NOVA University Lisbon received the approval of the European Commission for the funding of a project aimed at developing the potential for scientific innovation in the area of health in Portugal. The NOVA Institute for Medical Systems Biology (NIMSB) will receive 15 million euros of European funding and additional 20 million euros of national funding.
The project is part of the Teaming for Excellence programme, under the scope of Horizon Europe, which aims at creating new or modernizing existing centres of excellence in countries that wish to strengthen their research and innovation systems, through strategic partnerships with leading institutions in other countries. NOVA has thus joined with the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) for the creation of NIMSB - a new centre of excellence that aims to apply emerging biomedical and digital technologies and innovative solutions in health. Developing the biotechnology and information technology sectors is the goal of the NIMSB, which proposes to increase productivity, economic growth and job creation with the birth of the new institute in Oeiras.
António Jacinto, professor and researcher of the NOVA Medical School and coordinator of the NIMSB project explains: "This new project is a partnership between the NOVA University Lisbon and the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, in Berlin, which will enable our country to use new technologies such as artificial intelligence applied to biomedicine and emerging multi-omic methodologies, which allow the analysis of each cell of the organism with a resolution never achieved before. These technologies provide unprecedented information on the molecular causes of disease onset, progression and treatment. New diagnostic and therapeutic concepts will enable early detection of disease and increase opportunities for cures before irreparable damage occurs, with the promise of treating the causes of disease rather than its symptoms."
Last June, NOVA and MDC held a strategic meeting with a view to the accomplishment of this ambitious and innovative project. At the time, the project was presented in a video you can watch here:
Know more about this project on the website of NOVA Medical School and portuguese newspaper Jornal Público.