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The sprint of the European Project Moore4medical

The NanoBioCel group of the CIBER BBN, which also runs NANBIOSIS U10 Drug Formulation unit , organized the Workshop #6 of the Moore4medical European project at the Alava Technology Park on October 4, 5 and 6

The Central Building of the Álava Technology Park hosted the ‘Workshop #6’ of the European project which. 80 people belonging to 68 organizations, including private companies and research groups from universities and research centers from 13 countries of the European Union, participated in a meeting that has the leadership of the Dutch multinational Philips in its divisions of electronics and medical systems and service innovation

Moore4Medical Project
The three-year Moore4Medical project is funded by the public-private association ECSEL (Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership), which manages a research and innovation program to strengthen the electronic components and systems sector in order to maintain the European Union at the forefront of technological development. The goal of the project is to accelerate innovation in electronic and microfabricated devices for various emerging medical specialties. The total financing of the project amounts to 68 million euros, of which more than half a million have been granted to the work of NanoBiocel.

NanoBiocel research group

The NanoBiocel research group from UPV/EHU, which is part of the CIBER BBN and the ICTS Nanbiosis through the U10 Drug Formulation, is led by Professor Jose Luis Pedraz, from the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Álava Campus. He participates in the European project Moore4medical on the optimization of the lyophilization process of biopharmaceutical products in microfluidic devices

Microfluidic Device
The University of the Basque Country is working, together with the Mondragón microLIQUID company, on the development of technology for the integration of lyophilized drugs and their rehydration in a microfluidic device for their correct administration. The lyophilized drug will be integrated into the microfluidic device using specific techniques to ensure good interaction between the fluid and the drug for delivery by the pump. The ultimate goal is to design a parenteral drug administration system that is much more comfortable for patients and improves therapeutic compliance with treatments.

The microLIQUID company is a benchmark biotechnological company in the microfluidic technology sector and is responsible for the design and development of microfluidic modules.

In this work called ‘Drug Adherence’, integrated within the total project, the NanoBioCel group has teamed up with the Irish national institute Tyndall, the pharmaceutical multinational AbbVie, the Fraunhofer Institute of Germany, the services innovation section of Philips, the German company Gaudlitz GmbH, specialist in polymers, the Technological Institute Karlsruhe in Germany and the company HI Iberia of Madrid.

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Biomedicine Project Manager job vacancy

CIBER-BBN is looking for a scientific-technical manager within the framework of the European project H2020 SAFENMT

SafeNMT aims to create an innovative open access platform for companies and laboratories to develop medical solutions based on nanotechnology. The manager will be coordinating the participation of the CIBER ICTS NANBIOSIS units in it, in collaboration with the CIBER-BBN management team, under the leadership of the scientific director of CIBER-BBN and IP of the project.

The position requires good command of English and strong skills in coordinating researchers.

Applications must be filed at CIBER’s weportal untill October 14.

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Nanoligent raised €2.8 M and completed Seed round financing with support of i&i Biotech Fund

September 27th 2022 – Nanoligent SL, a Spanish biotech company specialized in the development of cancer treatments based on unique protein conjugates, today announces the completion of a Seed financing round of total € 2.8 M. The final closing of the Seed round consists of € 1 M investment by i&i Biotech Fund I (i&i Bio), an early-stage Life Science fund with teams in Luxemburg and Prague which is backed by the European Investment Fund. i&i Bio joined previous Nanoligent investors, Italian Angels for Growth, the largest network of business angels in Italy, and AVANTECA Partners, a Swiss privately held asset management firm.
Jaromir Zahrádka, Managing partner of i&i Bio, said: “Nanoligent is the fifth investment of our fund and it belongs to a group of targeted oncology therapies in our portfolio. We are excited by deep scientific background and uniqueness of the technology. The platform is developed by highly motivated, experienced, and fully engaged team of scientists and managers. Based on obtained scientific data, the project has a great potential to become an effective treatment for multiple metastatic-cancer types.”
Nanoligent is focused on the development of new drugs for the treatment of more than 20 different metastatic cancer types. The lead molecule is based on the targeted elimination of cancer cells overexpressing the CXCR4 receptor, a recognized biomarker for poor prognosis and therapy resistance. Nanoligent is developing a new proprietary nano-technological platform, with the potential to overcome current limitations of Antibody-Drug-Conjugates.
“Less than a third of newly diagnosed metastatic patients respond to current therapies, making metastasis one of the most pressing unsolved challenges in cancer. With the support of i&i Bio together with our existing investors, we secure our current milestone to provide the first drug candidate of our portfolio of metastasis-targeted therapies” said Montserrat Cano, CEO of Nanoligent.
 The seed round financing will allow Nanoligent to foster the development of multiple drug candidates and advance the pre-clinical development of its lead candidate in a variety of tumor types.
 “We are happy to welcome the i&i Biotech Fund I in Nanoligent. As in previous cases, we have been impressed by the depth of their scientific due diligence and the professionality of their management. They are going to be an important partner for Nanoligent and we are delighted to continue to co-invest with i&i Bio,” said Michele Marzola who, together with Alessandro Toniolo, are co-champions from IAG in this investment.
Two of the investors already joined the Nanoligent’s Board which includes: Michele Marzola (IAG), Michael Milos (Avanteca Partners), Manuel Rodríguez (Chairman) and Montserrat Cano (CEO).
“The i&i Biotech Fund I is the right partner for the further development of Nanoligent. They have shown in depth scientific knowledge as well as being well connected within the pharmaceutical network. We all together are looking forward to bringing Nanoligent’s development plan effectively to the next stages,” said Michael Milos from AVANTECA Partners.

