The advances in funding, generating scientific knowledge, technology transfer and innovation management achieved in 2021 by research groups, institutes and centres in the Barcelona Science Park, once again reaffirm its place as a strategic hub for public R&D&I of excellence for another year. These organisations raised a joint total of nearly €66 million in public (€56.4 million) and private (€9.5 million) funds, which will allow them to work proactively to drive valorisation and exploitation of their research results to bring innovation to the market and contribute to the country’s economic growth. 

2021 was a year full of challenges and milestones achieved for public research groups and institutes working at the Barcelona Science Park. They are all part of a highly dynamic, cutting-edge scientific community that is constantly growing and includes two Severo Ochoa Centres of Excellence: the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona); the Molecular Biology Institute of Barcelona (IBMB-CSIC), with a María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence; and the National Centre for Genomic Analysis (CNAG-CRG), which is on the Spanish map of Unique Science and Technology Infrastructures (ICTS).

The Technology Unit of the Institute of Cosmos Sciences (ICCUB-Tech), the VHIR Rheumatology Research Group (GRR) and five groups from the University of Barcelona are also part of this public R&D&I ecosystem, joined recently by the IDIBAPS-Hospital Clinic Barcelona Aids and HIV Infection Group, which moved into the Park in 2022.

All the activity generated by these centers consolidates the PCB as one of the most powerful spaces in the country in the field of health research and places it as a strategic hub for public R&D&I of excellence.

According to Barcelona Science Park CEO Maria Terrades, “In the highly stimulating environment for research, technology transfer and innovation in the life sciences we offer at the Park, in 2021 these leading public research groups and centres once again pushed the boundaries of knowledge in science and technology to help improve people’s health and quality of life.” 

Barcelona Science Park CEO Maria Terrades.

Raising funds to grow

2021 was a big year for the public research groups, centres and institutes at the Park in terms of attracting funding, mobilising nearly €66 million in public (€56.4 million) and private (€9.5 million) capital.

IRB Barcelona, which occupied 5,365 m² at the Park in 2021 with 28 research groups, 8 science platforms and more than 410 people working in research, executed a total of €28.7 million (€23.5 million in public funding and €5.2 million in private capital).

IBEC, which occupied 3,551 m² with 23 research groups and 320 researchers, raised a total of €14.1 million (€11.2 million in public funding and €2.9 million in private capital).

CNAG-CRG, which occupied 1,401 m² with 16 research groups and a scientific team of 90 professionals, raised €10 million (€8.7 million public and €1.3 million private).

IBMB-CSIC, which occupied 2,020 m² with 30 research groups and 146 researchers, raised a total of €3.6 million (€3.5 million public and €0.1 million private).

Of the University of Barcelona (UB) research units, laboratories and groups at the Park, it is worth noting the BioNMR Group recognised by the Government of Catalonia, which received an €8.9-million grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to install the first ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging device in the country at the Barcelona Science Park. The device, which will join the ICTS Network of NMR Biomolecule Laboratories, will be managed by the UB Group Scientific and Technological Centres (CCiTUB). In total, the BioNMR Group attracted €9.1 million in public funding in 2021.

The UB Laboratory of Metabolic Dynamics in Cancer raised €0.2 million and the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB-Tech) also raised €0.2 million through competitive public calls.

Bringing health innovation to society

Regarding innovation management, in 2021, public groups and centres in the PCB Community continued their firm commitment to protecting research results valorising knowledge and technology transfer as a driving force for economic growth and quality of life in society.

Their R&D&I activity focused mainly on managing projects from a market perspective, through technology licensing deals, creating spin-offs, conducting contract research and establishing collaborations with institutions and companies all over the world to make their research profitable through new products or processes. This can be seen clearly in their indicators.

In terms of intellectual property, the public groups and centres at the Park submitted a total of 17 priority patent applications and requests for extensions: IBEC (10), IRB Barcelona (3), IBMB-CSIC (3) and ICCUB-Tech (1). Managing information arising from patents is a key part of the innovation process. In 2021, IRB Barcelona signed a total of five licensing deals for its patented technology and IBEC, one.

In terms of entrepreneurship, IBEC created a new spin-off, Vitala, which combines innovative bioengineering technology, such as organs-on-chips and advanced imaging techniques, to bring unprecedented value to research into therapeutic compounds in the preclinical phase, and to select the best drugs to use in clinical practice.

The discoveries with market potential at IRB Barcelona also led to another company, the spin-off Nuage Therapeutics, which focuses on discovering new drugs for therapeutic targets that, given their structural properties, have been hard to tackle previously.

Cooperation with national and international public institutions and private companies was also a key chapter for the public groups and centres at the Park in the process of valorising knowledge and technology transfer to resolve current and future healthcare challenges from a global standpoint. In 2021, they kicked off a joint total of 1,124 collaborative projects with various public and private entities around the world: IRB Barcelona (215), IBEC (140), CNAG (57), IBMB-CSIC (57), ICCUB-Tech (15) UB Metabolic Dynamics in Cancer Group (1) and UB BioNMR Group (5).

