As from January 2022 and over the next three years, the companies chosen to take part in the BCN Health Booster will get discounted access to the new lab at the Barcelona Science Park, a leading European ecosystem for innovation in science, tech, business, life sciences and health. They will also receive training, mentoring and free advice from Biocat.

Start-ups and spin-offs from centres for excellence in research

Out of the total of nineteen candidacies, the committee of experts chose eleven, giving consideration to those with the best prospects in terms of technical and economic feasibility, a driving team with experience and more possibilities for social impact.

Five of the companies chosen are spin-offs from centres of excellence in research: Aptadel Therapeutics (Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge, IDIBELL), Ona Therapeutics and Nuage Therapeutics (IRB Barcelona), OneChain Immunotherapeutic (Institut de Recerca contra la Leucèmia Josep Carreras) and MiMARK Diagnostics (Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron – Institut de Recerca).

The other six are innovative start-ups within the sphere of health: Artificial Nature, Bioliquid Innovative Genetics, Deepull Diagnostics, GAT Biosciences, GAT Therapeutics and Oncoheroes Biosciences.

Cancer as the main object of research

Seven out of the eleven companies participating in the BCN Health Booster are at the discovery stage for therapeutic products, three are working to develop diagnostic tools for different illnesses and one is working on the design of biomaterials for the health sector.

Over half of the participating companies at the accelerator (64%) work in the field of oncology, whether searching for treatment solutions or working on the early detection of cancer. The rest are developing products for detecting infectious diseases, release systems for pharmaceuticals for chronic illnesses and the discovery of pharmaceuticals for different fibrotic illnesses.