ESR9. Mar Eroles Navarro

Short biographic note

Mar_Eroles_Navarro_small Working hard for something we love is called passion. My life is about passion for innovation.

Mar Eroles is a scientist working towards value based science to the patients, a tech-transfer enthusiast and a learner of everything involved in this field. With a background in biotechnology and neuroscience she spent the late years of her career working with entrepreneurs and financial and institutional players moving forward new technologies to the market.

Founder of Mandarina Capital, former Jury member at the SME Instrument in the European Commission, former General Secretary of AMCES and EMCC Spain, former President of Innovation Forum Barcelona and mentor of several acceleration programs in Europe. Nowadays she is committed to her doctorate thesis in biophysics.

Useful links

Skype: mar.erolesnavarro
LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mareroles/

E-mail: mar.erolesnavarro@gmail.com

Project Title

Fast phenotyping of cell mechanics

Start date

1^st June 2019

Beneficiary

INSERM

Objectives

Development and application of fast mechanical phenotyping of cells and tissues combining AFM and microfluidics.

Expected results

We will develop instrumentation, sample preparation, data acquisition and analysis tools for robust and fast AFM mechanical mapping of cells and tissues. To minimise variability and control the spreading conditions, cells will be cultured on micro-patterned substrates mimicking the physiological environment. High-speed AFM instrumentation will be adapted to increase the throughput of mechanical mapping towards c linical use. Similar strategies will be applied to map the mechanics of tissues combined with common histological inspection. The mechanics of cells grown on micro-patterns of varying sizes will be measured by AFM and compared with the mechanics of suspended cells using microfluidics, a high throughput method. This comparison will establish the basis for quantitative, high-throughout mechanical phenotyping for disease diagnosis. Bio-specimens will include malignant and benign tumour cell lines and normal and pathological tissues and extracellular matrix. The secondement at instrumentation company will allow the use of a similar technique, Nanoindenter, on the same samples. The secondment at Biomeca, a company dedicated to pr oviding cell mechanical tests to external clients, will reveal the constraints and needs outside the academic world. The ESR will be also involved in scientific communication, training, and dissemination.

Planned secondments

FAU, W. Goldmann. Correlation between mechanics of cells by AFM grown on micro-patterns of varying size and mechanics of suspended cells using microfluidics (4 months, month 12; 2 months, month 36). 2. OSR, M. Alfano. Preparation and immobilis ation of tissue and ECM (1.5 months, month 20). 3. O11, D. Iannuzzi. Mechanical mapping of cells and tissues using commercial nano-indenter (1.5 months, month 30). Biomeca, P. Milani. Mechanical mapping of cells and tissues using AFM as an external service (1.5 months, month 33).