Securing and streamlining the delivery of financial development aid: Blockchain as a disruptive tool to meet the UN SDGs

Màster en Diplomàcia i Organitzacions Internacionals, Centre d'Estudis Internacionals. Universitat de Barcelona. Curs: 2020-2021. Tutora: Lela MélonThe lack of efficiency and efficacy financial development aid has historically shown can be vastly corrected and thus improved using emergent Blockchain technologies through digital platforms, as they can bring major security and assure a more streamlined delivery. From a critical perspective, the work introduces a new theoretical and practical proposal oriented towards the potential Blockchain technologies can have in helping to meet the UN SDGs, particularly Goal nº17

Robòtica a l'escola. Canviar el paradigma educatiu i el mètode d'aprenentatge

L'article presenta l'experiència d'introducció de la robòtica dins la planificació curricular d'una escola de primària a través d'un procés progressiu i graduat. La realitat dels resultats obtinguts mostra, a través dels criteris emesos pel propi alumnat, el benefici educatiu que representa l'ús de la robòtica com a element generador de motivació i interès per l'aprenentatge. Metodològicament es treballa des d'una perspectiva de treball cooperatiu, mètode de projectes i resolució de problemes amb un fort component de contingut interdisciplinari. En aquest marc es constata la gran transcendència i necessitat del treball competencial en l'àmbit matemàtic.The article describes the experience of progressively introducing robotics into the curriculumplanning of a primary school. The results obtained, according to the criteria of the students themselves, show the educational benefit of the use of robotics as an element generatingmotivation and interest in learning.Methodologically speaking, a teamwork approach is adopted, a project and problem-solvingmethod containing a strong component of interdisciplinary content.Within this framework,we observe the crucial importance and the need of competency-based work in the field of mathematics

Semblants de família

Aquest projecte se situa a La Selva de Mar, un poble de l’alt Empordà, i consisteix en la rehabilitació d’una casa entre mitgeres amb la idea de crear una casa descendent de la qual es troba a la seva dreta. Les cases compartiran el jardí interior creant una nova unitat familiar. El que es vol aconseguir amb aquest projecte és crear semblants de família entre les dues cases. Per tal d’aconseguir-ho, caldrà estudiar les característiques que defineixen l’essència d’un ambient per descobrir de quina manera aquestes dues cases poden pertànyer a una mateixa família. Això afectarà que la seva arquitectura s’ajusti a la d’una casa popular de l’Alt Empordà amb un estil post modern característic de la seva casa veïna i un interior càlid però fresc amb un codi de colors que ajuda a distribuir i identificar els espais i amb certa lleugeresa del seu mobiliari. Aquell toc tradicional perdurarà en la seva envolvent i ens transportarà al mediterrani col·locant- hi un mobiliari més modern amb un toc de color que ens apropa a la singularitat del Port de la Selva i la Selva de Mar.Este proyecto esta situado en la Selva de Mar, un pueblo del Alto Ampurdán y consiste en la rehabilitación de una casa entre medianeras con la idea de crear una casa que desciende de la que se encuentra a su derecha. Las casa compartirán el jardín interior creando una nueva unidad familiar. Lo que se quiere conseguir con este proyecto es crear parecidos de familia entre las dos casa. Con tal de lograrlo, se estudiaran las características que definen la esencia de un ambiente para descubrir de que manera estas casa pueden pertenecer a una misma familia. Todo esto afectará a que su arquitectura se ajuste a la de una casa popular del Alto Ampurdán con un estilo postmoderno característico de su casa vecina i un interior cálido pero fresco con un código de colores que ayuda a distribuir e identificar los espacios i con cierta ligereza en su mobiliario. Ese toque tradicional perdurará en su envolvente transportándonos al mediterráneo i en su interior se colocará un mobiliario mas moderno con un toque de color que nos acerca a la singularidad del Puerto de la Selva i la Selva de Mar.This project takes place in a village called La Selva de Mar, in the Alt Empordà. It consists of the rehabilitation of a row house with the idea of creating a descendant on the row house to it’s right. The houses will share the interior garden creating a new family unit. The rehabilitation project sets out to achieve a sense of family resemblance between the two houses. To accomplish this, the characteristics which define the essence of an ambient should be studied in order to discover the ways in which these two houses pertain to the same family. This affect the architecture of the house that has to be adjusted to the Alt Empordà popular houses with a post-modern style from its row neighbor house. Its interior will be warm but fresh with a color code that helps to identify and distribute the spaces with some lightness in its furniture. This traditional atmosphere will last in its envelope transporting us to the Mediterranean. And, in its interior we will have much modern furniture with a color code that remind us to Port de la Selva and Selva de Mar singularity

