Strengthening research, technological development and innovation
Promoting innovation capacities for a more competitive area
Increasing cooperation among key research institutes, universities, and companies operating in the biomedical field, in order to promote the transfer of innovative biomedical techniques in the field of oncology, with specific regard to glioblastoma, thus increasing competitiveness in the field of cancer research.
The project addresses the challenges identified by the Europe 2020 Strategy for Smart Growth, by the Italy-Slovenia Program, and by the program areas’ Smart Specialisation Strategies. The aim is to increase cooperation among key actors in the field of biomedicine (research institutes, hospitals, universities, and companies), in order to promote the transfer of innovative biomedical techniques in the field of oncology, with a specific focus upon brain cancer (glioblastoma). The change entails the capitalisation of the results from the previous GLIOMA project (2007-2013), which focused upon the prognostic value of the detected biomarkers; the upgrade consists of validating these prognoses over a large number of cases, and using them to move on to the next phase, or rather the identification of new therapeutic approaches. The strengthening of this cross-border network will increase competitiveness in the fields of research and treatment. The outputs are the following: the development of an open-source software designed to analyse the data of the partners’ bio-banks, the identification of personalised pharmacological targets for patients, and the involvement of 3 research institutes, 2 hospitals, 1 SME PP, and other SMEs. This project will benefit researchers, medical doctors, students, SMEs, spin-offs and start-ups, as well as patients. The approach is based on the presence of a critical number of centres of excellence, and the transfer of the research results to the market. A cross-border approach is necessary because such a critical number, and the consequent results, can only be achieved through the involvement of subjects with specific yet different expertise. The project is innovative because it involves "precision medicine" in the identification of the genomic profile of the tumour, of the micro-environment, and of the cells derived from the patient (both glioma stem cells and glioma-associated stem cells), thus identifying new personalised pharmacological targets, with the possibility of identifying new treatments for a currently incurable disease.
Through its numerous publications, the project has made an important contribution to understanding the biology of brain tumors as well as the role of stem cells and the tumor microenvironment in the initiation and development of a malignant tumor. He identified, tested and exposed a set of cellular proteins and their promoters as new biomarkers of glioblastoma and glioblastoma stem cells and thus candidate molecules for the development of new procedures for the diagnosis and therapy of glioblastoma. He identified and assessed as promising new ways of transmitting antitumor therapeutics to target malignant cells. He laid a good foundation for the development of vector-targeted glioblastoma treatment with nanomedicine and immunotherapy approaches. With a cross-border approach, he established the open-source data bank GLIOBANK, which stores clinical and up-to-date scientific information on stored biological samples from Slovenian and Italian partner institutions and is also accessible to all other hospitals and institutions in the region. The special value of the project is, of course, in the fact that it scientifically connected partner research groups and clinical institutions in the cross-border area of Italy and Slovenia.
Contenuto in fase di elaborazione
Lead Partner
Project partner 1
Project partner 2
Project partner 3
Project partner 4
Project partner 5
 | international conference Brain tumors Vabilo na konferenco_11.2019_ENG.pdf ( 54 bytes, published on 6 November, 2019 - 11:48 ) |
| project brochure ZGIBANKA GLIOMA TISK.pdf ( 4 bytes, published on 5 February, 2020 - 10:58 ) |
 | project bibliography TRANS-GLIOMA - Project BIBLIOGRAPHY 2017-2021.docx ( 70 bytes, published on 20 December, 2021 - 07:28 ) |
Contenuto in fase di elaborazione
Operation co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund
