The pharmaceutical compound research platform Innopharma, who is an associate of Bioga, lead from CiMUS, an entity from the USC by the researchers Mabel Loza and Ángel Carracedo, that is one of the instruments of the Plan Complementario de Biotecnología Aplicado a la Salud, has increased their capacity and international competitiveness. This milestone was possible due to a 5.000.000 € endowment coming from the Axencia Galega de Innovación (Gain), a part of the Xunta de Galicia, over the past three years trough the REACT-UE fund within the Programa Operativo FEDER Galicia 2014-2020.

“With this financing, the Innopharma Platform will be able to continue achieving their goal of contributing to the cause of making sure medication reaches patients, offering the biomedical research groups of the Sistema Universitario de Galicia and of the Institutos de Investigación Sanitaria, as well as the scientific community in general, their support in the generation of health oriented products and services”, indicated Mabel Loza during her intervention in the presentation event for the updating and expansion of the Innopharma Platform.

The event took place in the CiMUS, with the participation of the Scientific Policy Vice Chancellor of the USC, Pilar Bermejo; the director of Gain, Patricia Argerey, the representative of the ABAC Therapeutics company, Domingo Gargallo, and the project coordinators, Ángel Carracedo and Mabel Loza.

Thanks to instruments such as the Innopharma Platform, the Plan Complementario de Biotecnología Aplicada a la Salud de Galicia will continue working on improving Spanish biotechnology.

High Capability Sustaniable Platform

Since its inception, the pharmacogenic and drug screening platform Innopharma has incorporated the most innovative and state of the art technologies, which has allowed for them to be certified as a Plataforma de Altas Capacidades from the Consorcio Europeo de Infraestructuras de investigación from ERIC EU-OPENSCREEN. “The technological advances over the last few years make it necessary to incorporate different technologies and to digitalize processes in order to gain efficiency in the process and to reduce waste production”, signals Mabel Loza.

The adquired financing allowed for the adquisition and updating of the necessary scientific-technical equipment; hiring personnel specialized in the handling of new technologies and conditioning the installations to the newly adquired equipment.

Loza and Carracedo explain that the adquired funds have allowed for the implementation of automated methodologies and technologies, compatible with Big Data treatment, with the end goal of growing the Galician R&D&i system’s capabilities for the early discovery and development of drugs in Galicia, in order to strengthen the Galician healthcare system with necessary infrastructure to speed this process up.

What’s more, this pharmacogenic platform of the USC is a part of the ERIC (European Research Infrastructures Consortium) and it allows itself to catch international projects. It also plays an important role in the development of automated traslational technologies with vanguard research infrastructures.

Objective: automation with tailor made specialists and infrastructures.

When it comes to the adquisition and updating of scientific-technical gear, digitalization systems were implemented on lab work processes; compound management automation systems; test plate managent automation systems trough the use of ultrasound dispensing technologies and high capacity automated microscopy. Servers were also adquired, for the analysis and storage of fluorescent microscopy images; new equipment for the analysis of the effect of said compounds trough flux citometry and high capacity screening technology based on mass spectrometry.

The updating of the flourescence gear in real time for their use on the screening study about cardiomyocytes and neurones; the equipment for the quantification of the electric activity of the cells and the high capacity, real time genotyping and automation; the cooling and incubation systems for celular cultures; the automated platform for the real time analysis of celular metabolism and mitochondrial function, and the additional equipment for the secondary hits validation assays, are also part of the new technological incorporations.

The adquisition of this new equipment lead to the incorporation of specialized personnel, both to set it in motion and for its operation, aswell as the hiring of a team of seven researchers and a team of four specialists on ICT. On top of that, the installations were acclimated in accordance with the new needs, adapting the spaces and furniture of the lab to be used with the new gear.

Grow the sector’s competitiveness

On top of supporting the biomedical research teams in the universities of Galicia and the health research institutes in the creation of products and services regarding health, Innopharma looks to awaken the interest of tractor companies and new professionals in order to generate qualified employment, generating competitiveness within the sector.

Currently, this platform has a high capacity drug screening infrastructure, with highly specialized professionals, and a collection of 60.000 molecules for the development of projects within this field. Their capabilities have helped reach agreements with dozens of research centers and companies all around the world.

Original article: Plataforma Innopharma aumenta su capacidad para mejorar la biotecnología en España (25/10/2023).

For BIOGA, it is a priority to promote intersectoral collaboration between entities and to power networking activities, both national and international. If you want to know more about us, please click the following link.