NCBio Stakeholder Hub

DIRECTORY

Bridging
clinical and patient needs

The cerebellum is important for timing of complex body movements. It is not only composed of neurons but also glial cells (magenta and yellow). Glial cells are essential to control neurotransmission during development, function and disease.

The Neural Cell Biology Stakeholder Hub is a multidisciplinary and dynamic knowledge club that brings together key industrial, clinical and patient representatives and policy-makers.

This knowledge club will be pivotal to 1) achieve higher added value for the activities and results of each stakeholder and 2) increase regional and national innovation in neurology research.

Glial cells are about as numerous as neurons in the brain. Here we can see the cerebellum—so-called “little brain”—that is localised in the bottom of our brain and is important for movement coordination. It is composed of neurons but also many glial cells (green).

In this example, we can see neurons (red) of the cerebellum, the part of our brain that controls body movements.

Specifically, the NCBio Hub will be a forum where members of the NCBio research group present and discuss their research strategies and achievements with representatives of patient organizations, hospitals, pharma industry and policy-makers. The frequent interaction and feedback from such a diverse group of stakeholders will be valuable to dynamize their research and perhaps even open up new research avenues on pressing clinical and patient needs. Importantly, the NCBio Hub will contribute to the improvement of patient care by bridging clinical and patient needs with fundamental and translational research.

In the long term, NCBio Hub’s flagship initiative will fuel scientific and industrial development in the form of collaborative research projects, research contracts and other initiatives (e.g. international neuroscience research consortia, large-scale global research and/or industry-based projects), thereby placing Portugal in the map for Neurobiology and Neurological Disorders.

This figure illustrates the NCBio Hub member stakeholder groups and the specific organisations composing these groups. The Hub integrates key stakeholders from Northern Portugal (Hospitals & clinics: CHUSJ: Centro Hospitalar Universitário de São João; CHUP: Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto; CGPP: Centro de Genética Preditiva e Preventiva. Health industry: UPTEC: science incubator of U. Porto, companies: Fraunhofer Portugal – health tech, Novartis – pharma).

The Health Cluster Portugal has national membership, as well as the Patient organisations: Alzheimer Portugal; ANEM: multiple sclerosis; ANPAR: Rett syndrome; APDH: Huntington’s disease; APELA: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; APDP Parkinson’s disease; APN: Neuromuscular disorders; APNF: Neurofibromatosis). Policy-makers include CCDR-N (Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional do Norte) and FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia).