October 1, 2021 - In cooperation with their colleagues from Germany, the Croatian Scientists' tissue research brought about some new findings that made the news in the international scientific community.

Dr. Ana Sunčana Smith from the Ruđer Bošković Science Institute (IRB) is one more IRB scientist to find herself leading an international scientific team towards new exciting discoveries. Made up of IRB Croatian scientists and Germany's Friedrich-Alexander University from Erlangen-Nürnberg, Sunčana Smith's team (the members being Sara Kaliman, Maxime Hubert, Carina Wollnik, Lovro Nuić, Damir Vurnek, Simone Gehrer, Jakov Lovrić, Diana Dudziak, and Florian Rehfeldt) came to a new understanding on the mechanical properties that affect Epithelial Tissue (the form which covers all human bodies).

Their scientific paper titled ''Mechanical Regulation of Epithelial Tissue Homeostasis'' has recently been published in the prestigious Physical Review X scientific journal for the study of physics.

As IRB explained in their press release, diseases or injuries to the organism change the elasticity of microcellular surroundings during our lifetime.

''Despite recent efforts to understand homeostasis in epithelial tissues, there are many unknowns surrounding this steady state. It is considered to be regulated by mechanoresponse, but unlike for single cells, this idea remains heavily debated for tissues (…) Our results unequivocally relate the mechanosensitive properties of individual cells to the evolving macroscopic structures, an effect that could be important for understanding the emergent pathologies of living tissues,'' reads the abstract of the paper.

While the current researchers focused on a single cell, IRB points out that tissue research like this is scarce.

"This result showed us a more complicated connection between density and cell movability than has been known before. We determined that the organisation of the epithelial tissue is very robust despite great variations in density lead by the various hardness of micro-surrounding. This shows that density is the result of adaptation and that the cell organisation is actively controlled to fulfill its function. This fact can be used in diagnostics, and it has potential implications in understanding the process of epithelial regeneration,'' concluded Dr. Ana Sunčana Smith.

This is just one of the great results discovered by IRB, the biggest scientific institute in Croatia. As previously reported, this includes spindle and cell division research, quantum communication development (presented at the G20 Summit), heavy metal analysis in the Adriatic Sea, and much more.

Learn more about Croatian inventions & discoveries: from Tesla to Rimac on our TC page.

For more about science in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

May 28, 2021 - A recently published study on ionic liquids with solid state nanopores at the Ruđer Bošković Institute (IRB) can help the energy storage sector.

The top scientific and research institution in Croatia, the Ruđer Bošković Institute (IRB), continues to be the home of interesting scientific progress.

Researchers from the IRB's computer bioscience team, Nataša Vučemilović-Alagić, and dr. Mario Špadina under the mentorship of dr. Ana Sunčana Smith cleared the phenomenon of transport inside liquids on the principle of nanopores in the solid-state. A nanopore is a small cavity in solid matter, invisible to the naked eye. This IRB research was done in collaboration with dr. Sanjin Marion and dr. Aleksandra Rađenović from École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland and the research results are published in the prestigious scientific journal Small which specializes in nanotechnology.

Professor Ana Sunčana Smith's IRB team deals with molecular descriptions of chemical and physical interactions of ionic liquids (liquids that are not neutral but have either positive or negative electric charge) on various solid surfaces. The goal was to determine the impact of specific ions and specific surfaces. The appliance of this knowledge is in line with guidelines of the EU Green Deal, and the UN sustainable development goals", explained IRB in the official press release.

The press release added this knowledge is useful in storing energy, as ionic liquids in nanopores represent an alternative to batteries.

„In this research, starting from the principle of water solutions, we combine ionic fluids and nanopores of different geometric features and materials to secure new nanofluid functionalities. This solves some of the relevant issues in the understanding of basic principles of transports in space-limited ionic liquids and ensuring better control of the speed of translocating within an analyte“, explained Dr. Ana Sunčana Smith.

It's worth noting that dr. Sunčana Smith is one of the Croatian scientists that received support from the Croatian European Research Council (ERC) for a very prestigious project in researching biological membranes worth 1,5 million euros.

Energy efficiency is something IRB shows to be really dedicated to, as evident by the progress IRB researchers made in exploring materials for converting CO2 to methanol alcohol, and IRB's Rovinj Sea Research Centre that celebrated 130 years of existence this year priorities maritime ecology and its protection in its research.

Learn more about Croatian inventions & discoveries: from Tesla to Rimac on our TC page.

For more about science in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.