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 29.09.2017

Three innovation projects at IRB Barcelona are granted funding for market development

The Catalan’ Government’s Agency for Management and of University and Research Grants (Agencia de Gestió i Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR)) has awarded around 220,000 euros to three innovation projects underway at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) at the Barcelona Science Park. These funds have been provided through the 2016 Knowledge Industry grant call, a programme cofunded by European Regional Development Funds (ERDFs) devoted to Catalonia in the period 2014-2020.

 

The 18- and 6-month grants called “Producte” and “Llavor” (seed) respectively, have been awarded to the scientists Ernest Giralt—also full professor of the University of Barcelona—, ​​Roger R. Gomis and Angel R. Nebreda—both ICREA Professors. This funding will allow them to make progress in biomedical projects covering a variety of medical needs.

Specifically, these grants are devoted to the further development of products or technology that has come about from the research done by their respective labs.

The project developed in the Signalling and Cell Cycle Lab, headed by ICREA researcher Angel R. Nebreda, seeks to find a therapy for a pathological phenomenon called ischemic reperfusion injury (IRI), which is linked to heart attacks and for which there are no specific treatments.

In Ernest Giralt’s Design, Structure and Synthesis of Peptides and Proteins Lab, a research line headed by Meritxell Teixidó has led to the development of the technology Gate2Brain after 10 years of work. This technology comprises three families of shuttle peptides that have the capacity to carry drugs across the BBB.

The project developed by the Growth Control and Cancer Metastasis laboratory could bring about a change in clinical practice, and an improvement in prognosis, in the management of breast cancer patients, and in life expectancy. Moreover, it may lead to greater efficacy of current drug treatments as it involves the development of an alternative to current treatments.
 

► For further information: IRB Barcelona website [+]