Public engagement | Quintana Lab

24 Apr 2020

Sticky Post By Roser Bastida Posted in Public engagement With No Comments Permalink

Sant Jordi Science dissemination contest

Sticky Post By Roser Bastida On April 24, 2020 With No Comments

It was Sant Jordi yesterday, and even we couldn’t have a normal celebration, giving roses and books to our beloved ones, it is always a special day.

The communication area of the Institute organized a Science dissemination contest, in which participants had to create a comic talking about a neuroscientific topic, and guess what! Mel and Laura won! (it wasn’t Albert this time, but because he didn’t participate).

Laura had the third prize for this excellent presentation of female neuroscientist personalities:

And Mel had the first for this amazing piece of art:

Congratulations!!!

13 Feb 2020

Sticky Post By Roser Bastida Posted in Elisenda, Public engagement With No Comments Permalink

February, 11th: Women in Science Day

Sticky Post By Roser Bastida On February 13, 2020 With No Comments

Last Tuesday was the Women in Science Day, a day to put the focus on female researchers, whose contributions in Science have been silenced across the History. Even today, male scientists occupy higher positions, receive more funding and have more visibility.

One of the consequences is the lack of referees for girls, who might be thinking of having a STEM career, but could have the wrong thought that this is not for them. 4-year-old children at Ramon Fuster School, in Bellaterra, now know research is also a girls thing, as Elisenda visit them on the 11F, and explained that she works in a laboratory studying the brain.

04 Feb 2020

Sticky Post By Roser Bastida Posted in Public engagement, Uncategorized With No Comments Permalink

New video about our research: Neurons and Symptoms, advances in Leigh Syndrome

Sticky Post By Roser Bastida On February 4, 2020 With No Comments

The UAB communications team made a super cool video about our research in Leigh Syndrome (thank you very much!). Yay! Albert is almost a star!

We will never be tired of spreading the word in mitochondrial diseases and explain the research we are carrying out in the lab:

09 Apr 2019

Sticky Post By Roser Bastida Posted in Elisenda, Public engagement Permalink

Outreach activity

Sticky Post By Roser Bastida On April 9, 2019

Elisenda and I (Roser) went to L’Olivera School, in Sant Cugat, yesterday, to talk about neuroscience to 8-year-old children. They celebrate the Science Week this week and bring researchers to the school to explain what they do in their labs.

We talked about the brain, about neurons and glial cells, about neurotransmitters and about emotions.

Here you can see Eli performing a synapse:

It was a very cool experience as they were very excited and motivated. Let’s see if they become neuroscientists someday…

20 Mar 2019

Sticky Post By Roser Bastida Posted in Pablo, Public engagement, Social Permalink

Pablo won the Elevator Pitch contest!

Sticky Post By Roser Bastida On March 20, 2019

Last week three research centers at UAB celebrated an Elevator Pitch contest. Students and researchers had 2 minutes to explain their research projects to the audience, in a fun and understandable way.

There were 20 participants from the IBB, the ICTA-UAB and INc (our institute), and all of them talked about what they are doing in their labs. They all did amazing presentations, and we had a very nice time learning from them!

Pablo explained his PhD project, in which he puts all his energy and passion. He is investigating how to cure motion sickness (yes, he is not working in mitochondrial disease, but we still like him), using optogenetics and chemogenetics. Doing his research in mice, he turns on and off specific neuron populations to discover which ones are involved in this annoying phenomenon of feeling sick.

The audience were the jury, and through their votes they decided Pablo had to be the first winner. He did an excellent job with his communication, and we are very proud of him! Congrats, Pablo!

20 Nov 2018

Sticky Post By Roser Bastida Posted in Public engagement, Research, Social Permalink

Open Doors Day

Sticky Post By Roser Bastida On November 20, 2018

Last Thursday 15th was the Open Doors day at the institute. 90 students from the Institut Torras i Bages and the Lycée Français de Barcelone visited the facilities of the center and learned about what we do in the laboratories.

We had the opportunnity to talk to them about how our research can help understand mitochondrial disease and find novel treatments.

We also explained what techniques we use. They could observe fluorescent mitochondria under the microscope, saw cool molecular biology tools and learned how to measure neuronal activity!

Fabien was specially happy because he could speak in French 😉

It was a very good experience and we hope it helped incentivate scientific vocations among them!

21 Jun 2018

Sticky Post By Roser Bastida Posted in Public engagement, Research Permalink

La Fira de la Recerca en Directe

Sticky Post By Roser Bastida On June 21, 2018

We know it has been a while since April, but let us tell you about La Fira de la Recerca en Directe, an amazing Science Fair in which we were involved (yes, in April… these have been very busy months!). During 4 days, we were at the CosmoCaixa Science museum, showing our research and doing some hands on activities with high school students and the general public. It was great!

