Chairman of the Group:

• Francesc Ventura Pujol, Full professor of Biochemistry Unit and Chairman of the group

Members of the Group:

• Julia Reiriz, Professor of Escola Universitària d' Infermeria
• Cristina Gamell Fulla, Predoctoral Fellow
• Antonio  García Suspérregui, Predoctoral Fellow
• Mª José Ortuño Romero, Predoctoral Fellow
• Edgardo Rodriguez Carballo, Predoctoral Fellow

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) constitute a growing family of growth and differentiation factors belonging to the Transforming  growth factor-beta superfamily. BMPs, acting as morphogens, are involved in several developmental processes including cell  proliferation, diferenciacion and survival. Our group is
focused in analysis of those signal transduction and transcriptional activation mechanisms induced by  bone morphogenetic proteins involved in osteoblast and neuronal differentiation

Análisis de los mecanismos implicados en la diferenciación osteoblástica inducida por BMPs

Programa Nacional de Biología fundamental

Empresa/Administración financiadora: Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia

Número de proyecto/contrato: BFU2005-01474/BMC Duración, desde: 2005 hasta: 2008

Investigador/a Principal: Francisco Ventura Pujol

Función de osterix y p38 en osteogénesis inducida por BMPs

Programa Nacional de Biología fundamental

Empresa/Administración financiadora: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación

Número de proyecto/contrato: BFU2008-02010/BMC Duración, desde: 2008 hasta: 2011

Investigador/a Principal: Francisco Ventura Pujol

• Casas-Terradellas E, Tato I, Bartrons R, Ventura F, Rosa JL.

  ERK and p38 pathways regulate amino acid signalling. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta-Molecular Cell Research (2008) 1783 (12) : 2241-2254

• Gamell C, Osses N, Bartrons R, Rückle T, Camps, M., Rosa JL, Ventura F

  BMP-2 induction of  actin cytoskeleton reorganization and cell migration requires PI3-kinase and Cdc42 activities. Journal of Cell Science (2008) 121 (23) : 3960-3970

• Susperregui A.R.G., Viñals F., Ho P.W.M., Gillespie M.T., Martin T.J. and Ventura F.

  BMP-2 regulation of PTHrP and osteoclastogenic factors during osteoblast differentiation of C2C12 cells. Journal of Cellular Physiology (2008) 216 (1) : 144-152

• Ulsamer A, Ortuño MJ, Ruiz S, Susperregui AR, Osses N, Rosa JL, Ventura F.

  BMP-2 induces osterix expression through upregulation of DLX5 and its phosphorylation by p38. Journal of Biological Chemistry (2008) 283 (7) : 3816-3826

• Tallón-Walton, V.; Manzanares-Céspedes, M.C.; Arte, S.; Carvalho-Lobato, P.; Valdivia-Gandur, I.; Garcia-Susperregui, A.; Ventura, F.; Nieminen, P.

  Identification of a novel mutation in the PAX9 gene in a family affected by oligodontia and other dental anomalies. European Journal of Oral Sciences (2007) 115 (6): 427-32

• Casas-Terradellas, E.; Garcia-Gonzalo, F.R.; Hadjebi, O.; Bartrons, R.; Ventura, F.; Rosa, J.L. Simultaneous electrophoretic analysis of proteins of very high and low molecular weights using low-percentage acrylamide gel and a gradient SDS-PAGE gel.

  Electrophoresis (2006) 27 (20): 3935-3938

• Hueso, M.; Navarro, E.; Moreso, F.; Beltran-Sastre, V.; Ventura, F.; Grinyo, J.M.; Seron, D. Relationship between subclinical rejection and genotype, renal messenger RNA, and plasma protein transforming growth factor-beta1 levels. Transplantation (2006) 81 (10):1463-1466

• Osses, N.; Gutierrez, J.; Lopez-Rovira, T.; Ventura, F.; Brandan, E. Sulfation is required for bone morphogenetic protein 2-dependent Id1 induction.

  Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications (2006) 344 (5):1207-15
• Fernandez Lloris, R.; Osses, N.; Shen, L. N.; Vaughan, O. A.; Girwood, D.; Bartrons R.; Rosa J. L.; Hay, R. T.; Ventura, F. Repression of SOX6 transcriptional activity by SUMO modification FEBS Letters (2006) 580: 1215-1221
• Garcia-Gonzalo, F.R.; Bartrons, R.; Ventura, F.; Rosa, J.L. Requirement of phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate for HERC1-mediated guanine nucleotide release from ARF proteins. FEBS Letters (2005) 579: 343-348

• Obach, M.; Navarro-Sabate, A.; Caro, J.; Kong, X.; Duran, J.; Gomez, M.; Perales, J.C.; Ventura, F.; Rosa, J.L.; Bartrons, R. 6-Phosphofructo-2-kinase (pfkfb3) gene promoter contains hypoxia-inducible factor-1 binding sites necessary for transactivation in response to hypoxia. Journal of Biological Chemistry (2004) 279 (51) 53562-53570

• Vinals F, Ventura F.   Myogenin protein stability is decreased by BMP-2 through a mechanism implicating Id1.J Biol Chem. (2004)  279:45766-72.
• Vinals F, Reiriz J, Ambrosio S, Bartrons R, Rosa JL, Ventura F.   BMP-2 decreases Mash1 stability by increasing Id1 expression. EMBO J.  (2004)   23:3527-37.
• del Valle-Perez B, Martinez-Estrada OM, Vilaro S, Ventura F, Vinals F.   cAMP inhibits TGFbeta1-induced in vitro angiogenesis. FEBS Lett.  (2004)  569 :105-11.
• Comalada M, Cardo M, Xaus J, Valledor AF, Lloberas J, Ventura F, Celada A.  Decorin reverses the repressive effect of autocrine-produced TGF-beta on mouse macrophage activation.
  J Immunol.  (2003)  170:4450-6.
• Fernandez-Lloris R, Vinals F, Lopez-Rovira T, Harley V, Bartrons R, Rosa JL, Ventura F.   Induction of the Sry-related factor SOX6 contributes to bone morphogenetic protein-2-induced chondroblastic differentiation of C3H10T1/2 cells. Mol Endocrinol.  (2003)  17:1332-43. 

• Ferrer I, Blanco R, Carmona M, Puig B, Dominguez I, Vinals F. Active, phosphorylation-dependent MAP kinases, MAPK/ERK, SAPK/JNK and p38, and specific transcription factor substrates are differentially expressed following systemic administration of kainic acid to the adult rat. Acta Neuropathol (Berl) (2002)  Apr;103(4):391-407

• Vinals F, Lopez-Rovira T, Rosa JL, Ventura F. Inhibition of PI3K/p70 S6K and p38 MAPK cascades increases osteoblastic differentiation induced by BMP-2.FEBS Lett.  510(1-2):99-104.(2002)

• Lopez-Rovira T, Chalaux E, Massague J, Rosa JL, Ventura F.Direct binding of Smad1 and Smad4 to two distinct motifs mediates BMP-specific transcriptional activation of Id1 gene.
   J Biol Chem. 2002 Feb 1;277(5):3176-85

• Viñals F, Pouyssegur J. Transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-beta1) promotes endothelial cell survival during in vitro angiogenesis via an autocrine mechanism implicating TGF-alpha signaling. Mol Cell Biol. 21:7218-30.(2001)

• Ferrer I, Blanco R, Carmona M, Ribera R, Goutan E, Puig B, Rey MJ, Cardozo A, Viñals F, Ribalta T. Phosphorylated map kinase (ERK1, ERK2) expression is associated with early tau deposition in neurones and glial cells, but not with increased nuclear DNA vulnerability and cell death, in Alzheimer disease, Pick's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal degeneration. Brain Pathol. 11:144-158.(2001) 

• Viñals F, McKenzie FR, Pouyssegur J.  Growth factor-stimulated protein synthesis is inhibited by sodium orthovanadate. Eur J Biochem. 268:2308-2314.(2001)

• "Interaction and Functional Cooperation of NF-kB with Smads" . Teresa López-Rovira, Elisabet Chalaux, Jose Luis Rosa, Ramon Bartrons, and Francesc Ventura. (2000) J. Biol. Chem.. 275, . 28937–28946.