Catalonia unites 18 bionanomedicine research organizations and companies in a single platform
<p>The BioNanoMed Catalonia alliance was created to promote nanotechnology applied to healthcare and biotechnology. Barcelona is one of the top cities in the world in terms of scientific publications on nanomedicine.</p>
BY BIOCAT
A total of 18 organizations —Catalan centers, hospitals and companies— that carry out nanotechnology research applied to healthcare and biotechnology in Catalonia have crated the BioNanoMed Catalonia alliance. This is the first Catalan platform for bionanomedicine created to drive synergies and foster new research and business opportunities in this sector and increase international visibility of the work done by member organizations.
Nanobiomedicine, one of Catalonia’s research strengths, was already the first field in Spain to create centers focusing on multidisciplinary integration of nano and biotechnology, which are currently international benchmarks, like the Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology (ICN), the Institute for BioEngineering of Catalonia (IBEC), the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Research Center (CIN2) and the Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Research Center for Biomedicine (CIBBIM- Nanomedicine). Currently, there are 37 research groups registered at different Catalan centers and universities. And, according to data from the US National Library of Medicine (PubMed), a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Barcelona is ranked second in the world for scientific publications on nanomedicine, after Boston.
Montserrat Vendrell: "Through this network, we must make the most of our research potential in order to be more competitive in the market.”
In Catalonia, there is a growing number of biotechnology and chemical/pharmaceutical companies that carry out research or use nanotechnology in their processes. According to Dr. Montserrat Vendrell, CEO of Biocat, “by driving this network, we aim to foster contacts among the various companies and institutions that work here at home in biotechnology in order to favor the creation of public/private consortia that can carry out more ambitious projects and generate new opportunities, both in terms of attracting funding and developing new products to improve quality of life. It is a question of making the most of our research potential to be more competitive in the market.” Based on this potential, the BioNanoMed Catalonia alliance has been created to foster synergies among the various stakeholders that carry out research in nanotechnology applied to healthcare and biotechnology in Catalonia.
Josep Samitier: "The next 10 years will be key to transforming research results in the field of bionanomedicine into more effective diagnostic and therapeutic systems.”
Dr. Josep Samitier, associate director of IBEC, explains, “The coming 10 years are key to transforming the results of bionanomedical research into more effective diagnostic systems and therapies, new tools to improve the environment or more efficient industrial production systems in the biotechnology sector. We have a great challenge and also a great opportunity before us that depends in large part on our ability to coordinate strategies and establish cooperative links. Catalonia is an internationally recognized bionanomedicine cluster. We must take advantage of these abilities.”
The BioNanoMed Catalonia alliance is driven by Biocat and the IBEC with participation from companies: http://www.bionanomedcat.org/membres.html
Projection of Nanobiomedicine
The BioNanoMed Catalonia alliance aims to become a platform to improve the visibility of nanobiomedical research in Catalonia and drive research, innovation and technology transfer in this field. To achieve this, the network aims to contribute to internationalization priorities or measures to make the system more effective. At the same time, it aims to be a useful tool to defend the common interests of its members before local, national and international administrations in order to give bionanomedicine the weight it deserves in work programs and funding instruments.
The BioNanoMed Catalonia alliance is an informal network that first began at the end of 2010 (participating in the Biocat Forum). Its public presentation coincided with the publication of is website, which aims to become a benchmark site in Catalan bionanomedicine with qualitative information on the companies and organizations active in this field, documents, news, and national and international calls for proposals.
The network’s first public activities will include a presentation at the EuroNanoForum (30 May to 1 June in Budapest, Hungary) and participation in the BIO convention in Washington (27 to 30 June in Washington, USA).
The alliance’s road map sets out to create an exhaustive catalog of organizations in Catalonia that work in nanomedicine and their specializations, which will help foster partnership opportunities and identify complementarities in the organizations.
In the mid to long term, the network aims to:
- Identify and start up collaborative research and product development projects.
- Organize public events (conferences, roundtables, workshops, etc.) to share projects carried out and improve their development and applications.
- Detect training needs and propose educational tracks and/or complementary masters degrees.
- Establish researcher exchange policies between research centers or groups and companies from the sector.
- Establish postdoctoral internships in companies and promote international exchanges.
- Draft a strategic plan to open up new business opportunities based on clinical needs.
- Establish internationalization priorities participating in international forums in the sector.
Related information:
- Related opinion article: Nanomedicine: Where Nanotechnology, Biotechnology and the Health Sciences Come Together (Dr. Josep Samitier)