Spain's Biotech Revolution

New Bioregion

Though Madrid has traditionally been the center of gravity for Spanish ­scientific research, Barcelona today practically buzzes with energy about biomedical science. New research centers have sprung up around the city in the past few years. Investment in biomedical research continues to climb. There’s a new focus on training professionals to deal with the details of technology transfer: filing patents, raising funds, running a business.

The organization Biocat, the ­BioRegion of Catalonia, was created as a way to formalize this effort; it’s a government­-funded umbrella organization that unites government, business, and academia to facilitate research, technology transfer, and business
creation. “We realized that here in Catalonia, we’re great at creating knowledge,” says Manel Balcells, the president of Biocat. “But we need to improve in technology transfer, in taking that knowledge and converting it into economic value.”

New scientific resources in the region have added both to the scientists’ capabilities and to the excitement. The Barcelona Science Park (PCB in Spanish) is home to southern Europe’s most powerful nuclear magnetic resonance imaging machine, which is used to determine molecular structure. And a new synchrotron—a sprawling, high- energy particle accelerator—is under construction just on the other side of Barcelona’s mountains.

Much of the research done by Spanish pharmaceutical companies has historically been based in this city. Barcelona’s hospitals conduct research in addition to providing care. And the universities have contributed to the base of knowledge about biological processes.

PCB, which is located on the University of Barcelona’s campus near the city’s fabled soccer stadium, opened in 2000. In addition to a number of research institutes on site, PCB also houses more than 50 companies in various stages of development.

The largest of the on-site institutes is the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona). In one lab researching peptides and proteins, headed by Ernest Giralt, researchers are examining how different molecules “talk” to one another and how proteins recognize each other. The goal is to develop molecules that can prevent the development of certain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. Another team, headed by Antonio Zorzano, investigates anti­diabetes compounds and examines the role of mitochondria in preventing disease.

“We are competing against the whole world,” says Zorzano, “so what we have to do is try something new, not just research what’s obvious. And we’re very excited here at IRB Barcelona about where the science is going. In Spain we’re no longer focusing just on publishing. It’s about doing something else for society, and for the whole world.”

That excitement was what drew Lluis Ribas de Pouplana back home to Spain, and to IRB Barcelona. He’d been in the United States at the ­Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then at the Scripps Research Institute in California. “One of the parameters for where I wanted to work was how easy it would be to start a spinoff,” says Ribas de Pouplana. “Barcelona—and the IRB—seemed to be a great place to go.” Ribas de ­Pouplana has developed a company to capitalize on his research, using human tissue samples to test drugs for positive characteristics rather than relying on time-consuming tests that individually knock out drugs on the basis of negative characteristics. This technology has the potential to dramatically shorten the time needed for testing pharmaceutical compounds.