The 1st iNOVA4Health Annual Meeting took place last Saturday 18th of June, at the Rectorate of the NOVA University of Lisbon

News
June 22, 2016

All together 23 projects that bring together cross-cutting activities of research were presented and discussed during the meeting all of which aiming at a common objective: i) widening their activities to an international level and ii) to innovate the paradigm of medicine extending it from the laboratory to the bedside of the patient, thus contributing to a more personalized and effective medicine. The agenda of the meeting can be found here.

“In this first annual meeting it already becomes clear that the participant teams are not doing “more of the same”, as so often happens in new programs. The 23 projects that are going to be discussed during this Annual Meeting have all required bridges to be established amongst at least two teams of the three different competence groups - basic biological understanding of disease, developmental/technological and clinical. These 23 projects were started during this first year, after a clear “bottom up” effort by iNOVA4Health researchers, with strong support from the iNOVA4Health Management Board” says Manuel Carrondo, coordinator of IN4H.

In the media

About iNOVA4Health

iNOVA4Health is a Research Unit funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (www.fct.pt), FEDER and PT2020 with the objective of promoting a Translational Medicine Network at NOVA University of Lisbon.

This 6 year programme, which started early 2015, organizes the efforts of biomedical researchers aiming at developing therapies to promote healthy ageing and in targeting chronic diseases that are responsible for two thirds of deaths worldwide and a major burden on healthcare systems. This includes organizing or coordinating the activities of 18 research groups, with over 130 PhDs and clinicians working at three key levels: a) Basic research, carrying out what would be called Pre-discovery/early discovery in the Biopharma world; b) Pre-clinical development of Biopharmaceuticals and Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products; c) Clinical research, including early clinical and first-in-man clinical trials, but also covering epidemiological and services research;

The Unit is managed by iBET (www.ibet.pt), a private-not-for-profit institution with over twenty years of experience in transferring knowledge to the society, essentially responsible for the preclinical development; CEDOC - Center for Chronic Diseases  (cedoc.unl.pt) of the NOVA Medical School (www.fcm.unl.pt) brings in most of the medical basic research with support from ITQB – Institute for Chemical and Biological Technology (www.itqb.unl.pt) covering chemical and biochemical discovery/synthesis; the IPOLFG, Portuguese Oncology Institute (www.ipolisboa.min-saude.pt) involved in clinical and translational research in Oncobiology. Clinicians from 10 Hospitals, where the NOVA Medical School carries out its clinical teaching duties, will be responsible for the final translational steps. Biopharmaceuticals for the translational work (phase I/phase II clinical trials), in particular Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMP’s), may be manufactured at GeniBET Biopharmaceuticals (www.genibet.com), an iBET spin off (45% owned) producing under GMP certification.

The program is organized under 2 thematic lines: Chronic Diseases & Healthy Aging and Translational Research for Advanced Therapies, which by the end of the 6 years period are expected to have launched over two dozen translational projects, trained MD's and other researchers into Personalized Medicine, broaden the already existing alliances with large pharmaceutical companies, establish iNOVA4Health as a relevant European partner in ATMP's and orphan diseases research and ultimately, be of larger value for Portuguese Health Care Practice and Society/Economy.