UB hosts the first gene and cell therapy lab in Catalonia

Cell culture room for cell and gene therapy production of the Research and Development Unit of the Cell Therapy Program of the UB.
Cell culture room for cell and gene therapy production of the Research and Development Unit of the Cell Therapy Program of the UB.
Research
(31/05/2013)

On Friday 31st May, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona presented the new Research and Development Unit, which includes the first gene and cell therapy lab in Catalonia. In the opening ceremony, the Rector of the UB, Dídac Ramírez, emphasized that "the new facility, that affiliated hospitals with the UB and, in general, all Catalan health centres can use, will enable to develop cell therapies for high impact diseases".

Cell culture room for cell and gene therapy production of the Research and Development Unit of the Cell Therapy Program of the UB.
Cell culture room for cell and gene therapy production of the Research and Development Unit of the Cell Therapy Program of the UB.
Research
31/05/2013

On Friday 31st May, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona presented the new Research and Development Unit, which includes the first gene and cell therapy lab in Catalonia. In the opening ceremony, the Rector of the UB, Dídac Ramírez, emphasized that "the new facility, that affiliated hospitals with the UB and, in general, all Catalan health centres can use, will enable to develop cell therapies for high impact diseases".

The Research and Development Unit, which is part of the Cell Therapy Program of the University of Barcelona (TCUB), will enable to study the clinical application of new therapies based on the administration of alive cells to treat diseases such as cancer, neurological disorders (Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease or multiple sclerosis), diabetes, heart or infectious diseases.

The centre has been funded with 1.5 million euros. One million euros were donated by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, and 500,000 euros were donated by the Cell Therapy Network of the Health Institute Carlos III and the HUBc, the health campus of international excellence.

The facility will mainly support TCUB research groups from the UB, the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS), the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) and Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute. Moreover, "companies will be able to use the unit to test new drugs on human cells or carry out drug toxicity tests", explains Josep M. Canals, TCUB Coordinator. "The objective —he adds— is to achieve that the facility, which will be officially recognised by the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices, will become an international model centre of cell therapy".

Cell therapy means to introduce human cells, which have been developed and modified, into tissues in order to restore their function or repair damaged ones. This therapy is the evolution of organ transplantation which is limited to the number of organ donors. Cell transplantation has been used in haematological malignancies, such as leukaemia. Most modern applications are the use of chondrocytes to treat joint dislocations, corneal limbus cells to treat corneal ulcer or epithelial cells in the case of severe burns.

The facility

The Research and Development Unit of TCUB, located on a 300m2 area at the Faculty of Medicine of the UB, has two cell culture rooms and a laboratory to carry out preclinical research with human cells, including rooms for pluripotent stem cells, such as embryonic ones. The facility also includes three GMP (good manufacturing practices) cell production rooms.

Moreover, the facility has the first gene and cell therapy lab in Catalonia. The new facility will be first use to develop a VIH vaccine within a new clinical trial that the group led by Dr Josep M. Gatell (UB, Hospital Clínic, IDIBAPS) will carry out. The unit is headed by qualified technicians who will give advice to develop and apply new advanced therapy products.

This kind of facility, which fulfil some strict temperature and pressure conditions (in some cases pressure is 50 times higher than atmospheric one), is named cleanroom. Cleanrooms must meet strict conditions of asepsis and security to avoid infections or complications in transplanted patients.

 

Cell Therapy Program of the UB (TCUB)

TCUB, which is part of the Cell Therapy Network of the Health Institute Carlos III (Spanish Ministry of Education), is composed by 24 research groups on advanced therapies which include gene and cell therapies and tissue engineering. In total, these research groups carry out 74 projects: 53 of them are national projects awarded on a competitive basis, 4 come from private foundations and 17 are international. Dr Canals explains that "TCUB human and research potential is one of the strong points of the programme which can become, without any doubt, the leading cell therapy programme in Spain and one of the most important in Europe".

TCUB research areas (neurology, diabetes and metabolism, cardiology, haemato-oncology, ophthalmology, pneumology, and immunology and infectious diseases) comprise major death causes in Catalan population. Cancer is one of the main research areas of the programme; it includes haemato-oncological diseases, which are the main cell therapy research area of Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute.

The programme enables the development of collaborative projects which range from basic research to clinical trials. Research groups share information about protocols, strategies and cell applications in order to develop new therapy strategies for these diseases.