ICTS

1st Open call 2023 for preferential access to the ICTS NANBIOSIS

NANBIOSIS opens in February the 1st competitive open call 2023 for its “Cutting-Edge Biomedical Solutions” and services.

NANBIOSIS is an Research Infraestructure for Biomedicine made up of the Platforms of the Center for Centro de Ivesntigación Biomedica en Red (CIBER- in the area of Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine -CIBER-BBN), the Preclinical Infrastructure and the Development of Minimally Invasive Technologies, of the Jesús Usón Minimally Invasive Surgery Center (CCMIJU) and the Nanoimaging unit of the Biomedical Research Institute of Malaga-Nanomedicine Platform (IBIMA-BIONAND Platform).

NANBIOSIS as part of the Spanish Map of ICTS (acronim for “Scientific and Tecnical Unitque Infrastructures” in Spanish), aproved by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, is open to all interested national and international users who may come either from the public or the private sector, and who can apply access under the “Competitive Open Access” or “Access on Demand” modalities.

The 20% of the NANBIOSIS Units’ capacity will be granted on the Competitive Open Access modality and will be prioritized according to criteria of scientific and technical quality and singularity of the proposals.

There will be 2 calls per year for open and competitive access that will allow the prioritation of the best service proposals. Here you have the details of the firts call: https://www.nanbiosis.es/call/

The call will open on February 1 and applications can be submitted during throughout the whole month (due date February 28^th). Access apoplication forms submitted after that date will be processed as “access on demand” applications.

Proposals granted in the open and competitive access modality must meet, at least, one of the circumstances listed in the access application form (“order request“), in order to demmonstrate their scientifc and technical quality or singularity.

Thus, for example, applications that are related to R&D projects funded through national, European or private calls, are eligible, also the need to carry out one of the NANBIOSIS “Cutting-Edge Biomedical Solutions” that implies the interaction of several Units, among others.

NANBIOSIS Cutting-edge Biomedical Solutions

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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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NANBIOSIS in the new poster of ICTS map published by Spanish Goverment.

ICTS underpins the Spanish reputation for research excellence.

In the picture: the new poster of the ICTS map in which NANBIOSIS facilities have been highlighed

The term Unique Scientific and Technical Infrastructure (ICTS) refers to facilities, resources, or services for the development of top-quality cutting-edge research, as well as the communication, exchange, and preservation of knowledge, the transfer of technology, and promotion of innovation. They are unique or exceptional in their fields, with a high cost of investment, maintenance, and operation, and are of a strategic importance that justifies their availability to all actors in the field of R&D&I. The ICTS share three fundamental characteristics; they are infrastructures with public ownership, unique and open to competitive access.

ICTS offer an opening capacity percentage of their essential services under ‘Competitive Open Access’ for the use by national and international public and private sector researchers, with the support of technical and administrative personnel of the ICTS. Infrastructures access is ruled by a public “Access Protocol” that describes the procedure and criteria for access to the infrastructure. The main features of ‘Competitive Open Access’ are that R + D + i quality of activities developed at the infrastructure should be proven and that requests for access should be prioritized on the basis of objective criteria.

The dissemination of ICTS and their capabilities is essential to provide Spanish and international researchers with access to a large base of quality services and facilities, a basic requirement for the development of excellent science.

The new posster pushised by the General Subdirectorate of Large
Scientific-Technical Facilities of the of the Sapanish Ministry of Science and Research Innovation helps to disseminate and understand the map of ICTS wich are located throughout the country

NANBIOSIS, is one of the five ICTS in the field of Health Sciences and Biotecnology

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NANBIOSIS renews its accreditation as Singular Scientific and Technical Infrastructure (ICTS)

The Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant, chaired the XI meeting of the Council for Scientific, Technological and Innovation Policy, in which the update of the Map of Singular Scientific and Technical Infrastructures, the ICTS Map for 2021-2024, was approved.

The ICTS are facilities dedicated to cutting-edge research of the highest quality, as well as to the transmission, exchange and preservation of knowledge, technology transfer and the promotion of innovation.