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About Nanoligent
Nanoligent was founded in 2017 by co-founder and Chairman Manuel Rodriguez Mariscal, as a spin-off coming from more than 10 years of fruitful collaboration between the Nanobiotechnology group – NANBIOSIS U1 PPP at the Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, co-lead by full professor Antonio Villaverde and Principal Investigator Esther Vázquez, and the Oncogenesis and Antitumor Drug Group – NANBIOSIS U18 Nanotoxicology Unit at the Biomedical Research Institut Sant Pau of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, headed by full professor Ramon Mangues, the three of them also co-founders of the company. Montserrat Cano joined the company in 2020, with more than 15 years of experience in pharma and biotech companies. The aim of the company is to develop a pioneering technological platform based on protein-drug nanoconjugates to target metastasis across several tumor types. www.nanoligent.com

About Italian Angels for Growth
IAG, founded in 2007, is a leader in the Italian seed venture capital: more than 270 protagonists of the entrepreneurial, financial and industrial world that invest time, skills and capital for the growth of innovative startups. Italian Angels for Growth, in more than ten years of activity, has analyzed more than 6,500 startups and its members have made over 100 investments, for a total of over 300 million euros invested by IAG members and co-investors. IAG business angels support innovative projects financially by investing their own capital, but at the same time, thanks to the mix of skills of the members, support the founders of the startups in the definition of the business model in all its aspects. www.italianangels.net

About AVANTECA Partners
AVANTECA Partners is a Swiss-based, privately held asset management company that invests in early-stage life science companies. www.avanteca.com

About i&i Bio
i&i Bio is a Luxembourg-based venture capital firm that invests in innovative European Life Sciences companies focused on drug discoveries, medical devices, diagnostics, and digital health. The Fund was created thanks to the cooperation of the biotech incubator i&i Prague and the European Investment Fund (see below). With over €45M under management, i&i Bio plans to invest in about 20 early-stage companies. i&i Bio is led by an experienced team of professionals with backgrounds in private equity, healthcare and venture capital supporting entrepreneurs on their journey to global success. Thanks to the close cooperation with the fund’s sponsor, the biotech academic incubator i&i Prague, i&i Bio is supporting and advancing transformative Central European technology companies. www.inibio.eu

About European Investment Fund 
i&i Bio is supported by an investment from the EIF, with the support of:

lnnovFin Equity, with the financial backing of the European Union under Horizon 2020 Financial Instruments and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) set up under the Investment Plan for Europe. The purpose of EFSI is to help support financing and implementing productive investments in the European Union and to ensure increased access to financing; and
the Pan-European Guarantee Fund (EGF), implemented by the EIF with the financial support of the Participating Member States. The objective of EGF is to respond to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic by ensuring that companies in the Participating Member States have sufficient short-term liquidity available to weather the crisis and are able to continue their growth and development in the medium to long-term.Nanoligent SL – B66970088

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NANBIOSIS in the NEW BOOK of the Unique Science and Technology Infrastructures (ICTS)

We are pleased to inform that the new book of Unique Scientific and Technical Infrastructures (ICTS) has been published by the Spanish Ministery of Sciencie and Innovation with the collaborations of the ICTS. You can download it download it here.

