2008/10/22

CIC bioGUNE is to take part in the NANOTHER European Cancer Research Project

CIC bioGUNE is one of 18 entities which are going to be taking part in NANOTHER: a European research project in which advances in nanotechnology will be applied to cancer therapy and diagnosis. To be precise, the aim of this four-year project will be to develop nanoparticles capable of detecting the location of tumours and effecting controlled release of the medication which they contain so as to shrink the tumour.

CIC bioGUNE's input to this project will last for 36 months and will be led by Edurne Berra, Group Head of the Cellular Biology and Stem Cell Unit and Manager of the Basque centre's Gene Silencing Platform. Specifically, Edurne Berra will contribute siRNA's (Small Interference RNA's) which will attempt to destroy cancer cells by suffocation.

The NANOTHER project will be co-ordinated by GAIKER-IK4. Other contributors, who will work alongside CIC bioGUNE, will be the biotechnology company Dominion-Pharmakine, VICOMtech research centre and the biopharmaceutical company PharmaMar. Also participating in the project will be a number of top-level international institutions, which will bring the total number of participants up to 18.

The overall budget for the project, which was unveiled at an official presentation held on 21st October last year at Bizkaia Technology Park, is 11 million euros, of which 8 and a half million will be provided by the European Union.