Estació meteorològica per a interior de mina

2n Premi Domènec Valero 2014Award-winnin

Targeting antitumoral proteins to breast cancer by local administration of functional inclusion bodies

Altres ajuts de l'Instituto de Salud Carlos III: PI15/00272, PI1702242FIS i #PI16/01224Two structurally and functionally unrelated proteins, namely Omomyc and p31, are engineered as CD44-targeted inclusion bodies produced in recombinant bacteria. In this unusual particulate form, both types of protein materials selectively penetrate and kill CD44 tumor cells in culture, and upon local administration, promote destruction of tumoral tissue in orthotropic mouse models of human breast cancer. These findings support the concept of bacterial inclusion bodies as versatile protein materials suitable for application in chronic diseases that, like cancer, can benefit from a local slow release of therapeutic protein

hnRNPDL phase separation is regulated by alternative splicing and disease-causing mutations accelerate its aggregation

Altres ajuts: .V. acknowledges funding from ICREA (ICREA-Academia 2016). IRB Barcelona is the recipient of a Severo Ochoa Award of Excellence from MINECO (government of Spain). C.B. acknowledges funding from "Ministerio de Educación y Formación ProfesionalPrion-like proteins form multivalent assemblies and phase separate into membraneless organelles. Heterogeneous ribonucleoprotein D-like (hnRNPDL) is a RNA-processing prion-like protein with three alternative splicing (AS) isoforms, which lack none, one, or both of its two disordered domains. It has been suggested that AS might regulate the assembly properties of RNA-processing proteins by controlling the incorporation of multivalent disordered regions in the isoforms. This, in turn, would modulate their activity in the downstream splicing program. Here, we demonstrate that AS controls the phase separation of hnRNPDL, as well as the size and dynamics of its nuclear complexes, its nucleus-cytoplasm shuttling, and amyloidogenicity. Mutation of the highly conserved D378 in the disordered C-terminal prion-like domain of hnRNPDL causes limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 1G. We show that D378H/N disease mutations impact hnRNPDL assembly properties, accelerating aggregation and dramatically reducing the protein solubility in the muscle of Drosophila, suggesting a genetic loss-of-function mechanism for this muscular disorde

Bottom-up instructive quality control in the biofabrication of smart protein materials

The impact of cell factory quality control on material properties is a neglected but critical issue in the fabrication of protein biomaterials, which are unique in merging structure and function. The molecular chaperoning of protein conformational status is revealed here as a potent molecular instructor of the macroscopic properties of self-assembling, cell-targeted protein nanoparticles, including biodistribution upon in vivo administration

Targeting antitumoral proteins to breast cancer by local administration of functional inclusion bodies

Biofabrication; Cancer therapy; Functional amyloidsBiofabricación; Terapia contra el cáncer; Amiloides funcionalesBiofabricació; Teràpia contra el càncer; Amiloides funcionalsTwo structurally and functionally unrelated proteins, namely Omomyc and p31, are engineered as CD44-targeted inclusion bodies produced in recombinant bacteria. In this unusual particulate form, both types of protein materials selectively penetrate and kill CD44+ tumor cells in culture, and upon local administration, promote destruction of tumoral tissue in orthotropic mouse models of human breast cancer. These findings support the concept of bacterial inclusion bodies as versatile protein materials suitable for application in chronic diseases that, like cancer, can benefit from a local slow release of therapeutic proteins.This study has been supported by La Fundacio Marato TV3 and NanoCanTri (CIBER-BBN) to E.V. and I.A., and partially by ISCIII (PI15/00272 and PI1702242 co-founded by Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), to E.V. and S.S., respectively), and Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI) and FEDER (BIO2016-76063-R, AEI/FEDER, UE), AGAUR (2017SGR-229) and CIBER-BBN (VENOM4CANCER) granted to A.V. Protein production and DLS have been partially performed by the ICTS "NANBIOSIS," more specifically by the Protein Production Platform of CIBER-BBN/IBB () and the Biomaterial Processing and Nanostructuring Unit (), respectively. Biodistribution and immunohistochemistry assays were performed at the ICTS "NANBIOSIS," specifically by U20/FVPR (). L.S.-G. was supported by predoctoral fellowship from AGAUR (2018FI_B2_00051). L.S. was supported by the European Research Council (CoG #617473) and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (FIS #PI16/01224). J.S.-F. was supported by an AECC post-doctoral fellowship. A.V. received an ICREA ACADEMIA awar

