The CIB Margarita Salas participates in the fifteenth edition of Researchers' Night in Madrid

The Margarita Salas Center for Biological Research (CIB-CSIC) is once again contributing to the activities held on the occasion of the European Researchers' Night, which this year will be held on Friday 27 September. The activities organized will be aimed at primary, secondary, and high school students and the general public. They will allow participants to learn about different areas of the research carried out at the CIB Margarita Salas, from biotechnology and bioplastics to synthetic biology and biomedicine. They will take place in Madrid, at the CIB Margarita Salas facilities, located in Calle Ramiro de Maeztu, and at the Moe Club, located in Calle Alberto Alcocer.

Secondary and high school students will learn about research that seeks to contribute to a cleaner future using microorganisms. They will learn how fungi and bacteria act on plant waste and how bioelectricity can be generated from them, and through an escape room type activity, they will learn about the bacteria that produce bioplastics and how these are a more sustainable alternative to those of petrochemical origin. Primary school children will learn about the basics of synthetic biology using their imagination and creativity to build a ‘Frankenstein’ cell through a fun game.

The general public who come to the Moe Club will learn about the role of cholesterol in Alzheimer's disease. This demonstrative talk will explain how the lipid composition of cell membranes affects their biophysical properties and how lipids can be visualized in the brains of mouse models in the laboratory. In addition, they will learn how enzymatic biocatalysts enable greener production from bio-based materials and how the development of new, more robust enzymes that can be adapted to demanding industrial application conditions and large-scale production can be improved.

Details of the activities organized by the CIB Margarita Salas can be found on the website https://www.madrimasd.org/lanochedelosinvestigadores. Bookings can be made from Monday 16 September at 9:00h following the procedure on the website.

The researchers participating in these activities coordinate or participate in a variety of projects funded by the European Union within Horizon Europe, including ROBUSTOO, Mi-HY, FUELPHORIA, CAPTUS, CO2SMOS, PROMICON, deCYPher, AGRILOOP, among others.

The European Researchers' Night is a project to support research personnel in raising awareness of their role in society and the importance of their work for general well-being. In Madrid it is coordinated by the Fundación para el Conocimiento madri+d and funded by the European Union within Horizon Europe, the EU's Research and Innovation Programme, under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions with grant agreement number 101.162.110.