell mechanics and nanomedicine.
Adv. Mater. 2022, 34, 2109581. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202109581

Tissue barriers play a crucial role in human physiology by establishing tissue compartmentalization and regulating organ homeostasis. Combining hydrogels with microfluidics technology provides unique opportunities to better recreate in vitro the tissue barrier models including the cellular components and the functionality of the in vivo tissues. Such platforms have the potential of greatly improving the predictive capacities of the in vitro systems in applications such as drug development, or disease modeling. Nevertheless, their development is not without challenges in their microfabrication. In this review, we will discuss the recent advances driving the fabrication of hydrogel microfluidic platforms and their applications in multiple tissue barrier models.
ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2021, 13, 12, 13920–13933. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.0c21573