CIBERER : Spanish national network for research on rare diseases: A highly productive collaborative initiative

Altres ajuts: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII); Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.CIBER (Center for Biomedical Network Research; Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red) is a public national consortium created in 2006 under the umbrella of the Spanish National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII). This innovative research structure comprises 11 different specific areas dedicated to the main public health priorities in the National Health System. CIBERER, the thematic area of CIBER focused on rare diseases (RDs) currently consists of 75 research groups belonging to universities, research centers, and hospitals of the entire country. CIBERER's mission is to be a center prioritizing and favoring collaboration and cooperation between biomedical and clinical research groups, with special emphasis on the aspects of genetic, molecular, biochemical, and cellular research of RDs. This research is the basis for providing new tools for the diagnosis and therapy of low-prevalence diseases, in line with the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) objectives, thus favoring translational research between the scientific environment of the laboratory and the clinical setting of health centers. In this article, we intend to review CIBERER's 15-year journey and summarize the main results obtained in terms of internationalization, scientific production, contributions toward the discovery of new therapies and novel genes associated to diseases, cooperation with patients' associations and many other topics related to RD research

Universidad y sociedad: comunicación e integración en empresas e instituciones públicas y organizaciones no lucrativas: innovación y progreso

Depto. de Teorías y Análisis de la ComunicaciónFac. de Ciencias de la InformaciónFALSEsubmitte

Variation of the phytoplankton structure in Puerto Don Juan, Bahia de Los Angeles, Baja California

A time series with samplings every two hours was generated, on surface and at 5 m depth from august 6th to the 12th of 1986 in a fixed station at Puerto Don Juan (Bahía de Ios Angeles). Subsurface aimed trawlings were carried out with a conic standard mesh of 75 µm of flux and reflux from the centre of the lagoon to the inner mouth. A taxocenosis composed of 242 taxa was found, which is divided in 86 genera, 223 species, 27 varieties and 6 forms. Puerto Don Juan presented abundances in values which are very high for the whole phytoplanktonic structure. During spring tides, the phytoplanktonic structure was found to be distributed homogeneouslly in the water column, and when the tide amplitude decreased some differences were detected between the two depths under study due to the stratification of the environment. During the sampling period it was found that the dominant species stayed in the lagoon even the daily changes, and the non dominants depended on the environment changes. The best indicator of the fluctuation in the lagoon phytoplanktonic structure in terms of taxonomic leve1 is constituted at genus level

Primary productivity and chlorophyll a in the central part of the Gulf of California (Autumn 1987)

 A cruise was carried out in the central part of the Gulf of California from 27 October to 7 November, 1987. Seawater samples were taken from 0, 5, 15, 25 and 50 m depth to determine chlorophyll a and phaeophytin a content at 22 stations. Six experiments of productivity in the euphotic zone and one experiment of photosynthesis-irradiante were generated. The vertical profile of chlorophyll a in Ballenas Channel was more homogeneous at the southern end of the channel due to mixing and the increase in the euphotic zone. In the region of the islands, the distribution of chlorophyll a was more variable due to mixing processes that occur in that area. In the southern part of the study area, chlorophyll a decreased from the coast to the open sea. Similar assimilation numbers and photosynthetic rates were obtained with samples collected at 22 and 60% of surface irradiance in one productivity versus irradiante (P-E) experiment in Ballenas Channel. It is inferred that vertical transport of phytoplankton occurred in the water column. Surface primary productivity values were three to four times higher in the northern part of the study area than in the southern part, whereas integrated productivity values were one to two times higher in the northern part

Sobre el efecto debil de las surgencias de verano en la biomasa fitoplanctónica del Golfo de California