Only twelve research groups had the chance to participate, and we were very happy that, after a voting process and a selection committee, we were among the chosen ones.

We had an excellent opportunity to show the importance of mitochondria, to teach about the biological basis of mitochondrial disease, and to explain to the students and public why it is so important to try to cure it. A really cool part involved participants observing under the microscope their own mitochondria, looking at their very own cheek cells! (and bacteria in some cases, we won’t look at anyone! :D)

We hope they learned a lot and enjoyed the experience as much as we did!

Thanks to the Parc Científic de Barcelona for organizing it, and to ThermoFisher, for lending us the microscope we used!

25 Nov 2017

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana Posted in Members, Public engagement Permalink

INc-Open Doors Day 2017

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana On November 25, 2017

As part of our Outreach activities, last week, together with other researchers at Institut de Neurociències (INc), the QuintanaLab participated in the INc-Open Doors Day 2017.

20 high school students aged 15-17 visited our laboratory and learned firsthand what a scientific research laboratory is like and how the research is carried out. We explained them an overview of our research in mitochondrial disease and showed some basic practical lessons in genotyping and protein electrophoresis. They look really interested (and actually they asked a lot of questions!!). We hope we awakened their innate curiosity!

They had a very tight schedule visiting other laboratories at the INc. Still, they were very grateful to have the opportunity to visit all of us and they gifted us with very creative and funny drawings!!

As it can´t be otherwise, we thank them back for their visit and especially for their interest in science and research. Hopefully, we passed them on our passion and dedication for science. We look forward seeing some of them joining in the exciting world of scientific research in the future!!!

22 Nov 2017

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana Posted in Meetings, Members, Public engagement, Uncategorized Permalink

1st European PhD and Postdoc Symposium

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana On November 22, 2017

Last week, the Quintana lab attended the 1st European PhD and Postdoc Symposium held in the beautiful, Pompeian Style, Palauet Casades in Barcelona, Spain. The international event was possible through the ENABLE (European Academy for Biomedical Science) initiative, part of the European Union Horizon 2020, for young researchers in Life Sciences. It was a very successful initiative with more than 250 participants of 26 different countries.

The 3-day symposium was (amazingly!!) organized by PhD students and Postdocs from four European centers, and was aimed at promoting excellence in the Biomedical Sciences in Europe as well as at fostering collaborations with industry and engagement with society. In addition to the outstanding scientific lectures, we could benefit from the top-level Masterclasses given by established researchers as well as the informal Career Chats with professionals, to learn about different career paths outside the bench. We also enjoyed the interesting Workshops on useful topics such as “Setting Goals & Time Management”, “Intellectual Property” or “Science Communication and Public engagement”.

It has been a very inspiring event… and Pati and Pablo could also show our latest research advances!!

Now the torch has been passed…we are looking forward the next vibrant ENABLE symposium in Copenhagen 2018!!

16 Sep 2017

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana Posted in Public engagement, Social Permalink

Mitochondrial Disease Awareness Week (Sept 17-23)

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana On September 16, 2017

LIGHT UP FOR MITO!!!

During this week, please help Raise Awareness for Mitochondrial disease. Light a green light, wear green, share your experience, learn about mitochondrial disease, take part in the different activities! Just a little green light can go very far!!!

For more information on mitochondrial disease and mito actions!:

Mito Awareness Week

UMDF

AEPMI

30 Jun 2016

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana Posted in Albert, Meetings, Public engagement, Seminars With No Comments Permalink

MEXICO-MADRID-BCN Connection: Science and Outreach

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana On June 30, 2016 With No Comments

One of the key parts of science, and in opinion, what really is it all about, is to communicate one’s research, to announce your results to colleagues and to give back to society by explaining the breakthroughs (or complications) of our research, even if that means (sometimes), cancelled flights, a lot of flying hours, delayed luggage, frequent flier miles and jet lag (having the change to reach gold medallion status is a small perk).

And April was one of those months. I was really honored to represent the lab in the 1st Neurobiology Meeting of the Mexican Society for Biochemistry, which was held in Puebla, Mexico.

It was full of really good science, scientists, and friends! so lots of things to learn and to transfer to the lab (yay!). Also, the venue was incredible… Just look at the pictures!

Recharging the batteries with some pulque!

The city of Puebla

And… just after the flight back, take the high speed train to Madrid to a really wonderful experience. I was invited to meet, talk and present our research to the spanish association of mitochondrial disease patients and families (AEPMI). It is always humbling and extraordinary to meet with the families and the kids, as it really tells you that

whatever we do, no matter how small it seems, it matters

And that is that gets us running!

