New projects & Milestones

The group has continued to work on the MAGOAPP project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness to develop novel nanoparticles for use in diverse biomedical applications. Jointly led by Prof. Nogués and Dr Borja Sepúlveda, the goal of this project is to develop bottom-up and top-down designs for multifunctional magnetic and magnetoplasmonic nanostructures to be used, for instance, in hyperthermia therapies and multimodal imaging. The group has also continued to work on the M-ERA-NET project PAIRED (led by Dr Borja Sepúlveda), which aims at developing magnetically and photochemically active drug carriers for controlled drug delivery.

Since 2019, the group is carrying out two projects led by Dr Alejando Gómez Roca. MAGPLADRUG (Ramon Areces Foundation) focuses on the development of cancer therapies based on the magnetoplasmonic control (actuation and monitoring) of photothermal therapies. The PHOTOPHEOX project (funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation) studies magnetic iron oxide-based nanostructures for photothermal therapies, aiming at understanding the physics lying behind the optical properties of these compounds and at designing nanostructures to produce more efficient photo/magnetic therapies.

We are also involved in the COLMO project, led by Dr María José Esplandiu and Prof. Jordi Fraxedas, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation in 2019, which pursues the development and fundamental understanding of (photo) chemically self-propelled motors, triggered by innocuous fuels, which can also act collectively to steer motion and to promote a more cooperative and efficient motor functionality.

The group has continued to work in BeMAGIC, an EU Marie Curie-Skłodowska ITN project, which deals with the fabrication and characterization of magneto-electric nanostructures for wireless neural and muscle stimulation.

We have also started the PANTHER project (jointly led by Prof. Nogués and Dr Borja Sepúlveda) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. It is devoted to the development of novel nanomaterials and actuation devices to enable highly efficient wireless nanotherapeutic actuation and detection of the actuation strength.