2020_04_07_CIE_reportaje_coronavirus_bicho

Gabriel de Biurrun continues his research from the garage of his home.

In the department of Environmental Biology different kinds of "bugs" are studied. Gabriel de Biurrun is PhD student of this department and he makes the research on spiders of Navarra. Gabriel tells us that he has installed a magnifying glass in the garage of his house. "I attached a camera and a Raspberry to the magnifying glass. With that and a bit of programming with Python I can take photos and determine specimens for my thesis ".

Gabriel copes well with the isolation and dedicates some hours to research although he has to combine his studies with his family and work life. "I take advantage of my time in the garage, where we have the "music txoko". There, on a small table, I set up the magnifying glass and the computer to determine spiders and write the thesis and the articles. There are never as many hours as I would like".

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Sandra Pérez sample a jar with a puparium of the Calliphora vicina fly.

Sandra Pérez is a student of the doctorate program in Natural and Applied Sciences at department from Environmental Biology. Sandra is doing her thesis on "Mites associated with the orders Diptera and Coleoptera in samples of forensic interest". The young student explains that her research is focused on "knowing the diversity of mites present in samples of forensic interest (corpses, contaminated food, traffic of goods, etc.) and their interaction networks with the flies and beetles that transport them".

Although in her usual routine of work Sandra works with "bichitos" (this is how Perez refers to the sample of her research), she is now adapting well to the new status taking advantage of it to write the thesis . "I have more time to watch movies, series, enjoy my parents' company and help with household chores. What I have increased is the use of social networks since now the contact with my friends is maintained through the screens".

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Carlos Bejines writes his thesis . In the background of the image, the bicycle with which he usually does sports.

"Fuzzy Logic collects all that vague, incomplete and fuzzy information that classical logic is not able to manipulate. Through mathematical operators, this information is processed and accurate data is obtained to be applied in fields such as image processing, decision making or programming". Carlos Bejines is student of doctorate of department of Physics and Applied Mathematics. He performs his thesis on fuzzy logic operators in algebraic Structures .

In his last year of doctorate, Carlos is taking advantage of the confinement period to write the thesis and read articles related to his field of study. Bejines tries to combine his work of research with physical exercise and the internship of his favorite sport: chess. "I usually play chess on online pages with other people and attend to some class of physical exercises that my gym proposes in video format. Social networks and Netflix are also powerful allies in this unusual period".

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Adriana Cortés takes advantage of these days to read articles related to her field of study.

Adriana Cortés belongs to the department of Biochemistry and Genetics of the School. Adriana's thesis , attached to the doctorate program in Applied Medicine and Biomedicine, is related to cardiovascular disease. "I study the effect that human NADPH oxidase 5 (NOX5) expression has on a transgenic mouse animal model . My thesis consists of identifying the alterations that this expression can cause in different pathological situations such as hypertension or infarction".

Although the young researcher recognizes that this status confinement is making her "uphill", she is using the time for multiple tasks: from pending household chores, exercising to keep in shape, or writing articles for her research. "Now what I have to do is to group the results obtained, order them and give them a good format to be able to publish them".

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Joan Puig has adapted to the new status since the beginning of the health crisis.

Joan Puig is far from his laboratory and this can be an inconvenience for those who carry out experimentation in the doctoral thesis . "These days of confinement I am taking advantage to continue advancing in the thesis . I am in my final year and, fortunately, the vast majority of experiments are already done. I am now spending my time analyzing data and starting to write the thesis . I also take the opportunity to do some sports at home and talk to a lot of friends and family."

Joan belongs to the department of Chemistry of the School and his thesis consists of "characterizing TPGS and Tetronics polymeric systems, their combinations and their association with cyclodextrins, with the goal to generate nanocarriers with different characteristics and applications".

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Maite Loperena connects by video call with other researchers with whom she has projects in common..

Maite Loperena belongs to that group of researchers who put their emphasis on the study of neglected diseases as Leticia Lázaro or Yadira Pastor -among others- did in their day. Maite's thesis is aimed at developing a vaccine against brucellosis and consists of "comparing Brucella with other non-pathogenic bacteria of the same family, in order to better understand its evolution and virulence mechanisms".

Maite Loperena, doctoral student at department of Microbiology and Parasitology, does many activities for fill in the day. "After the hours of work it's time to exercise, start baking or watch a series. I try to abstract myself from the flood of information that circulates through the networks and enjoy the little things that I don't even pay attention to in normal life".