"The great success of BioBasque is to have got so far in such a short time"

José M Mato, general manager of CIC bioGUNE and CIC biomaGUNE

On the eve of the fifth anniversary of CIC bioGUNE and the third anniversary of CIC biomaGUNE, the general manager of both cooperative research centres, José M Mato, speaks to BioBasque News to analyse the ground covered and the challenges for the future. Aware that both centres are essential elements of the Basque Bioregion, he is proud of having contributed to their launch and recognises that "the great success of the BioBasque 2010 Strategy" lies in the fact that "in the Basque Country we have advanced an enormous amount in very little time".

In January 2010 CIC bioGUNE will celebrate its fifth anniversary; in this time it has made important investments to provide itself with top level scientific facilities. Are we talking about a research centre that has consolidated its foundations? What do you feel about the ground covered over these last few years?

That’s right; in January of 2010 we are going to be five years old. In this time we have made an investment of over 30 million euros in scientific facilities that are unique in the Basque Country. And what is also practically unique is that all these facilities should be in the same research centre, which makes CIC bioGUNE an extremely attractive place to do research. We have the latest state-of-the-art equipment for studying structural biology: magnetic resonance machines of 800 and 600 MHz, X-rays, electron microscopes, mass spectronomy for proteomic studies... There is nowhere else in Spain that brings together all these techniques. But apart from the structural biology unit, CIC bioGUNE also has a sophisticated platform for the analysis of genomes using the latest technologies. And also for conducting more traditional studies in cellular and molecular biology. At CIC bioGUNE there are about 140 researchers, although less than half of them have been here for all five years. I think that in this time the centre has adapted perfectly to the Spanish system for science and technology and that our presence has meant a great change in biomedical research carried out in the Basque Country. Another thing to consider is the international side of our activity: CIC bioGUNE was the first to attract foreign researchers, we work in English and we carry out many projects in collaboration with top research institutes around the world. Then came CIC biomaGUNE, CIC nanoGUNE... and the programmes of Bizkaia Xede and Ikerbasque which have attracted scientists of other nationalities and the Basque Excellence Research Centres (BERCs). Nowadays people take for granted that research is international, but that wasn’t the case five years ago. I think we broke a psychological barrier when we managed to set up an international research centre. Between CIC bioGUNE and CIC biomaGUNE there must be at least 20 different nationalities. I think that all this has great value and not just anecdotic. We have promoted a different way of doing research and in a very short time. I think we should be proud of this achievement.

CIC bioGUNE has become a space capable of attracting talented researchers from all over the world to work on biomedical research projects. What do you think about the "talent" brought in by the centre?

It was essential to have these facilities to be able to attract specialists. Most of the researchers in CIC bioGUNE and CIC biomaGUNE are young people, who after a wide range of post-doctoral training in prestigious research centres, are making a name for themselves as independent researchers and developing their own projects and ideas. This situation would not have been possible without excellent scientific facilities and the means to do their research. Another factor that has been key in attracting these research workers has been the existence of a good relationship with the University of the Basque Country, in particular with the Biophysics Unit, and the quality of life in the Basque Country. In collaboration with the University of the Basque Country and the University of Cantabria, we have organised a Masters in Molecular Biology and Biomedicine, the 31st Congress of the Spanish Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, conference cycles such as the one we organise annually in collaboration with the BBVA Foundation and the British Council, workshops, seminars… If you think about what we had here 5 years ago at a collective level in biomedical research and what we have now, it is clear that there has been a tremendous change. Six years ago the bioGUNE building had just been built in the Technology Park of Bizkaia, and it was empty; now we are also in the building where Structural Biology is housed, and we are moving the genome analysis platform and two new labs for research into infectious diseases to building 502, which is another new building dedicated to biomedical research with various other companies as well as some labs belonging to the Basque Health Service, Osakidetza. To this you also have to add the building belonging to the Progenika group, AZTI-Tecnalia with its new research centre for food technology, GAIKER, NEIKER, plus a dozen new biotech companies, a bioincubator for companies, the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics... In the end there must be about 500 people, mostly doctors, working in biosciences in the Technology Park of Bizkaia. We have got so far in such a short time; this is the great success of the BioBasque 2010 Strategy.

Now that you have a great research centre and top-level researchers, where do you go next? Do you think that the centre could become an important reference point in the scientific community in the next few years?