The Spanish Map of Unique Science and Technology Infrastructures (ICTS, in Spanish) , goups biomedical technologies, cleanrooms, supercomputers, advanced lasers, telescopes, underground laboratories, synchrotrons, particle accelerators, biological reserves, solar, oceanic and hydraulic platforms, oceanographic research ships, and polar bases in Antarctica. A total of 29 ICTS, made up of 64 infraestructures, allow for ambitious research projects that attract first-rate talent and enhance the technological and innovative industry capacities.

As Diana Morant, Spanish Minister of Science and Innovation says in its prelude “The Unique Science and Technology Infrastructures (ICTS), are crucial for the current country project around science and innovation that we are building together: administrations, research and technology centers, companies and society. I encourage you to go through the pages of this book and discover avant-garde facilities that represent the excellent scientific and technological capabilities that exist today in Spain.”

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7th Annual Meeting of the Unique Science and Technology Infrastructures in Spain

On September 7, the annual meeting of the directors of the 29 Singular Scientific and Technical Infrastructures (ICTS) of Spain took place in Seville.

The event was organized in five round tables:

Table 1 Development of in-house technology in ICTs and its transfer
Table 2 ICTS response to crisis situations: the COVID19 pandemic and the La Palma volcano eruption
Table 3 Digital Continuum: data management and processing in ICTS
Table 4 Provision of shared ICT Services: connectivity and cybersecurity, implementation of open science in the cloud
Table 5 Stimulation of scientific vocations and social interest in ICTS
Table 6 National and international cooperation between ICTS

The Scientific Director of NANBIOSIS, Jaume Veciana, spoke at Table 5 dedicated to “Stimulation of scientific vocations and social interest in Unique Science and Technology Infrastructures (ICTS)” in which also participated the ICTS Center for Pulsed Lasers, the Astronomical Center Hispanic in Andalusia (CAHA), the National Center for Research on Human Evolution (CENIEH), the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), the Great Telescope of the CANARY ISLANDS and the Spanish Supercomputing Network (RES).

The meeting was attended by the Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant, who recalled that she remembered that the 29 ICTS contribute to providing solutions from science to present and future challenges and, in addition, are a lever of opportunities throughout the Spanish territory. In total, more than 2,300 people work in these facilities, which have an annual budget of more than 250 million euros.

The minister also highlighted that the reform of the Science, Technology and Innovation Law of September 5, 2022, regulates the for the first time. ICTS Map

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Philipps-Universität Marburg (Germany) -NANBIOSIS U25 collaboration on the study of tumour microenvironment (TME) changes in Glioblastoma

The scientific coordinator of NANBIOSIS U25 “RNM: Biomedical Application I”, Ana Paula Candiota, was recently awarded with a mobility fellowship from CIBER-BBN for a scientific exchange visit to Philipps-Universität Marburg, in Marburg, Germany.


This scientific stage was motivated for a sustained collaboration between the research groups (GABRMN, in charge of U25 and Neurosurgery Lab group in Marburg), regarding the study of tumour microenvironment (TME) changes in Glioblastoma and possible relationship with the noninvasive MRSI-based biomarkers. Both groups have applied together to different funding calls including ERA-NET Transcan and Pathfinder Open, and Marburg group has hosted a predoctoral stage from a GABRMN PhD student.

The University of Marburg is the university with the longest tradition in Hesse, founded in 1527. With thirteen Leibniz Prize winners, the University of Marburg is one of the leading research institutions in the State of Hesse. Related to the Medicine Faculty of the Philipps University of Marburg is the Uniklinikum Giessend Und Marburg (UKGM), in which the Neurosurgery Lab, lead by Prof. Jörg-Walter Bartsch, is located. This group is hosting Dr. Candiota stage until September 9th.

The main objectives of this short stage are to strength the scientific collaboration, to finish pending work related to TME GL261 glioblastoma, to get familiarized with some approaches used in Marburg and not mastered by GABRMN, and finally to give a talk to group and clinical members, highlighting the potential of U25 and the translational characteristics of the common projects held by both institutions.

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The University of Valencia among the 300 best universities in the world, hosting NANBIOSIS U26 of CIBER-BBN on RNM for Biomedical Applications

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), known as Shanghai Ranking, which was made public on August 15, places the University of Valencia among the elite of the 300 best universities in the world and the second of the Spanish universities.