The map has 29 ICTS distributed among all the territories, includes NANBIOSIS, the Infraestructure for Production and Characterization of Nanomaterials, Biomaterials and Systems in Nanomedicine with its 26 units.

As a novelty, the update incorporates four new nodes or infrastructures associated with the ICTS. Specifically, the NASERTIC computing node in Navarra, the CIEMAT computing node in Extremadura and Madrid, and the Port d’Informació Científica data node in Catalonia are incorporated into the ICTS Red Española de Supercomputación, while the Center for Microanalysis of Materials is associated as a node to the new distributed Infrastructure of Applications Based on Accelerators. Likewise, Navarra incorporates an infrastructure to this map for the first time, an instrument that improves the management of ICTS and helps these organizations to access funding from the Ministry as well as regional and European funds, particularly the ERDF funds and the Recovery Funds and Resilience (MRR).

In this sense, the minister announced that the next call to strengthen the ICTS, scheduled for the first half of 2022, will allocate 38 million euros until 2025 to finance lines of investment associated with the construction, development, instrumentation, equipment and improvement of its scientific- techniques. The previous call, published in 2021, dedicated nearly 37 million euros to these infrastructures.

NANBIOSIS is one of the five ICTS in the area of health sciences and biotechnology. This thematic area has significantly increased its representation in the current ICTS Map. Under the concept of distributed ICTS, infrastructure networks have been established in the field of imaging, nanotechnology and omics sciences. In addition, the high biological safety laboratories are also reinforced, expanding the infrastructures of this type that offer their services.

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Gold Nanoparticles Synthesized by NANBIOSIS U9 will destroy tumor cells without drugs

A CIBER-BBN team at the University of Zaragoza has developed intelligent shuttles (cell vesicles -exosomes-) to transfer nanoparticles to the interior of tumor cells and destroy them by means of heat and without drugs, following the “Trojan horse” strategy.

“NANBIOSIS U9, “Synthesis of Nanoparticles Unit has developed the procedure to be able to internalize gold nanoparticles, with surface plasmon in the NIR electromagnetic range, inside extracellular vesicles derived from stem cells. The synthesis of the gold nanoparticles has been produced according to the synthesis procedures of UNIT 9 of the ICTS NANBIOSIS based on the galvanic substitution reaction in the liquid phase of Co atoms by Au+3 ions, generating a hollow structure whose geometry gives gold nanoparticles unique optical properties that allow the absorption of NIR light and its conversion into heat” , explain the researchers of NANBOSIS U9 Pilar Martín-Duque, Victor Sebastián and Jesús Santamaría.

They are gold nanoparticles belonging to what is known as “plasmonic nanoparticles” that have the ability to heat up when receiving near-infrared radiation, which penetrates the body. It is, therefore, a treatment without drugs, which uses the heat generated by the particles to cause cell death around them. These particles are taken to the tumor by exosomes, having been proved efectived in animal models.

“We have managed to reduce or eliminate tumors in mice without drugs, only with the heat generated by irradiating them with a laser. In other words, we inject the exosomes with the nanoparticles into the tail of the mouse and they alone “search” for the tumor, not only in conventional models but also in multinodular ones, similar to metastatic processes”, explains Pilar Martín Duque.

For futher information:

https://www.ciber-bbn.es/noticias/desarrollan-lanzaderas-inteligentes-para-destruir-celulas-tumorales-desde-su-interior-mediante-calor-y-sin-farmacos

Killing cancer from starvation or by toxicity with Trojan horses.

Article of reference:

Transfer of photothermal nanoparticles using stem cell derived small extracellular vesicles for in vivo treatment of primary and multinodular tumors. María Sancho-Albero, Miguel Encinas-Giménez, Víctor Sebastián, Estela Pérez, Lluis Luján, Jesús Santamaría, Pilar Martín-Duque Journal of Extracellular Vesicles 2022 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jev2.12193

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Fabry Desease in the Rare Disease Day: A New Hope

WHY DO CELEBRATE TODAY THE INTERNATIONAL #RareDiseaseDay?