Controlling self-assembling and tumor cell-targeting of protein-only nanoparticles through modular protein engineering

Altres ajuts: EU COST Action CA 17140. Villaverde A received an ICREA ACADEMIA award. Unzueta was supported by PERIS program from the Health Department of la Generalitat de Catalunya.Modular protein engineering is suited to recruit complex and multiple functionalities in single-chain polypeptides. Although still unexplored in a systematic way, it is anticipated that the positioning of functional domains would impact and refine these activities, including the ability to organize as supramolecular entities and to generate multifunctional protein materials. To explore this concept, we have repositioned functional segments in the modular protein T22-GFP-H6 and characterized the resulting alternative fusions. In T22-GFP-H6, the combination of T22 and H6 promotes self-assembling as regular nanoparticles and selective binding and internalization of this material in CXCR4-overexpressing tumor cells, making them appealing as vehicles for selective drug delivery. The results show that the pleiotropic activities are dramatically affected in module-swapped constructs, proving the need of a carboxy terminal positioning of H6 for protein self-assembling, and the accommodation of T22 at the amino terminus as a requisite for CXCR4 cell binding and internalization. Furthermore, the failure of self-assembling as regular oligomers reduces cellular penetrability of the fusions while keeping the specificity of the T22-CXCR4 interaction. All these data instruct how multifunctional nanoscale protein carriers can be designed for smart, protein-driven drug delivery, not only for the treatment of CXCR4 human neoplasias, but also for the development of anti-HIV drugs and other pathologies in which CXCR4 is a relevant homing marker

Release of targeted protein nanoparticles from functional bacterial amyloids : A death star-like approach

Altres ajuts: we are indebted to CIBER de Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (projects NANOREMOTE and VENOM4CANCER) to EV and AV respectively, Marató de TV3 foundation (TV32013-132031) and CIBER (NanoMets3) to RM. Protein production has been partially performed by the ICTS "NANBIOSIS", more specifically by the Protein Production Platform of CIBER in Bioengineering, Biomaterials & Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN)/IBB, at the UAB SepBioES scientific-technical service (http://www.nanbiosis.es/unit/u1-protein-production-platform-ppp/), whereas the in vivo biodistribution assays were performed in the NANBIOSIS Nanotoxicology platform (http://www.nanbiosis.es/unit/u18-nanotoxicology-unit/). We are also indebted to Fran Cortes from the Cell Culture and Cytometry Units of the Servei de Cultius Cel·lulars, Producció d'Anticossos i Citometria (SCAC), and to the Servei de Microscòpia at the UAB. AV received an ICREA ACADEMIA award. U.U received a Sara Borrell postdoctoral fellowship from ISCIII, MVC was supported by Miguel Servet contract from ISCIII, and JSF received and AECC postdoctoral fellowship.Sustained release of drug delivery systems (DDS) has the capacity to increase cancer treatment efficiency in terms of drug dosage reduction and subsequent decrease of deleterious side effects. In this regard, many biomaterials are being investigated but none offers morphometric and functional plasticity and versatility comparable to protein-based nanoparticles (pNPs). Here we describe a new DDS by which pNPs are fabricated as bacterial inclusion bodies (IB), that can be easily isolated, subcutaneously injected and used as reservoirs for the sustained release of targeted pNPs. Our approach combines the high performance of pNP, regarding specific cell targeting and biodistribution with the IB supramolecular organization, stability and cost effectiveness. This renders a platform able to provide a sustained source of CXCR4-targeted pNPs that selectively accumulate in tumor cells in a CXCR4 colorectal cancer xenograft model. In addition, the proposed system could be potentially adapted to any other protein construct offering a plethora of possible new therapeutic applications in nanomedicine