Pia Cosma, CRG researcher, participates in the dialogues on the boundaries of knowledge about “new approaches to the optogenetic neuronal control” at the #BISTConference19.

Pia Cosma has spoken on new approaches to the optogenetic neuronal control, together with Prof. Edward Boyden (Dept. of Biological Engineering, MIT), Prof. Valentina Emiliani (Institut de la Vision, CNRS, Paris), Prof. Ernest Giralt (Design, Synthesis and Structure of Peptides and Proteins Group, IRB Barcelona) and Prof. Michael Krieg (Neurophotonics And Mechanical Systems Biology Group, ICFO).

Optogenetics is a biological technique that involves the use of light to control cells in living tissue, typically neurons, that have been genetically modified to express light-sensitive ion channels. As such, this technique can be used to study neural activity through light stimulation. It can furthermore help manage several central nervous system (CNS) diseases.

This technique could be applied together with other potential new therapeutic approaches for retinal dystrophies, which is of great importance in the area of Pia Cosma’s work: at her lab they inject “activated” stem cells that go to the retina of mice with pigmented retinosis and they fuse with damaged cells. This way cells are created initially with two nuclei that seem to regenerate the injured photoreceptors, thus restoring part of their vision.

A couple of years ago, a B-debate was organized on “Fighting Blindness. Challenges and future opportunities for visual restoration “, as session director and lecturer. This event took place at the CaixaForum in Barcelona. Organized jointly by B-Debate, a Biocat initiative and “la Caixa”, and the Barcelona Macula Foundation, with the collaboration of the CRG and the Leitat Foundation, the event proposed ideas to explore the potential of new therapeutic approaches for retinal dystrophies combining nanotechnology, regenerative medicine, stem cells, gene therapy, genomics, bioengineering, optogenetics and photonics.

Blindness is a major global health challenge because of the enormous impact it has on patients and their families, and their important socio-economic consequences. Besides the great emotional impact that this implies for patients and their families, also means the inability to pursue education, to find a quality job, an increased risk for falls and accidents, a limited autonomy and an impediment to have an active lifestyle and quality.

“We have described a new model that explains how chromatin fibers are structured,” says Pia Cosma, a researcher at the CRG and co-author of the study, made with the microscopy technique awarded with the latest Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This team introduces the concept of “egg laying” in the scientific literature to refer to the heterogeneity in the sizes of nucleosome groups distributed in nests along the chromatin fiber.

The nucleus of a human cell houses about two meters of genetic material, our instruction book. In these two meters, the DNA is packed in chromosomes and these are organized into nucleosomes, some clews of proteins that give rise to chromatin fiber, a structure with the appearance of a pearl necklace. For the first time, scientists have observed in animals, in a non-invasive manner and with sufficient quality, the nucleosomes. It is a high resolution photograph of our genome, says Pia Cosma.

Until now it was thought that the nucleosomes were very compacted and spread regularly on the chromatin. In contrast, new experiments with adult human and mouse stem cells and cells show that they are packaged differently. In addition, the study adds that they are separated by regions of nucleosome-free DNA.

The nuance has great implications. On a nanometric scale, of millionths of a millimeter, the internal genome architecture is correlated with the level of pluripotency of the cell, its ability to differentiate into any other cell type. The more pluripotent a cell is, the less rigid is the packaging of its genetic material, according to the conclusions of a study published today in the journal Cell by a team of biologists from the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and physicists of the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO ), both in Barcelona.

As Pia Cosma points out: “Until now the technology did not allow to identify the quantity and position of nucleosomes in living cells”.

This technique, with a cost of between 200,000 and 500,000 euros, improves the quality of the images to 20 nanometers, millionths of a millimeter. A conventional optical microscope got them at 300 nanometers because of diffraction. However, Lakadamyali points out that super-resolution is a “still relatively slow” technique compared to its predecessors. He adds that the method should improve the speed to capture cell dynamics with millisecond precision.

On the occasion of World Retina Day, celebrated last 29 September, we would like to remind Pia Cosma’s work on an issue that affects the vision of many people: retinitis pigmentosa.

As Pia Cosma (CRG) points our “Retina Pigmentosa is caused by the loss of photoreceptors, which are the neurons of the retina that lose light in nerve signals. It usually manifests in childhood and patients lose sight. ” Although the speed of evolution varies greatly, the majority of those affected reach 40 years without any vision.

At the moment, the therapies that exist only delay this process, but they do not avoid the problem. In the lab of Pia Cosma, however, they have managed to find an innovative approach. “We have identified a molecular path that allows reprogramming cells and transforming them into new photoreceptors.” In her study, Pia Cosma has managed to transplant stem cells from the bone marrow to the damaged retina in mouse models. Spontaneously, cells fuse with glia cells, generating new hybrid cells capable of converting into new photoreceptors.

World Pigmentary Retinosis Day is an event promoted by patient associations from around the world with the objective of sensitizing and informing the population about retinitis pigmentosa, a group of degenerative diseases of the retina (EDR) that, of hereditary nature, cause a serious decrease in visual capacity and, ultimately, can lead to patient blindness

As FARPE explains, “we claim World Pigmentary Retinitis Day with the aim of promoting a scenario in which hereditary retinal dystrophies are recognized, among which is pigmentary retinosis, as a multidisciplinary problem that affects different areas: family, social, scientific, health, etc. ”.