29 of February is a ‘rare’ date and February, a month with a ‘rare’ number of days, has become a month to raise awareness about rare diseases and their impact on patients’ lives. Since 2008 thousands of events happen every year all around the world and around the last day of February with the aim of improving equity and reducing stigmatization for people who live with more than 6,000 rare diseases.

WHAT ARE RARE DISEASES

Rare diseases are pathologies or disorders that affect a small part of the population (less than 5 per 10,000 inhabitants) and generally have a genetic component. They are also known as orphan diseases.

Diseases present a series of particular symptoms, and it is very difficult to diagnose what their true cause is. These disorders or alterations that patients present must be evaluated by a specialist, depending on each case.

Today 5% of the world population suffer from them. This translated into numbers, corresponds to approximately 300 million affected.

A patient with a rare disease waits an average of 4 years to obtain a diagnosis, in 20% of cases it takes 10 or more years to achieve the proper diagnosis.

ORPHAN DRUGS

To combat this disease, patients need to be treated with so-called orphan drugs. They serve to prevent and treat pathology. Its composition is based on biotechnological compounds whose manufacture is very expensive and not profitable for companies. For this reason, cooperation of governments is needed as well as financial incentives to encourage pharmaceutical companies to develop and market medicines to make these treatments accessible to a greater number of people.

FABRY DISEASE

Fabry is one of the rare diseases that currently lack a definitive cure. Symptoms may include episodes of pain, especially in the hands and feet (acroparesthesias); small dark red spots on the skin called angiokeratomas; decreased secretion of sweat (hypohidrosis); opacity of the cornea (cataracts) and hearing loss. Internal organs such as the kidney, heart, or brain may be involved, resulting in progressive kidney damage, heart attacks, and strokes.

Fabry disease is a lysosomal storage disease arising from a deficiency of the enzyme α-galactosidase A (GLA). The enzyme deficiency results in an accumulation of glycolipids, which over time, leads to cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and renal disease, ultimately leading to death in the fourth or fifth decade of life. Currently, lysosomal storage disorders are treated by enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) through the direct administration of the missing enzyme to the patients.

“SMART 4 FABRY” EUROPEAN PROJECT

CIBER-BBN, through the researcher Nora Ventosa has coordinated the european project “Smart-4-Fabry” developed during 2017-2021, the proyect was undertaken by a consortium formed by ten partners, including private companies and public institutions in Europe and Israel, with a Horizon 2020 financial programme by the European Commission (H2020-NMBP-2016-2017; call for nanotechnologies, advanced materials, biotechnology and production; Proposal number: 720942-2).

In view of their advantages as drug delivery systems, liposomes are increasingly being researched and utilized in the pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic industries, but one of the main barriers to market is their scalability.

Depressurization of an Expanded Liquid Organic Solution into aqueous solution (DELOS-susp) is a compressed fluid-based method that allows the reproducible and scalable production of nanovesicular systems with remarkable physicochemical characteristics, in terms of homogeneity, morphology, and particle size. The objective of this work was to optimize and reach a suitable formulation for in vivo preclinical studies by implementing a Quality by Design (QbD) approach, a methodology recommended by the FDA and the EMA to develop robust drug manufacturing and control methods, to the preparation of α-galactosidase-loaded nanoliposomes (nanoGLA) for the treatment of Fabry disease.

Through a risk analysis and a Design of Experiments (DoE), researechers obtained the Design Space in which GLA concentration and lipid concentration were found as critical parameters for achieving a stable nanoformulation. This Design Space allowed the optimization of the process to produce a nanoformulation suitable for in vivo preclinical testing.

The new nanoformulation developed by Smart4Fabry for the treatment of Fabry disease achieved the ODD (Orphan Drug Designation) by the European Commission. The new nanomedicine is more effective and has a better biodistribution than the current treatments, based on enzyme replacement. The new nanomedicine is based on a nanovesicle that protects the enzyme and achieves a better cell internalisation, thus reducing the doses needed, the total cost and improving the quality of patients.