A commitment to attracting talent and latest-generation equipment

The public groups and centres at the Park also maintained their commitment to attracting talented young scientists with international projection.

Three of these talents joined IRB Barcelona in 2021 to head up three new research groups: Cristina Mayor-Ruiz, Protein Degradation and Drug Discovery; Alejo Rodríguez-Fraticelli, Quantitative Stem Cell Dynamics; and Direna Alonso-Curbelo, Inflammation, Tissue Plasticity and Cancer. IBEC also created the research group Molecular Imaging for Precision Medicine, lead by Irene Marco-Rius. And Marc Liesa joined IBMB-CSIC to lead the new group Mitochondria, Redox and Metabolic Diseases.

To drive excellence and stay at the cutting edge of innovation, the public R&D&I community at the Park also invested in latest-generation equipment in 2021, developing powerful tools and techniques to accelerate and boost new lines of research and attract talent.

The UB BioNMR Group got the first 1-GHz NMR device in Spain and a new helium liquefaction system; IRB Barcelona created the Drug Screening Platform; CNAG-CRG acquired two new sequencers, a third Illumina NovaSeq 6000 and an Oxford Nanopore Technologies PromethION 24; IBMB-CSIC added a Glacios Cryo Transmission Electron Microscope to its new Cryo-Electron Microscopy Platform at the ALBA Synchrotron, a vibratome to its Histology Service and a cryopreservation system; and IBEC launched a high-performance analytics platform for characterisation of nanoparticles and macromolecules.

Leading frontier research

In terms of scientific production, the indicators for the public groups, centres and institutes at the Park clearly show, once again, their commitment to frontier research -ground-breaking with high global impact- with a total of 625 articles in scientific international journals: IBEC (230), IRB Barcelona (188), CNAG (107), IBMB-CSIC (51), ICCUB-Tech (44), UB BioNMR Group (3) and UB Metabolic Dynamics in Cancer Group (2).

In 2021, this frontier research was reflected in the huge number of disruptive projects working to address the great challenges of global health and science.

• The main advances at the CNAG-CRG were tied to developing tools that make it easier to identify gene variants and mutations that cause various diseases. In 2021, the centre announced the results of RD-Connect GPAP, the largest gene-discovery and rare-disease diagnostic platform funded by the European Commission -developed, housed and coordinated by the centre- that with over 20,000 genome and phenotype profiles helped diagnose nearly 1,000 patients and is used by more than 500 researchers. They also partnered with institutions in the US to set up the Center for Genome Imaging, a facility based at Harvard University to design technologies to visualise, analyse and model the full human genome at incredibly high resolution. Additionally, members of the centre’s science team created a single-cell tumour immune atlas for precision oncology, and their findings (Genome Research; doi: 10.1101/gr.273300.120) revealed that different types of tumours show surprisingly similar patterns to the immune cells inside them, and with this knowledge, they created a classification system to help predict cancer patients’ response to immunotherapy and prognosis at a much higher level than current methods. It is also important to note the centre’s participation in the IMPaCT platform, launched in 2021 to give the Spanish National Health System a collaborative structure to implement genomic medicine in medical practice. More information on the CNAG website [+]

• The quality of their research of excellence in bioengineering allowed IBEC to achieve milestones in several transversal research projects on advanced therapies. For the first time, the collective movement of millions of nanorobots was observed in vivo. A study by the Smart Nano-Bio-Devices team led to a fundamental advance in the nanorobots race to become key players in highly precise therapies and treatments (Science Robotics; doi: 10.1126/scirobotics.abd2823). The Biosensors for Bioengineering group created the first 3D model with cells from patients with myotonic dystrophy, which will allow scientists to design more effective, personalised treatments (Biofabrication; doi: 10.1088/1758-5090/abf6ae). In the field of targeted drugs, the IBEC Nanoprobes and Nanoswitches group developed the first molecules that can switch on and off neuronal circuits using light, non-invasively, helping foster specific drug actions (Cell Chemical Biology; doi: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2020.08.005). In the fight against bacterial infections, the Bacterial Infections and Antimicrobial Therapies group, in collaboration with the Nanobioengineering group, designed a new device for precise, personalised diagnosis of chronic bacterial infections: the BiofilmChip, which will help identify the most appropriate treatment (npj Biofilms and Microbiomes; doi: 10.1038/s41522-021-00236-1).  The Pluripotency for Organ Regeneration group developed renal organoids with mutations due to kidney cancer cells in order to observe how kidney tissue develops and identify very early signs of the disease. A team from the Integrative Cell and Tissue Dynamics group developed mini-intestines, organoids that reproduce the three-dimensional structure and functions of the living tissue and were able, for the first time, to conduct high-resolution experiments to obtain 3D maps showing the forces exerted by each cell (Nature Cell Biology; doi: 10.1038/s41556-021-00699-6). More information on the IBEC website [+]

