News

Every year, Alzheimer’s World Day takes place on September 21. As this is one of the research areas of TecnATox, several investigators will attend an event at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, co-organized by URV, IISPV, St. Joan University Hospital, the Alzheimer's Association of Reus and Baix Camp, the Family Association of Alzheimer Costa Daurada,  and the Catalan Society of Biology, territorial section of Southern Catalonia. Dr. Mònica Bulló will be one of the invited speakers, while Dr. Jaume Folch will be the moderator of the round table.

DeepiKa Deepika successfully defended her doctoral thesis on 7th September 2022. She obtained the maximum qualification Excellent Cum Laude. Her thesis was entitled "Quantitative Systems Toxicology Modeling for Neuronal Adverse Outcome", and it was supervised by Dr. Vikas Kumar, Dr. Raju Prasad Sharma and Prof. Marta Schuhmacher.

Scientific research does not stop in Summer. In August, TecnATox researchers published two new articles in high-impact scientific journals on Environmental Sciences:

Dr. Venkatanaidu Karri, former researcher of TecnATox, was invited as a speaker for the Multidisciplinary Seminar Program by ETSEQ in May 2022. The title of his presentation was "Toxicological Risk Assessment of Medical Devices: An industry perspective".

Dr. Karri is currently a Biosafety Specialist at Coloplast A/S Global Med Tech Company, Copenhagen-Denmark. His current role at Coloplast A/S as a Biosafety Specialist focuses on writing safety assessment reports of medical devices as per EU, and FDA regulatory compliance, REACH Chemical Compliance assessment documentation, and stakeholder management. He performed his PhD between 2015 and 2018 at TecnATox, under the supervision of Prof. Marta Schuhmacher and Dr. Vikas Kumar. His dissertation focused on the “metal mixtures neurotoxicity using proteomics approach”. After his PhD, he worked as a Post-doctoral Researcher at Karolinska Institute (KI) Sweden (2019-2021) and Maastricht University (2018-2019) – The Netherlands.

TecnATox working group on micro- and nanoplastics continues very active. Dr. Rovira has been invited to participate in the workshop "IMPULSEM L'ECONOMIA BLAVA AMB MIRADA DE DONA", which will take place next July 25, 2022 at Centre Cívic - Montse Civit, Segur de Calafell.

More information on the workshop can be found by clicking here.

The online newspaper "El Español" recently published a very interesting article on the impact of microplastics on Tarragona coast. Dr. Joaquim Rovira was interviewed and presented the main findings of his scientific article, co-authored by other TecnATox researchers and published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

In June 14, Dr. Jaume Folch and Nora Expósito, researchers of TecnATox, participated at the round table The coastal environment: challenges and opportunities of natural spaces to the limit, co-organized by URV Environmental Office, Good Karma Projects, the Catalan Society of Biology and TecnATox.

The talk of both researchers was a great success, proving that TecnATox has become a world reference group in the analysis, exposure and risks of micro- and nanoplastics.

TecnATox is looking for a candidate to perform the PhD thesis in our Center. The provisional title of the PhD thesis is Exploring the role of chemical pollutants on the development of adverse health outcomes during pregnancy.

More information can be found at https://www.iispv.cat/oferta-de-treball/letter-of-interest-predoctoral-researcher-for-the-tecnatox-research-group/

 

Dr. Joaquim Rovira has been invited as a speaker at the conference entitled Micro- and nanoplastics pollution: putting an eye on the Mediterranean area, organized by the Aquaculture Section of the Catalan Society of Biology. The aim of this conference is to create a link between the entire Catalan scientific community which, from a very broad perspective, works on the effects of micro- and nanoplastic pollution on the ecosystems and trophic chains, as well as on the human health. 

The conference will take place in 21-22 July 2022 (9h-14h), at the Pere i Joan Coromines Room of Institute for Catalan Studies (IEC). More information can be found at https://scb.iec.cat/jornades-daquicultura/, while registrations can be made at https://www.iec.cat/jornades/nanoplastic2022.asp

On the 21st of July, at the end of the day, there will be a trip to visit CRAM, the Foundation for the Conservation and Recovery of Animals, which has several projects focused on microplastics. Attention! The attendance is reserved to max. 25 people. Hurry up!

Dr. Roberta Carafa, former postdoctoral reseacher of TecnATox, was awarded in the First Edition of the Awards for the Best Invention Protected by Industrial Property Rights, organized by the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas, OEPM). The ceremony was chaired by the Spanish Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Ms. María Reyes Maroto, and took place in the gardens of the School of Industrial Organization, Madrid.

Dr. Carafa received her recognition as a mention in the Utility Model category, as a result of the development of a sampling device to analyze micro and nanoplastic in oceans and rivers, of potential application in environmental management of water quality. The authors of the model are Dr. Roberta Carafa -who has received the award- together with Dr. Jordi Sierra, Dr. Jaume Folch and Nora Expósito, all of them supervised by Prof. Marta Schuhmacher.

The device was developed in the framework of the projects TOXMIC, which was funded by ACCIÓ under the TecnioSpring PLUS program (TECSPR17-1-0012, 2018-2020), and INSPECTION (2019PROD00113), financed by AGAUR and FEDER (EMC/1434/2019, 2020-2022).