This indicator organizes up to 20,000 university centers worldwide,
based on transparent methodology and objective third-party data. ARWU is regarded as one of the three most influential and widely observed university rankings

The NANBIOSIS U26 NMR: Biomedical Applications II created by CIBER-BBN is hosted by the University of Valencia is led by Prof. Ramón Martínez Ma´ñez and Prof Salvador Gil Grau and has a laboratory with a NMR (14T) for acquiring unique metabolic profiles of biofluids, cell lines and tissues

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Two NANBIOSIS Units of CIBER-BBN at UAB, one of the 300 best universities in the world, according the Shanghai Ranking

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), known as Shanghai Ranking, which was made public on August 15, places the Autonomous University of Barcelona among the elite of the 300 best universities in the world.

This indicator organizes up to 20,000 university centers worldwide,
based on transparent methodology and objective third-party data. ARWU is regarded as one of the three most influential and widely observed university rankings

Two of NANBIOSIS Units created by UAB and CIBER-BBN are part of this university:

U1 Protein Production Platform (PPP), led by Toni Villaverde, Neus Ferrer and Mercedes Marquez, offer an “tailored” service for the design, production and purification of recombinant proteins using both prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression systems

U25 NMR: Biomedical Applications I, led by Carles Arús and Ana Paula Candiota, with a recognized research track record in the use of NMR as a tool for biomedical applications, and more especifically to identify biomarkers of different pathologies, the main objective of this unit is the acquisition, processing and/or interpretation of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance data

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1st Nanomedicine Forum of CIBER-BBN/NANBIOSIS and CSIC Nanomed Conection

During the days 30 of June and 1st of July took place in Barcelona, in the auditorium of the Institute of Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC-CSIC), the 1st Forum on Nanomedicine gathering scientists from the CSIC net Nanomed Conection and from the CIBER-BBN and its ICTS NANBIOSIS.

This forum brought toguether researchers from the most eminent national research centers in nanomedicine, that during the two days meeting presented their works and findings and discussed the impact of nanomedicine in the fields of drug delivery, diagnosis and therapy.

The workshop was open by the Director of IQAC-CSIC,  Jesús Joglar, the  Scientific Coordinator of Nanomed Conection, Fernando Herranz, and the Scientific Director of CIBER-BBN, Ramón Martínez Máñez.

18 research groups gave their talks distributed in four sessions:

  • Nanobiotechnological solutions for diagnosis and therapy
  • Drug delivery nanosystems
  • Applications for oncology 
  • Nanomedicine & other frontier applications

The presentations aroused great interest and futher debate among the attendees present in the auditorium (around 50) and the on line participants (The event was also broadcast online previous registration with more than 125 registrations received).

The videos of the presentations will be soon available in the NANBIOSIS youtube channel.

Here we highlight the eight talks by researchers from NANBIOSIS units:

The first session of Nanobiotechnological solutions for diagnosis and therapy,  started  with the talk by Montserrat Rodríguez from Nb4D group – NANBIOSIS U2 CAbS, from CIBER-BBN and IQAC-CSIC, entitled “Targeting aromatic amino acid metabolism for the early diagnosis of neurological diseases”, presenting their results on in vitro samples, on thermal power characterization experiments to study the thermal efficiency of non-sinusoidal stimulation and on efficiency characterization experiments in cell cultures with cancer cell liness.

Also in this session chaired by Miriam Royo, Scientific Coordinator of NANBIOSIS U3 Synthesis of Peptides Unit of  CIBER-BBN and IQAC-CSIC,  took place an interesting and passionate talk by Ramón Eritja, Scientific Director of NANBIOSIS U29 Oligonucleotide Synthesis Platform (OSP), 

In the last years, interest in therapeutic applications of oligonucleotides has increased enormously, especially after the development of messenger RNA vaccines in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this way, metabolic diseases such as dyslipidemia and hereditary diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy have been successfully addressed. The NANBIOSIS  Oligonucleotide Synthesis Platform (OSP) focuses on the design, synthesis and characterization of modified oligonucleotides, in order to enhance the therapeutic properties of the oligonucleotides and to improve the control of gene expression. Ramon Eritja presented their most recent results in the development of new conjugates with antiproliferative activity and in the design of DNA probes for the detection of viral genomes.

