Today, 19 February, IBEC organised the roundtable ‘Personalised medicine in action: from the lab to society’, an event that formed part of the Barcelona Health Innovation Week, promoted by Biocat. The session provided an insight into the keys to success in translating personalised medicine, connecting with actors in the innovation ecosystem and taking part in the conversation about the future of our health.
This week, 17-21 February, is the Barcelona Health Innovation Week. It’s an event organised by Biocat dedicated to innovation, acceleration, technology and the transformation of healthcare. Through face-to-face sessions, online seminars, talks and debates, it allows organisations and companies in the healthcare sector to get closer to this market, showcase their latest innovations and connect with their audience.
It is important to plan for technology transfer from the start of research projects, identifying clinical needs and establishing links with patients and healthcare professionals.
Teresa Sanchis
As part of the event, the round table ‘Personalised medicine in action: from the laboratory to society’ took place today, organised by IBEC, coordinator of the Complementary Plan for Applied Biotechnology in Health. The event, opened by Teresa Sanchis, head of IBEC’s Strategy Department and executive coordinator of the Plan, aimed to explore success stories in knowledge transfer through public-private collaboration and the creation of spin-off companies from research centres and universities, to raise awareness of the Catalan initiative to accelerate personalised medicine in Europe, and to discuss strategies for bringing innovation to society.
The conference generated an enriching debate among the speakers, who agreed on the need to connect the different actors in the system to facilitate technology transfer and the application of research to society. The session, moderated by science journalist Cristina Sáez, was attended by Josep Maria del Bas (co-investigator of the Eurecat ADGUT project and professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili), Aïda Serra (researcher at the Biomedical Research Institute of Lleida and co-investigator of the EVBRAINTARGET project), Montse Daban (Director of Strategic Analysis and International Relations at the BIOCAT. PRECISEU project) and Teresa Sanchis.
There is no such thing as basic or applied research, but rather research that is applied sooner and research that is applied later.
Montse Daban
Sanchis stressed the importance of planning technology transfer from the start of research projects, identifying clinical needs and establishing links with patients and healthcare professionals. She also outlined IBEC’s initiatives to support researchers in this area, such as technology transfer training for PhD students and mentoring programmes with clinicians. She also advocated a change of perspective in scientific careers: “We need to change the vision we have. It is not just about becoming the principal investigator of a research group”, highlighting the diversity of scientific careers and their impact on society.
Among the key issues discussed were the challenges of knowledge transfer, the lack of business training in science, the difficulties of commercialising technologies and the role of alternative instruments to spin-offs in bringing innovation to the market. As Montse Daban pointed out: “There is no such thing as basic or applied research, but rather research that is applied sooner and research that is applied later”, stressing that innovation is a responsibility shared by the entire ecosystem.
Activity organised by IBEC, coordinator of the Complementary Plan for Biotechnology Applied to Health - an initiative focused on the development of tools for diagnosis, prognosis and advanced or targeted therapies in personalised and precision medicine.