Four units of NANBIOSIS participated in the project:

– U1 Protein Production Platform (PPP) led by Neus Ferrer and Antony Villaverde at IBB-UAB for the production and purification in different expression systems for R&D purposes.

– U3 Synthesis of Peptides Unit led by Miriam Royo at IQAC-CSIC performed all the chemical process of the Smart-4-Fabry project, i.e. design and synthesis of peptides used as targeting ligands in the nanoliposome formulation.

– U6 Biomaterial Processing and Nanostructuring Unit led by Nora Ventosa at ICMAB-CSIC developed tasks related to the manufacture of the nanoliposome formulation of GLA enzyme and the physico-chemical characterization (this unit counts with plants at different scales, from mL to L, which allow process development by QbD and process scale-up, as well as instrumental techniques for assessment of particle size distribution, particle concentration, particle morphology and stability, and Z-potential) .

– U20 In Vivo Experimental Platform led by Ibane Abásolo at VHIR carried out the non-GLP preclinical assays of the project (in vivo efficacy, biodistribution and tolerance/toxicity assays).

PHOENIX: OPEN INNOVATION TEST BED

Researchers of CIBER-BBN and NANBIOSIS, led by Nora Ventosa, are currently participating in another european project, PHOENIX “Enabling Nano-pharmaceutical Innovative Products” in the framework of which this novel nanomedicine developed under the Smar4Fabry project and designed as Orphan Drug by the EMA, will be scaled-up and manufactured under GMP to enable its clinical testing.

Articles of reference:

Josep Merlo-Mas, Judit Tomsen-Melero, José-Luis Corchero, Elisabet González-Mira, Albert Font, Jannik N. Pedersen, Natalia García-Aranda, Edgar Cristóbal-Lecina, Marta Alcaina-Hernando, Rosa Mendoza, Elena Garcia-Fruitós, Teresa Lizarraga, Susanne Resch, Christa Schimpel, Andreas Falk, Daniel Pulido, Miriam Royo, Simó Schwartz, Ibane Abasolo, Jan Skov Pedersen, Dganit Danino, Andreu Soldevila, Jaume Veciana, Santi Sala, Nora Ventosa, Alba Córdoba, “Application of Quality by Design to the robust preparation of a liposomal GLA formulation by DELOS-susp method”, The Journal of Supercritical Fluids, Volume 173, 2021, 105204, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.supflu.2021.105204.

Judit Tomsen-Melero, Solène Passemard, Natalia García-Aranda, Zamira Vanessa Díaz-Riascos, Ramon González-Rioja, Jannik Nedergaard Pedersen, Jeppe Lyngsø, Josep Merlo-Mas, Edgar Cristóbal-Lecina, José Luis Corchero, Daniel Pulido, Patricia Cámara-Sánchez, Irina Portnaya, Inbal Ionita, Simó Schwartz, Jaume Veciana, Santi Sala, Miriam Royo, Alba Córdoba, Dganit Danino, Jan Skov Pedersen, Elisabet González-Mira, Ibane Abasolo, and Nora Ventosa. Impact of Chemical Composition on the Nanostructure and Biological Activity of α-Galactosidase-Loaded Nanovesicles for Fabry Disease Treatment, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2021, 13, 7, 7825–7838 ( https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami .0c16871).

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SAFE-NMT Open Call for development and market of innovative MedTech solutions based on nanotechnology

An Open Call within H2020 project SAFE-N-MEDTECH OITB -Safety testing in the life cycle of nanotechnology-enabled medical technologies for health– has been launched with the objective of providing services and support to companies and other organizations with the aim of accelerating the development and commercialization of innovative MedTech solutions based on nano-enabled technology.

SAFE-N-MEDTECH in which CIBER-BBN is a partner througth its ICTS NANBIOSIS, gathers expertise from 28 partners around the world focused in enabling the safe translation of nano-enabled medical technologies from Proof of Concept to markets and clinical practice funded project

SAFE-N-MEDTECH with its key expertise and extensive knowledge in nano-enabled medical technologies, offers characterization, pre-clinical validation, access to biobanks and patient samples, scale up and regulatory support, technology assessment and horizon scanning.

