The first World Cell Race

Motility is a common property of animal cells. Cell motility is required for embryogenesis [1], tissue morphogenesis [2] and the immune response [3] but is also involved in disease processes, such as metastasis of cancer cells [4]. Analysis of cell migration in native tissue in vivo has yet to be fully explored, but motility can be relatively easily studied in vitro in isolated cells. Recent evidence suggests that cells plated in vitro on thin lines of adhesive proteins printed onto culture dishes can recapitulate many features of in vivo migration on collagen fibers 5, 6. However, even with controlled in vitro measurements, the characteristics of motility are diverse and are dependent on the cell type, origin and external cues. One objective of the first World Cell Race was to perform a large-scale comparison of motility across many different adherent cell types under standardized conditions. To achieve a diverse selection, we enlisted the help of many international laboratories, who submitted cells for analysis. The large-scale analysis, made feasible by this competition-oriented collaboration, demonstrated that higher cell speed correlates with the persistence of movement in the same direction irrespective of cell origin

Una Federación de Laboratorios Remotos VISIR a través del Proyecto PILAR

Este documento describe cómo un nuevo proyecto Erasmus+, PILAR (Plataform Integration of Laboratories base don the Architecture of visiR), está siendo desarrollado y cómo la puesta en marcha del partenariado y del proyecto está reforzando la red VISIR (Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality) y el Grupo de Interés Especial de VISIR bajo el Consorcio de Laboratorios online (GOLC - Global Online Laboratory Consortium) de la Asociación Internacional de Ingeniería Online (IAOE - International Association of Online Engineering. La Universidad Española para la Educación a Distancia (UNED) coordina este proyecto que tiene como objetivo federar los sistemas existentes (o nuevos) con el fin de utilizar los recursos de manera más efectiva y eficiente, haciendo transparente para el usuario final la elección de los recursos compartidos.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Chapter 1

Experimenting is fundamental to the training process of all scientists and engineers. While experiments have been traditionally done inside laboratories, the emergence of Information and Communication Technologies added two alter-natives accessible anytime, anywhere. These two alternatives are known as virtual and remote labs, and are sometimes indistinguishably referred as online labs. Sim-ilarly to other instructional technologies, virtual and remote labs require some ef-fort from teachers in integrating them into curricula, taking into consideration sev-eral factors that affect their adoption (i.e. cost) and their educational effectiveness (i.e. benefit). This chapter analyses these two dimensions and sustains the case where only through international cooperation it is possible to serve the large num-ber of teachers and students involved in engineering education. It presents an ex-ample in the area of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, based on a remote lab named Virtual Instruments System in Reality, and it then describes how a number of European and Latin-American institutions have been cooperating under the scope of an Erasmus+ project2, for spreading its use in Brazil and Argentina.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Prostaglandins regulate nuclear localization of Fascin and its function in nucleolar architecture

Fascin, a highly conserved actin-bundling protein, localizes and functions at new cellular sites in both Drosophila and multiple mammalian cell types. During Drosophila follicle development, in addition to being cytoplasmic, Fascin is in the nuclei of the germline-derived nurse cells during stages 10B–12 (S10B–12) and at the nuclear periphery during stage 13 (S13). This localization is specific to Fascin, as other actin-binding proteins, Villin and Profilin, do not exhibit the same subcellular distribution. In addition, localization of fascin1 to the nucleus and nuclear periphery is observed in multiple mammalian cell types. Thus the regulation and function of Fascin at these new cellular locations is likely to be highly conserved. In Drosophila, loss of prostaglandin signaling causes a global reduction in nuclear Fascin and a failure to relocalize to the nuclear periphery. Alterations in nuclear Fascin levels result in defects in nucleolar morphology in both Drosophila follicles and cultured mammalian cells, suggesting that nuclear Fascin plays an important role in nucleolar architecture. Given the numerous roles of Fascin in development and disease, including cancer, our novel finding that Fascin has functions within the nucleus sheds new light on the potential roles of Fascin in these contexts

Matrix metalloproteinase-9 is involved in chronic lymphocytic leukemia cell response to fludarabine and arsenic trioxide

16 p.-1 tab.-11 fig.Background: Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) contributes to chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) pathology by regulating cell migration and preventing spontaneous apoptosis. It is not known if MMP-9 is involved in CLL cell response to chemotherapy and we address this in the present study, using arsenic trioxide (ATO) and fludarabine as examples of cytotoxic drugs. Methods: We used primary cells from the peripheral blood of CLL patients and MEC-1 cells stably transfected with an empty vector or a vector containing MMP-9. The effect of ATO and fludarabine was determined by flow cytometry and by the MTT assay. Expression of mRNA was measured by RT-PCR and qPCR. Secreted and cell-bound MMP-9 was analyzed by gelatin zymography and flow cytometry, respectively. Protein expression was analyzed by Western blotting and immunoprecipitation. Statistical analyses were performed using the two-tailed Student’s t-test. Results: In response to ATO or fludarabine, CLL cells transcriptionally upregulated MMP-9, preceding the onset of apoptosis. Upregulated MMP-9 primarily localized to the membrane of early apoptotic cells and blocking apoptosis with Z-VAD prevented MMP-9 upregulation, thus linking MMP-9 to the apoptotic process. Culturing CLL cells on MMP-9 or stromal cells induced drug resistance, which was overcome by anti-MMP-9 antibodies. Accordingly, MMP-9-MEC-1 transfectants showed higher viability upon drug treatment than Mock-MEC-1 cells, and this effect was blocked by silencing MMP-9 with specific siRNAs. Following drug exposure, expression of anti-apoptotic proteins (Mcl-1, Bcl-xL, Bcl-2) and the Mcl-1/Bim, Mcl-1/Noxa, Bcl-2/Bax ratios were higher in MMP-9-cells than in Mock-cells. Similar results were obtained upon culturing primary CLL cells on MMP-9. Conclusions: Our study describes for the first time that MMP-9 induces drug resistance by modulating proteins of the Bcl-2 family and upregulating the corresponding anti-apoptotic/pro-apoptotic ratios. This is a novel role for MMP-9 contributing to CLL progression. Targeting MMP-9 in combined therapies may thus improve CLL response to treatment.This work was supported by grants SAF2012-31613 (AGP) and RTICC (Red Temática de Investigación Cooperativa en Cáncer) RD12/0036/0061 (AGP), from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), Spain; S2010/BMD-2314-Neoplasbim (AGP) from the Comunidad de Madrid/European Union; and by a grant from the Fundaci?n Puerta de Hierro, Madrid (JAGM). IAJ and EB were were supported by the Junta de Ampliación de Estudios program, CSIC/EU, Spain.Peer reviewe