• IBMB-CSIC remained at the very highest level of international scientific excellence in 2021 with regard to the study of the molecular and genetic mechanical principles involved in the physiology and development of living organisms. Scientists at the institute decoded the structure and function of a key enzyme in the bacteria P. gingivalis, the main cause of periodontitis (PNAS; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2103573118). Their work revealed a mechanism that is essential in cell signalling and, when dysfunctional, could contribute to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer, fibrosis, nephritis and cancer (PNAS; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2023839118). They also led a study that described a molecular mechanism that coordinates key processes for synaptic plasticity, which is essential for learning and memory (Science Signaling; doi: 10.1126/scisignal.abf5594). And they discovered a molecular mechanism that bacteria use to adhere to cells and infect them, which could facilitate development of a new generation of antibacterial drugs with a different mechanism of action than antibiotics to fight resistant bacteria (Trends in Microbiology; doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2021.01.011). More information on the IBMB-CSIC website [+]

• The main impact of research at IRB Barcelona in 2021 was associated with important discoveries by researchers at the centre on cancer, infectious diseases and respiratory conditions. A study published in Nature (doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04075-0) revealed a mechanism through which palmitic acid fosters cancer metastasis and gives tumour cells a more aggressive ‘memory’. In a paper in Cell Stem Cell (doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2021.04.030), they showed that the expression of ancestral fragments of viral DNA results in a strong inflammatory response and breast-tissue dysfunction, and that this accumulation of viral DNA can play a key role in determining metastatic potential. They also described in the journal Nucleic Acids Research (doi: 10.1093/nar/gkab461) a mechanism essential to the evolution of single-cell organisms into more complex life forms, which opens up a new path for research into treating diseases related to extracellular proteins, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. And as a result of an international collaboration, they discovered that the candidiases caused by various species of yeast have different infection mechanisms (Nature Microbiology; doi: 10.1038/s41564-021-00875-2). With regard to the development of new technology to accelerate research, highlights include a new tool based on machine learning that identifies mutations that cause cancer for each type of tumour, published in Nature (doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03771-1), which will help boost personalised medicine in oncology. In Science Advances (doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abj0786) they proposed another computational procedure to understand the dynamic of proteins and regulation of cell processes, including the effects of various hormones and the regulation of energy metabolism, which has far-reaching consequences for pharmaceutical and biotechnology applications. More information on the IRB Barcelona website [+]

• The most important scientific milestones of the Institute of Cosmos Sciences technology unit (ICCUB-Tech) were tied to their participation in global projects that are revolutionising our knowledge of the universe and frontier research in fundamental physics, astrophysics and cosmology. The ESFRI Roadmap 2021 including the Einstein Telescope, a programme to build an underground gravitational-waves observatory, was one of the great successes of 2021. This facility will allow scientists to get a first look at the ‘dark ages’ of the universe and could lead to unimaginable discoveries in this field of research. ICCUB-Tech will contribute its e-Infrastructure Board (eIB), particularly for defining general IT and handling of mass data. In 2021, as part of the Gaia Mission, an unprecedented ESA programme that is making the biggest, most precise three-dimensional map of our galaxy, two new projects were launched that will allow for, on the one hand, large-scale simulations and mass data mining from the EDR3 and DR3 Gaia catalogues and, on the other, measure light pollution in the night sky. As part of the scientific community working on the Virgo Project, one of the most important experiments in the field of gravitational waves, ICCUB-Tech continued to improve the general IT model as well as implementing noise-reduction methods to make it more sensitive. More information on the ICCUB-Tech website [+]

• The Laboratory of Metabolic Dynamics in Cancer, affiliated with the UB Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, and the UB Institute of Biomedicine, was part of key findings in understanding the metabolic regulation of cancer and crosstalk with genetic and epigenetic factors in 2021. They were part of the discovery -published in Nature Metabolism (doi: 10.1038/s42255-021-00350-6)- of a unique subset of tumour-propagating cells (TPCs), characterised by their elevated glycolytic metabolism, and their role in the progression of squamous-cell carcinomas -one of the most aggressive types of cancer- defining cellular metabolism as a key characteristic of intratumour heterogeneity. They also took part in another study, published in Genes (doi:10.3390/genes12111698), that reviewed the role of a family of proteins, sirtuins, in metabolic control of immune cells and their implications in immune diseases and cancer. More information on the group’s website [+]

• The BioNMR Group, affiliated with the UB Department of Inorganic and Organic Chemistry, has become a benchmark group for understanding the role of the intrinsically disordered region of c-Src, the product of the first oncogene described, and a protein involved in many cancers, although the importance of the first 85 disordered residues was previously unknown. In 2021, the group published in the journal Oncogen (doi: 10.1038/s41388-021-02092-x) a study showing that mutations in one part of the disordered region initially discovered by NMR decreases the invasiveness, proliferation and growth of tumours implanted in mice by 50%. They also published a chemotherapy screening method to find drugs targeting this region in Biosensors (doi: 10.3390/bios12020096) and launched a proof-of-concept project to valorise a drug currently used for other applications that seems to also act on the c-Src signalling pathway. More information on the BioNMR’s website [+]