Acondicionamiento Tarrasense Association

Spain

LEITAT is a Technological Center, member of TECNIO and recognized by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, that aims to collaborate with companies and institutions by adding technological value both to products and processes, and focuses its activity on research, development and industrial innovation (R+D+2i).

As Technological Partner, the Center is clearly committed to adaptation to transform the technological challenges into economic and social value. Since its foundation in 1906, LEITAT has prioritized its vocation of proximity by strengthening the principles of professionalism and respect to people and environment at the same time.

Other European projects where LEITAT contributes:

BioConSepT:

BioConSepT is a 13 Mill. EUR EU-funded project which aims to produce consumer goods out of biomass, i.e. plant matter, which is not competing with the food chain. Web page: http://www.bioconsept.eu/

BioXplore:

BioXplore is a project, funded by European Union under the ENPI CBC MED programme and is a collaborative international project which aims to promote socio-economic development and enhancement of territories in the Mediterranean Sea Basin area. Web page: www.bio-xplore.org/

Website: http://leitat.org

Profile of staff engaged in the Project:

Dr. Ana Milena Cruz Rodriguez

Ana Milena Cruz Rodriguez has a PhD in Materials Science from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, a Master in Materials Engineering from the Universidade Federal de São Carlos in Brazil and a degree in Physics Engineering from the University of Cauca in Colombia. Her research career has focused mainly on the synthesis and characterization of materials in the ceramic, glass ceramic, polymer and biomaterials area and specifically in the study of the electrical properties of these.

Currently she is developing her professional career at LEITAT Technological Center as Researcher of the Renewable Energies area. She is involved in R + D + I projects of national and European scope related with photovoltaic and thermoelectric technologies.

Dr. María Ángeles Vázquez

María Ángeles Vázquez Sánchez es licenciada en Biología por la Universidad de Málaga (2003) y doctora en Biotecnología por la Universidad de Barcelona (2011). Al finalizar la licenciatura, estuvo colaborando 2,5 años con el Departamento de Microbiología de la Facultad de Ciencias (Universidad de Málaga). Durante este tiempo realizó los cursos de doctorado del programa titulado: “Fundamentos celulares y moleculares de los seres vivos”, lo que le proporcionó la Suficiencia Investigadora, con especialización en el área de Microbiología.

Dr. Montse Bosch i Gallego

Montse Bosch i Gallego is graduate in Biology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and PhD in Biological Sciences from the same university with a thesis entitled “Characterization of iron uptake mechanisms of Pasteurella multocida”.

She was post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Experimental Sciences and Health at the University Pompeu Fabra and in the Cabrils Center of IRTA, where she was head of the Animal Conservation Genetics Unit. Currently, she is part of the R+D Department of Biotechnology as senior researcher in Acondicionamiento Tarrasense – Leitat. She has worked in the research of iron uptake mechanisms of bacterial pathogens, bacterial virulence mechanisms, design of vaccines against bacterial pathogens, evolution of genomes, forensic genetics and development of functional ingredients and products (for food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies.)

Dr. Elisabet Fernández

is senior researcher in the Environmental & BIO Technologies unit in the Technological center LEITAT, where she works with epithelial microbiome equivalent co-culture models for in vitro and in vivo studies. She got her PhD degree in Cell Biology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), in conjunction with the Cell Biology Unit and the group of Microsystems in the Microelectronics Institute of Barcelona (IMB-CSIC). She has a degree in Biological Anthropology from the same university, for his work on genetic analysis of human populations, and a Master degree on anthropology and forensic genetics (Universidad de Granada). She has also been part of the Department of Pathology and Experimental Therapeutics at the Universitat de Barcelona (UB), where worked on the cytotoxicological analysis of new drugs.

She has participated in various national and international conferences, and his works have been published in international scope indexed journals with high impact factor. In the past she collaborated in the analysis and identification of individuals with the analytical laboratory of the regional Catalan police. She led the nanomedicine and nanobiosensors team, centered on the production of organic and inorganic nanoparticles and nanocapsules for biomedical applications: as drug delivery systems in systemic or focused diseases, for in vivo imaging, theranostics for cancer or biomolecules sensing

Dr. Lourdes Gombau,

is a PhD in Biology with expertise on cellular and molecular life sciences. Throughout her career, she has participated in various multidisciplinary projects. From 2001-2010, she worked as the head of the ADMETox department at the Advanced In Vitro Cell Technologies (Advancell S.A)-Research Institute Hospital La Fe (Valencia) until she was subrogated to LEITAT Technological Center in 2011, where she currently works. During these last 12 years, she has been involved in a large number of projects on drug toxicity and metabolism for national and international pharmaceutical companies. She has collaborated as well by developing in vitro cellular models (CacoReady, CacoGoblet, IsoCYP) for ADMETox studies and participated in European projects (Acutetox, Nanotest) addressed to validate these models for drugs and nanomaterials toxicity assessment.

Jessica Romero

is Biotechnologist (Autonomous University of Barcelona, UAB, 2003). She started her scientific work at the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department of UAB (2001-2003) where she collaborated in different projects regarding enzymology in innate immunity for drug design. She worked as technologist (2003-2007) and afterwards as Project Leader (2008-2010) in the Alternative testing Unit of Advanced In Vitro Cell Technologies Company (Advancell S.A). Since 2011 she has been with LEITAT Technological Center, where she currently works as R&D Scientific Researcher in the Bioinvitro Unit of the Safety and Sustainability Division.

Her career has been focused on the development and application of cell-based in vitro systems for safety and efficacy assessment of active entities, ingredients and final products for the pharmaceutical, chemical and cosmetic industries, in private and public projects. During the last 6 years she performed a large number of projects on Skin Biology addressed to the development and implementation of in vitro mechanistical studies and efficacy test for the evaluation and characterization of actives and new skin delivery systems (nano & micro-systems, carriers, hidrogels, etc.) and skin compatibility assessment of topical formulations.

Dr. Marcella Vidal Gabarró

holds a PhD on biotechnology with the process development and optimitzation of recombinant protein production. The PhD thesis was focused on the study of the production and secretion of recombinant proteins with a mutant strain of a gram-positive bacterium working in conjunction with the Microbial Biotechnology Unit in the Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (CNB-CSIC, Madrid).

Nowadays, she is developing R&D projects as a researcher into the Industrial Biotechnology Department in LEITAT Technological Center, working on enzymatic processes and in the optimization of bioprocesses to obtain different types of bioproducts such as biosurfactants.

Natàlia Alcover Fortuny, MSc

was graduated in Biotechnology in Rovira i Virgili University, obtaining her bachelor thesis during an internship in the Bioprocess and Cell Culture department of Zurich University of Applied Sciences. She was later specialized in Bioprocess Engineering by the Master in Advanced Biotechnology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She is nowadays a junior researcher in LEITAT, in the Environmental and BIO technologies department, developing and optimizing bioprocesses.

Radu Ghemis, MSc

develops his professional career in the Technological Center LEITAT, where is junior researcher in the unit of Environmental & BIO Technologies. Nowadays he is working in development of in vitro co-culture models to evaluate the response of microorganism communities to compounds and products. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology at the Lleida University, and a master’s degree in Molecular Biology and Biomedicine by the University of Girona. He collaborated with different research groups related to the field of microbiology, genetics and epigenetics, and worked in the group of clinical microbiology and infectious diseases (biology department UDG). He focused on the study of the microbial ecology of human gut in inflammatory bowel diseases, like Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.