Page 121 - MEMOCiberesp014-ENG

However, the overture to begin a new line related to the fundamental problem of molecular evolution in order to better understand the physical principles that describe the increasing complexity and diversification of mutant molecular populations . The objectives set by the group are listed below:
– Determination of the thermodynamics of nucleic acids to high resolution . – Dynamic force spectroscopy and molecular imprinting methods . – Thermodynamics of small systems and systems out of equilibrium . – Molecular Motors .
– Experiments of molecular evolution and recognition with single molecule techniques .
Most relevant scientific articles
• BosCo a., CaMunas-soler J., ritort F. Elastic properties and secondary structure formation of single-stranded DNA at monovalent and divalent salt conditions . Nucleic Acids Research . 2014;42(3):2064-2074 .
• liu z., Frutos s., BiCk M.J., Vila-Perello M., DeBelouChina g.t., Darst s.a. et al . Structure of the branched intermediate in protein splicing . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 2014;111(23):8422-8427 .
• riBezzi-CriVellari M., ritort F. Free-energy inference from partial work measurements in small systems . Pro- ceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 2014;111(33) .
• aleMany a, ritort F . Determination of the elastic properties of short ssDNA molecules by mechanically fol- ding and unfolding DNA hairpins .Biopolymers . 2014;101(12):1193-9 .
Highlights
Institution: Universidad de Barcelona Contact: Facultad de Física . Universidad de Barcelona . Dpto . de Fisica Fundamental Avda . Diagonal, 647 . 08028 Barcelona . E-mail: fritort@gmail .com · Website: http://www .ffn .ub .es/ritort
Heterogeneity has become a major Trojan horse in several evolutionary diseases such as cancer and neu- rological disorders due to the disparate variety of underlying factors and causes: two cells grown from the same strain may often exhibit strikingly distinct behaviors . During this year we have made an important breakthrough: we have demonstrated (publication 3) that it is possible to characterize energy and entropy processes by inference (rather than by direct measurement) by imposing the validity of general physical laws in molecular systems . The result should be applicable to extract generic properties of heterogeneous mole- cular and cellular ensembles . Most relevant is the study of mechanical properties of cancer cell populations: mechanical phenotyping or the quantitative testing of deformability in a cell population is already used as a diagnostic tool for oral cancers . Measuring deformation characteristics may allow for the identification of different cell populations in a tumor: Invasive metastatic cancer cells that need to be motile and malleable are expected to be much softer than other cancer cells and this should be reflected by their elastic moduli . This study is carried out in the framework of the collaborative intra-CIBER project (PENTRI) led by Dr . Simo Schwartz . Our preliminary measurements of the stiffness of normal cancer cells were presented in the general CIBER conference past November and show a large heterogeneity with two characteristic sub-populations of cancer cells that we expect to identify during the current year 2015 . Our long-term contribution is to be able to assist clinical groups in the identification of mechanics based biomarkers .
Other intraCIBER project concerns the stabilizing effects of anticancer drugs binding to nucleic acids . In the framework of a intra-CIBER collaboration with the group led by F . Albericio we have investigated the interca- lator peptide Thiocoraline (clinical phase trial I) finding it binds DNA preferentially to CG dinucleotide motifs . These results have been recently published and continued with the study of Yondelis (Pharmamar) binding DNA, a anticancer drug for soft tissue sarcoma and ovarian cancer .
www .ciber-bbn .es 121