Doing Research Midnight in ROmania (DoReMi-RO) 2020 is the International Year of Sound, an area of high importance for science and technologies for all in modern society. Our team goal is to join the European Researchers’ Night event in Romania with this initiative, in order to emphasize both research activities and technological development mixed with sounds and music: DoReMi-RO. The promotion and dissemination of the research results among young people, in one day event, is at the same time welcome but also insufficient. For the moment the kids' curiosity will be sparked but on the next day they feel that everything is beautifully solved in science and there is not much left to do. Then, the research as a career might be unattractive. After a single successful evening, as the Night is, the event must be transformed into a new public challenge based on the well-known concept of collaborative engagement. Thus, the general objective of the project is to raise awareness on research results baked by experiments, involving the participants in a particular citizen science project whereby researchers and the public are working together. The collaborative process will take place before, during and after the Night event and aims to make the magnetic map of Romania. All together will use common smartphones to measure the magnetic field, throughout Romania. The anonymous collaborative public have to send us the measured data, along with the GPS coordinates, uploaded on an internet web-platform. DoReMi-RO event will be held in more than 15 cities, spread throughout entire Romanian territory, among which: Baia Mare, Brasov, Bucharest, Cluj, Constanta, Craiova, Iași, Pitesti, Timișoara, Sibiu and Suceava. All proposed activities are represented by various minds-on and open-air activities: hands-on experiments, debates about collaborative engagement types, games, quizzes, organized in an amusing and stimulated manner by real researchers.

PERMANET is a Sustainable REE Innovation and Supply Network covering the full Rare Earth Elements (REE) Permanent Magnet (PM) value chain. It is structured upon 5 layers: 1) Three Sustainable, Connected Tech ‘Hubs’ segmented along the full REE PM value chain and organizing thematic collaborative R&D and supply ecosystems 2) 13 fully Scalable Innovations to reach TRL7 and expand in scale and deployment range along the entire value chain 3) A structural layer of R&D infrastructure, equipment and services to fuel Pilot and Demonstration activities 4) Five Enabling “Engines” addressing the key conditions for sustainable and competitive REE supply 5) All embedded within a single PERMANET Network Infrastructure with its own, sustainable organizational model. The Network accelerates leading-edge innovations, from REE extraction from mining tailings and hydrometallurgical processes to oxide reduction and innovative production processes, all the way to the production of innovative PM and their testing by end users in industrial environment across 1/ E-Mobility 2/ Energy 3/ Industrial Equipment. PERMANET also secures key sources of REE such as leading mining projects from the EU and Partner Countries, as well as End of Life (EoL) sectors (WEEE, EV, etc.). The project relies on enabling activities ranging from strategic venturing to investment support to build sub-optimal EU REE PM Segments. The project unlocks viable reserves of REE including unconventional sources and will demonstrate novel, cost-effective, and environmentally sound REE extraction, processing, and separation routes, as well as demonstrate the first EU hub for PM boosting circular PM technologies to deploy at market scale. The project is ready to be fully integrated with other EU-backed PM Hubs and aims to grow into a fully-fledged Pan-EU pilot and demonstration infrastructure to remain sustainable post-funding.

The main goal of ProBIOnCell is to broaden my expertise by performing state-of-the-art scientific research in the fields of applied physics and cell biology by implementing functionalized AFM tips with natural and/or synthetic ionophores incorporated into biomimetic membranes, for electrochemically testing their ability to detect target ions in cellular cultures, so that to probe and localize cell membrane ion channels, gap-junction and focal adhesion on mouse primary cardiac fibroblast cells. Advancing the characterization of biological cells allows for a deeper understanding and modeling the physiological behavior of biological tissues, with huge potentials in biomedicine for improving the management of cardiovascular diseases and their treatment. From a personal perspective, this project contributes to my first international mobility, which is fundamental for unlocking new career perspectives towards a permanent research position and will be implemented at the National Institute of Materials Physics (NIMP) of Bucharest. In order to achieve the main goal of ProBIOnCell some specific objectives are foreseen: O1. Membrane synthesis and ionophores incorporation. Bilipid membranes, hydrogels and liposomes will be synthesized and the incorporation of ionophores investigated. O2. Functionalization of electrodes and AFM tips. This objective involves the deposition or bottom-up construction of the membrane with embedded ionophores at the surface of electrodes and AFM tips. O3. Development of suitable control healthy and pathological fibroblast cell cultures, test the membrane capacity for the detection of target ions by electrochemical methods in the absence and in the presence of inhibitory compounds, and localize ion channels, gap junctions, and focal adhesions by AFM.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is an aggressive type of cancer of plasma cells where fast diagnosis and treatment monitoring is vital, especially given the overall low survival rate. Proteasome, a multi-catalytic complex essential in damaged protein degradation, has been recently established as a biomarker for MM, in which elevated levels have been observed in blood plasma of unhealthy individuals, as well as its impaired activity has been target for treatment alongside regular chemotherapy. PADMME addresses increasing contributions on proteasome electrochemical recognition and aims to develop novel interdisciplinary technologies translatable into POCT systems for MM care. For this, we propose the development of sensitive and selective dual-channel platforms comprising conductive polymeric fiber biosensors integrated on paper-based microfluidic supports to simultaneously detect quantity and specific activity of proteasome in blood plasma. Paper supports ensure disposability and ease of commercialization, whilst incorporation of microfluidic paths allows low sample volume requirements and in situ pre-treatment steps. Conductive polymeric fiber scaffolds provide increased signal resolution for the construction of biosensors, necessary for the recognition of low concentrations of the biomarker. Then, investigating proteasome at the dual-channel platform in drug-treated and untreated MM cell lines will demonstrate how changes in quantity and specific activity are specifically linked to the disease dynamics. The last step will comprise validation of the technology for analysis in blood plasma, technology able to improve overall monitoring of MM disease progression and therapeutic efficiency, crucial to overcome delays in treatment due to drug resistance complications. Training through research will allow me to refine my expertise, creativity and innovative potential on smart biosensor technologies translated into point-of-care testing devices for cancer care and drug assessment.