 

In the session of “Nanomedicine and other frontiers applications”, chaired by María del Puerto Morales Herrero (ICMM-CSIC), Elena Martínez Fraiz,  from the Nanobioengineering group of CIBER-BBN and IBEC running NANBIOSIS Unit 7 of Nanotechnology, presented  a nanostructured surface able to produce multivalent effects of surface-bound ephrinB1 ligands on the dynamics of oligomerization of EphB2 receptors  whic can benefit applications such as the design of new bioactive materials and drug-delivery systems.

The session of Drug delivery nanosystems, chaired by Ramón Martínez Máñez, began with the talk by Vanessa Díaz Riascos, presesnting the in vivo efficacy, biodistribution and toxicity testing of nanomedicines at NANBIOSIS U20 FVPR, of CIBER-BBN and VHIR, explaining how their texting expertise and their in vivo and ex vivo fluorescence imaging techniques facilitate a rapid and efficient preclinical development of candidates, reducing considerably the time and costs of conventional developments.


Santiago Grijalvo Torrijo, from NANBIOSIS U12 Nanostructured liquid characterization unit expoke about Nano-emulsion-derived polymeric carriers for biomedical applications also discussing the impact of the protein corona on colloidal stability, antioxidant activities, cytotoxicity and cellular uptake of drug-loaded nanoparticles.

Antoni Llopis Lorente, (NANBIOSIS U26 NMR: Biomedical Applications II), expoke about Gated silica nanoparticles for controlled release. Chemical communication, based on the exchange of molecules as messengers, allows different entities to share information, cooperate and orchestrate collective behaviors. Communication using chemical messengers (such as neurotransmitters, hormones and pheromones) is the main way of communication across the natural world; yet engineering chemical communication between micro/nanosystems is a key emergent topic in micro/nanotechnology, biomimicry and related areas. Santiago explainined recent progress by their group in the development of engineered particles for chemical communication and nanomedicine applications.

And closing the session, Mariana Köber (Nanomol Group –NANBIOSIS U6 of Biomaterial Processing and Nanostructuring Unit  from CIBER-BBN and ICMAB-CSIC) gave a talk on Quatsomes as versatile nanovesicles for biomedical applications.

In the session of Applications for Oncology, Pilar Martín Duque from NFP group – NANBIOSIS U9 Synthesis of Nanoparticles Unit of CIBER-BBN and INMA-CSIC, gave a very interesting talk explained their approach and recent progress on the search of trojan horses for an improved theragnosis of cancer.

Here we want to thank the Institute of Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC-CSIC) for hosting this event and for the help in its preparation and development.

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Metal-free contrast agents: novel approaches

The joint expertise of CIBER-BBN Nanomol Group – NANBIOSIS U6 from at ICMAB-CSIC (José Vidal and Vega Lloveras) and NANBIOSIS U25 at UAB (Ana Paula Candiota), led to a recently published article in the prestigious journal Biomacromolecules

Brain tumours such as Glioblastomas are a challenge in the clinics and proper diagnosis and follow-up are crucial for patient outcome. Contrast agents are usually administered to patients for assessing blood brain barrier integrity and quantitation of enhancing areas are part of the clinical criteria for estimating response/relapse. However, most contrast agents currently used in clinics are based in metal elements such as Gadolinium and are not exempt of risks. In addition, due to the renal excretion route, administering such agents to some patients is contraindicated. Our work explored the potential of organic radicals anchored to dendrimers to act as contrast agents for glioblastoma studies, proposing a metal-free alternative for contrast enhanced glioblastoma studies. The article describes details of synthesis and characterization of these agents, as well as in vivo, ex vivo and in vivo magnetic resonance studies. The orthotopic immunocompetent GL261 glioblastoma murine model was used for in vivo and ex vivo studies. The novel contrast agent proved to be non-harmful for wild type mice and produced sustained and long lasting contrast in tumour-bearing mice, even in much lower doses in comparison with gadolinium administration.

The diagnosis and follow-up of high-grade brain tumours such as glioblastomas relies mostly in MRI, and contrast agents currently used are based on Gadolinium, which is not exempt of risks. The resarchers’ approach explores organic radicals anchored to dendrimers as a metal-free alternative to produce contrast enhancement in MRI, safer than Gadolinium-based compounds, and with translational potential.

Article of reference:
Zhang S, Lloveras V, Lope-Piedrafita S, Calero-Pérez P, Wu S, Candiota AP, Vidal-Gancedo J. Metal-Free Radical Dendrimers as MRI Contrast Agents fof Glioblastoma Diagnosis: Ex Vivo and In Vivo Approaches. Biomacromolecules. 2022 Jun 24. doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.2c00088.

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