Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona), 23rd June 2022. Facilitating the access of companies to use the analytical tools available at the ALBA Synchrotron is key to promoting public-private collaboration.
With the aim of increasing the awareness about synchrotron light applications in the pharmaceutical field, ALBA, with the collaboration of BIOCAT, has organized a workshop to present in detail its techniques and instruments.
The director of the ALBA Synchrotron, Caterina Biscari, was in charge of opening the event, giving a brief description of the current situation and the future upgrade of the facility, which will bring even better services. Klaus Attenkofer, scientific director of ALBA, highlighted the relevance of some of the ALBA teams for the pharmaceutical industry. Núria Martí, director of innovation and business development at BIOCAT, mentioned the relevance of establishing collaborations between companies and research infrastructures such as the ALBA Synchrotron.
The technical talks began with Miguel Ángel García Aranda, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Málaga with extensive experience in industry relationships, who explained how a synchrotron works and what advantages it brings to the industry.
During the first session, devoted to drug characterization, the ALBA researchers Alexander Missyul (MSPD), Vlad Martin-Diaconescu (CLAESS) and Cristian Huck (NCD-SWEET) explained in detail the potential of their respective beamlines as well as examples of experiments carried out. Also in this part, two companies who have been using the ALBA Synchrotron explained their experience. Jordi Cerón from Crysforma highlighted that using a synchrotron facility allows detecting signals with very low intensity, obtaining higher resolution, as well as using a wide variety of samples. Joan Farran from Enantia explained how synchrotron light is very useful for companies in the pharmaceutical industry and he highly valued the relationship established with ALBA from the beginning of the operation.
The second session was dedicated to drug design and the analysis of drugs' effects. The ALBA scientists Roeland Boer (XALOC), Tanja Ducic (MIRAS) and Ana Joaquina Pérez-Berná (MISTRAL) took part on it. In addition to describing the characteristics of their techniques, they mentioned recent case studies on glioblastoma, ovarian cancer, hepatitis C, SARS-CoV2, or rare diseases such as Friedriech's ataxia. Jordi Benach, director of LRL-CAT beamline from Eli Lilly and Company (located at the APS synchrotron, Chicago, USA), explained how they use the ALBA Synchrotron and other facilities to resolve the atomic structure of various drug-bound proteins, crucial information to speed up the process of developing new drugs.
Before visiting the facilities, the attendees were able to learn in detail from Alejandro Sánchez, director of the ALBA Synchrotron Industrial Office, the ALBA portfolio of services for industry and how to access them.
During the visit, the attendees had the opportunity to learn about the general operation of ALBA, the beamlines, as well as one of the new electron microscopes housed at ALBA.
The event ended with a lunch-networking with all the participants where there was an opportunity to establish the first contacts and resolve doubts.
The ALBA Synchrotron Industrial Office periodically organizes this type of workshops addressed to different industrial sectors. ALBA has been hosting experiments with companies since the beginning of operations in 2012. It has provided services to more than 60 different companies, from sectors such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, cement, advanced materials, nanotechnology or nanoelectronics, among others.
