XLVII Congreso Internacional de la Sociedad Ibérica de Biomecánica y Biomateriales

Clara García Astrain es investigadora Ikerbasque en POLYMAT, donde centra su trabajo en el desarrollo de polímeros funcionales para aplicaciones en biodetección. Obtuvo su doctorado en Ingeniería de Materiales Renovables por la Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU), durante el cual realizó una estancia de investigación en el Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT, Alemania), especializándose en hidrogeles nanocompuestos para aplicaciones biomédicas. Tras completar su doctorado, llevó a cabo una estancia postdoctoral en el Institut de Chimie et Procédés pour l’Énergie, l’Environment et la Santé (ICPEES) de la Universidad de Estrasburgo (Francia). A su regreso al País Vasco, trabajó en BCMaterials (Leioa, Bizkaia) y posteriormente en CIC biomaGUNE (Donostia-San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa) como investigadora Juan de la Cierva. En 2024 se incorporó a POLYMAT, donde continúa su investigación en la intersección entre la ciencia de materiales y la bioingeniería, enfocándose en la integración de sensores en modelos celulares 3D para la monitorización in situ de procesos biológicos.

Dorleta Jiménez de Aberasturi es Profesora Asociada Ikerbasque y Becaria Ramón y Cajal que lidera el grupo de Materiales Híbridos Biofuncionales en el CIC biomaGUNE desde 2023. Dorleta se licenció en la Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU) en 2006. En 2013 se doctoró en cotutela entre la UPV/EHU y la Philipps University of Marburg bajo la supervisión conjunta del Prof. T. Rojo, la Dra. I. Ruiz de Larramendi y el Prof. W. Parak. Se formó como postdoc en el grupo del Prof. L. Liz-Marzán, especializándose en la síntesis y funcionalización de nanopartículas plasmónicas coloidales. Tiene una amplia experiencia en materiales nanoestructurados híbridos para bioaplicaciones. Su grupo se centra en el desarrollo de materiales híbridos funcionales para la biofabricación de modelos dinámicos 3D in vitro y en el desarrollo de agentes de contraste y/o biosensores para comprender dichos modelos y diferentes procesos biológicos.

Dr Camarero-Espinosa is an Ikerbasque Fellow and PI at the POLYMAT institute where she stablished the BioSmarTE group in 2021. The group activities focus on the regeneration of complex tissues through the design of smart implantable scaffolds. This passes through the design of stimuli responsive systems, the exploitation of techniques such as 3D (bio)printing and the understanding of stem cell processes and their interactions with biomaterials. Sandra obtained her PhD degree in 2015 in Polymer Chemistry and Bioengineering from the Adolphe Merkle Institute (Fribourg, Switzerland) and was recognized with an award for an outstanding PhD thesis by the Swiss Chemical Society. After gaining an early post-doctoral fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation, in 2015 she moved to Brisbane (Australia) to work at the AIBN Institute (Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, University of Queensland) where she continued her research in instructive biomaterial scaffolds and their interaction with stem cells. She then joined in 2017 the MERLN institute at Maastricht University (The Netherlands) where she focused her studies on the fabrication of 3D printed scaffolds for the regeneration of complex tissues.

Francesco Capuano is a Serra Húnter Assistant Professor in the Department of Fluid Mechanics at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). He earned his degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Naples "Federico II" in 2011, where he also completed his PhD in 2015. He has held postdoctoral research positions at the University of Naples (2015–2020) and the Politecnico di Bari (2021), and was a visiting researcher at Stanford University (2014) and a postdoctoral research associate at George Washington University (2017–2018). His research centers on the development of robust, high-fidelity computational methods for modeling and analyzing multiscale and multiphysics phenomena in engineering and biological systems. He places particular emphasis on scale-resolving simulations of turbulent flows, cardiovascular biomechanics, and biological fluid dynamics. Currently, he serves as principal investigator or co-investigator on several projects focused on advanced, physics-compatible numerical methods for the Navier-Stokes equations, in silico and in vivo analysis of cardiovascular flows, microplastic aggregation in the oceans, and biofilm formation under turbulent flow conditions.

Dr. Elena Martínez has a PhD degree in Physics (University of Barcelona). After a first postdoctoral period at the EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland), she moved back to Spain with a Ramon y Cajal grant. At her new position at the Parc Científic de Barcelona, she pioneered at the national level techniques such as the Focused Ion Beam/SEM characterization of cell/material interfaces and developed original strategies for surface micro and nanopatterning for cell culture and biosensors. Later, as Group Leader at the Institute for Bioengineering of Barcelona, she transitioned to develop new technologies for the microfabrication on soft materials that mimic the extracellular matrix of soft tissues with the aim of creating new tissue engineered models that could be used in biomedical applications. In the last 10 years, she has been working in developing new cardiac, intestinal, skin and vascular engineered tissues. To that aim, her lab has been working on new bioprinting techniques, bioinks, bioreactors and microfluidic applications, which she has combined with primary cells and organoids for a better representation of the tissues.

A Biochemist by training I am born and bred in Pamplona. My expertise was tilted to stem cell biology during my PhD and tissue engineering in my postdoc. My PhD (completed in 2009) was centred on the application of adult stem cells on animal models of myocardial infarction. I then spent 3 years in the same group upscaling the therapy to a clinically-relevant model of infarction in pig, whilst deriving our fist human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) lines. Afterwards, I obtained funding for a 4-year postdoc at Imperial College London, under the supervision of Prof Molly Stevens, where I gained significant experience in tissue engineering and materials, in a highly interdisciplinary environment. In 2017 I came back to Pamplona, where in 2018 I started my research group. In these last years, I have settled and established a strongly-collaborative research line, aiming to find solutions for biomedical problems through the application of cellular and biofabrication technology. My team specialised in using hiPSC-derived phenotypes and biofabrication technologies to build human myocardial tissues for therapeutic and modelling applications, with an special emphasis in cardio-oncology and transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy.

Jose Muñoz is a full professor at the department of mathematics of Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). He studied Mechanical Engineering at UPC and École Centrale Paris (ECP) and completed his PhD at Imperial College London in 2004. After a post-doctoral year at King's College London, he became lecturer at UPC, where he has remained since. He has been visiting lecturer at ECP (France), University of Newcastle (Australia) and Wisconsin-Madison (USA). His research interests are focused in the design of numerical methods for the analysis of the stability of materials, the modelling of contact problems, and elastodynamics, with special emphasis on the modelling of cell and tissue mechanics in developmental biology. He is currently working on the numerical solution of inverse problems and optimal control for studying worm locomotion, embryonic heart growth, and general morphogenesis.