Within the framework of the celebration of the event, FARPE has presented its manifesto ‘Let’s look forward to the Progress in Research’, in which it asks the public administrations for an update of the Map of Health Centers with Retina Units, as well as the expansion of Service Centers and Reference Units (CSUR) in order to have a rigorous record of those affected by hereditary retinal dystrophies, especially retinitis pigmentosa.

Forbes has published his list of 53 Women-Led Startups Disrupting HealthTech, which ranks top entrepreneurs in the health tech area. Amongst the great and innovative ideas gathered in the article the two start-ups from Barcelona are highlighted; Mimetis Biomaterials and Bwom.

Mimetis Biomaterials is a spin-off of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), that provides new innovative biomaterials for bone regeneration. The company has developed a unique technology, which allows obtaining fourth-generation biomimetic bone grafts, which mimic the physiological processes of bone formation.

As the company co-founder, Maria Pau Ginebra, explains in the following video:

Maria Pau Ginebra was one of the 9 finalists of the 2018 EU Prize for Women Innovators  – a competition to highlight Europe’s best research and entrepreneurial talents.

The company is currently looking to grow and launched earlier this year an investment round to obtain 1,2 million euros to open new markets and launch a new 3D printed product.

Bwom isa digital coach for women’s health and wellbeing which comes to provide an answer to more than 60% of women who experience intimate health problems and symptoms at some time in their life but do not dare to ask for help. The app is available for iphone and android, and had last year over 200.000 users worldwide.

Her CEO and cofounder, Helena Torra, explains here (in Spanish)

The app helps women improve their well-being and quality of life and their pelvic floor and intimate health coach on their mobile.

Another one of the very interesting congresses held in Barcelona during the last weeks is B·Debate, an initiative of Biocat and “la Caixa”.

Scientific leaders like Luis Serrano and Maria Lluch Senar (CRG) and Marc Güell (UPF) participated at the event, together with over ten researchers to share their views on the medical applications of gene editing technologies, with the aim of connecting with industry and society and promoting scientific progress and its sustainable translation into economic and health benefits.

The debate focused on the development of new tools and new applications for various problems in biotechnology, and addressed the ethical and philosophical concerns around them. In fact, one of the great pannel discussions was the one on ethical concerns which was moderated by the bright Pere Estupinyà, and had experts like Lluís Montoliu and MArc Güell). In big lines, the question was whether “anything that can be done should be done”.

Synthetic biology is the application of science, technology and engineering to facilitate and accelerate the design, manufacture and / or modification of genetic materials in living organisms. It leads to a new era in a wide variety of research fields, including sustainable energy, food production, biomaterials, better understanding of human biology and development of novel therapies. The engineering of life is changing the medicine of the future.

B · Debate aims to promote international scientific events of first level to promote debate, collaboration and open exchange of knowledge between experts of recognized national and international prestige to face complex challenges of high interest in the life sciences. The debates encourage the integration of various disciplines of science.

Amongst the large amount of talks and congresses held in Barcelona I’d like to highlight one which I enjoyed very much: the Tech4Good congress.

Organized last week at CaixaForum Barcelona, the Congress focused on Biotech & GreenTech covering sustainability and food productivity, circular economy and health.

The conference was organized by Eurecat – a leading catalyser of research and innovation in Catalonia, and sponsored by Griffols

The first panel, on food sustainability, had Amaya Prat Responsible for innovation, Certification and Sustainability at Grup Ametller Origin who spoke on the circular economy in integrated agri-food value chain, stressing the importance of sustainable packaging to avoid plastics.  Óscar Longares, Head of Business Development at Feltwood, showed how his company converts lettuces into packaging.

Representatives of large FMCG companies such as Danone and Henkel also spoke at the congress.  Talking about sustainability and waste, Borja Lafuente, Danone, said “we are squatters of the resources of the future, we have to revalue the waste”. Dennis Bankmann (Henkel) flagged the need “to design products bearing in mind their life cycle”, and move to a real circular economy.

Also on the health panel, talking about the challenges of sustainable design, Xavier Farré, (Uriach) said that “80% of the product impact is decided in the design phase”, where the waste that it generates needs to be addressed.

All the speakers highlighted the need for biotech and green tech to be applied in order to face the challenges we have as society. The congress will be held next year on the issues of socialtech (to cover human rights, social commitment and social services).

We had the great pleasure to interview Pia Cosma, ICREA Research Professor and Senior Scientist at Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG).

Pia Cosma shared with us the projects that keep her currently busy as well as her views on the city of Barcelona, the CRG and the future of research.

One of your key areas of work is the study of the regeneration of cells to combat blindness. What are you currently working on?

In the past we demonstrated that we could regenerate different types of neurons in the retina like photoreceptors or ganglion cells into the mice. And we did this by transplanting hematopoietic stem cells that we isolated from the bone marrow. These cells can fuse with Muller Glia cells. The resulting hybrids, upon activation a specific pathway in the cells, which is called Wnt signalling, can induce regeneration because they can differentiate into photoreceptors or ganglion cells. Now we are testing this type of approach to move our studies toward a more human context.

