The general objective of the regional platform is to set up and stabilize an effective synergy-based collaboration between the entrepreneurial and the research worlds of the Marche Region, on such topics as personalized medicine, drugs, diagnostics and new therapeutic approaches — in particular for the management of chronic diseases, high-medical-need oncological diseases and rare diseases.
The objective , therefore, is also to successfully guide the entrepreneurial fabric of the Marche Region, largely composed of small and micro enterprises, in the transition towards personalized medicine. In such a transition, the enterprises will not lose ground in terms of competitiveness, instead increasing their potential, thanks to an integration of know-how, technologies and flexibility. In the Marche Region there are also several highly innovative companies, that must be allowed to grow in a favourable ecosystem, in which research and innovation meet talent attraction and the integration of the value chain with new enterprises.
The indirect objective of the investment programme is to promote the employment of high school and university graduates, training them in the study of the molecular features of pathologies and patients, by allowing them to access high-quality biological samples collected through a standard procedure and preserved in the new biobank that will be built thanks to the investment programme. At the same time, the biobank will be a fundamental tool to validate new diagnostics, to characterize biological samples from patients with rare, oncological or high-medical-need diseases, and to develop personalized treatments, by combining the information from advanced diagnostics and that from the development of new therapeutic agents based on the expression of pathology- and patient-specific molecular targets.
In order to attain such objectives, a scattered lab must be set up, to work on the characterization of the biological samples preserved in the biobank, for research, development, innovation, technology transfer and training purposes. The lab will have several functions.
The main technologies introduced in the laboratory will be aimed at characterizing the biological samples from the cellular, genetic and metabolic points of view.
Three research projects will revolve around the biobank and the scattered lab, aimed at producing innovative concrete applications within the platform. Such applications will be related to personalized medicine and they will develop new therapeutic, diagnostic and nutraceutical approaches and provide a technology transfer project. The three-year investment programme, therefore, will not only allow to devise specific innovative solutions, but also to create and test on the field an operational model based on the interaction between research, technology transfer and training, which can be referred to in the future.
Finally, the lab will be integrated with the various current and future initiatives within the Marche Region. It will be part of a network with the labs at the Camerino University, at the Marche Polytechnic University and at the Urbino University and it will be closely connected to all the regional healthcare facilities, in particular the neonatal screening centres, the centre for rare disease studies and the university hospitals. Therefore, the biobank and the lab will work in synergy with the various hospitals and patients’ associations, both local and from other regions.
The programme is supported by the POR FESR 2014-2020 of the Marche Region and it involves a high-level public-private partnership, which includes ten large and small companies
insieme all’Università degli Studi di Urbino, all’Università degli Studi di as well as the Urbino University, the Camerino University, the Marche Polytechnic University and the Cluster Marche Foundation.
The Torrette di Ancona University Hospital is also involved, since it participates in the investment programme through the free concession of the land on which the biobank and the lab will be built.
a 10.3 million euros investment
public support for 5.4 million euros, namely 2014-’20 ERDF ROP funds from the Marche Region
10 large and small companies, 3 Marche universities and the Cluster Marche Foundation
a 36-month duration, from 2019 to 2022