Four projects presented by BCMaterials have obtained the approval of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation within the State Subprogram ‘Generación de Conocimiento (Knowledge Generation) 2022’. The center obtained the approval of 80% of its proposals to this call. Two of the approved projects will develop innovative solutions in biomedicine and biotechnology, while the other two will be oriented towards sustainable energy generation.

Projects in biomedicine and biotechnology

From left to right: Aingeru Ramos, Mario Fernández, Elvira Vidal, Jesús Alcaine, Santiago Ceballos and Zain Ul Abideen.

BCMaterials welcomes six new researchers who joined our center in recent days. They are Elvira Vidal, Aingeru Ramos, Zain Ul Abideeen, Santiago Ceballos, Jesús Alcaine and Mario Fernández. The first five are pre-doctoral researchers and the sixth one, is a post-doctoral researcher.

At the end of June, the kick-off of the UNICORN project took place in Milan (Italy). This project is funded by the European Union, through its HORIZON-EIC PATHFINDER OPEN program, which supports highly disruptive scientific proposals. BCMaterials participates in this project as a partner. UNICORN's main goal is to develop innovative radiation and neutrino detectors based on nanocrystalline materials.

We would like to welcome Vikas Kumar as a new post-doctoral researcher at our centre.  Dr. Kumar completed his Ph.D. in Bioinformatics at Gyeongsang National University in South Korea. During his doctoral studies, Dr. Kumar focused on specialized areas of ligand and structure-based drug design, utilizing a range of computational methodologies including pharmacophore modelling, virtual screening, and molecular dynamics simulations.

BCMaterials has recently become an associate member of the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC). This organization acts as a representative of the public-private partnership of the bioindustrial sector before the European Commission, with the aim of turning the bioindustry of our continent into the engine of a society focused on the circular economy by 2050.

We welcome to BCMaterials Oihane Jiménez and Asier Gómez, new administrative officer and new IT technical assistant. Both of them will work as interns. We hope you enjoy this period with us and that it will be beneficial for your professional career!

We would like to welcome Andrey Shibaev as a new post-doctoral researcher at our center. Dr. Shibaev obtained his PhD in polymer physics from the Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia), then worked there at the Chair of polymer and crystal physics as a junior and senior researcher and became an associate professor in 2022, specializing in the self-assembly of complex polymer and surfactant systems and polymer gels.

Researchers from BCMaterials and the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) collaborated with the University of Oregon and the EPFL School of Engineering in the successful transformation of a 3D printer into a low-cost, high-tech Melt Electrowriting (MEW) open source device. This new equipment, called MEWron, makes printing at high-resolutions much more affordable and customizable.

We want to give our warmest welcome to Timur Tropin, who joined BCMaterials as a post-doctoral researcher. Dr. Tropin has a long experience as a physicist working at the Group of Physics and Nanosystems (further – GRAINS group, specializing in neutron reflectometry for soft matter systems) that belongs to the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics (FLNP) of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia. Dr.

BCMaterials researchers travelled to Chile and Argentina in late May with the aim of strengthening cooperation ties with research institutions in both countries. The visit included the Advanced Mining Technology Center (AMTC) of the University of Chile and the Institute of Chemistry and Drug Metabolism (IQUIMEFA) of the University of Buenos Aires.