Let us say that in 10 years’ time I would like to see 4,000 people working in biosciences here, with a couple of big multinationals; then we would be able to say that we have consolidated the Bioregion. In the shorter term, and with reference to CIC bioGUNE, it is one thing to say that the centre has become part of the national and international R&D system, and another to say that it has reached cruising speed and that it is making its mark as a research centre of renown. To reach this position, we will need another five years. No centre reaches maturity in five years when it starts from scratch. But CIC bioGUNE has started to yield its first fruits: more than 100 publications in the best scientific journals, 9 patents (most of them transferred), 2 new companies created and 2 more in the pipeline, participation in various CENIT, CONSOLIDER and ETORGAI projects, in the CIBER project for liver diseases, in PROTEORED, in various projects financed by the EU and by the NIH, the first doctoral theses read, the foundation of the magazine CIC Network... What I mean is that the centre is starting to breath of its own accord, although it still needs a great deal of support. If institutional support is not kept up over the next few years, this will disappear. We still have to grow. Some might think that 140 researchers is a lot, but the best research centres have 400 or 500 researchers. In the next 5 years we must double our workforce. We should also turn our attention to Translational Research; to improve health, discoveries should be translated into practical applications. The combination of our infrastructures and capabilities with those of the technological centres, the University of the Basque Country and the hospitals plus the biobank should serve to provide the clinical researchers with new tools for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

You are also the manager of the Cooperative Research Centre for Biomaterials, CIC biomaGUNE in San Sebastián, in the Science Park of Miramón, which is making a large investment in its new Molecular Imaging Unit. What is CIC biomaGUNE setting its scientific sights on?

CIC biomaGUNE is not a biopsy of CIC bioGUNE, it’s not a photocopy. It has been running for two years, it’s a different centre, in an innovative area for the Basque Country and Europe. Most of its researchers, about 60 of them, are physicists or chemists with wide experience in biology, and they work in the area of nanotechnology applied to biology, nanobiotechnology. This is a centre that is making great progress. In these two years it has become perfectly integrated into the Spanish science and technology system and is already leading a European project, participates in 3 or 4 others and in the CIBER for bioengineering, biomaterials and nanotechnology, it has created 4 patents, nearly 40 scientific papers and set up a new company… And all of this while we were redefining the centre, which was initially going to be used only for research into biomaterials. We took the decision to build the Molecular Imaging Unit which is the only Singular Scientific and Technological Infrastructure (SSTI) in the Basque Country. This has meant an investment of more than 20 million euros. It is a complex facility and meant that a new building had to be built inside an existing centre, and even so these are the results. It is going very fast and very well. It is the most complex scientific facility that has been built in the Basque Country; it includes a cyclotron for producing radioactive isotopes for research and for clinical use. We have reached an agreement with a company to be able to sell these isotopes to hospitals. We have also installed a magnetic resonance imaging machine (MRI) which is the most powerful in Spain (11.7 teslas) and one of the most powerful in the world, as well as a PET scanner and a SPECT scanner. We also have electron microscopes, 3 atomic force microscopes, etc., which have already been installed and are functioning in CIC biomaGUNE. With all this, if it was previously an important centre in nanobiotechnology research, now with the Imaging Unit it is a very powerful centre. There are not many centres like the CIC bioGUNE in Spain, but there are certainly no others like CIC biomaGUNE in the whole of Europe. My main concern is to finish the SSTI and put it into operation so that we can start using it, and for that we have to sign an agreement between the Basque Government and the Ministry of Science and Innovation. CIC biomaGUNE aims to occupy a privileged place in Spain and Europe in a very specific area of research in biomedical nanotechnology. Now we must look after this centre; in five years’ time it will be a reference point for other centres.

You yourself are an internationally renowned scientist, and you have been president of the Spanish National Research Council… In your long experience of research and scientific management, how would you rate the emerging Basque Bioregion?

Everything has to have a beginning, and I think it has been a good beginning. We have gone from having isolated research groups in biomedicine to being on the map; discreetly, but definitely on the map. People recognise that we have made a great effort in the Basque Country in biomedical research, in quantity and quality. From very little, we have gone to having companies, researchers and everything needed to generate and make use of knowledge and employment. And I think it has been infectious. I would like to think that we have not displaced those who were already here, but benefited them. I mean, I think that we should be very pleased with what we have achieved. What I am afraid of now is that there might be an effect of "now this is working, let’s go and do something else". We have to have a clear idea of where we are, where we want to go, and how to get there. It’s true that we still have a way to go before we become consolidated as a Bioregion, but it is also true that we have taken many steps in the right direction to get there. I feel proud of having participated in the story of the BioBasque 2010 Strategy. Now that 2010 is near is the right moment to reflect on the next steps to take.