The scientific project ProREGEN, developed by Mónica Sousa, Ana Rita Pinto Costa and Sara Sousa, from the Nerve Regeneration group, won the Innovation Award BluePharma / University of Coimbra 2017. The jury highlighted originality, innovation, market viability and the potential creation of value for society, which is why it gave it the first place among the 23 competing projects.
ProREGEN is a therapy to promote the regeneration of the nervous system, acting on lesions such as the vertebro-medullar lesion, through the overexpression of the protein Profilina-1 (Pfn1) that regulates skeletal cell dynamics. The winning project will receive a monetary prize of €20,000 to evaluate the regenerative potential of non-invasive delivery of Profilin-1 (Pfn1) in vivo in mice with spinal cord injury. Monetary support may also translate into an additional investment of EUR 30 000, once its market viability has been proved.
According to the researchers, in vitro results have already shown that Pfn1 is a promoter of axon growth (neuron extension that establishes its binding to a target cell) with "robust and surprising" effects. If successful in vivo, this therapy may have applications in other diseases in which regeneration is necessary.
The ProREGEN team noted that, despite "considerable progress" in medical, surgical and rehabilitation procedures, "there are no effective treatments for neurological recovery". They therefore consider it essential to identify therapies that promote axon growth and repair of the spinal cord, acting on lesions of the nervous system and with therapeutic potential in other neurodegenerative diseases.
As a researcher responsible for the project and leader of the i3S Nerve Regeneration group, Mónica Sousa stresses that "winning this award is very rewarding. It was a project started several years ago in our laboratory, in the beginning it was characterizing the fundamental mechanisms regulating axonal growth. It is now very important to see if this basic knowledge translates into the development of new therapies, which will be made possible by this funding".
The Bluepharma Innovation Award / University of Coimbra aim to distinguish scientific projects of excellence at the international level in the area of Health Sciences that have a high likelihood of translation into products or services, with real interest for society.