Mª Concepción Serrano, ICMM-CSIC, Spain

Monday 27 January 2025, 12.00 PM

ICMAB - Sala d'Actes Carles Miravitlles and ONLINE (Register here)

Abstract: 
Neural diseases at the central nervous system including spinal cord injury (SCI) remain therapeutic challenges for clinicians and scientists. In this context, nanotechnology provides attractive tools to approach neural repair. Particularly, graphene-based materials (GBMs) have arisen as promising building block materials for the development of a wide diversity of biomaterials/devices with capability to favorably interact with neural systems. Alternatively, iron oxide nanoparticles have already proved an outstanding versatility as highly biocompatible drug delivery systems. Our group is contributing to both specific areas with remarkable findings in vitro (in primary neural cell cultures) and in vivo (in preclinical models in rats). In this seminar, I will provide a brief overview of our main contributions in this field, including some recent progress of the European project Piezo4Spine that I coordinate.

Short bio
Since its early beginning in 2002, my research has been focused in the design and development of biomaterials for applications in Biomedicine in the context of Tissue Engineering, including a wide spectrum of materials and applications. I graduated in Biology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) in 2002, with an honor license award from UCM. Then, I was awarded a predoctoral scholarship FPU (MEC, 2003-2006). In 2006, I obtained my PhD Degree in Biology, receiving the maximum grade and an honor PhD award from the Faculty of Biology (UCM). This training period defined the foundation of my research career in biomaterials (materials for health). It included a 3-month stage at the Biomedical Engineering Department of Northwestern University. A first postdoctoral training of 1.5 years at the same research group followed, setting up the use of endothelial progenitor cells.

From 2008 to 2010, I was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship for stays abroad (MICINN) to continue my research as a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University (USA), with a major training in materials science and biomedical engineering. Afterwards, I returned to Spain granted a postdoctoral fellowship Juan de la Cierva (MINECO, 2010- 2013) at the Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMMCSIC). In 2014, I started my last postdoctoral stage with a postdoctoral fellowship Miguel Servet I (ISCIII, 2014-2017) at the Hospital Nacional de Parapléjicos (HNP-SESCAM). This stage allowed me starting my independent research in biomaterials for neural tissue engineering. Since 17/032017, I am a tenure track scientist at ICMM-CSIC, in the Materials for Medicine and Biotechnology Group (MaMBIO).

I have been (I am) principal investigator (PI) of 6 research projects to date (total funding 1,14 M€): 3 AEI projects PID2020-113480RB-I00 (218 k€, MICINN, Plan Nacional, 2021-2024), MAT2016-78857-R (121 k€, MINECO, Plan Nacional, 2017-2020) and CP13/0060 (323 k€, ISCIII, Miguel Servet I, 2014-2017); the European project H2020-FET-OPENRIA ByAxon (GA. 737116; 3,7 M€ total, 430 k€, 2017-2020) and 2 internal CSIC projects PIE202160E060 (35 k€, CSIC, 2021-2023) and PIE201760I091 (5 k€, CSIC, 2017-2018). At presents, I am the coordinator of the European project Piezo4Spine (Horizon Europe PathFinder; 2023-2026; 3.5 M€ total, 1.1 M€ for CSIC).

I have co-authored 65 publications in the areas of “Materials Science, Biomaterials” and “Chemistry, Multidisciplinary”, with significant contributions in the field of Materials for Biomedicine. Importantly, I have been first author in 29 % (19/65) and corresponding author in 38 % (25/95). I have also contributed to 6 book chapters and coedited the book: “Engineering Biomaterials for Neural Applications: Targeting Traumatic Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries”. Springer-Nature, 2022. ISBN 978-3-030-81399-4