The Foundation for Applied Medical research , owner of the CIMA of the University of Navarra, has signed a agreement of partnership with the Miguel Servet Foundation (FMS), an entity of the Government of Navarra that manages the research center Biomedica (CIB), to create a technological infrastructure to support the biomedical research in Navarra. Both foundations will provide infrastructure and human resources for the implementation of this platform. The framework of partnership was signed by Francisco Errasti, director general of the Foundation for Applied Medical research and CIMA, on the one hand; and by the general director of Health, Cristina Ibarrola, and José María Roig Aldasoro, director of the FMS and the CIB, on the other hand.

This alliance aims to improve the efficiency of public and private investments in research. To this end, expensive technology will be shared and specialized knowledge will be exchanged for the technical and scientific training staff researcher . In addition, according to the signed agreement , the ultimate goal is to contribute to the economic and social development of Navarra through the promotion of the biotechnology sector, as well as to the promotion and protection of the health of the population.

The finding of the structure of DNA in 1953 opened up a new avenue for analyzing the predisposition Genetics to certain diseases or sensitivity to certain treatments, thus leading to the development of genomic or individualized medicine. To advance in this knowledge, the new platform will facilitate the study of complex biological systems, in the field of omics, by analyzing genes, proteins and metabolites, to unravel the molecular instructions of various diseases and identify markers and therapeutic targets to develop new treatments to combat them.

This infrastructure also aims to achieve a greater scientific, clinical and economic impact; for example, it will participate in the research of the project World Human Proteome, on proteins, similar to the one that led to the sequencing of the genome. It will be an opportunity to collaborate in large biomedical projects and share an infrastructure, which will be at the forefront after all the appropriate investments are made," says Dr. Fernando Corrales, director of the Proteomics, Genomics and Bioinformatics Unit at CIMA and promoter of this platform.

Integrating efforts

During the ceremony, the Director General of Health stressed that in these difficult economic times, also for the research, it is necessary "to join forces, to be more efficient, to establish alliances and to add our strengths. And for these reasons we are pooling our scientists and technologists, and our equipment to facilitate the study of complex biological systems".

Terms of the partnership

The agreement framework reached regulates the terms of the partnership and in particular the access to the services and use of the platform, which is constituted as a single and shared resource . It will have a general coordinator and will be distributed in two nodes, with headquarters in each of the aforementioned institutions, although the work will be carried out in a coordinated manner.

In each organization, there will be four sections: Genomics, Proteomics, Metabolomics and Bioinformatics. Each of them will be headed by a technologist and eleven other technicians, engineers or technologists will work in them, eight of them newly hired.

Both the Fundación para la research Médica Aplicada and the Fundación Miguel Servet will reciprocally facilitate to the different groups of research the access and use of the platform services. The parties will consider the groups of research of the other party as their own researchers. Each institution may make resources available for its own research but must inform knowledge of the joint commission that will ensure compliance with agreement. The authorship and ownership of the rights to the results will belong to the member entity that has developed the result.