Laureano Ramirez de la Piscina

Associate Professor at the department of Physics. Ph.D. in Physics in 1990 for the Universitat de Barcelona. His research interests are related to nonlinear systems, pattern formation and fluctuations.

Blas Echebarria

Associate Professor at the department of Physics. Coordinator of the research group on Computational Biology and Complex Systems (BIOCOM-SC). BSc in physics (1994) for the University of the Basque Country and PhD in physics (1998) for the University of Navarre. His main research interests lie on the applications of nonlinear dynamics to fluid dynamics, material science and biophysics. 

Angelina Peñaranda

Associate Professor at the department of Physics. She obtained her graduation in Physics in 1981 at the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and gained her PhD in Physics in 1991 (UB). She currently performs her research on cardiac modelling and in modelling suspensions of superconducting granules.

Enric Alvarez

Associate Professor at the department of Physics and member of the deparment board and the University Senate. He got the degree in Physics in 1998 and the PhD in Physics in 2004 at the University of Barcelona. He is currently working in computational neuroscience and cardiac modelling.

Sergio Alonso

Associate Professor at the department of Physics. He got the degree in Physics in 1998 and the PhD in Physics in 2004 at the University of Barcelona. He is currently working in cell biophysics, cardiac modelling, and fundamental non-linear physics.

Inma Rodríguez Cantalapiedra

Associate Professor at the department of Physics. Ph.D. in Physics (1995) for the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Her main research interests lie on the applications of nonlinear dynamics to fluid dynamics, material science and biophysics.

Carlota E. Auguet Sangrá

Associate Professor at the department of Physics. She obtained her graduation in Physics in 1979 at the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and gained her PhD in Physics in 1988 (UB). Her main research interests are related to material sciences.

PhD thesis

• Miquel Marchena, PhD student of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya: Development and application of atrial myocyte models to investigate mechanisms that confer patients a high risk of atrial fibrillation.

• Eduardo Moreno, PhD student of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya: Computer modeling of the polarity and amoeboid motion of living cells.

• Martí Català, PhD student of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya: Computer modeling of tuberculosis lesions dynamics.

• Gustavo Montes: One year visiting PhD student of the Universidad Federal de Juiz de Fora (Brazil): Uncertainty Quantificarion and Stochastic Variables for Models of Cardiac Myocytes.

• Pedro André Arroyo: One year visiting PhD Student of the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (Brazil): Semi-continuum approach to discreteness.

Master thesis

• Nica Gutu: Biochemical model for the amoeboid motion of Dictyostelium discoideum cells (Master in Physics Engineering, 2020).

Finished

• Nora Wieczorek i Masdeu: Numerical model of cardiac electromechanics (Master in Mathematics, 2019).
• Thomas Prade: Measurement of sarcoplasmic reticulum passive leak current and its relation with spark characteristics in atrial myocytes (Master in Photonics, 2019).

• David Conesa: Integration of a subcellular calcium model with cardiac action potential in human atria.  (Master on Atomistic and Multiscale Computational Modelling in Physics, Chemistry and Biochemistry 2019).
  

• Nikolina Krizanec: Mathematical modeling of calcium handling dysfunctions leading to atrial fibrillation (Master on Advanced Mathematics and Mathematical Engineering, 2017)

• Miquel Marchena: Development of a computational model of calcium singalling in cardiac cells at the submicron scale (Master on Atomistic and Multiscale Computational Modelling in Physics, Chemistry and Biochemistry 2016).

Bachelor thesis

Finished

• Ivan Caro Mañas: Continuation methods: application to a biophysical problem (Mathematics, 2019)
• Miquel Bosch: Effect of reactive oxygen species in the development of cardiac arrhythmias (Physics Engineering, 2019)
• Montserrat Torres: Stability of intracellular calcium in cardiac myocytes (Mathematics, 2019).
• Nora Wieczorek: Mechanisms of control of cardiac alternans (Mathematics, 2018).

• David Conesa: Analysis of homeostatic regulation in cardiac cells (Physics Engineering, 2018).

