25/10/2023
Earlier this year, the “NIMSB – NOVA Institute for Medical Systems Biology” project, based at the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and coordinated by LS4FUTURE/NMS researcher António Jacinto, was awarded €15M through the Teaming for Excellence – Horizon Europe competition and will receive National support of €20M.
The project will establish NOVA’s new research center NIMSB at Oeiras in strategic partnership with the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), a German institute at the forefront of precision medicine. NIMSB aims to become a leading international center of excellence in the development, integration, and application of high-throughput systems biology technologies in biomedical research, contributing to personalized approaches in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases. To build an infrastructure specialized in systems biology tools, such as multi-omics data from single cells from patient biopsies and derived organoids, bioinformatics, and artificial intelligence, NIMSB will collaborate with NOVA Institutes and Faculties, affiliated Hospitals and other partners. In addition, NIMSB aims to contribute to the training of the next generation of researchers and physicians in precision medicine and digital-transformation technologies.
The NIMSB Kickoff meeting took place on October 23, at the Rectory of NOVA, Campolide Campus. During the meeting, the project Coordinator, António Jacinto, shared how the project was born and how it will be implemented in the future. The audience was composed of collaborators from the MDC center and the academic and scientific community of LS4FUTURE partner institutions. On the following day, the NIMSB-LS4FUTURE – Mini-Symposium was held at ITQB NOVA to promote scientific networking and introduce the visiting MDC collaborators to the Oeiras research campus and future NIMSB neighbors, the LS4FUTURE partner institutions ITQB NOVA and iBET. Through these collaborations, NIMSB hopes to help Portugal achieve a competitive position in global value chains in terms of research and innovation performance through the development of precision medicine in Portugal, leading to regional and national socioeconomic development.
