Researchers at the URV and the Pere Virgili Health Research Institute (IISPV) have discovered why people with obesity not only accumulate glycogen in their muscles and liver, like other people, but also store it in their adipocytes, the cells that make up body fat. These fat cells stop working properly, causing the individual to develop insulin resistance and, potentially, type 2 diabetes. This is the first time that this metabolic pathway has been described and it makes glycogen a new player within the pathology of obesity
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09/07/2015
A hand-held sensor selective for benzene
The collaboration between the groups of Prof. Pau Ballester at ICIQ and Prof. Eduard Llobet at URV has allowed the development of a sensor highly selective for benzene in air with a lower limit of detection to the extent permitted by law. The work has been published in Advanced Functional Materials and selected for the back cover.
A scientific article published in “Nature Scientific Reports” reveals that the oxidation of the amino acid methionine is a blood marker that indicates the oxidation of good cholesterol. This oxidation prevents the cholesterol from maturing and, therefore, from carrying out its protective function. This study -carried out by CIBERDEM/URV researchers jointly with researchers from the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital- has been carried out in a group of girls in the initial stages of polycystic ovary syndrome, which can lead to a high risk of anovulatory infertility, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and metabolic syndrome in adulthood.
Agustín Mihi, a researcher with the Nephos researcher group at the URV’s Department of Electronic, Electrical and Automatic Engineering, has been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). The grant is worth 1.5 million euros over a period of five years and is for a project to create photonic structures for controlling the propagation of light in emerging technologies such as solar cells, sensors and the next generation of LEDs
The doctoral thesis “From the projected to the transmitted image: The 2.0 construction of tourist destination image and identity in Catalonia” authored by Dr. Estela Mariné Roig under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Salvador Anton Clavé within the Doctoral Program in Tourism and Leisure of the Rovira i Virgili University has been selected as the winner of the International Federation for Information Technologies and Travel & Tourism (IFITT) Thesis Excellence Award for a Doctoral Thesis. Among the competing nominees, the Dr. Estela Mariné´s thesis stood out for its innovativeness, scientific rigor, and relevance to the tourism field
The JEDI-ACE project (Japanese-European De-Icing Aircraft Collaborative Exploration) is a joint R+D programme between Europe and Japan that studies how to detect, prevent and eliminate the build-up of ice on certain parts of aircraft.