ADVANCECAT is created to promote advanced therapies in Catalonia

ADVANCECAT, integrated in the NEXTHEALTH community, coordinated by Biocat, aims to create an organizational structure to speed up the development of new drugs for advanced therapies, grouping public and private actors of the field for a better resource management in order to get the maximum benefit in the Catalan health system. The main core of work is focused on promoting cell therapies and tissue engineering, strengthen genic therapy approaches, including immunotherapy, and developing production automatisms to get a better clinical application.

The project aims to reinforce the Catalan industrial sector by promoting the identification of mechanisms and protocols that allow industrial production of these drugs. Promoting interaction between research centers and hospitals and committed business tissue in these kinds of therapies will encourage the fast transition of the new drugs in the health system, which would however need long periods of development in lots of cases.

The consortium has a starting budget of more than 2,8 million euros, out of which 969.352,28 € are developed with the support of ACCIÓ, the Agency for the Business Competitiveness of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and co-funded by the European Union in the framework of the active program Catalonia FEDER 2014-2020 (European Regional Development Fund).

Advanced therapy projects in Catalonia

Advanced therapies are drugs for human use based on cells (cell therapy), genes (gene therapy) or tissue (tissue engineering). In Spain, there are around 20 new drugs under clinical development, eight out of these are being developed in Catalonia. Also, Catalonia has now different units of cell production and tissue engineering, one of them at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the Faculty of Barcelona (UB), another at the Clinic Hospital of Barcelona, and a third one in the Blood and Tissue Bank (BST). From all these three, the one in the UB has a space to produce genic therapy drugs also.

Some of the distinguished projects on advanced therapies to be promoted in ADVANCECAT project are:

 Immunotherapy for clinical applications

One of the applications with more potential in the field of immunotherapy are the CARs (Chimeric Antigent Receptor - engineered lymphocytes). This technique consists on taking lymphocytes T out of patients through their blood and train them to detect and destroy the cancer, through the genetic modification to express a chimeric and specific receptor of the carcinogenic cells. This technology is being produced and applied in the ARI project (Research and Intensive Care) led by the Clinic Hospital of Barcelona and the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS), and is being investigated at the Hospital Santa Creu and Sant Pau. 

Immunotherapy is also used to produce the cell vaccine to fight AIDS virus, a vaccine already used in patients in clinical trials of the Clinic Hospital, with cells entirely produced in Barcelona, and the treatment of infectious complications of transplanted patients using T cells that recognize the virus that cause the disease. This last strategy has been developed by the Blood and Tissue Bank (BST) and involves the creation of a register of proper volunteer donors. 

Tissue regeneration for different diseases

Different kinds of stem cells are being used in clinical trials in ADVANCECAT with the aim of regenerating tissues, lots of which are linked to the locomotor system. These technologies can help improving the lives of people with diseases that cause severe pain, as well as improving the treatment for high-level athletes with the participation of the University of Barcelona (UB); Bioibérica, FC Barcelona Universitas - Muscletech Network, Bosch i Gimpera Foundation (FBC), Leitat Foundation - Muscletech Network (FLeitat), the Vall dʼHebron University Hospital - Research Institute (VHIR), and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC). These treatments go from using stem cells from bone marrows or fat to pluripotent stem cells. In ADVANCECAT there will also be translational studies to apply these cells to patients with cardiovascular or neurological diseases in projects involving the University of Barcelona (UB), Barcelona Macula Fundation, Bioibérica and the Center of Regenerative Medicine of Barcelona (CMRB).

 Artificial tissue for damaged organ reconstruction

A relevant part of the tissue regeneration medicine is the extracellular matrix; efforts from lots of ADVANCECAT members, led by the  Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the Institute for Health Science Research Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP), will enable speeding up these kinds of therapies that range from human tissue decellularization that allow getting the natural extracellular matrix, to the development of new methods for artificial production of extracellular matrix through bioprinters, including 3D printing techniques.

Entities that are part of ADVANCECAT project: University of Barcelona (leader), Ferrer (co-leader), Blood and Tissue Bank, Barcelona Macula Foundation, Bioibérica SA, Butler Scientifics SL, Center of Regenerative Medicine of Barcelona, Bosch i Gimpera Foundation, FC Barcelona Universitas - Muscletech Network, Vall dʼHebron University Hospital - Research Institute, Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia Foundation, Institute for Health Science Research Germans Trias i Pujol Foundation, Research Institute Foundation of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Leitat Foundation - Muscletech Network, August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, Regenerative Technology Qrem, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. The project is integrated in the NEXTHEALTH community, coordinated by Biocat.