The researcher George Skretashead of the Greek biotechnology company “ResQ Biotech”, is the only scientist from a Greek research organization to receive funding “Proof of Concept” from the European Research Council (ERC) for 2023. This is an important funding aimed at helping innovative research, such as that of “ResQ Biotech” on ALS, to reach society faster.
The ERC announced the funding of 102 researchers in the third round of “Proof of Concept” grants for 2023, among them Giorgos Skretas. The total number of researchers receiving a grant for 2023 in all three funding rounds conducted amounts to 240.
The Proof of Concept grant supports ground-breaking ideas that have the potential to turn into real innovation and that have already been funded by the ERC through other start-up, consolidation, advanced research or synergy grants. The aim is through the additional grant to bridge the gap between the results of pioneering research and the first stages of their commercial exploitation.
Shortly after the announcement of the results, Giorgos Skretas, director of the Bioinnovation Institute of the “Alexander Fleming” Biomedical Sciences Research Center and collaborating researcher of the Institute of Chemical Biology of the National Research Foundation, he states to APE-MPE: “This financial tool has two very important elements for me. Firstly, that in order to be eligible one must have previously been positively evaluated in another European Research Council project and this is an indicator of scientific and research excellence. Second, funding allows you to further explore the potential of your research to follow entrepreneurial paths and enter the market. So, funding promotes the transformation of research into innovation, so more such funding in Greece shows that the results of excellent scientific research can also be transformed into innovation.”
“ResQ Biotech” is a spin-off company of the National Research Foundation founded in 2019 in the Patras Science Park, headed by Giorgos Skretas. The company applies innovative biotechnological approaches to the discovery and preclinical development of drugs against diseases caused by protein misfolding. These are diseases that are currently incurable, such as Alzheimer’s, ALS, cystic fibrosis and systemic amyloidosis.
Describing his decision to engage in this field, Mr. Skretas explains that “these diseases are a huge problem for humanity today. There are many different diseases associated with protein misfolding, from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and ALS, to metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, to eye diseases such as cataracts. It struck me that pathologically different diseases are related to a common molecular phenomenon, and I thought that the mechanistic integration of these diseases is a very big opportunity to build technology platforms, where we can use a similar approach to “hit” seemingly very different diseases.”
The technology and the first molecules-potential drugs developed by “ResQ Biotech” are based on modified bacteria that function as an autonomous and high-performance platform for the discovery of “leader” compounds with potential therapeutic properties against protein folding disorders. The ERC funding will support ResQ Biotech’s effort to study and evaluate the molecules it has discovered and are developing as potential drugs for ALS in animal models that mimic the human disease. The goal is to select the most effective molecules for further development that will lead in the near future to clinical studies and experimental phase administration to patients.
The grant from the European Research Council is not the first success for “ResQ Biotech”. In 2020, the scientific magazine “Nature” chose it among the most exciting spin-off companies from around the world, in the context of the innovation competition “The Spinoff Prize 2020”. In addition, she was the winner of the innovative entrepreneurship competitions “MIT Enterprise Forum Greece 2020” and “MIT Global startup Workshop 2023”.
Shortly before the expiration of 2023, came the announcement of the investment in the company of the well-known investor and co-founder of Google Maps, Lars Rasmussen. “It is a very important investment for us”, emphasizes Mr. Skretas, “because it gives us an important “injection” of liquidity to continue the process of preclinical development, but also because Lars is a prominent personality of innovation worldwide. This helps us on many levels, because it is a source of inspiration for us, it gives us very useful advice and it helps us to build the international brand of the company.”
In all three rounds for the 2023 Proof of Concept grant, 564 proposals were evaluated and 240 projects were finally selected. Granted researchers work in 20 different countries across Europe. The largest number of grants is found in Germany (40), followed by Spain (30), the United Kingdom (26), Italy (25) and France (22).
The third cycle of “Proof of Concept” grants for 2023 also includes Greek researchers in institutions of other European countries: Konstantinos Dimitriadis from the “Max Planck Society” Institute for the “inhibiTOR” project, and Dimitris Pavlopoulos from the VU University in Amsterdam for the “COMBINE” project.
The two previous “Proof of Concept” rounds announced for 2023 also include: Ioannis Papakonstantinou from University College London for the “CoolGlass” project, Dimitrios Zegolis from University College Dublin for the “DECIPHER” project, and Marios Kotsonis from the Delft University of Technology for the “DELAH” project.