Consortium announces new group member for  MAGIC Project

The MAGIC consortium group based in Lisboa, Portugal, has proudly announced the participation of Instituto de Medicina Molecular Joao Lobo Antunes (iMM) in its project to advance the study and treatment of neuromuscular diseases, particularly muscular dystrophies.

A laboratory associated with the National Ministry of Science and Higher Education, iMM is supported primarily by national and European Union funds, grants, donations and industrial partnerships. Founded in 2022, it is located on the campus of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon and the Hospital Santa Maria, the largest hospital in Portugal. This expansion is supported through the HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ACCESS call that aims to widen participation and strengthen the European Research Area.

Launched in 2023, MAGIC is a four-year (2023-2027) initiative, bringing together 15 international partners from research hospitals and institutions to businesses and charities, to drive approaches that include creation of humanised muscle models, development of targeted gene therapy and genome editing strategies, as well as engineering of disease-specific muscle-on-chip devices. It is also focused on designing advanced gene therapy vectors, exploring novel gene editing techniques for specific mutations and collaborating with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to facilitate the translation of research into practical applications. A patient-centric approach is maintained through close collaboration with patient advocacy groups to ensure that the research directly benefits those affected by these conditions.

The Gomes research group* a developer of mass spectrometry (MS)-based strategies to elucidate the structure of intact proteins and their complexes within the cellular environment and iMM will be working towards adding a cellular perspective to the development of muscle-on-chip technologies to greatly enhance characterisation of disease-specific muscle-on-chip models. Gomes will also be adding two additional disease models of centronuclear myopathies to broaden the impact on the development of genetic therapies.

Italian CDMO ReiThera is providing technology, process development and GMP manufacturing support for the clinical translation of genetic vaccines and medicinal products for advanced therapies.

*Department of Chemistry, Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond US)

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