La Caixa Foundation supports innovative i3S biomedical projects
During La Caixa Foundation’s CaixaResearch Validate 2021 Contest three Portuguese projects were selected - two of which are led by i3S researchers. Considered “innovative” and with “great social impact” these projects, coordinated by scientists Inês Gonçalves and Ricardo Monteiro, will receive up to 100,000 euros each. The objective is to support the technology transfer process for society and the market.
Inês Gonçalves intends to develop a “Smart Cap for Catheter Sterilization” (SmartCap) with the aim of reducing the leading cause of healthcare-associated infections, which in Europe alone cause 25,000 deaths a year. These infections, usually caused by bacterial contamination of medical devices (especially catheters) lead to complications with a high rate of patient morbidity and mortality and very high medical costs.
“Current treatments are not effective in preventing infection and, in addition, they contribute to the development of bacterial resistance, which is a major threat to public health. Hence the urgency to find solutions”, stresses the leader of the research group “Advanced Graphene Biomaterials”.
SmartCap, explains Inês Gonçalves, “is a cap for catheters with an integrated and reusable sterilization system based on the photoactivation of graphene, which acts inside the catheter and prevents infections without causing bacterial resistance”. This funding, she adds, will make it possible to “optimize the SmartCap technology and introduce it to the market”.
In addition to Inês Gonçalves’ team, the project also has the collaborations of Orlando Frazão, a specialist in optics at INESC-TEC, and Manuel Pestana, director of the Nephrology Service of the University Hospital Center of São João (CHUSJ), Full Professor from the Faculty of Medicine of the U.Porto (FMUP) and is leader of the i3S research group in “Nephrology & Infectious Diseases R&D”.
Disarming bacterias
Entitled “Desarmar bactérias, uma alternativa inovadora aos antibióticos” (“Disarming bacteria, an innovative alternative to antibiotics”) the project led by Ricardo Monteiro aims to combat bacterial resistance to drugs caused by the excessive use of antibiotics. The World Health Organization has defined this problem as one of the great threats facing humanity in the near future. In addition to increasing the number of deaths and disabilities, antimicrobial resistance is associated with longer hospital stays, higher health care costs and loss of the patients’ quality of life.
In recent years, explains the researcher, “an innovative alternative to prevent resistance has been explored, whose strategy consists of ‘disarming’ the bacteria instead of bacterial elimination by traditional drugs”. The project, underlines Ricardo Monteiro, “focuses on a candidate compound that acts on the sugars in the bacterial cell wall of Listeria monocytogenes”. This is a food-borne bacterium responsible for the highest proportion of hospital cases and the highest mortality rate in Europe and this compound “will make it less infectious and more sensitive to antibiotics without killing it”.
With this funding, explains the researcher from the group Molecular Microbiology, “we intend to achieve clinical validation of this compound and explore its potential as a complementary strategy to fight bacterial infections in combination with antibiotics”.
The third winning project in this program of the La Caixa Foundation is called “NanoSpin: Nanoparticle-mediated drug release for spinal cord injuries” and is led by researcher Diogo Trigo from the University of Aveiro. Researchers have developed an innovative treatment that consists of administering nanoparticles loaded with pro-regenerative drugs to affected neurons.
In addition to financial support, researchers receive specialized training in key areas (such as technology transfer, financing tools and negotiation techniques) and mentoring. Industry specialists, consultants and entrepreneurs will help define the best valuation plans for your projects.