‘la Caixa’ Foundation has resolved its 2024 call for applications for CaixaImpulse Innovation, a programme that aims to transfer scientific knowledge to society and encourages the creation of products, services and companies related to life sciences and health. Of the 400 applications submitted this year, 29 have been selected to carry out their biomedical innovation projects, including the project of Dr. Marcus Buschbeck, head of the Chromatin metabolism and cell fate group at the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute.

Since its launch in 2015, the CaixaImpulse Innovation programme has supported 231 projects, which have led to the creation of 44 spin-offs. ‘la Caixa’ Foundation’s programme promotes biomedical projects in the field of innovation and transfer by helping researchers to validate their assets and define their exploitation and valorisation strategy to bring research results to the market. In addition to financial support, the selected projects can also access mentoring, consultancy and support from international experts in different areas of the innovation ecosystem.

A new type of drugs to fight acute myeloid leukaemia

The blood cancer that Dr. Marcus Buschbeck's lab will study, acute myeloid leukaemia, is still one of the most devastating and lethal cancers. It is the most prevalent type of leukaemia in the adult population and affects more than 6,000 people in Spain each year. Treatment of this disease is a challenge, as tumour cells often develop resistance. Therapeutic strategies directed against multiple therapeutic targets simultaneously offer the most promising solution to overcoming this obstacle. In line with this approach, it is urgent to identify new targets and drugs based on different mechanisms of action.

In this regard, in previous studies, Dr. Buschbeck's team has managed to uncover a new therapeutic target from the chromatin regulatory space. Through a proof of concept, the researchers have been able to validate in vivo, in an animal model of the disease and in human cells, the effectiveness of eliminating this target by genetic means.

This new target cannot be inhibited using conventional small-molecule inhibitors. The team has therefore developed an innovative high-throughput screening method to identify and validate molecules that induce its degradation within the cell. This method is applicable to many other targets that cannot be inhibited by conventional inhibitors. Now, in the present project, they will provide proof of concept degrading molecules can be identified and that these are effective in experimental models of the disease.