Submission deadline: March 21st 2022, 23:59 CET

CALL DOCUMENTS – HOW TO APPLY:

Guidelines for Applicants The Guide for Applicants contains the basic information needed to guide you in preparing a proposalfor submission to the SAFE-N-MEDTECH Open Call. It gives an introduction on how to structureyour proposal. It also describes how to submit the proposal and the evaluation criteria.
Application Form

EXAMPLES OF SUPPORT SERVICES:

Nanoparticle Characterisation

Chemical Composition
Physical properties
Drug loading/release
RNA quantification and integrity
Sterility and Toxicity

Pre-Clinical Development

Antibody production
Peptide/Protein synthesis
Oligonucleotide synthesis
Immune response monitoring
Cellular assays
Biological evaluation
Nanoparticle development
Design and optimisation of biosensor platforms
Access to human samples and Biobanks
In vivo experiments

In Silico

In silico modelling

Clinical Validation

RNA extraction
RNA/DNA sequencing
Binding affinity measurement
Immune response monitoring

Assistance in prototyping and qualification of manufacturing facilities

Business development coaching, links with business angels, investors, capital risk, etc

Regulatory Assessment

Regulatory support to Europe and US approval

Health Technology Assessment

First evaluation of the project/product based on Health Technology Assessment (HTA)and Healthcare system needs
Technology scanning to identify redundancies/synergies

This call uses funds obtained within the scope of the SAFE-N-MEDTECH project funded by European Union´s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program. (Grant Agreement No. 814607)

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1,800,000 euro for the improvement of NANBIOSIS laboratories

The final decision on the call for funding of Singular Scientific and Technical Infrastructures (ICTS) within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan in 2021 for has been published. These grants are intended to facilitate the execution of the Strategic Plans of the ICTSs included in the current National Map of ICTSs, through the execution of the investments provided for in their investment plans and declared of high priority by the Advisory Committee for Singular Infrastructures (CAIS).

Two applications were submitted to this call by NANBIOSIS: one by the CIBER node named “Towards a new generation of Infrastructure for the design, production and preclinical characterization of nanomedicines, biomaterials and biomedical systems in the units of the CIBER node of NANBIOSIS ” for the amount of € 2,522,128.02 of which € 1,785,706.36 have been granted, and another for the BIONAND node entitled “Update and improvement of the equipment of the BIONAND node of the NANBIOSIS distributed ICTS ”, for the amount of € 339,633.59, of which € 29,000 have been awarded.

These grants will allow the acquisition and improvement of the equipment and laboratories for the preclinical production and characterization of biomaterial nanomedicines and NANBIOSIS biomedical systems.

This call from the Ministry of Science and Innovation is funded with 37 million euros by the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism of the European Union. This is the first grant of aid for all ICTS in the last decade that is approved with funds from the General State Budget that finances 100% of the eligible costs and will allow the development and improvement of critical facilities for science and Spanish innovation. The Ministry of Science and Innovation has announced that in 2022 another call for 37 million euros will be published to finance actions of the new strategic plans of the ICTS 2021-2024.

The reinforcement of NANBIOSIS research capacities through these projects will result in a qualification of the research tissue at the national level necessary for the development of the next generation of advanced therapy drugs and diagnostic innovation linked to precision medicine and ensure the production of essential drugs.

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The Medicine of the Future needs the Nanomedicine Revolution. This is why

The medicine of the future is an increasingly tackled topic. In the context of global concern for the sustainability of the health system (chronic diseases, new disorders, aging population and financing problems), nanomedicine could promote more affordable and personalized health care and improve the quality of life of the patients.

Between innovative techniques already implemented and concepts that evoke science fiction (nanobots, fluorescent particles working as spies, tiny Trojan horses introduced into our body …), nanomedicine generates great expectations.

Nanomedicine, what is it exactly?

Nanomedicine is the application of nanotechnology to medicine, that is, the use of nanotechnologic systems for the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of diseases, due to the particular properties that materials present on a nanometric scale. (Yes, although it seems strange, the same material has totally different attributes and behaviours when “nano” amounts of it are manipulated, what is very important in medicine, since many of the processes of the human body take place on a nanometric scale).

