Investigating the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of Parkinsons´s disease using patient-specific derived astrocytes 

Fernández Carasa, Irene (Date of defense: 2021-06-29)

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is an incurable, chronically progressive disorder of old age leading to premature invalidity and death. Clinically, PD is characterized by classical motor syndrome linked to a progressive loss of ...

Investigating the role of testis-mitochondiral genes in Drosophila lethal (3) malignant brain tumor 

Louzao Boado, Ánxela (Date of defense: 2019-04-30)

Genetically tractable models such as Drosophila melanogaster may help to identify new approaches to halt malignant growth. During my doctoral thesis, I performed a screen to find mitochondrial genes required for the growth ...

Investigating the role of transcription factor Nkx1-2 in mouse embryonic stem cell pluripotency, self-renewal and differentiation 

Cortés Albarracín, Paola Andrea (Date of defense: 2019-12-02)

Mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) require extracellular signals to induce the expression of intrinsic core pluripotency factors: Oct4, Sox2 and Nanog, known as the OSN triad. Notably, the Wnt/β-catenin pathway has been ...

Investigating the role of Wnt/β-catenin pathway in pluripotency and somatic cell reprogramming 

Aulicino, Francesco (Date of defense: 2016-12-15)

The adaptive response of cells to external stimuli is an intriguing mechanism at the basis of the existence of life itself. For this purpose, signalling pathways and gene regulatory networks elegantly evolved translating ...

Investigating the roles of cellular senescence in embryogenesis and aging 

Storer, Mekayla (Date of defense: 2014-12-18)

Cellular senescence is an irreversible form of proliferative arrest, historically linked to tumour suppression and aging. Recent discoveries, however, have extended its known role to include complex biological processes ...

Investigating the Signs and Sounds of Cypro-Minoan 

Valério, Miguel Filipe Grandão (Date of defense: 2016-04-08)

The aim of this dissertation is to advance our knowledge of Cypro-Minoan, a group of undeciphered syllabic inscriptions dated roughly to the 16th or 15th through the 11th centuries BCE and found mostly on Cyprus, with small ...

Investigation of branched and linear polymers as oral delivery systems of antimalarial drugs 

Martí Coma-Cros, Elisabet (Date of defense: 2019-09-27)

Malaria is an infectious disease that affects nearly half of the population in 90 countries around the world. In 2017 it was estimated that there were 219 million cases and 435,000 deaths disproportionately distributed ...

Investigation of continuous-wave range-resolved lidar systems for gas detection and concentration measurement 

Batet Torrell, Óscar (Date of defense: 2011-07-27)

The techniques for detection of the atmosphere constituents and their distribution in the space have evolved in the last years driven by needs in the environmental, meteorological and climate science fields and backed by ...

Investigation of protein-ligand interactions using high-throughput all-atom molecular dynamics simulations 

Buch Mundó, Ignasi (Date of defense: 2012-06-29)

Investigation of protein-ligand interactions has been a long-standing application for molecular dynamics (MD) simulations given its importance to drug design. However, relevant timescales for biomolecular motions are orders ...

Investigation of reflective optical network units for bidirectional passive optical access networks 

Arellano Pinilla, Cristina (Date of defense: 2007-07-25)

Esta investigación está conducida a la resolución del problema de encontrar soluciones rentables para el despliegue de redes de fibra hasta el hogar (Fibre to the Home - FTTH). En una red de FTTH, el equipo transmisor-receptor ...

Investigation of the antioxidant properties of five aromatic plants in model food systems 

Azman, Nurul Aini Binti Mohd (Date of defense: 2015-12-22)

In this PhD it has been analyzed the antioxidant activity of five plants: Camelia sinensis, Gentian lutea, Betula pendula, Convolvulus arvensis and Arctostaphylos uva-ursi. An Electronic Paramagnetic Resonance has been ...

Investigation of the influence of the membrane lipid environment on g protein-coupled receptor activation by molecular dynamics simulations 

Bruzzese Novoa, Agustín Alberto (Date of defense: 2021-02-24)

Els receptors acoblats a proteïnes G (GPCRs) són importants dianes terapèutiques per a nombroses malalties. Si bé els GPCRs s’han estudiat àmpliament en les últimes dècades, els mecanismes moleculars que determinen la seva ...

Investigation of the phospholipid peripheral region of lactose permease in model membranes 

Suárez Germà, Carme (Date of defense: 2013-11-07)

The interaction between a membrane protein and its surrounding phospholipids is thought to be crucial for the correct folding and function of the protein. This thesis is focused on the investigation of the interplay between ...

Investigation of the role and modulation of autophagy for neuroprotection and nerve regeneration using models of peripheral nerve injury 

Leiva Rodríguez, Tatiana (Date of defense: 2018-11-09)

Lesiones en el nervio periférico causan una disrupción axonal que puede producir una neurodegeneración retrograda. Las neuronas axotomizadas sufren una serie de cambios fenotípicos a nivel molecular y celular, algunos de ...

Investigation of the telomere maintenance system in Cushing’s syndrome: A contribution to the phenomena of early ageing and specific morbidity 

Aulinas Masó, Anna (Date of defense: 2015-06-19)

La síndrome de Cushing (SC), una malaltia minoritària per secreció excessiva de cortisol, s'associa a augment de morbi-mortalitat, inclús després del tractament, comparat amb població de referència i s'associa a processos ...

Investigation of thermal bremsstrahlung emission from hot and fragmenting nuclear matter formed in (129) Xe (+) natSn reactions at 50A MeV 

Ortega Comino, Raquel (Date of defense: 2003-06-27)

Investigation on force detection methods for optical trapping and sensing inside living cells 

Mas Soler, Josep (Date of defense: 2017-01-09)

Optical Tweezers (OT) are a light-based non-invasive tool that has played an important role during the last decades in the field of biophotonics, together with the advances in optical microscopy techniques. Optical trapping ...

Investigations in animal models of anti-NMDAR encephalitis 

García Serra, Anna (Date of defense: 2021-09-14)

[eng] BACKGROUND: Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis is a neuronal antibody-mediated disease that associates with prominent neuropsychiatric symptoms and predominantly affects women of childbearing ...

Investigations into the role of translations in abstract algebraic logic 

Moraschini, Tommaso (Date of defense: 2016-06-08)

This memoir is divided into two parts, devoted to two topics in (ab-stract) algebraic logic. In the first part we develop a hierarchy in which propositional logics “L” are classified according to the definability conditions ...

Investigations of topological phases for quasi-1D systems 

Tirrito, Emanuele (Date of defense: 2020-07-13)

For a long time, quantum states of matter have been successfully characterized by the Ginzburg-Landau formalism that was able to classify all different types of phase transitions. This view changed with the discovery of ...