The main interest of our group is the control of proliferation and differentiation processes along nervous system development. Germ line and somatic mutations may cause an alteration of the mentioned processes, leading to an aberrant growth and in many cases prompting it to malignancies. Historically neoplastic growth has been associated to genes that either induce cell proliferation, or increase survival. Advanced tumours normally accumulate a large number of mutations, being difficult to discriminate which of those mutations were the founding ones.

The focus of my research has been to provide basic knowledge on the genetic regulation of developmental processes and I think that now we can say that the work of many laboratories has allowed to begin to understand the genetics logic behind development. Some years ago I decided to try to go a step forward in contributing to the understanding of how these mechanisms impinge on cell behavior and how changes in individual cells sum up to generate organs and the whole organism.

Our group was established in 2002 and at present consists of a PhD student, a master student, a technical assistant, a senior associate and the PI. Our research covers a range of topics related to Receptor Tyrosine Kinase (RTK) signaling and gene regulation in development, mainly using Drosophila as a model system. We are currently supported by research grants from the Spanish Government (BFU2017-87244-P) and AGAUR (Generalitat de Catalunya).

Our institute is organized as a single group, mainly because the main research themes we address are interdependent. The group studies the processes of knowledge generation and use, their contribution to innovation in different areas and oganizational settings, and the design and evaluation of policies addressing these themes. All academic and support staff are assigned to this group, and all the technical and administrative staff support it.

The coming years are called to revolutionize our understanding of planetary systems in the Universe. Major advances are expected from the deep scrutiny of the sites of star and planet formation with ALMA, from the discovery and characterization of exoplanets of all sizes and properties, and from investigation of the materials composing the most primitive bodies in the Solar System.

The active members of the group are staff scientists, trainees (postdocs and graduate students) and technicians. Among the scientists there are astrophysicists with strong expertise in general stellar evolution in its final stages: white dwarfs, novae and supernovae of type Ia. They use large telescopes and both X and gamma rays satellites for the diagnostics of the theoretical models. In addition, some members of the group have a strong background in nuclear and particle physics.

Development of space technologies and instrumentation to study the Earth System

The mission of this group is to use scientific knowledge to help provide clean energy to all people. Our strategy is to develop materials beyond silicon, to obtain new functionalities, low cost and higher environmental sustainability. In particular, we develop photovoltaic (conversion of light into electricity) and thermoelectric (conversion of residual heat into electricity) technologies using nanostructured semiconductors (organic, inorganic, and hybrid). At the same time, we design and apply photonic and plasmonic architectures that help improve the performance of these devices.

The ‘Laser Processing Research’ (LPR) group focuses its activity on the laser processing of functional nanostructured materials through the techniques Matrix Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation (MAPLE), Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD), laser direct irradiation and Laser Direct Write (LDW) for energy storage and environmental applications. Current research lines: - Laser deposition of carbon-based hybrid nanocompounds. - Chemical transformation by direct irradiation of carbon-based thin films and nanostructures. The research group was created in 2010 and currently it is in the phase of