• Luis Martin: Coordination of calcium alternans in ventricular Z-Planes due to recovery from inactivation of RyR2 (Physics Engineering, 2017).
• Ferran Pla: Study of calcium sparks and calcium wave propagation in cardiac cells (Mathematics, 2016).
• Pol Canal: Measurement and modeling of atrial cell electrodynamics and atrial arrhythmias (Physics Engineering, 2016).
• Guillem Sanchís: Simulation of  calcium release units in cardiomyocytes to study pulsus alternans (Physics Engineering, 2016).
• David Casas: Gpu-accelerated simulations of the chemotactic response of amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum (Physics Engineering, 2016).

Internship students

• Katerina Krassakopoulou: Computational modelling of interactions between immune system and Mycobacterium tuberculosis inside an alveolus (Erasmus+ student from University of Patras, 2019).
• Friedrich Puttkammer: Biophysical computational modeling of the intracellular electrophysiology of a single cardiac cell (Biophysics, 2019, student from the Humboldt University of Berlin)
• Miquel Bosch: Effect of reactive oxygen species in the development of cardiac arrhythmias (Physics Engineering, 2019)
• Maria Franz: Deterministic and stochastic modeling of calcium dynamics (Biochemistry, 2019, student from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
• David Conesa: Analysis of homeostatic regulation in cardiac cells (Physics Engineering, 2018)
• Dafni Giannari: Comparison study of the Electrophysiology of neurons and cardiac cells. (Erasmus+ student from University of Patras, 2018).
• Pablo Navarro: From ABM to continuous: A tuberculosis alveolar infection model (Physics Engineering. 2018).

Finished

• Francesc Font: Graduate in Physics by the University of Barcelona, Master in Mathematical Engineering in the UPC, PhD on Applied Mathematics in the UPC. Postdoctoral fellow in the McMaster University (Canada) and int the Univeristatt Politècnica de Catalunya. Actually in the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica (CRM).

Short CV

1993-present: Associate Professor. Department of Applied Physics, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.

1992-1993: Postdoctoral stay in the Groupe de Physique des Solides on instabilities in solidification, Université Paris 7, France.

1986-1990: Ph.D. in Physics at the Departament d'Estructura i Constituents de la Matèria of the Universitat de Barcelona on "Study of Stochastic Dynamics by First Passage Times"

1986: Graduation in Physics in the Universitat de Barcelona  

Research interests

• Pattern Formation
• Molecular ionic channels
• Complex fluids
• Solidification and Dendritic Growth
• Fluid Dynamics in Microgravity
• Fluctuations and Stochastic Dynamics
• Superconductors

Short CV

2003-present: Associate Professor. Department of Applied Physics, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.

2002-2003: Chercheur Associé. CNRS. Laboratoire de Fisique Statistique. Ecole Normale Superieure de Paris. Paris, France.

2000-2002: Research Associate. Physics Department. Northeastern University. Boston, USA.

1998-2000: Postdoctoral fellow. Department of Applied Mathematics and Engineering Sciences. Northwestern University. Evanston, IL, USA.

1994-1998: Graduate Student. Department of Physics and Applied Mathematics. University of Navarre. Pamplona, Spain.

Research Interests

• Cardiac Dynamics
• Pattern Formation
• Solidification and Dendritic Growth

Publications

• Google Scholar
• Web of Science
• Scopus
• Futur UPC

Associate Professor
Department of Applied Physics
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Escola Politècnica Superior d'edificació de Barcelona
Av. Dr. Marañon 44-50, 08028, Barcelona, Spain
Tel.: +34-93-401-7995
Fax.: +34-93-401-7996

Short CV

1998-present: Associate Professor. Department of Applied Physics, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.

1991: PhD in Physics in 1991  on the subject of "Distortions in Polyacen: A new accidental degeneration".

1981: Graduation in Physics at the Universitat de Barcelona.

Departament de Física Aplicada
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Escola d'Enginyería de Telecomunicació i Aeroespacial de Castelldefels.
C. Esteve Terrades, 5 08860 Castelldefels
Tel.:93 4134152

Escola Politècnica Superior d'edificació de Barcelona
Av. Dr. Marañon 44-50, 08028, Barcelona, Spain
Tel.: +34-93-401-6264

Short CV

2015-present: Associate professor and member of the deparment board and the University Senate. Department of Applied Physics, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.

