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Thanks to the support from Generalitat de Catalunya and Obra Social “la Caixa”, the IRB Barcelona launches CancerTec, an initiative to identify and develop in a continuous and dynamic manner cancer projects identified as having potential economic impact.
Through its first call, CancerTec is funding four projects with possibilities of their results being transferred to industry in the form of new diagnostic tools and more efficient and innovative cancer treatments.
Barcelona, 12 April 2013.- Today at the CosmoCaixa Barcelona, the Generalitat de Catalunya and Obra Social “la Caixa” have presented the projects of five research projects —among them the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona)— to receive funding of a total of 2.5 million euros. The objective of the agreement between the two organisations and the five research centres is to support pioneering initiatives in order to boost the economy associated with research of excellence. The presentation was chaired by Andreu Mas-Colell, minister of Economy and Knowledge of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and involved the participation of Jaume Lanaspa, director general of the “la Caixa” Foundation, Antoni Castellà, secretary of Universities and Research of the Generalitat, Josep Maria Martorell, director general of Research of the Generalitat, and Enric Banda, director of Science, Research and the Environment of the “la Caixa” Foundation.
The director of IRB Barcelona, Joan J. Guinovart, presented CancerTec, the programme developed by IRB Barcelona that seeks to give added value to cancer research conducted in the 22 labs of the centre. With CancerTec, IRB Barcelona has established a transversal and dynamic structure through which to detect and accelerate projects with high potential to be transferred to industry in the form of new diagnostic tools and more efficient and innovative cancer treatments. CancerTec encompasses two main missions of IRB Barcelona, namely to perform and transfer research of excellence to the market with the aim to contribute to social wellbeing.
IRB Barcelona has launched four internal projects through the first CancerTec call. The projects involved are devoted to the first proof-of-concept steps. “Through CancerTec, we will speed up the generation of new knowledge until it reaches a stage at which it can be transferred, either through a license to companies so that they can continue the investigation or alternatively through the creation of spin-off enterprises,” explains Joan J. Guinovart. The IRB Barcelona projects that are in the pipeline seek to identify new treatments for brain and prostate cancer, increase the sensitivity of patients to radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and to validate a new diagnostic and therapeutic tool for liver cancer in diabetic patients. In the coming months, IRB Barcelona will announce a second CancerTec call with the aim to maintain continued support of the projects already underway, on the basis of the viability of the results obtained, and to identify new projects with transfer potential.
CancerTec is an excellent tool through which to appraise the cancer research undertaken at the Institute, to generate new business opportunities, and to promote relations between researchers and international networks of technology transfer to industry.
La Caixa press release (PDF in Catalan)
About IRB Barcelona
The Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) pursues a society free of disease. To this end, it conducts multidisciplinary research of excellence to cure cancer and other diseases linked to ageing. It establishes technology transfer agreements with the pharmaceutical industry and major hospitals to bring research results closer to society, and organises a range of science outreach activities to engage the public in an open dialogue. IRB Barcelona is an international centre that hosts 400 researchers and more than 30 nationalities. Recognised as a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence since 2011, IRB Barcelona is a CERCA centre and member of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).
