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Meritxell Teixidó, co-founder and CEO of Gate2Brain (Photo: IRB Barcelona).
 10.01.2022

The spin-off Gate2Brain receives the impulse from ”la Caixa” Foundation

The project “Crossing the blood-brain barrier to treat paediatric cancer”, resulting from the technology developed by Gate2Brain -linked to the Barcelona Science Park as an associated company- has been awarded funding in the 2021 CaixaResearch Consolidate call run by “la Caixa” Foundation. The company, a spin-off from IRB Barcelona, the UB and SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital, will develop a new drug built with a shuttle peptide that crosses the blood-brain barrier to improve treatments for paediatric brain cancer. This award will help its technology to progress and reach society, with the ultimate goal of enhancing the health and quality of life of children with brain tumours such as diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG).

DIPG is the most serious type of brain cancer, and it affects approximately two out of every million children. At present, there is no cure or effective treatment for this disease and the average survival after diagnosis is only 8-11 months.

Although certain drugs have demonstrated potent anti-tumour activity against DIPG in vitro, all of them have failed clinical trials because they cannot cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to reach the tumour. The BBB is a protective cellular barrier that allows only certain molecules from circulating blood to pass into the central nervous system, and it prevents pathogens and other substances from entering.

The spin-off Gate2Brain has designed a shuttle peptide that can carry drugs across the BBB to treat DIPG and other brain diseases. The company aims to carry out the preclinical validation of the new drug G2B-002. Gate2Brain shuttles can be adapted to a wide range of molecules, thus demonstrating the enormous potential of this technology to treat various diseases of the brain.

“Humankind has always dreamt of reaching outer space and also the inside of our brain. At Gate2Brain, we dream of helping drugs enter the brain and thus of being able to treat paediatric tumours such as DIPG.”

Gate2Brain came about in 2020, the brainchild of Dr. Meritxell Teixidó, CEO of the company, with the participation of the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, the Fundación Sant Joan de Déu (SJD), the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and the University of Barcelona (UB). The business project was founded with support from the Mind the Gap Programme run by the Botín Foundation, which invested €500,000, and provided accompaniment through the incorporation of an expert who supports the entrepreneurial team. Shortly after its launch, the company received backing from the BStartup Health Programme run by the Banc Sabadell (€100,000). Located at the Barcelona Science Park, Gate2Brain counts on the collaboration of the Paediatric cancer Programme at the Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu.

» For further information: IRB Barcelona website [+]