You cooperate with different institutions and parties like “La Caixa” Banking Foundation or the Barraquer Institute. How important is collaboration in your daily work?

This collaboration is very important. The project is financed by La Caixa and allows us to partner with the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and Barraquer Institute to progress and test our findings on humans. We obtain organoids from IBEC and Barraquer provides us with donation of retina so we can test some concepts on retinal explants.

How many researchers do you lead in your Pia Cosma lab and what kind of profiles and background do they have?

We are between 15 and 18 in our Lab in Barcelona, including post-docs, PHD students, master students. It is a very multidisciplinary environment, with experts on physics, biology etc.. They all have very different backgrounds as we have different projects.

And you have recently open in China.

Yes, we have signed an agreement recently with China to carry our research there. China is a place where we need to be as they are investing a lot in research and they have very good students. It will help us accelerate our research.

What are the three things Pia Cosma enjoys the most in the CRG

The CRG is a great place to be. It is a very international center, with nearly 70% of foreigners. It is also very dynamic. There’s a great level of mobility, people coming and going, international scientists that give conferences all the time… And the environment is very mixed, which I believe is great for science.

What would you tell young researchers that want to pursue their dream?

Science is so competitive nowadays that I would say that they should never give up. Young researchers need to pursue their ideas. They need to be kind of independent and follow their ideas. For instance, I supervise the work of my students, but I always try not to interfere. The best ideas come from young scientist.

What’s the best thing about working in Barcelona?

Barcelona is a great city to live in and I enjoy it very much. It is very organized, there are plenty of things to do and it’s very easy for family life.

And if you could change one thing in the research world, what would that be?

Because science is very competitive, sometimes cooperation is not so easy. We could make a faster progress if we all shared more our knowledge. We would push forward discovery much faster. It is however linked to the fact of how we are evaluated, which makes science highly competitive.

Science is important for society, but how could we bring science closer to citizens?

It is a must. If the interest from the general public towards science increases, the interest from politicians and decision makers will increase too and therefore there will be more resources for research. That’s why many colleagues of my lab participate regularly in events and activities to tell the people how science is and that we are normal people. It is an important part of our work to explain science to society.

CRG researchers discuss on the importance of genome architecture for cell identity on the May 16 issue of Nature.

Guillaume Filion and Thomas Graf, researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), and ex-CRG Ralph Stadhouders, discuss recent evidence in the magazine.

The conformation of the genome of a given cell is under study thanks to technological advances in the study of the folding of chromatin in 3D. One hotly debated topic is the role of chromatin architecture in gene expression: is it just a consequence of changes in transcription or does it have an informative value in itself?esearchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, Spain, have identified the mechanism by which an important enzyme involved in the differentiation of stem cells is brought to the DNA.

CRG researchers wtihin Thomas Graf team published recently in the journal Cell Stem Cell the mechanism by which an important enzyme involved in the differentiation of stem cells is brought to the DNA., in a study done together with scientists from the Institut de Biologie de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris and from CNAG-CRG and Harvard Medical School, studied this complex process.

Guillaume Filion tackles the question of how the regulatory genome co-ordinates the coding genome. By applying novel molecular and computational sequencing techniques, his research especially focuses on how chromatin influences genome transcription (‘invasion landscapes’), and how it shapes the genome sequence in the course of evolution (‘chromatin print’).

They are both a great example of how CRG is producing high quality research.

Pia Cosma (CRG) team brings science closer to citizens.

This interesting video on complexity of Life, explains how is life at the CRG – Center for Genomic Regulation.

I really like when researchers show convery their passion for science and make it easy to understand for society at large. In recent years, a number of videos are helping covney this message: research is not only for lonely genious that hardly see the light. It can certainly be a way of living for young and fresh students and researchers that feel the thrill of investigating, discovering and helping society.

Pia Cosma’s colleague Daniela Sanges explains it very well. She is delighted of joining CRG because of the great facilities the center has and the support on her project on retina regeneration.

Australian national, Mekayla Storer aslo refers to the great mentoring she gets when carrying out her project at the CRG. She defines the environment as fresh, young and nice to work at.

They both refer to the great level of interaction with group leaders, and how this helps them in their especialization and professional growth.

Some time ago I had the chance to participate at a conference on women and STEM, at which some very good examples of women and research were given. I remember one speech in particular, by Tamara Maes. She is currently vicepresident of Oryzon, a public clinical stage biopharmaceutical company and the European leader in the development of epigenetics-based therapeutics.

At the conference, Tamara referred to the difficulties she encoutered when saying at school that she wanted to become a scientist. The profesor of the school told her that maths and other siences were more for male students, and that she mastered languages so well that it would be a pity to choose the worng path. It was finally thanks to the support she found in her family that she chose the scientific road and she is now one of the inspiring references we can share with students.

All these stories should be known, be it by video, conferences, articles or movies. Any girl should know she has to chase her dream and that science is cool.