Partners_CSIC – piezo4spine

Expertise:

Material science

Main role in the project:

Coordination of the project; Synthesis of 3D mesh and nanocarriers and force microscopy studies

CSIC is the largest public research organisation in Spain, the fourth-largest public research institution in the European Union and the sixth in the world. It has more than 11,000 employees, of which almost 4,000 are research staff, distributed in its 121 research institutes throughout the Spanish territory.

Institute & research teams:

Institute of Material Science of Madrid (ICMM-CSIC)

Piezo4Spine coordinator: María Concepción Serrano López-Terradas, PhD

Within CSIC, the Institute of Material Science of Madrid (ICMM-CSIC) is located at the campus of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) and its mission is to generate new fundamental and applied knowledge on materials and processes with added value, and their transfer to the productive sectors. From ICMM-CSIC, there are two different research teams involved in the Piezo4Spine project:

Materials for Medicine and Biotechnology Group (MaMBIO)

Involved principal investigator: Prof. M. Puerto Morales

The MaMBIO team is devoted to search for new perspectives on the synthesis, structure and function of materials. Its main research topics focus on the preparation, functionalization and characterization of nanomaterials, primarily nanoparticles to provide new insights into their properties and application in fields such as bioimaging, nanomedicine, catalysis, magnetic devices, and sensors. MaMBIO also focused on the design and development of 3D biomaterials for biomedical applications including tissue engineering for neural repair.

ForceTool Group

Involved principal investigator: Prof. Ricardo García

The research activity of the ForceTool group is focused on the development of analytical tools and methodologies based on scanning probe technology for exploring the nanoscale. The research activity is divided in four scientific domains: high-speed AFM, nanomechanics, mechanobiology and solid-liquid interfaces.

The specificity of scientific activity rests on four pillars. (i). The design and development of high-speed atomic force microscopes based on multifrequency schemes. (ii). The atomic-scale characterization of solid-liquid interfaces. The study of the relationship between the nanomechanical properties of a cell and its physiology. (iv) Integration of instrumentation and theoretical modelling to develop functional devices for the nanoscale.