Medical Press

20 Minutos

Europapress

ABC

The Logo “HR Excellence in Research” gives public recognition to research institutions that have made progress in aligning their human resource policies with the principles set out in the “Charter & Code”.

The European Charter for Researchers addresses the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of researchers and their employers.

The Code of Conduct for Recruitment seeks to improve recruitment practices by making selection procedures as transparent and as fair as possible. In addition, it proposes that merit should not just be measured on numbers of publications – issues such as management and teaching experience must also be considered.

Institutions that have been awarded the right to use the icon can use it to highlight their commitment to implement fair and transparent recruitment and appraisal procedures for researchers. Institutions can use the logo on their websites and in promotional material. The logo tells researchers that an institution is committed to a fair and transparent recruitment process, and that it takes diversity seriously. It also shows that practical support is available to help with relocation and career development. In addition, numerous European calls have imposed as a requirement of eligibility the certification The Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R). 

As a first step in this European Strategy we are analyzing the situation we are in today, in order to develop a subsequent Action Plan to be implemented in the coming years. This situation analysis is developed in part through a survey in which we ask you to participate.

It is very important for us to have your opinion and for this purpose we have prepared an anonymous survey that should only take 5 minutes. After analyzing the results of this survey we will be able to present our next actions.

Please, take a moment to answer the survey. Deadline: 21 May

You can access the survey by clicking on the following link:

https://es.surveymonkey.com/r/encuestaHRS4R-IDIVAL

The next 13^th of July at 1.00p.m will be held the conference organized by the Department of Molecular Biology and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Cantabria, given by Dr. Guillermo Montoya who will talk about the mechanisms of recognition and cutting of the DNA of the endonuclease of class 2 type V CRISPRCas system as a powerful genome editing tool.

Guillermo Montoya is Professor at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) and Research Director of the Protein Structure & Function Programme at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Protein Research (http://www.cpr.ku.dk/). Montoya is also the Chairman of ISBUC, the Integrative Structural Biology Cluster at UCPH (http://isbuc.ku.dk/). In the last years, his main research interests are the structural analysis of macromolecular complexes of the cell cycle such as the mammalian chaperonin CCT complex and the CMG complex, where he uses the combination of X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy to gain insight about their working mechanisms. He is also systematically pursuing the structure-function analysis of endonucleases, which are of great interest because of their potential applications in gene therapy. 

Dr. Montoya is member of international project evaluation panels and also reviews projects for European funding agencies (ERC, EU, SNF, DFG, NOW, MINECO, Welcome Trust) and serves as an associate editor and ad-hoc reviewer for high-profile journals. In addition, his group has been the receptor of Marie Curie, EMBO and HFSP postdoctoral fellows. He has been awarded the National Prize from the Fundación Mutua Madrileña (2009) and the V Health Sciences Prize from Caja Rural de GranadaMinisterio de Sanidad (2009) for his work in the redesign of genome editing enzymes. 

Summary of the Lecture: Structural Biology of Genome Editing: How CRISPR-Cas endonucleases cut specific regions of the Genome?

Cpf1 is a single RNA-guided endonuclease of class 2 type V CRISPRCas system, emerging as a powerful genome editing tool. To provide insight into its DNA targeting mechanism, they have determined the crystal structure of Francisella novicida Cpf1 (FnCpf1) in complex with the triple strand R-loop formed after target DNA cleavage. The structure reveals a unique machinery for target DNA unwinding to form a crRNA-DNA hybrid and a displaced DNA strand inside FnCpf1. The protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) is recognised by the PAM interacting (PI) domain. In this domain, the conserved K667, K671 and K677 are arranged in a dentate manner in a loop-lysine helix-loop motif (LKL). The helix is inserted at a 45º angle to the dsDNA longitudinal axis. Unzipping of the dsDNA in a cleft arranged by acidic and hydrophobic residues facilitates the hybridization of the target DNA strand with crRNA. K667 initiates unwinding by pushing away the guanine after the PAM sequence of the dsDNA. Mutations in key residues reveal a novel mechanism to determine the DNA product length, thereby linking the PAM and DNA nuclease sites. Their study reveals a singular working model of RNA-guided DNA cleavage by Cpf1, opening up new avenues for engineering this genome modification system.

