Nature has been utilizing nanostructures for billion of years. The following two properties, (i) being about the size of typical biological objects and (ii) the possibility of tailoring their properties by changing their size, make nanoparticles attractive for biomedical applications. Using nanoparticles to deliver drugs to tumours offers an attractive possibility to avoid obstacles that occur during conventional systemic drug administration.

Von Neumann's concept of quantization goes back to the foundations of quantum mechanics and provides a noncommutative model of integration. Over the years, von Neumann algebras have shown a profound structure and set the right framework for quantizing portions of algebra, analysis, geometry and probability. A fundamental part of my research is devoted to develop a very much expected Calderón Zygmund theory for von Neumann algebras. The lack of natural metrics partly justifies this long standing gap in the theory.

Mental disorders constitute a human an economic burden for developed countries. Many mental disorders are linked to serotonin dysfunction, but the exact mechanism underlying these disorders is not well understood. Serotonin Related Mental Disorders (SRMD) are multigenic, making the identification of these mechanisms a difficult task. Understanding the molecular mechanisms that generate serotonergic neurons will provide us with the tools to identify mutations that could predispose to SRMD.

The fact that biophysical and biomechanical properties of cells and subcellular structure influence and are influenced by onset and progression of human diseases is now attracting the physiologists attention. This opens up new routes for disease diagnosis and treatment. The first traditional way to discover a tumor was by palpation, such as sweetness in urine was indicative of diabetes.

The human crystalline lens has the capability to dynamically change its shape to focus near and far objects. By age 55, the accommodation capability is lost and optical aids are needed for near vision. Many questions remain open that are critical to understand accommodation, the failure in presbyopia, and the prospects for its correction. Multifocal presbyopic corrections are increasingly used. However, the ideal multifocal pattern, and the optical factors affecting depth-of-focus and adaptation to simultaneous vision remain to be elucidated.

The majority of animals show an external bilateral symmetry, precluding the observation of multiple internal left-right (L/R) asymmetries which are fundamental for organ packaging and function. A prominent molecular pathway converging on and downstream of the Pitx2 transcription factor confers left-handed information in the left side of the embryo, with players expressed on the right ensuring that the left determinants are excluded. Therefore, conferring or excluding left identity in left and right hand sides, respectively, drives L/R asymmetry.

The mammalian cerebral cortex was subject to a dramatic expansion in surface area during evolution. This process is recapitulated during development and is accompanied by folding of the cortical sheet, which allows fitting a large cortical surface within a limited cranial volume. A loss of cortical folds is linked to severe intellectual impairment in humans, so cortical folding is believed to be crucial for brain function. However, developmental mechanisms responsible for cortical folding, and the influence of this on cortical function, remain largely unknown.

Organic electronic devices, such as organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), are raising an increasing interest for their potential in large area coverage and low cost applications. Also, the use of single molecules as active electronic components offers great prospects for the miniaturization of devices and for their compatibility with biological systems. Within this framework, e-GAMES goals are:

The POLIGHT project will focus on the integration of a series of inorganic nanostructured materials possessing photonic or combined photonic and plasmonic properties into polymeric films, providing a significant advance with respect to current state of the art in flexible photonics. These highly adaptable films could act either as passive UV-Vis-NIR selective frequency mirrors or filters, or as matrices for light absorbing or optically active species capable of tailoring their optical response. The goal of this project is two-fold.

Evolved stars are the factories of interstellar dust. This dust is injected into the interstellar medium and plays a key role in the evolution of astronomical objects from galaxies to the embryos of planets. However, the processes involved in dust formation and evolution are still a mystery. The increased angular resolution of new generation telescopes, will provide for the first time a detailed view of the conditions in the dust formation zone of evolved stars, as shown by our first observations with ALMA.