A project to renaturalise urban spaces, best innovative project of the 14th Generating Ideas Programme

30/05/2024

Five entrepreneurial projects, developed by researchers from the UAB campus, have competed by presenting their innovative ideas to obtain one of the two prizes of the Generating Ideas Programme OneHealth edition. Each team had five minutes to present their idea in front of a jury of experts in the evaluation of business ideas, formed by Maite Martín, president of the OneHealth platform; Lluís Ruiz, CEO of Leukos and president of Aquilón; and Sandra Ramos, patent and technology transfer technician at UAB.

Replantegem has been selected as the best project and will receive a prize of 2,000 euros. This initiative seeks to transform urban spaces and the way people relate to them through the implementation of green infrastructure and citizen participation.

Driving the project are Mariona Ferrandiz, postdoctoral researcher at CREAF and associate professor at the UAB; Oriol Serra, architect and urban planner; Albert Bach Pagès, postdoctoral researcher at ISGlobal and CREAF; and Maria José Castro, student of the Master's programme in Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation at the UAB.

 "We work to improve the urban space of the city by making it greener and promoting changes in both public and private spaces," explained Mariona Ferrandiz. Their goal is to create a company, aimed at both businesses and government, to design green offices to improve job satisfaction, concentration and the air quality of these spaces. In addition to design and transformation, their services also include assessing the impact of the improvements and offering a maintenance plan.

Nanoblock has been awarded the best innovative idea and will receive a cash prize of 1,000 euros. The project was born from the collaboration of the Protein Folding and Conformational Diseases group of the UAB and the University of Buenos Aires, which was led by Jordi Pujols, post-doctoral researcher at the UAB, and Clàudia Lliso, PhD student at the Chemical Biology and Biotechnology Group of the Ramon Llull University. This project consists of a modular platform based on the assembly of functional protein building blocks for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases.

"In times of global health crisis and viral pandemic developments, the need for rapid and adaptable solutions against infectious diseases, such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), is paramount. The technology we have developed offers a promising immunotherapy approach to address the treatment gap for this disease," contextualised Clàudia Lliso.

Nanoblock functions as a protein-based nanomaterial that incorporates multiple antibodies into a single core block. The final product is a ring-shaped nanometre protein structure with multiple antibodies bound together that ultimately function as a wire. With this approach, Nanoblock can recognise and neutralise respiratory syncytial virus particles with extremely high affinity.

The technology has already been experimentally validated, as a stable, safe and potent biotechnological tool. In addition, the Nanoblock strategy has previously been used against SARS-CoV-2. The team's goal is to create a patentable product against RSV and to form a biotech spin-off company.

In addition to these two projects, another project presented was Regemed, a device that instantly manufactures solutions for skin regeneration from patients' own tissue, presented by Aleix Cuenca, a doctoral student in Medicine at the UAB; Primesign Alzheimers Test, a rapid diagnostic test for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and risk stratification of point-of-care patients, developed by Rosanna Rossi, postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, and Sepsisguard, a rapid and highly sensitive diagnostic kit designed for the identification of pathogens and antibiotic resistance in blood samples in patients with sepsis, presented by Olga Rue.

At the end of the presentation of the projects, Natàlia Majó, professor of the Department of Animal Health and Anatomy of the UAB and currently head of the Animal Health Research Centre (IRTA-CRESA) gave a lecture entitled "Avian influenza: a global health problem". Avian influenza, which has been present for more than a century, poses a growing challenge. In the past twenty years, the evolution of the virus has amplified its threat, affecting biodiversity and public health on a global scale. "The adaptation of the virus to new hosts, including mammals, highlights the importance of continuous surveillance and the development of effective vaccines and antiviral treatments," said Majó.

Fourteen editions promoting and validating entrepreneurial ideas

The Parc de la Recerca UAB's Generating Ideas Programme aims to foster the entrepreneurship and innovation culture and to support the transfer of ideas from research staff and PhD students from all scientific areas of the UAB campus to respond to the challenges of industry and society.

This 14th edition of the programme has focused on the one health vision and aims to devise and develop innovative solutions through the interconnectivity and interdependence between human, animal and environmental health. It received the support of the Santander Universities and the collaboration of the One Health Platform and the sponsorship of Reig Jofre and the Sant Cugat City Council.

For four months, a dozen researchers from Catalan universities and research centres have received training to generate market solutions from their research and solve social challenges. All participants worked in multidisciplinary teams to develop their innovative project and were advised by expert mentors.

Since the first edition, more than 420 people have participated in the Generating Ideas Programme and 105 projects have been generated, from which 9 patents have arisen and twelve new innovative companies have been created: Planet Biotech, All Read, Flexiic, Ovatec, AEInnova, Bioeclosion, Crowdmobile, Mass Factory, Make-R, Pump-it, Sensing Solutions and Visual Tagging Sevices.