Five key papers:

Stella S, Alcón P, Montoya G. Structure of the Cpf1 endonuclease R-loop complex after target DNA cleavage. Nature. (2017) May 31. doi: 10.1038/nature22398. 

Molina R, Stella S, Redondo P, Gomez H, Marcaida MJ, Orozco M, Prieto J, Montoya G. Visualizing phosphodiester-bond hydrolysis by an endonuclease. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (2015) Jan;22(1):65-72. doi: 10.1038/nsmb.2932. 

Mortuza G., Cavazza T., Garcia-Mayoral MF, Hermida D., Peset I., Pedrero J.G., Lyngsø, J. Marta Bruix, Pedersen, J.S, Vernos, I. and Montoya, G. The XTACC3-XMAP215 association reveals an asymmetric interaction promoting microtubule elongation. Nature Communications (2014) DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6072. 

Muñoz, I.G., Yébenes, H., Zhou M., Mesa, P. Serna, M. Bragado-Nilsson, Beloso, A., E. de Carcer G., Malumbres M., Robinson C.V., Valpuesta, J.M. & Montoya G. Crystal structure of the mammalian cytosolic chaperonin CCT in complex with tubulin. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (2011) Jan; 18(1):14-9. 

P. Redondo, J. Prieto, I. Muñoz, A. Alibés, F. Strichter, L. Serrano, S., P. Duchateau, F. Paques, F. Blanco & G. Montoya. Molecular basis of recognition and cleavage of the human Xeroderma pigmentosum group C gene by engineered homing endonuclease heterodimers. Nature (2008). Nov 6;456(7218):107-1

Using different advanced microscopy techniques, a group of researchers from the REIPI network demonstrated that human neutrophils easily phagocytose and kill Acinetobacter baumannii and A. pittii. After bacteria-cell contact, neutrophils rapidly and continuously engulf and kill bacteria during at least 4 hours of infection in vitro. Also, neutrophils release neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) against Acinetobacter. This neutrophil response to these pathogens could partially prevent their dissemination during the infection. An unexpected finding of the study was the presence of very large filopodia emerging from the neutrophil body to sense the environment and even to catch bacteria. New knowledge through a deeper study on the modulation and regulation of these filopodia may prove helpful in understanding the pathogenesis of these and other bacteria. Furthermore, co-cultivation of neutrophils with human differentiated macrophages before infections shows that human neutrophils, but not macrophages, are key immune cells to control Acinetobacter. As neutrophils are also responsible for tissue damage and inflammation during certain circumstances, an overactivation of these cells could be detrimental to the host. Therefore, future detailed studies at the molecular level will help these researchers to decipher the mechanisms involved in the regulation of neutrophils, both alone or in combination with other immune cells.

This work “Human neutrophils phagocytose and kill Acinetobacter baumannii and A. pittii” was published on-line on July 4, in Scientific Reports.

María Lázaro-Díez1,2,8, Itziar Chapartegui-González1,2, Santiago Redondo-Salvo1, Chike Leigh3, David Merino1,4, David San Segundo1,4, Jesús Navas1,5, José Manuel Icardo6, Félix Acosta7, Alain Ocampo-Sosa1,2,8 , Luis Martínez-Martínez8,9,10 and José Ramos-Vivas1,2,8*

1Instituto de Investigación Valdecilla IDIVAL, Santander, 39011, Spain.

2Servicio de Microbiología, Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, Santander, 39008, Spain.

3New York University School of Medicine, New York, 10003, U.S.A.

4Servicio de Inmunología, Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, Santander, 39008, Spain.

5Departamento de Biología Molecular, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, 39011, Spain.

