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Thirteen Companies Sign Affiliation Agreements
The shared goal of the Government of Portugal and the MIT Portugal Program to accelerate innovation in biotechnology in Portugal through research–industry partnerships was advanced on October 6, 2008, when four major pharmaceutical and industrial companies, as well a nine start-up biotech companies, signed affiliation agreements with MIT Portugal.
The ceremony—which coincided with the second anniversary of MIT Portugal—took place at the Program’s “Bioengineering: Trends and Opportunities” conference in Lisbon. Signing on behalf of the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) was its president, Prof. João Sentieiro.
The institutions and laboratories that are part of the MIT Portugal Program will interact directly with these companies, and the Program’s students will have the opportunity to work on-site at these firms. In addition, the newly affiliated companies said they look forward to developing synergies that will permit them to take advantage of the developments in research in the universities and research centers affiliated with MIT Portugal.
The four large company affiliates include two from the pharmaceutical sector, Bial and Cipan, and two from the industrial sector, Frulact and Unicer. The nine biotechnology start-ups are Alfama, Altakitin Corp., Bioalvo, Biotechnol, S.A., Biotempo, Biotrend, Crioestaminal, Ecbio, and Stemmatters. (Additional details on the affiliate signings are available in this  press release.)
Keynote by MIT Professor Charles Cooney
Setting the tone for the bioengineering conference itself was MIT’s Charles Cooney, Robert T. Haslam Professor of Chemical Engineering. In his keynote, Prof. Cooney asked the question of how best to focus on basic science in a way that leads to the growth of an innovation ecosystem. He suggested “getting the big picture right” by aligning investments in R&D with an overall goal. Prof. Cooney also emphasized the importance of avoiding preconceptions about what the eventual benefit of a given technology will be, and of keeping an open mind about which sectors and which applications might become relevant.
Panel Discussion on Promising Research
Professor Cooney also joined distinguished professors, researchers and industry leaders in a panel discussion that addressed promising developments in bioengineering research. In his remarks, he explained ways in which the application of synthetic biology to biofuels could exemplify an industrial application of basic research.
Professor Manuel Abecassis, Director of the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at the Portuguese Institute of Oncology (IPO), discussed international collaborations among European and American researchers—partnerships that focus developing new transplant treatment approaches that are enabling patients to live longer. IPO has also developed a research partnership with MIT Portugal through work with Prof. Joaquim Sampaio Cabral and Prof. Claudia Lobato da Silva of IST-Technical University of Lisbon.
 Prof. Manuel Abecassis (IPO), Prof. Ana Aguiar Ricardo (FCT-UNL), and Prof. Joaquim Sampaio Cabral (IST-UTL) at the Bio Engineering Workshop Also participating in the panel was Dr. Luis Portela, President of Bial. Dr. Portela spoke about his company’s investment in pharmaceutical R&D of about 30 million euros per year—an investment, he said, which has resulted in a good ratio of new molecules and new medicines. He also described the “Health Cluster Portugal,” an association of 78 companies and public institutions that seeks to assist in the transfer of knowledge from research to industry. It is Health Cluster Portugal, Dr. Portela said, that served as the impetus for Bial joining MIT Portugal as an affiliate.
Dr. Andre Gomes, Director of Crioestaminal, a cryopreservation biotech company whose focus is on cord blood and bone marrow stem cells, described the efforts made by his five-year-old company (a spin-off of the University of Coimbra) to develop a method to preserve stem cells for future transplants and other procedures, the company’s creation of an R&D department, and its R&D investments in Portuguese universities and other institutions.
In his remarks, Manuel Nunes da Ponte, Co-Coordinator of the MIT Portugal Program’s Bioengineering Systems Focus Area and Chair of the Eureka! European Research Network, indicated that MIT Portugal is open to addressing the problems faced by companies in the biotech sector in Portugal. One approach, he said, might be to set up “Innovation Teams,” akin to the “Bio Teams” that already have been formed within the Program following the model of student-led technology path-to-market development started at MIT.
 Comendador Arménio Miranda, Chairman of Grupo Frulact, signs an affiliation agreement with MIT Portugal, along with FCT President João Sentieiro Secretary Heitor’s Challenge: Accelerate Research
In his closing statement at the conference’s affiliation signing ceremony, Professor Manuel Heitor, Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Higher Education, said the occasion highlighted the Portuguese government’s desire to stimulate investment in research and development, as well as the important role played by basic research—and the discipline of Engineering Systems itself—in alleviating societal problems.
This is “an opportunity to create partnerships and cooperation among internationally recognized institutions, like MIT, and Portuguese companies and institutions,” he said. “Today’s event is an effort to challenge companies and universities to engage in such partnerships, to identify concrete problems in society, and to accelerate their activity to address them.”
 MIT Portugal Bio-Engineering PhD students at the workshop: Carlos Rodriguez, Ana Margarida Fernandes, and Eunice Costa |
