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Tuesday, 19 January 2021

A roadmap for near future quantum materials research

A review published today in IOP’s Journal of Physics: Materials draws an outline of the state of the art of quantum materials science and identifies the main challenges and opportunities in this emerging field of research. The paper is a work developed in collaboration by many international experts, including ICN2 researchers from the Theoretical and Computational Nanoscience group and the Physics and Engineering of Nanodevices group. ICN2 group leader Prof. Stephan Roche is co-corresponding author.

Wednesday, 13 January 2021

Absence of magnetic proximity effect at the interface of a topological and a magnetic insulator

A study conducted by a team of researchers from the ICN2, in collaboration with colleagues from ALBA Synchrotron Light Source (Spain) and Diamond Light Source (United Kingdom), has found absence of magnetic proximity effects at the interface of heterojunctions made of a topological insulator and a magnetic insulator. These results are highly relevant to clear up the discrepancy between the experimental and theoretical analysis of these systems, as they were obtained using a direct experimental probe of locally induced magnetism, in contrast to previous experimental works.

Wednesday, 18 November 2020

Ramon Tremosa, the Catalan Minister of Business and Knowledge, announced a new public-private investment fund

The Minister of Business and Knowledge of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Ramon Tremosa, visited ALBA Synchrotron on Monday 16 November to meet several directors of Catalan research centers, including Prof. Pablo Ordejón, ICN2 Director. He announced the creation of a public-private investment fund for promoting scientific knowledge and entrepreneurship initiatives. 

Thursday, 22 October 2020

Top female researchers in renewable energy discuss gender balance at the WiRE-SO workshop

The 2nd annual Women in Renewable Energy workshop, hosted under the umbrella of the ICN2 Severo Ochoa workshops, was held online on the last 16 October. This event, dedicated to energy storage application and key trends in sustainability, was organized by Prof. Mónica Lira from the ICN2 and Prof. Zakya Kafafi from Lehigh University in Bethlehem (USA). The excellent scientific sessions were followed by a roundtable on the role of women in science, their challenges, permanent discrimination, and the possibility of transforming scientific research into a more inclusive environment. 

Tuesday, 23 June 2020

The Graphene Flagship Spintronics WP enters its last and most applied phase

A kick-off event finishing today summarises the next steps to be taken by the work package led by ICREA Prof. Stephan Roche into Core 3, the new phase of the Graphene Flagship designed to advance toward the commercialisation of graphene and layered materials. The event served to introduce new companies and new challenges that will boost graphene-enabled spintronic technologies to higher technology readiness levels.

Tuesday, 28 April 2020

ICN2 #StayAtHome Seminar: Graphene on the edge

Watch it on YouTube! Prof. Peter Bøggild, from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), offered on April 24 a webinar entitled “Graphene on the edge: disorder, chemistry and band engineering in vdW heterostructures”. It was hosted by ICREA Prof. Aitor Mugarza, Group Leader of the ICN2 Atomic Manipulation and Spectrosocpy Group.

Tuesday, 28 April 2020

ICN2 #StayAtHome Seminar: Current Approaches for Perovskite Solar Cells Stability Studies

Now available on YouTube! The ICN2 Group led by Prof. Mónica Lira Cantu hosted on 17 April 2020 a webinar to discuss about good practices on conducting and reporting stability studies specifically tailored for perovskite solar cells. The event was co-hosted by Prof. Eugene A. Katz, from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Its dynamic format included short presentations by international young experts and was organised by Dr Haibing Xie (ICN2) and Dr Mark Khenkin (HZB).

Monday, 27 April 2020

Prof. Kostas Kostarelos claims scientists should be back in the labs as ‘essentials’ to face COVID-19 emergency

In an opinion article published today by Nature Nanotechnology, Prof. Kostas Kostarelos shares his views on what may be going wrong in the fight against COVID-19 and how the nanoscience community could contribute. He suggests applying the three key principles in managing an individual cancer patient: early detection, monitoring and targeting. Prof. Kostas Kostarelos recently became Senior Group Leader at the ICN2 after a long-standing collaboration that is now reinforced through the ICN2 Severo Ochoa talent attraction strategy. He will continue directing the Nanomedicine Lab at the University of Manchester, while also leading the new ICN2 Nanomedicine Group.

Thursday, 09 April 2020

Barcelona equips itself with a European first-class collaborative microscopy platform

The ALBA Synchrotron will host two new major experimental facilities, one dedicated to materials science, valued at 4.1 million euros and led by the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), and another meant for molecular biology, valued at 1.7 million euros and headed by the Institute of Molecular Biology of Barcelona (IBMB-CSIC). The new platform also counts with the participation of BIST, CSIC, IRB Barcelona, UAB, ICMAB-CSIC and CRG. The provisional agreement for co-financing through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) these two scientific infrastructures has been announced today.

Monday, 06 April 2020

Prof. Laura Lechuga explains the CoNVaT project on RTVE

In the edition of 4 April of the “Informe Semanal”, weekly in-depth news show of the RTVE, Prof. Laura Lechuga presented CoNVaT, the European funded project that she leads, which aims at the development of a fast, cheap and handy test device for the diagnosis of the COVID-19.

Thursday, 02 April 2020

La Vanguardia highlights the diagnostic tests by Paperdrop Dx

Paperdrop Diagnostics is the ICN2 and ICREA spin-off devoted to the development of rapid diagnostic tests based on paper microfluidics. La Vanguardia remarks their new test for ischemic stroke, based on the evaluation of microRNA, and their efforts to produce a Covid-19 test from this technology.

Wednesday, 01 April 2020

CoNVaT will design a new diagnostic system for COVID-19 with the best current technologies

The ICN2 Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group, led by Prof. Laura Lechuga, coordinates a European project with a budget over 2 million euros. They have become an international reference in COVID-19 diagnostics and have prepared a report for the Ministry of Science and Innovation analysing the characteristics, advantages and limitations of current detection systems for diagnosing COVID-19.

Tuesday, 17 March 2020

The ICN2 minimises its activity due to the State of Alarm

Since last week the ICN2 has adapted its activity level to the quickly evolving context caused by the COVID-19 disease spread. As per today, only very few ICN2 members are allowed to enter the ICN2 facilities, including the research Group led by Prof. Laura Lechuga who is leading the CONVAT project to design a tool to diagnose COVID-19. Most of the personnel will remain active working, contributing to fight this spreading disease by following the indications published by authorities as well as through research.

Friday, 06 March 2020

The ICN2 leads a European project to diagnose the COVID-19 disease in 30 minutes

The CONVAT project, led and coordinated by Prof. Laura M. Lechuga, CSIC Research Professor at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), will develop a point-of-care platform for rapid diagnosis and monitoring of coronavirus. The biosensor device will also allow the analysis of different types of coronavirus present in reservoir animals, such as bats, to monitor the evolution of these viruses and prevent future infectious outbreaks in humans.