2010–2014:  Lector-doctor (tenure track) position. Department of Applied Physics, Universitat Politècnica  de Catalunya.

2007–2009: "Juan de la Cierva" post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Applied Physics, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.

2005-2007: Postdoctoral fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Science Rehovot Israel.

1999-2004: PhD in the Advanced Physics program. Department Structure and Constituents of Matter, University of Barcelona.

1994-1998: Degree on Physics. University of Barcelona.

Dr. Sergio Alonso Muñoz

Short CV

2014-2019: Ramón y Cajal research associate (Tenure track).Department of Applied Physics, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.

2011–2014: Postdoctoral research contract. Collective research project SFB 910: Control of self-organizing nonlinear systems, funded by the German Science Foundation. Department of Mathematical Modeling and Data Analysis, National institute of Science and Technology (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt), Berlin

2007–2010: Postdoctoral research contract. Collective research project SFB 555: Complex Nonlinear processes, funded by the German Science Foundation. Department of Mathematical Modeling and Data Analysis, National institute of Science and Technology (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt), Berlin

2005-2007: Postdoctoral research contract. Marie Curie Research training network: Unifying principles in non-equilibrium pattern formation, Department of Physical Chemistry, Fritz-Haber Institute of Max-Planck Society, Berlin.

2001-2004: PhD in the Advanced Physics program. PhD thesis title: Propagation of waves in excitable media under spatio-temporal forcing. Department Structure and Constituents of Matter, University of Barcelona.

1999-2001: Substitute assistant professor. Department Structure and Constituents of Matter, University of Barcelona.

1994-1998: Degree on Physics. University of Barcelona.

Research Interests

Modeling non-linear dynamics inside living cells

A spatial instability due to the difference on the diffusions at the membrane and in the cytosol or the viscoelastic properties of the cytoskeleton of the cell can produce a local increase of concentration inside the cell giving rise to the formation of domains of high concentration. The spatial organization of the molecules participating in a particular signaling pathway affects the global response of the cell. This spatial distribution of the molecules at the membrane is particularly relevant for processes of cell polarization and cell locomotion. the cell may produce the formation of domains of proteins/lipids at the membrane. The polarization of the cell precedes the activation of the cytoskeleton, which is responsible for division or locomotion. Cell motion is produced by the push at the membrane of the actin microfilament network, forming the cytoskeleton. The attachment of the filaments at the membrane is controlled by proteins which have certain affinity for the proteins involved in the polarization process.

Computational models of the micro-structure of cardiac tissue

Arrhythmias in cardiac tissue are related to irregular electrical wave propagation in the heart. Some types of arrhythmias have been frequently related with fibrosis and ischemia of the tissue. Cardiac tissue is typically model with the continuous cable equations. However, tissues are formed by a discrete network of cells, which, normally, are far to be homogeneous. The inclusion of non-conducting media among the cells, mimicking cardiac fibrosis, in models of cardiac tissue may lead to the formation of reentries and other dangerous arrhythmias. A localized region with a fraction of non-conducting media surrounded by homogeneous conducting tissue can become a source of reentry and ectopic beats. The fraction of non-conducting media in comparison with the fraction of healthy myocytes and the topological distribution of the cells determines the probability of ectopic beat generation.

Chemical reaction-diffusion equations

Spatially extended chemical reactions are systems where the observation of linear instabilities and different types of pattern formation in non-linear reaction-diffusion equations is well-controlled. The combination of reactions with different instabilities together with advection may produce new pattern formation mechanisms. It permits the study of multi-scale problems where two instabilities appear simultaneously in a co-dimensional point at different scales. On the other hand, chemical waves in extended chemical excitable media, e.g. the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction or catalytic oxidation in metal surfaces, can reproduce some of the particularities of electrical wave propagation in cardiac tissue.

Negative filament tension of scroll waves in excitable media

Scroll waves are vortices that occur in three-dimensional excitable media. Scroll waves have been observed in a variety of systems including cardiac tissue, where they are associated with cardiac arrhythmias. The disorganization of scroll waves into chaotic behavior is thought to be the mechanism of ventricular fibrillation. One possible mechanism for this process of scroll wave instability is negative filament tension. The resulting complex, often turbulent dynamics was studied in many generic models of excitable media as well as in physiologically realistic models of cardiac tissue. Negative filament tension is related to tissue excitability. We consider the application of the negative tension mechanism to computational cardiology, where it may be regarded as a fundamental mechanism that explains differences in the onset of arrhythmias in thin and thick tissue.

