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Over the last decades, an increasing demand for new specific molecular recognition elements has emerged in order to improve analytical methods that have already been developed in order to reach the detection/quantification limits of target molecules. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have molecular recognition abilities provided by the presence of a template molecule during their synthesis, and they are excellent materials with high selectivity for sample preparation. These synthetic polymers are relatively easy to prepare, and they can also be an excellent choice in the substitution of antibodies or enzymes in different kinds of assays. They have been properly applied to the development of chromatographic or solid-phase extraction methods and have also been successfully applied as electrochemical, piezoelectrical, and optical sensors, as well as in the catalysis process. Nevertheless, new formats of polymerization can also provide new applications for these materials. This paper provides a comprehensive comparison of the new challenges in molecular imprinting as materials of the future in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1960s, Biophysics was an unheard of scientific field in Spain, and even outside Spain, the distinction between Biophysics and Molecular Biology was not clear at the time. This paper describes briefly the developments that led to the foundation of the Spanish National Committee for Biophysics (1981) and of the Spanish Biophysical Society (1987), the incorporation of Spain into IUPAB and EBSA, and the normalized presence of Biophysics as a compulsory subject in undergraduate curricula in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The invitation by the organizing committee of ISOCS-21, which was held in Madrid, July 2004, to address the memorial speech for the late Professor James C. Martin reminded me at once of his gentle and generous character and his great contributions to the chemistry of hypervalent molecules. Although he died in April 1999, I believe that it is still appropriate to do so and also I am heartily honored by the invitation. As a Japanese chemist, I do not know the formal European tradition of the memorial speech, the memoirs consists of two parts, that is, the first part is dedicated to his personal history and the second one describes short history and back ground of the chemistry of hypervalent compounds and is devoted mainly to the accomplishment of J. C. Martin. Here, all the materials I used for the speech are shown accompanied by some short comments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We genetically analysed malaria parasites (Protozoa) in three Mediterranean blue tit ( Cyanistes caeruleus) populations from central Spain. A total of 853 breeding individuals were screened for parasites of the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus using a very efficient polymerase chain reaction approach that amplifies a partial segment of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene of these parasites. We have found six lineages of Plasmodium (SGS1, GRW11, COLL1, DELURB4, GRW04 and BLUTI10) parasitizing the studied populations but we did not detect any infection by Haemoproteus. One of the detected lineages (BLUTI10) has not been previously described in any bird species and this is the first study recording lineages DELURB4 and GRW04 in blue tits. SGS1 (belonging to the morphospecies Plasmodium relictum) was the most frequent lineage (overall prevalence, 24 %), whereas the other lineages showed a much lower prevalence (<4 %). Only a small proportion (12.2 %) of positive amplifications of the most common lineage (SGS1) was detected in blood smears using light microscopy and infection intensities were very low (mean ± SE, 2.0 ± 1.4 parasites/2,000 erythrocytes). We have also found strong inter-population variability in prevalence patterns (12-41 % for lineage SGS1), suggesting important differences in parasite transmission rates among the geographically close studied localities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]