Andres Marco

As a Phd Student in Biomedicine at Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) I briefly explain my Biotechnology expertise to be part of the Bioexpert Network.

My professional experience has been focused in biomedicine. As practicum undergraduate student I was involved in research about molecular mechanism underlying neuropathology of Down Syndrome. Since this point I was aware of my strong commitment to translational research. This took me to my second professional experience during my degree thesis when I was involved in drug discovery and preclinical development for pain. Interestingly, the “know how” that I experienced were the basis for the foundation of the star-up “Antalgenics”. This event showed me some of the key aspects related with tech-transfer and entrepreneurship processes. From the technical point of view, my degree thesis also taught me the relevance of sophisticated experimental disease models for improving successful drug development. That’s why I decided to move at Nuria Montserrat’s lab at IBEC. Here I am involved in the state of the art technologies for disease modelling which are CRISPR genome editing-regulation and human organoids derivation from human stem cells (hSCs). My final Phd thesis goals will be first the generation of a CRISPR platform in hSCs and second using it to develop a renal cancer model in kidney organoids for biomarkers and drug discovery. Both CRISPR platform and renal cancer model have a great potential to tech transfer. That’s why I decided to complement my research experience with business development training. For this purpose, I started reading key books as “Business Model Generation” by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur and “The business of Biotechnology” by Luis Ruiz Avila, after that I generated a business plan as practical experience for master subjects. Most recently, I have participated in some of the informative events organized by Capital Cell: “Como invierten los expertos en biotecnología” and “Liderazgo femenino en inversiones” . This company has given to me the opportunity of being really involved in Biotechnology Business as investor in Vytrus Biotech and itself, Capital Cell. Furthermore I trying to bring closer this exciting world to the academia at IBEC. This wasn’t be possible without the help of Phd. Pilar Puig who was invited to the Complementary Skills Session that we organized at IBEC.

I hope that my professional career and strong motivation validate me to contribute in this Bioexpert Network not only to help startups and companies with my scientific knowledge but also to continue learning about biotechnology business development.

PD: Pilar, yesterday you promised me to enter after a long insistence :).