The team is always there 🙂

01 May 2016

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana Posted in Albert, Meetings, Public engagement With No Comments Permalink

Destination Europe: The state of research in Spain

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana On May 1, 2016 With No Comments

Recently (this past February, sorry, we are running a little bit late!) we were invited by the Spanish Research Agency in the USA to attend the D estination Europe conference held in Boston, MA, organized by the European Commission.

The event was designed to showcase the research opportunities in Europe to any scientist interested in working in Europe.

Over 11 european countries and associations were present in the 2-day conference, including a meeting in Boston and a job-fair at MIT. The role of the Quintana lab (Albert in this case) testimonial was two-fold: 1) describe the opportunities for researchers in Spain and 2) present the advantages of applying (and obtaining) an ERC grant, which were also showcased in this interview in the EURAXESS NA newsletter.

Furthermore, it was great to hear to the different experts explain the many (and diverse) opportunities to do research in Europe (you can find the presentations in this LINK).

Plus… it is not every day that one can give a lecture at the MIT!

24 Jan 2016

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana Posted in Albert, Public engagement With No Comments Permalink

#HistoriesEU: Showing the impact the EU has had on society (and the Quintana Lab)

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana On January 24, 2016 With No Comments

To celebrate that it has been 30 years since Spain joined the European Union, its Barcelona Office has decided to look at twelve personal stories that highlight the impact the EU has had on them (as a proxy for society).

The stories range from funds to promote local agriculture, film making to, as in our case, research and one of them will be showcased every month, and the Quintana lab, as an ERC-funded lab, was selected to talk about the research grant EU programs.

We were also invited to the program presentation, along with EU Barcelona Office President, Ferran Tarradellas, acclaimed film maker Isabel Coixet who told us about her EU-funded project Paris je t’aime and engineer/enterpreneur Marc Rovira, from the company zero to infinity , who told us about flying and shipping cargo to the stratosphere (so cool) in the near (present)-future using helium balloons.

We had a chance to highlight our research and to explain the importance that EU-funding policies had on our lab, on mitochondrial disease research, and on society as a whole.

More information on the different programs can be obtained here (in catalan, but google translate does work 🙂 ).

The teaser is also available and just keep an eye for a new story every month…

And look for us this coming April!

13 Jul 2015

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana Posted in Albert, Elisenda, Public engagement, Social With No Comments Permalink

A night at the Círculo Ecuestre

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana On July 13, 2015 With No Comments

This past Thursday the Quintana lab was honored to share a wonderful night at the Círculo Ecuestre of Barcelona to raise awareness for mitochondrial disease research.

The event was organized by Isabel Lavín (and her husband Valero), the parents of Mencía, a really wonderful 7 year-old girl, and gathered a large audience of friends, mito families and researchers to educate on mitochondrial disease and help find a treatment for Mencía and all mito kids.

The night included several interesting and didactic and informative talks by local mitochondrial experts such as Dr. Julio Montoya and Dr. Jaume Campistol as well as an outline of the potential treatments that gene and cellular therapy may bring to mitochondrial research.

One of the highlights of the event was the announcement of the establishment of a new Foundation for Mitochondrial Research, devoted to find a cure (mainly via gene and cellular therapy) for mitochondrial disease. It was impressive the amount of support from many national (and international) celebrities!

Finally, we could enjoy an exquisite selection of hors d’oeuvres and drinks while participating in a charity raffle. Needless to say, the lab (at least part of it), was lucky 🙂

So, a big welcome to the new Foundation!

18 Nov 2014

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana Posted in Albert, Alex, Elisenda, Irene, Kelsey, Public engagement With No Comments Permalink

A night in the lab: Mito Science Night

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana On November 18, 2014 With No Comments

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The force is strong in you, Luke. That is what this Darth Vader toy mouse was telling the optogenetic laser

This past Saturday we had the opportunity to share our research with a select group of members and friends of the NW Mitochondrial Research Guild.

The event, aptly named Mito Science Night, included a tour around the different labs in the Mitochondrial Program: the Morgan/Sedensky lab, the Hahn lab and the Quintana lab.

Guests were welcomed into the Seattle Children’s Research Institute at around 5:30pm, where they could start enjoying some hors d’oeuvres and drinks to get the night started…

Once our mitos were charged, it was time to visit the labs!

