The RESIST project, in which GAIKER participates, will develop new drugs based on nanoparticles to combat infections caused by multiresistant and difficult to treat bacteria.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), or the ability of a microorganism not to respond to the action of an antimicrobial agent, is currently a serious problem facing public health worldwide. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified AMR as a major public health threat due to the rapid global spread of multi-resistant and pan-resistant bacteria (so-called “superbugs”) that cause infections that cannot be treated with current antimicrobial drugs such as antibiotics.
Consequently, the development of new antimicrobials and therapeutic strategies to efficiently address infections is critical for both the treatment of patients and the disinfection of surfaces and equipment in hospital settings. The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has only provided a further reminder of the damage that can be caused by infectious disease and the need to anticipate a crisis such as the one that has occurred worldwide.
The RESIST project, funded by the Basque Government through the ELKARTEK call, lays the scientific-technological foundations for the future industrial development of a drug based on anionophore peptide nanoparticles (NPs) to combat multi-resistant infections that are difficult to treat, and can be used as an adjuvant treatment to reverse the resistance generated to commercial antibiotics.
Led by BIOKERALTY Research Institute AIE, this project involves the participation of the GAIKER Technology Centre, a member of the Basque Research & Technology Alliance (BRTA), as well as the UPV-EHU- NanoBioCel, UPV-EHU CanBIO, BIOCRUCES Bizkaia and BIODONOSTIA. The collaboration of the different entities will make it possible to achieve solutions with a multidisciplinary approach.
The objectives of the RESIST project are the development of new nanoformulated products of high clinical value for the treatment of infectious diseases, as well as the design of their industrial production processes. To this end, multi-resistant strains of different species will be isolated and characterised. Subsequently, the use of the nanoformulated products on these strains will be evaluated both in vitro and in vivo. And, finally, it is hoped to develop ex vivo models tested and characterised with the new therapeutic compounds and to define the toxicological profile of the antimicrobial nanoformulates for their clinical development.
The GAIKER Technology Centre will contribute its specialisation in the characterisation and study of nanoparticulated systems, as well as in the development and improvement of ex vivo models, more specifically in the development of an ex vivo model of altered skin with infection by multi-resistant bacteria. The RESIST project will enable the Centre to consolidate its strategic line in the field of biomedicine and will contribute to deploying the strategic lines of action in personalised medicine.
The RESIST project aims to make the Basque Country a leader in the generation of nanotechnological products as a response to the threat caused by AMR, as well as laying the scientific-technological foundations for the future industrial development of nanotechnological medicines and personalised medicine.
Fundación Gaiker
Technology centre, External R&D, Technological services, In vitro tests, Microbiology, Cell cultures, Toxicology, Molecular biology, Biotechnology, Polymers, Composites, Environment, Recycling.