6Departamento de Anatomía y Biología Celular, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, 39011, Spain.

7Grupo de Investigación en Acuicultura, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Gran Canaria, 35214, Spain.

8Red Española de Investigación en Patología Infecciosa (REIPI), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, 28029, Spain.

9Unidad de Gestión Clínica de Microbiología, Hospital Universitario Reina Sofía, Córdoba, 14004, Spain.

10Instituto Maimónides de Investigación Biomédica de Córdoba (IMIBIC), Córdoba, 14004, Spain.

IDIVAL and the University of Cantabria launch the third call for predoctoral contracts, offering 7 contracts of up to 4 years of duration for the development of doctoral thesis.

The aim of this call is to promote the training of doctors in programs of solvency formative and research. This is an advertising, objectivity and competitive concurrence call, offering 7 aids in the area of biomedicine, biotechnology and the sciences of Health, to facilitate to the program beneficiaries a future incorporation into the Spanish system of higher education and scientific research.

This call is open to applications whose project memory corresponds to the areas of biomedicine, biotechnology and / or health sciences.

Once the resolution of the call has taken place, the management of the aid and the corresponding employment contracts will be carried out by the University of Cantabria, when the Thesis Director is a Professor or Researcher of the University or of one of its Institutes, not belonging to the list of research groups of IDIVAL. In all other cases, the management will be carried out by IDIVAL.

For the purposes of this call, the single-member decision-making body will be the Vice-Rector for Research and Knowledge Transfer, in the case of the University of Cantabria, and the Director of Management, in the case of IDIVAL.

The thesis directors of the beneficiaries of this program will be doctors permanently linked to the University of Cantabria, IDIVAL, the University Hospital Marques de Valdecilla or any other of its Institutes. In the case of contractual linking of the thesis director, the contract must have a longer duration than the maximum period of the aid, established in four years. In the event that the thesis director does not comply with the requirement of contractual linking during the indicated period, the collaboration of a co-director or tutor who fulfills this requirement will be obligatory.

The application period is open until September 5, 2017.

For inquiries contact the office of call management of the University of Cantabria.

More information (link)

Revista Medica Valdecilla has edited the first number of this year 2017 which is already available on the website of Marques de Valdecilla University Hospital (http://www.humv.es/revista-valdecilla/). The journal was created in 2015 with the aim of promoting and supporting research, including research developed by residents, in the environment of the public health system of Cantabria. This review constitutes a fundamental tool for promoting and the dissemination of scientific production of Valdecilla.

Revista Medica Valdecilla is directed by Dr. Jose Manuel Rabanal and co-edited by Dr. Jose Antonio Amado and Mario Corral, librarian of the Marquesa de Pelayo Library.

In this first issue of 2017 there are four articles related to the prevalence, incidence and risk factors of eating disorders in Cantabria are published; A review of adjuvant drugs in the treatment of chronic pain and the results of toxicity and survival in cases of locally advanced non-myocardial lung carcinoma treated with chemotherapy in the hospital during 2013 and 2014. Furthermore, the inaugural conference of the Casa de Salud Valdecilla returns and it is dedicated to myelodysplastic syndromes.

In this edition has participated Dr. Kannemann, Muñiz, Payá, López-Brea, García, Arangüena, Menéndez, González-Gómez, Madrazo, Gil-Camarero, Carral-Fernández, Benito-González, Calcedo-Giraldo, Gómez del Barrio, Maldonado and Largo.

The units and services involved in this number are: Radiation Oncology Unit, Medical Oncology, Psychiatry, Anesthesiology and Reanimation, the Pulmonology Service of Sierrallana Hospital, CIBER of Mental Health (CIBERSAM) in Madrid, the Pediatric Service of the Cantabrian Health Service, Marques de Valdecilla Research Institute (IDIVAL) and Marquesa de Pelayo Library.

Revista Médica Valdecilla (enlace)

Diario Dicen