The current state, thanks to the previous effort.

When in 1959 Richard Feynmand, (Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965), gave his speech “There is a lot of space down there”, he opened the door to research at the nano scale: from 1nm to 100nm, this is one-millionth of a millimeter (10^-9 meters); we are talking about the range of sizes resulting from dividing the diameter of a hair between 1,000 and 10,000, (or what a nail grows in a second).

Since the entry into the market of the first nanomedicine in 1995 (Doxil®, a drug encapsulated in liposomes for the treatment of cancer), nanoparticles or nanostructures have been developed for the controlled release of drugs in cancer and other pathologies, nanodevices have been created for disease diagnosis or nanomaterials have been designed for applications in regenerative medicine, and even messenger RNA vaccines for Covid-19, such as those from Pfizer and Moderna, are nanoformulated. Today there are on the market a hundred nanoformulated drugs all thanks to previous research and development of nanomaterials and nanoparticles over the last three decades.

The “Observatory of Trends in Medicine of the Future” promoted by the Roche Institute foundation has recently published a Report on Nanomedicine coordinated by Dr. Ramón Martínez Máñez, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the UPV and Scientific Director of the Centre for Networked Biomedical Research in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN) in which Dr. José Becerra, Professor of Cell Biology at the University of Malaga and Principal Researcher at CIBER-BBN, BIONAND and IBIMA, Dr. Pilar Marco, Principal Investigator of the Nanobiotechnology group for the diagnosis (Nb4D) of the IQAC-CSIC and Coordinator of the Nanomedicine Research Program of the CIBER-BBN and Dr. María Jesús Vicent, Chief Researcher of the Therapeutic Polymers Laboratory and coordinator of the Advanced Therapies Area of the Príncipe Felipe Research Center have participated as experts. The report was presented at the IV Conference “Anticipating the Medicine of the Future” on November 30, 2021 where a debate was held by the above mentioned in which various topics related to nanomedicine were discussed, such as its applications and barriers.

Nanomedicine applications of today and tomorrow

Nanomedicine is completely transversal, multidisciplinary and dependent on other disciplines, so its applications are multiple and complementary to other branches of knowledge such as artificial intelligence, but the following fields stand out fundamentally.

The design of nanomaterials that improve biocompatibility or biomechanical properties is investigated and can be used for the manufacture of implants that allow replacing portions of diseased tissue and that can even be designed in a personalized way attending to the individual response of each patient, minimizing the risk of rejection by the patient in regenerative medicine.

Nanoparticles are used to build highly sensitive nanodiagnostic platforms, which provide comprehensive biological information easily, quickly and economically at an increasingly early stage. Pilar Marco visualizes a future where “the diagnosis could be our molecular fingerprint, so that the detection of changes in said fingerprint could lead to the detection of a disease before the patient presents symptoms. In turn, this will contribute to prediction and prognosis since, if a large amount of information is available, it can be crossed with genetic information”.

Nanomedicine makes it possible to improve the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of current drugs, so that they specifically deploy their activity in diseased cells and tissues in a controlled way over time and crossing any biological barrier, which is called controlled drug release. According to Ramón Martínez “Any disease can be susceptible to use these systems to deliver a drug in the appropriate organ or tissue with the reduction of drug doses and side effects.”

Finally, nanotechnology methods facilitate the fusion of diagnosis and therapy in the new medical field of theragnostic; diagnose and treat at the same time by understanding the biological response to treatments, that is, the administration of drugs whose molecules allow visualize how the drug is working.

Barriers faced by nanomedicine

In addition to the difficulties presented by nanomedicine in matters of regulation and industrial property, the aforementioned experts agree that one of the most important challenges is the standardization of manufacturing procedures and quality controls, investment is needed in infrastructures to fine-tune manufacturing and standardization systems (manufacturing of nanoparticles under GMP) and in collaboration with the private sector, which is crucial, to make nanomedicine reach the productive sector and society.

