MEDINA FOUNDATION

Discovery of bioactive molecules, drug candidates and products of high biotechnological value. FUNDACIÓN MEDINA has one of the largest Crop Collections in the world (190,000 strains) and a Natural Products library with more than 135,000 extracts.

• ACTIVITY: R&D services.
• LOCATION: Pharmaceutical and Food Development Center Building. Health Sciences Technology Park (18016) Granada.
• CONSTITUTION DATE: 2008. 
• CATEGORY: Private association.
• CONTACT: (+34) 958 993 965.

• DESCRIPTION: The MEDINA Foundation is a non-profit research center established in 2008, the result of a public-private alliance between the Government of Andalusia, the pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp & Dohme of Spain SA (MSD) and the University of Granada. Its mission is the discovery of bioactive molecules, drug candidates and products of high biotechnological value to respond to unmet medical and industrial needs.
• SECTIONS: MEDINA Foundation focuses its research on drug discovery programs through high-throughput screening (HTS) in different therapeutic areas:
  • Infectious and parasitic diseases.
  • Oncology.
  • Neurodegeneration.
• STRUCTURE: MEDINA Foundation is part of different consortia and scientific networks and actively collaborates with national and international organizations. 

TECHNOLOGICAL SUPPLY/DEMAND:

• Discovery of new molecules from natural products of microbial origin.

DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS:

• ENABLE – European Gram Negative Antibacterial Engine. Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) / New drugs for bad bugs ND4BB.
• BLUE AND GREEN –Marine Biotechnology European Commission.
• Determination of metabolomic profiles in the early diagnosis of breast cancer. Prognostic and predictive implications of response to treatment. MINECO.
• OCEAN MEDICINES – Stimulating innovation by means of cross-fertilization of knowledge. European Commission.
• IIMENA – Integration of Informatics and Metabolomic Engineering for the discovery of Novel Antibiotics. The Novo Nordisk Foundation.
• TOPCAPI – Thoroughly Optimized Production Chassis for Advanced Pharmaceutical Ingredients. European Commission.
• MARPIPE – Improving the flow in the pipeline of the next generation of marine biodiscovery scientists. European Commission.

COMPLETED PROJECTS:

• CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010: Discovery of novel antimicrobials from the Metagenome of the Iberian Peninsula. MICIN.
• AntiFun: The cell wall as a target to improve antifungal therapy against Aspergillosis. ERA-NET.
• Search for New Antibacterials and Characterization of the Natural Products Library of the MEDINA Foundation. MICIN.
• Discovery and characterization of new antibiotics by culturing previously uncultured bacteria. MICIN.
• High-performance complementary equipment for the isolation and characterization of Bioactive Natural Products. MICIN.
• Use of zebrafish as experimental model: evaluation of mithochondrial dysfunction and identification of neuroprotective compounds from natural microbial in collaboration with The University of Granada. Project of scientific excellence / Junta de Andalucía.
• Antibiotics against multiresistant Gram negative pathogens and potentiators of carbapenem activity. Carlos III Health Institute.
• Discovery and development of new antibiotics against multiresistant gram-negative bacteria and drugs that enhance the activity of carpabenems. Project of scientific excellence / Junta de Andalucía.
• Discovery of new antibiotics through the combination of two strategies: cultivation of previously uncultured bacteria and sampling of saline habitats in Andalusia. Project of scientific excellence / Junta de Andalucía.
• DOSYMNPS – Novel applications of diffusion NMR spectroscopy in microbial natural products research. FP7-PEOPLE-2011.
• COCULMICRO – Cocultivation of microorganisms as a strategy for discovery of new natural products with antimicrobial properties. FP7-PEOPLE-2011.
• ParaMet – An analysis of parasite metabolism-from metabolism to intervention. FP7-PEOPLE-2011.
• PharmaSea – Value Flow in the Marine Biodiscovery Pipeline. FP7-KBBE-2012.
• Impact on public health of the dispersion of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae in Spain: Molecular characterization of circulating strains. Carlos III Health Institute.
• MICROSMETICS – Exploitation of microbial biodiversity for the discovery and development of novel cosmeceutical agents. FP7-PEOPLE-2013.