Several stations were ready for this 50-minute (-ish) tour:

Nicole Brockway, of the Morgan/Sedensly lab, showed the importance of green fluorescent Caenorhabditis elegans (a.k.a.
Eli showing the importance of red fluorescent mitochondria

worm) in mitochondrial research.
Valeria Vasta and Sihoun Hahn showed current methods to sequence nuclear and mitochondrial DNA in the search for novel mutations and diagnostics in mitochondrial disease.
Bernhard Kaiser, of the Morgan/Sedensky lab presented the Seahorse analyzer, which enables scientists (a.k.a. us) to study respiration of really small quantities of fresh mitochondria from healthy and sick tissue and identify how mitochondrial mutations affect the physiology of mitochondria.
Elisenda Sanz, from the Quintana lab, showed novel tools to identify mitochondria for select populations, and the future potential of these approaches.
Christian Woods and Pavel Zimin, of the Morgan/Sedensky lab showed how we are identifying the electrophysiological alterations in neurons carrying mitochondrial mutations.
Albert Quintana showed the use of optogenetics and viral vector delivery in our quest to uncover what causes neurons to be sensitive (or resistant) to mitochondrial disease.

After the tour, guests (and scientists) had the opportunity to enjoy a wonderful dinner while we continued discussing about science, life or any other topic that came to mind.

It just amazes me the amount of insightful and interesting questions that a night like this can generate!

All in all, an extraordinary experience that allowed us to provide a first-hand impression of our work and show our appreciation to the NW Mitochondrial Research Guild for their continuous support of our research.

Kudos to Marge Sedensky, Phil Morgan and Diana Wells for putting everything together and special thanks to Kelsey Montgomery, Irene Bolea, Alex Gella and Leslie Itsara for the invaluable help!

Please do not forget to check the gallery with the rest of the pics!

09 Sep 2014

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana Posted in Albert, Public engagement With No Comments Permalink

Quintana lab featured at KOMO TV

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana On September 9, 2014 With No Comments

Recently I had the opportunity to collaborate with KOMO TV and Seattle Children’s Hospital to help explain what we do and what are our goals in the Quintana lab.
We like to do our best to raise awareness of mitochondrial disease!

06 Jul 2014

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana Posted in Albert, Elisenda, Meetings, Members, Public engagement With No Comments Permalink

Learning about what’s new in mitochondria: 2014 UMDF symposium

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana On July 6, 2014 With No Comments

Early last month we attended the 2014 UMDF Symposium , held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The UMDF does a great job in providing quite a unique opportunity to promote the interaction between mitochondrial disease researchers and clinicians with families and patients.
This year was not an exception and we really enjoyed the 4-day meeting under a (mostly) blue sky in beautiful Pittsburgh. It was our first visit to the city and it was really worth it.

The amount of high-quality state-of-the-art talks was incredible, and we got to keep in touch with many exciting research in mitochondrial biology and disease. Talks ranged from mitochondrial postranslational modifications and their importance in mitochondrial function, to advances in our understanding of mitochondrial complex structure and important updates on clinical trials and potential new treatments, such as the promising use of TALENs technology (a.k.a. selective molecular scissors) by the Moraes lab to eliminate altered mitochondrial DNA.

The Quintana Lab presented a poster on our latest research on the characterization of the molecular and histological changes in different vulnerable neuronal populations in an animal model of Leigh Syndrome. The turnaround and input was excellent, which will be extremely useful for our future research and grant applications.

Also, it was great to meet the guys from the Northwest Mitochondrial Research Guild, kudos to them for the great work they do in raising awareness and promoting mitochondrial research in the Pacific NW and also, congratulations to Beverley Dancy, from the Mogan-Sedensky lab at Seattle Children’s Research Insitute for her 1st-prize poster and oral presentation!

Eli hanging out with Dr. Rex

As I was saying… a great experience.

And we also got to see some Pittsburgh’s local fauna 😀

14 Jun 2014

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana Posted in Albert, Members, Public engagement, Seminars With No Comments Permalink

Neuroscience’s Frontiers: Challenges for 2020

Sticky Post By Albert Quintana On June 14, 2014 With No Comments

A few months ago, the Quintana lab participated in the 2014 edition of the Neuroscience’s Frontiers Webinars, organized by both CERFA and SRUK, the associaciations of Spanish Scientists in Germany and the UK, respectively.

It was a really interesting webinar, with speakers from all over the world, and it was a great opportunity for the lab to present our past results, our present, and our future. On top of this talk, other topics included:

a great talk on the interplay between autophagy and degeneration by Dr. Ana María Cuervo, from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY, USA.
a very interesting update on the role of cannabinoid system in the brain, by Dr. Francisco Molina-Holgado, from the University of Roehampton, London, UK.
a really exciting talk on the role of VEGF signaling in cerebellar development, by Dr. Carmen Ruiz de Almodóvar, from the University of Heidelberg, Germany (although unfortunately not included in the video).

So, even with some delay, I hope you enjoy it as well!