Internationally renowned scientific institutions such as Harvard University and the Pasteur Institute have signed collaboration agreements with the Centre for Cooperative Research CIC bioGUNE to use TUBEs, a pioneering technology fully developed at the Basque centre. This application enables the identification of therapeutic targets for pathologies such as cancer or neurodegenerative diseases.

The research team led by Dr. Manuel S. Rodriguez from the Proteomics Unit at CIC bioGUNE has developed TUBEs (Tandem-repeated Ubiquitin Binding Entities), a system capturing molecules involved in protein degradation (ubiquitin traps). This system allows the identification of therapeutic targets for multiple pathologies where protein destruction plays a major role.

In cancer or neurodegenerative diseases, the accumulation of certain type of molecules can result in disastrous consequences for the cell and disturb its functioning, multiply it anarchically or even kill it.

Last year, CIC bioGUNE signed an agreement with the US company Life-Sensors to market the technology, which is being purchased by worldwide renowned scientific institutions like the University of Harvard, the Pasteur Institute and Heidelberg, Nottingham or Coimbra universities, among others. All of them are committed to unveil the molecular mechanisms governing different pathologies.