 

Stochastic reaction-diffusion equations

Active media are a suitable benchmark to study the constructive role of random fluctuations in pattern forming systems. The mathematical framework to model these pattern forming systems is by using Partial Differential Equations. The interaction between the non-linearities and the random perturbations can give rise to unexpected phenomena. Several types of non-linear systems are considered and in particular extended chemical reacions where the noise is externally controlled by a computer. White, globally temporal or spatio-temporal noises interact with spiral waves, Turing patterns, oscillations and traveling waves in a contra-intuitive way.

Laureano Ramirez de la Piscina

Associate Professor at the department of Physics. Ph.D. in Physics in 1990 for the Universitat de Barcelona. His research interests are related to nonlinear systems, pattern formation and fluctuations.

Blas Echebarria

Associate Professor at the department of Physics. Coordinator of the research group on Computational Biology and Complex Systems (BIOCOM-SC). BSc in physics (1994) for the University of the Basque Country and PhD in physics (1998) for the University of Navarre. His main research interests lie on the applications of nonlinear dynamics to fluid dynamics, material science and biophysics. 

Angelina Peñaranda

Associate Professor at the department of Physics. She obtained her graduation in Physics in 1981 at the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and gained her PhD in Physics in 1991 (UB). She currently performs her research on cardiac modelling and in modelling suspensions of superconducting granules.

Enric Alvarez

Associate Professor at the department of Physics and member of the deparment board and the University Senate. He got the degree in Physics in 1998 and the PhD in Physics in 2004 at the University of Barcelona. He is currently working in computational neuroscience and cardiac modelling.

Sergio Alonso

Tenure track position (Ramón y Cajal research associate) at the department of Physics. He got the degree in Physics in 1998 and the PhD in Physics in 2004 at the University of Barcelona. He is currently working in cell biophysics, cardiac modelling, and fundamental non-linear physics.

Inma Rodríguez Cantalapiedra

Associate Professor at the department of Physics. Ph.D. in Physics (1995) for the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Her main research interests lie on the applications of nonlinear dynamics to fluid dynamics, material science and biophysics.

Carlota E. Auguet Sangrá

Associate Professor at the department of Physics. She obtained her graduation in Physics in 1979 at the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and gained her PhD in Physics in 1988 (UB). Her main research interests are related to material sciences.

Departament de Física Aplicada
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Escola Politècnica Superior d'Edificació de Barcelona
Av. Dr. Marañón 44-50, 08028 Barcelona.
Tel: +34 9340 16816
Fax: +34 9340 16294
Email:inmaculada.rodriguez.at.upc.edu

Short CV

1997-present: Associate Professor. Department of Applied Physics, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.

1990-1995: Ph.D. in Physics at the Departament Applied Physics, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya on " Transition to chaos and turbulence in heterogeneous systems"

1974-1979: Graduation in Physics in the Universitat de Barcelona 

Research Interests

• Cardiac Dynamics
• Pattern Formation in Biology
• Nonlinear dynamics in semiconductors
• Mixing efficiency and turbulence

Publications

• Google Scholar
• UPC Futur

Departament de Física Aplicada
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Escola Politècnica Superior d'Edificació de Barcelona
Av. Dr. Marañón 44-50, 08028 Barcelona.
Tel: +34 9340 16264
Fax: +34 9340 17996
Email:carlota.auguet.at.upc.edu

Short CV

1990-present: Associate Professor. Department of Applied Physics, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.

1984-1988: Ph.D. in Physics at the Departament d'Estructura i Constituents de la Matèria of the Universitat de Barcelona on "Contribution to the study of Cu-Al-Zn alloys by calorimetry and acoustic emision"

1983: Permanent Position at UPC

1974-1979: Graduation in Physics at the Universitat de Barcelona

Research Interests

• Material sciences

• Shape memory alloys (SMA): thermo-mechanical properties and applications

• Smart materials and systems
• Micro-calorimetry
• Architectural acoustics

• Archeomagnetism

Publications

• OrcID
• ResearcherID