Los ICREA

Los catedráticos de investigación de ICREA forman una comunidad dinámica de científicos e investigadores de todas las áreas del conocimiento, que contribuyen al progreso de la humanidad con sus estudios, interpretaciones y cuestionamientos. Entre y descubra sus increíbles descubrimientos y hallazgos:

Slafer Lago, Gustavo A.

Universitat de Lleida (UdL)

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Slafer Lago, Gustavo A.
Research Professor at
Universitat de Lleida (UdL)
Life & Medical Sciences
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Research interests

My research is focused on Crop Physiology: a relatively novel branch of science linking more fundamental physiological knowledge with realistic crop-breeding and crop-management developments through a genuine translational research approach. In this context, I study the mechanisms underlying the responses of field crops to environmental and genetic factors at the crop level of organisation. The environmental factors include management practices (e.g. irrigation or fertilization) and less manageable environmental factors (e.g. radiation, photoperiod and temperature). Genetic factors include from diverse genotypes through specific populations to particular genes (NILs). I study in this context the physiology of yield; carbon and nitrogen relationships and crop developmental processes with the aim of identifying alternatives to traditional farming and breeding practises to enhance the efficiency of resource use.

Key words
Crop physiology, Cereals, Wheat, Barley, Maize, Nitrogen, Fertilization, Phenology, Photoperiod, Vernalization, Temperature

ORCID
: 0000-0002-1766-4247

RESEARCHER ID
: A-8694-2011
Solé Vicente, Ricard

Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)

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Solé Vicente, Ricard
Research Professor at
Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)
Life & Medical Sciences
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Research interests

One of my main research interests is understanding the origins of complexity in living and artificial systems, and how major transitions can be explained by means of statistical physics approaches. To this goal, my Lab develops both theoretical and experimental research, including complex networks, evolutionary unstable dynamics (RNA viruses and cancer) an ambitious program on synthetic biology. The later area includes an exploration of synthetic multicellular systems, biocomputation and synthetic swarm intelligence. Additionally, I have also created two research areas of my own, namely Liquid brains (developing a theory of cognitive networks beyond standard solid brains) and the concept of biosphere terraformation (developing synthetic biology motifs to engineer ecosystems facing future tipping points).

Key words
Systems biology, synthetic biology, biocomputation, complex adaptive systems
Sombra, Martín

Universitat de Barcelona (UB)

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Sombra, Martín
Research Professor at
Universitat de Barcelona (UB)
Experimental Sciences & Mathematics
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Research interests

Polynomials appear in a wide variety of contexts in Mathematics, Engineering and Computer Science. Polynomials in those situations are not random but come up with a certain structure which is important to exploit. I am interested in systems of structured polynomial equations and particularly in questions like: how many solutions does a given system have? How complicated those solutions can be? Can we predict where they will accumulate? Can we efficiently solve systems of polynomial equations? These problems have conduced me to study combinatorial objects like polytopes and fans, geometrical objects like curves and surfaces, and arithmetic objects like height of points and Diophantine equations. This gives a rich interplay between Complexity Theory, Combinatorics, Algebraic Geometry and Number Theory, leading to interesting results and stimulating research directions.

Key words
Algebraic & Diophantine geometry, Arakelov theory, incidence geometry, combinatorics, computer algebra, complexity of algorithms

ORCID
: 0000-0002-3400-4240

RESEARCHER ID
: B-5181-2019
Sort Viñas, Jordi

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)

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Sort Viñas, Jordi
Research Professor at
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)
Engineering Sciences
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Research interests

Jordi Sort investigates the nanomechanical, magnetoelectric and nanomagnetic properties of innovative and advanced materials, including lithographed structures, thin films and bulk specimens. Among his most relevant achievements one can mention: the use of nanoindentation and selective ion irradiation to create magnetic structures embedded in non-magnetic matrices; the ductilization of metallic glasses by development of nanostructured morphologies; the growth of new types of coatings with enhanced mechanical, magnetic, corrosion-resistance and catalytic properties; the development of advanced biodegradable materials; the characterization of mesoporous materials and onion-type nanoparticles with interlayer magnetic interactions; or the observation of magnetoelectric and magneto-ionic effects in different kinds of heterostructures combining ferromagnetic, ferroelectric and antiferromagnetic layers. Further information at: https://jsort-icrea.uab.cat/.

Key words
nanomagnetism, nanomechanics, lithographed systems, nanocomposites, spintronics, nanotechnology

ORCID
: orcid.org/0000-0003-1213-3639

RESEARCHER ID
: F-6582-2014
Soto-Faraco, Salvador

Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)

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Soto-Faraco, Salvador
Research Professor at
Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)
Social & Behavioural Sciences
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Research interests

I am interested in multisensory perception and attention in humans. Like many other animals, humans are endowed with a wide range of sensory capacities such as hearing, feeling, seeing, smelling and so on. This rich variety of senses allows our brains to represent the surrounding environment with fidelity and precision, so that we can parse information, maintain it as memories, make decisions, and plan and carry out actions. However, to achieve coherent mental representations our brains must coordinate the distinct sources of sensory information effectively across their different temporal scales, spatial frames of reference, and representational formats. I am interested in the neural and behavioural principles underlying the selection, integration and representation of such multisensory information. To achieve this, I use experimental approaches based on psychophysics, a variety of neuroimaging methods to measure neural activity (EEG, fMRI), and brain stimulation techniques (TMS).

Key words
Cognitive Neuroscience; Psychology; Attention; Perception; Multisensory Integration; Speech Perception; Touch; Vision; Audition; Body Representation

ORCID
: 0000-0002-4799-3762

RESEARCHER ID
: B-8400-2011
Soucek, Laura

Vall d'Hebron Institut d'Oncologia (VHIO)

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Soucek, Laura
Research Professor at
Vall d'Hebron Institut d'Oncologia (VHIO)
Life & Medical Sciences
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Research interests

Our focus is the Myc oncoprotein, whose deregulation is implicated in almost all human cancer types. We have designed a Myc dominant negative, Omomyc, to investigate the therapeutic benefit of inhibiting Myc in cancer. We demonstrated that Myc inhibition has a remarkable therapeutic index in many mouse models of cancer, while only causing mild and reversible side effects in normal tissues. We also showed that Myc is a safe pharmacological target for many, perhaps all, cancers. Our goal is now to push such a therapeutic approach further towards the clinic. To do so we are making use of a new generation of Myc inhibitory cell-penetrating miniproteins. Our first compound, OMO-103, successfully completed Phase I clinical trial in 2022. These innovative treatments could boost our therapeutic arsenal against the majority of human cancers.

Key words
cancer, myc, oncogene, molecular therapeutic, metastasis, miniproteins

ORCID
: orcid.org/0000-0002-4750-7971

RESEARCHER ID
: AAG-8377-2019