Evaluating inorganic nanoparticles in the living organism Caenorhabditis elegans Laura González

329 Pages·2017·14.5 MB·English

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Evaluating inorganic nanoparticles in the
living organism Caenorhabditis elegans

Laura González Moragas

DOCTORAL THESIS
Doctoral Studies in Materials Science

Directors: Dr. Anna Roig and Dr. Anna Laromaine
Tutor: Dr. Gemma Garcia

Departament de Física,
Facultat de Ciències

2016
Dra. Anna Roig Serra, Investigadora Científica del CSIC, la Dra. Anna
Laromaine Sagué, Investigadora Científica del CSIC, i la Dra. Gemma Garcia
Alonso, Professora de la UAB

CERTIFIQUEN:

Que la Laura González Moragas, Graduada en Farmàcia per la Universitat de
Barcelona, ha dut a terme aquesta tesis doctoral sota la seva direcció I que porta
per títol “Evaluating inorganic nanoparticles in the living organism Caenorhabditis
elegans”, la qual queda recollida en aquesta memòria per optar al grau de Doctor
en Ciència en el Programa de Ciència de Materials amb Menció Internacional.

I perquè així consti, signen el present certificat

Dra. Anna Roig Dra. Anna Laromaine Dra. Gemma Garcia

Bellaterra, 19 de Setembre 2016
Als meus pares Elisabet i Raimundo
i al meu estimat marit Alfonso.
“Equipped with his five senses,
man explores the universe around him
and calls the adventure Science.”

Edwin Powell Hubble,
American astronomer
Acknowledgements

Before 2012, the year I graduated in Pharmacy at the Universitat de Barcelona, I
was not aware of the possibility of pursuing a PhD. Pharmacy has a long list of “appealing”
job positions to apply for: in pharmacies, hospitals, laboratories, “big pharma” companies,
etc. I guess this is the reason why we were not very encouraged to pursue any further
studies other than Master’s degrees. During my research into ‘what next?’ after my
degree, I fulfilled my desire of working in the pharmaceutical industry first as an intern and
then securing a job position, but I did never meet my desire of researching into
biomedicine, which was actually my very initial motivation for enrolling in Pharmacy.
Hence, I decided to look for a PhD position in a field that complemented my knowledge on
health sciences with a more technical focus. Nanotechnology seemed to meet all the
requirements. I contacted several groups and was really keen on Dr. Anna Roig’s group
from the very beginning. The project that Anna Roig and Anna Laromaine proposed
sounded very exciting and challenging, the perfect combination between biology and
materials science that I was looking for. Moreover, I was really impressed by their CVs
and international experience. I really want to thank both Annas for their great support
since I first contacted them and throughout all this time. Their balance of patience,
ambition, focus on quality and orientation to results helped me to progress in my research
and also in my personal life. I also have to thank previous colleagues from ICMAB who I
really miss these days and who I shared many memorable moments with: Elisa, Muling,
Maria, Nerea, Wojtek, Pengfei, Siming, Rafa, Raluca, Elizabeth, Dejan, Laura; and my
current ICMAB colleagues: Anna May, Roxana, Cica, Cristiano, Mengdi, Jike, Qhianze,
Ivan, Deyaa...
I would like to thank our collaborators: Dr. Yannick Schwab from EMBL and his
great Electron Microscopy team; Dr. Stephen Stürzenbaum from KCL and the kind
members of the Toxicogenomics group, who welcomed and helped me during a 3-month
stay in his lab; Dr. Romain Quidant and his group at ICFO for their collaboration and
support; Dr. Jesús de la Fuente and his group at INA-UNIZAR for their interest in the
hyperthermia experiments in C. elegans; and Dr. Lorenzo Albertazzi from IBEC for his
motivation to combine our expertise. I also thank all the other ‘worm’ labs with who we
have been in touch during these years (Cerón lab from IDIBELL, Marta Artal lab from
CABD, Natascia Ventura lab from IUF, Juan Cabello lab from CIBIR, Esther Dalfo lab from
UAB...).
I would also like to acknowledge my previous colleagues and bosses from
Laboratorios Salvat, especially Albert, Lourdes, Xavier and Daniel. They advised me to
leave the company and undertake a PhD so I could progress in my professional career.
Their support comforted me when I still had some doubts about whether to go for the PhD
adventure or to stay in the industry.

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