RESEARCH-LED PROJECTS : 2 case studies
HEALTHCARE 93
RESEARCH-LED PROJECTS : 2 case studies
GRAPHENE OXIDE ‘ TEABAGS ’ MAKE A MERCURY FREE BREW Paula Marques and colleagues at the UA used graphene oxide nanosheets to create a porous 3D material with a high surface area by a hydrothermal method . The inside of the pores can be functionalized during the preparation , that is , anchored with selected molecules . This allows the surface chemistry of the foams to be modulated and their application directed . After screening their materials for their ability to adsorb various toxic pollutants , the team chose to focus on mercury , one of the top three on the EU ’ s priority list of hazardous substances in water . The invention also includes the subsequent encapsulation of the foam in a permeable casing to facilitate its removal from the aqueous medium . The sorption capacity of GO foams is much higher than activated carbon , one of the most common substrates for water decontamination .
The main advantages of these foams lie in their high mercury removal efficiency , the ease of the synthesis process , low cost and the possibility of their application in locations that do not have specific infrastructures . The developing technology is at maturity stage TRL3 , and a provisional patent application has recently been deposited ( PPP 108.061 , 25 November 2014 ).
The team is looking forward to further exploring this technology in two main phases : i ) the development and implementation of this product in Hg polluted water decontamination in the market by scaling-up its production ; and ii ) the extension of its range of application to efficiently remove combinations of metals and metalloids , such as Hg , Cd , Pb , Ni and As , considered as priority pollutants by the European Water Framework Directive .
Reference : Optimized graphene oxide foam with enhanced performance and high selectivity for mercury removal from water . Bruno Henriques , Gil Gonçalves , Nazanin Emami , Eduarda Pereira , Mercedes Vila , Paula A . A . P . Marques . Journal of Hazardous Materials , Available online 15 September 2015 , In Press , Accepted Manuscript ; IF = 5.277 . http :// dx . doi . org / 10.1016 / j . jhazmat . 2015.09.028
SOFTWARE DEVELOPED AT UA DISSECTS GENOMES : TOWARDS NEW THERANOSTICS APPLIED TO THE EBOLA VIRUS A Bioinformatics and Computational Biology team from the Institute of Electronics and Informatics Engineering ( IEETA ) and the Department of Electronics , Telecommunications and Informatics ( DETI ) of the University of Aveiro has identified specific DNA sequences from the Ebola virus that are absent from the human genome .
These DNA sequences allow the differentiation between Ebola virus species and between the 2014 strain in West Africa and other disease outbreaks , thus enabling these pathogen-specific signatures to be used for diagnosis . Also , these sequences can spark the development of novel therapeutic strategies , as they are located within fundamental proteins in viral replication .
The work of Raquel Silva , Diogo Pratas , Luísa Castro , Armando Pinho and Paulo Ferreira used computational methods for the differential identification of sequences that are derived from a pathogen genome but absent from its host . The software that allowed the discovery ( EAGLE ) has been made freely available at http :// bioinformatics . ua . pt / software / eagle / and can be applied to other pathogens of biomedical or economical relevance , for which novel diagnosis tools or druggable targets are necessary .
The researchers are looking for partners or collaborators interested in validating the identified DNA sequences in a laboratory setting and participating in future applications .
Reference : Three minimal sequences found in Ebola virus genomes and absent from human DNA . Raquel M . Silva , Diogo Pratas , Luísa Castro , Armando J . Pinho & Paulo J . S . G . Ferreira . Bioinformatics 31 ( 15 ): 2421-2425 ( 2015 ). DOI : 10.1093 / bioinformatics / btv189 www . ua . pt
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