A new European project awarded to the CIBBIM-Nanomedicine of the VHIR converts the Vall d’Hebron Campus into the health institution with the highest number of active research projects in Nanomedicine of Europe

For the first time, the Vall d’Hebron Campus has a FET Innovation (Future and Emerging Technologies) project that has been awarded within the Horitzo 2020 program to the CIBBIM-Nanomedicine. Drug Delivery and Targeting research group. Addressing and Pharmacological Release that leads Dr. Simó Schwartz Jr. The EVO-NANO project aims to develop a virtual simulator, called NanoDoc, which will test the behaviour of nanoparticles within a tumour and with other nanoparticles.

This is a multidisciplinary project that will develop a consortium of European research centres with the aim of creating a platform that is available to everyone and at the forefront of Nanomedicine that facilitate the rapid development and testing of new treatments against cancer. «It will become an evolutionary platform capable of autonomously offering innovative, efficient and adapted solutions that can also be transferred to other complex biomedical challenges,» explains Dr. Schwartz Jr.

Until now, the behaviour of nanoparticles is unknown when they are injected in large volumes and come into contact, for example, with the bloodstream. It is not known whether the effects of interactions between them and the environment will have a better or worse therapeutic effect. In the same way, their distribution in a tumour environment is not known, if they affect more to a type of cells than to others, their behaviour in front of stem cells of cancer, etc.

«This simulator will help to understand how nanoparticles interact with each other and in a biological medium when they are injected, in large volume, into a tumour or anywhere in the body,» adds Dr. Schwartz Jr. And thus, nanoparticle designs that have an optimum behaviour can be achieved, which will then be studied and validated in biological models in vitro and in vivo in stem cells of breast and colon cancer.

In addition, the project has a partner of the industry, Pro Chimia Surfaces, which will promote a translation strategy that will allow the arrival of new nanomedicines to patients.

Vall d’Hebron becomes the European reference in Nanomedicine

Thanks to the acquisition of this project, Vall d’Hebron becomes the health campus with more European projects active in Nanomedicine of Europe with six major H2020 projects and three ERA-NET projects.

The projects that are framed in the Research and Innovation Framework Program of the European Unit are:

  • Multimodal nanoparticles for structural and functional tracking of stem cell therapy on muscle regeneration (nTRACK)
  • Epigenetic and Anticancer Drugs with Gene Therapy (INNOCENT)
  • A framework to respond to the regulatory needs of future nanomaterials and markets (Future nanoneeds)
  • Nanomedicine Upscaling for Early Clinical Phases of Multimodal Cancer Therapy (NoCanTher)
  • Smart multifunctional GLA-nanoformulation for Fabry disease (Smart-4-Fabry)
  • Evolvable platform for designing cancer treatment strategies using nanoparticles (EVO-NANO)

The three ERA-NET projects are:

  • Targeting combined therapy to cancer stem cells (NANOSTEM)
  • (Nano) systems with active targeting to sensitize colorectal cancer stem cells to anti-tumoral treatment (Target4Cancer)
  • Targeted delivery of therapeutic siRNA to Ewing sarcoma junction oncogene by traceable diamondnanocrystal / Antibody conjugate (DIAMESTAR)

In addition, the Campus include other large European research projects such as:

  • Berenice (BEnznidazol and triazol REsearch group for Nanomedicine and Innovation on Chagas disease) of the research group on infectious diseases.
  • New Magnetic Biomaterials for Brain Repair and Imaging after Stroke» (MAGBBRIS) of the Neurovascular Diseases Group.