The objective of this work was to characterize the Gulf of California "summer" upwelling effect on the spatial distribution of surface chlorophyll α concentration (Chl sat) and T °C (SST) with satellite data. Weekly composites of SST data from the sensor AVIlRR imagery (NOAA-9 satellite), and daily Chl sat, imagery from the sensor CZCS (Nimbus-7 satellite) were used to generate graphs with the spatial distribution of these variables for the Gulf of California region to the south of the midriff islands. The Gulf of California summer upwelling has an appreciable effect on the horizontal distribution of SST and Chl sat but itis very weak. This is mainly due or a very strong water column stratification, with surface temperatures up to >31 °C, which greatly decrease vertical water transport near the Baja California coast. SST has a general tendency to increase from Baja California to the eastern coast, with a weak gradient of one to two degrees through the whole Gulf (from 29 °C off Baja California to 31°C off the eastern coast). Chl sat shows an inverse gradient, with higher values off the western coast (up to 0.2 mg m3) and decreasing to <0.1 mg m3off the eastern coast. In some cases there were very clear plumes and eddies, such as the cyclonic eddies observed on the SST distribution, with core values of 28 °C A Chl sat plume with relatively high values (-0.2 mgm3) indicated advection from Baja California towards Sonora in the northern part of our study are

Variability of the phytoplankton community in San Quint?Bay based on pigment analysis

 The purpose of this work was to characterize the phytoplankton community of San Quintín Bay using pigment concentrations from HPLC and the CHEMTAX program, so that small cells (< 5 µm) would not be excluded. On 23–24 April 2001, a 24-h time series was generated, sampling surface water every hour. Samples were also taken from six localities throughout the bay. There was a significant contribution of seven phytoplankton groups. Those that contributed the most to total chlorophyll a were cryptophytes, cyanobacteria, bacilliarophytes and chlorophytes. In general, pigment concentrations were higher in the mouth region and decreased towards the internal extremes. This is the first report of the presence of the pigment divinyl chlorophyll a in San Quintín Bay, which firmly suggests the presence of Prochlorococcus sp. This group contributed up to 40% of the total chlorophyll a. Other cyanobacteria contributed up to 13% of the total chlorophyll a. These percentages are indicative of a very high abundance of these groups

Phytoplankton Blooms: New Initiative Using Marine Optics as a Basis for Monitoring Programs

Ocean color and optical remote sensing techniques has become a useful tool to study coastal problems such as harmful algal blooms and water pollution. Considering that phytoplankton blooms affect the ocean color, we proposed here an innovative technique using optical data to determine if there is a bloom or not, characterize the bloom stage, and the phytoplankton composition. Data were collected during two sampling campaigns: one from August 27th to 30th, 2011 in Dzilam de Bravo (State of Yucatan) and Holbox Island (State of Quintana Roo), México; and the second campaign was conducted from September 22nd to 24th, 2011 in the Bank of Campeche, Campeche, México. Optical data were analyzed for a total of 30 stations. For each station, discrete samples were collected for phytoplankton identification and enumeration and determination of chlorophyll-a concentration and absorption coefficients (particulate material, phytoplankton, detritus, and colored dissolved organic matter). Most of the samples were collected near the surface; however a few samples were collected at mid and bottom depths. During campaign 1, Secchi disk measurements were taken to measure the light attenuation. Principal component analysis (PCA) with a numerical solution was used to explore the associations among samples (stations) using the absorption coefficients, chlorophyll-a and total phytoplankton abundance. To comprehensively summarize all the information produced by each of the variables, a multi-dimensional index was derived based on the first standardized empirical orthogonal function. We refer to the index as the inherent optical properties (IOP) index. A positive IOP index indicated bloom conditions were present, while a negative index indicated non-bloom conditions. Once the samples were classified by bloom condition, we attempted to determine the phytoplankton group that constituted the bloom. The spectral shape of the phytoplankton absorption coefficient spectra aphy(λ)was calculated and a spectral shape index was derived using the phytoplankton absorption coefficient in the green and the blue part of the spectrum. Finally, a blue/red ratio was calculated to determine the dominant phytoplankton population. The IOP index was successful in classifying the station as having bloom or non-bloom conditions. The spectral shape analysis gave promising results regarding the group composition. Additional analyses, with different phytoplakton groups and taxa, are required to further test this ratio. A final classification scheme using the IOP index and the blue/red ratio is proposed to determine the bloom condition (operational, non-operational bloom and non-bloom) and dominate size of the phytoplankton responsible for the bloom. This innovative technique can provide insightful information about the bloom that cannot be obtained using traditional methods. The results here showed clearly the importance of optical data when monitoring phytoplankton blooms