Following the growing commitment with the country’s development, the national Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) approved a new CoLAB on March 2021. The new CoLAB is dedicated to fill the existing gaps within the drug discovery chain, transforming the “Valley of Death” into a “Window of Opportunity”.
The CoLAB will select fundamental research discoveries and master the early phases of drug discovery, starting where academic research stops, and transforming breakthrough science into validated and investment-worthy drug discovery assets within Neurosciences, Oncology and Immunology. The new laboratory will invest in the development, integration, and scaling of cutting-edge technology platforms and tools to become “drug discovery engines”. It will simultaneously build relationships with industry, generating partnerships and licensing opportunities, and facilitating spin-off formation and investment, with the ultimate goal of bringing new Portuguese medicines to the market that could have a great impact on global health.
The multidisciplinary consortium gathers all the necessary players along the drug development value chain. The CoLAB joins iMM (coordinator), Universidade de Coimbra, Instituto Superior Técnico, Biocant – Associação de Transferência de Tecnologia, the private equity company Magnify, the biotech company VerticalSentinel, the pharmaceutical company Roche, and the start-ups Targtex, LiMM Therapeutics, CellmAbs and BSIM Therapeutics.