De Copas con Ciencia, special 11F: Raluca Fratila & Mª Josefa Bernad
Witchcraft and sugars this month in the 11F special of “De Copas con Ciencia”
This Thursday, 23 February, a new session of the successful popular science project “De copas con ciencia” will take place. An initiative that aims to satisfy the scientific curiosity of the population in a relaxed, entertaining and fun way during leisure time, bringing it to the bars. The activity is aimed at the whole population with scientific curiosity without the need for specific training in science and aims to be a meeting point for science lovers in order to facilitate the creation of scientific debates between experts and the general public.
The activity is organised by the research institutes, ISQCH (Institute of Chemical Synthesis and Homogeneous Catalysis) and INMA (Aragon Nanoscience and Materials Institute), both joint centres CSIC – University of Zaragoza, and will be repeated periodically on the last Thursday of each month. During these sessions, topics related to chemistry, nanotechnology and materials science will be discussed.
This month, the activity joins the celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, which aims to raise awareness of the role of women researchers in science and to awaken scientific vocations from an early age.
The session, with free admission, will take place on 23 February at 20:00 at El Sótano Mágico, Calle San Pablo 43, Zaragoza, and will feature the researchers Raluca Fratila and María Josefa Bernad.
– Carolyn Bertozzi and the language of sugars” – Raluca Fratila, researcher at INMA (CSIC-UNIZAR)
Carolyn Bertozzi is one of the most brilliant scientists of our time and winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her pioneering work in the field of bioorthogonal chemistry.
Our cells are coated with carbohydrate molecules (also called sugars) that play an important role in many infectious diseases and cancer. In order to study these sugars in depth and understand their language, Carolyn Bertozzi developed chemical reactions that can take place inside living cells, without interfering with normal biological processes. This is known as bioorthogonal chemistry.
Raluca Fratila holds a PhD in Chemistry from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Romania. Since 2013 she has been a member of the Bionanosurf group at the Aragon Nanoscience and Materials Institute (already a Romanian), and is currently Associate Professor at the University of Zaragoza.
Her lines of work focus on bioorthogonal chemistry applied to nanotechnology and functionalisation of magnetic nanoparticles for biomedical applications. She also participates regularly in outreach activities.
– From witches to pharmacists” – María Josefa Bernad Bernad, researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México on a stay at ISQCH (CSIC-UNIZAR)
Witches have long been part of history and their legends prevail to this day. They were women feared by society for escaping their feminine role and having an interest in knowledge, in particular in the “art” of healing and being knowledgeable about the therapeutic properties of plants. In Aragon, the witches of Trasmoz, in particular Aunt Galga and her daughter, are famous, among others. These women, who were interested in making potions, were not able to study at university until the second half of the 19th century, and this by requesting special permission from the academic authorities. And it was not until 1975 that a woman could own a pharmacy without the permission of her father or husband. To date, 70% of the members are women. Much of this therapeutic knowledge of our plants still prevails, but how to make use of it goes far beyond an infusion. Pharmaceutical technology has advanced considerably over time and the “art” of witchcraft has become the “science” of pharmacy.
María Josefa Bernad Bernad (Fina) has a degree in Pharmacy from the Complutense University of Madrid and a PhD in Chemical Sciences from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Research Professor at the Faculty of Chemistry of the UNAM since 1998 and creator of the New Drug Delivery Systems group and the Pharmaceutical Services and Development Unit (USEDEF). Her research focuses on the design of pharmaceutical systems to solve problems of solubility, side effects and control of spatial and temporal release of active ingredients.
In addition, during the session there will be a Hi Score Science competition for the general public that will reward the scientific knowledge acquired by those attending the session with a batch of Gastrópolis craft beers.
Hi Score Science is a game of questions and answers about science, in Spanish and English, for mobile devices, iOS and Android that is developed between the two research institutes, the ISQCH and the INMA, which allows to include informative explanations of the scientific reality that lies behind each of the answers. The game can be downloaded free of charge and without advertising in the Apple Store and Play Store and for Windows, iOS and Linux at www.HiScoreScience.org. The application also allows users to participate in the project by sending their own questions via a dedicated website www.hiscorescience.org.