But there are also barriers in the research itself, and funding is needed to break them down. In nanomedicine research, cost / effectiveness analyses have to be focused on the long term. Professor José Becerra explains it very clearly: “Research topics become fashionable and it happens frequently that the years go by and administrations “get tired” of financing a certain field and this is a problem because if a tree is planted by a person who knows It takes ten years to bear fruit, this person has to take care of the tree, but if we give the tree care to someone who does not know about trees, probably this person will abandon the tree in five years … Scientific policies have to persevere in financing nano and accompany it with an improvement in the regulation of products and only then will companies invest in this area”.

At the end of the debate, Professor José Becerra celebrated that the Carlos III Health Institute opted, fifteen years ago, for the creation of a CIBER in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine, as a tool for scientific policy, he also mentioned the NANBIOSIS platform created by CIBER-BBN, CCMIJU and BIONAND, recognized as ICTS by the Ministry and available for companies and researchers to produce and characterize bio and nanomaterials, and stated that “it is evident that it is not possible to advance in the transfer of knowledgy from nano to the clinic at the same rate as is done in other knowledge areas but to take care of this project is essential”.

The Nanomedicine Revolution

informe sobre nanomedicina

‘Point-of-care or PoC’ devices are able to directly detect the genetic material of the virus in just 30 minutes

A more effective nanomedicine has been developed for the treatment of Fabry rare disease

Nanomedicine: how to get drugs to the place where they have to act.

A new generation of devices for the rapid, cheap and easy diagnosis of candidemia

New Nanomedicines for the topical treatment of complex wounds

Sources of information:

Nanomedicine (European Nanotecnology Platform)

IV Jornada Anticipando la Medicina del Fututo

Nanomedicine Report

Nanomed Spain

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‘SAFE-N-MEDTECH’ and ‘PHOEHIX’ OITBs in CIBER-BBN and NANBIOSIS annual Conference.

National and international leading researchers met online last November 15 and 16 at the XV CIBER-BBN Annual Congress to discuss the latest advances in bioengineering, biomaterials and nanomedicine research, and promote further collaborations in the field.

This year’s CIBER-BBN Annual Conference included three plenary lectures given by internationally recognized experts in the fields of SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination, biomedical signal processing for sleep disorders, and regenerative medicine and biosensors. In addition to a selection of internal collaborations, valorization projects and collaboration projects with the CIBER of Oncology, the three programs of the Precision Medicine Infrastructure (IMPaCT) were presented.

NANBIOSIS ICTS contributed to the scientific program of the Conference with a session dedicated to the Open Innovation Test Beds (OITBs). More precisely, Dr. Ángel del Pozo, from Biokeralty presented the SAFE-N-MEDTECH OITB as an example of innovation booster for medical devices, while Dr. Emre Türeli, from MyBiotech GmbH, was invited to describe PHOENIX, a Pharmaceutical OITB for Enabling Nano-pharmaceutical Innovative Products.

Both OITBs’ scope is to cover the gap between research in nanomedicine and clinical practice. Their main objective is to provide the research community and the rest of stakeholders with a fully functional infrastructure for the testing, validation and upscaling of new nano-pharmaceuticals and medical devices through a single entry point.

NANBIOSIS is participating in SAFE-N-MEDTECH leading the corner stone work-package of preclinical validation of nano-enabled medical technologies and also contributing to their previous physico-chemical characterization. Besides that, it coordinates a Test Case about innovative nanostructured implants for bone repair, and participates in three more, all proposed by industrial partners of the project.

CIBER-BBN is participating in Phoenix OITB, as well, with the Unit 6 of NANBIOSIS ICTS (Biomaterials Processing and Nanostructuring Unit) at the Institute of Materials Science in Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) as well as the BioNanoSurf group at the Aragon Institute of Materials Science (INMA-CSIC).

These projects have received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreements No. 814607 (SAFE-N-MEDTECH) and No. 953183 (PHOENIX)

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NANBIOSIS opens in February the 1st competitive open call 2023 for its “Cutting-Edge Biomedical Solutions” and services.