What is EPISODE?

EPISODE is a project financed by the European Commission's Framework Programme 7 (FP7) that will allow regional governments, research institutes, and businesses in the regions of Tuscany, Berlin-Brandenburg and Campania to interact and create a strategy for new routes between scientific research and economic growth.  The project will create a common plan to ensure that the first-class resources of the two regions are exploited and sustained.

How did the idea develop?

In an era in which research, financing, and the economy are always in the daily headlines, it is becoming increasingly clearer that science, government, and industry must unite in common goals and maximize existing resources in order to remain competitive at an international level.  It is also clear that the output of publicly-funded research institutions must be tangible for the improvement of the quality of life in the regions in which they are located.

The regions involved in this project have many of the elements necessary for first-class biotechnology industries, but a strong support system is lacking.  EPISODE will endeavor to correct this situation and create new opportunities for synergistic growth.

Unique opportunities

Many factors are needed to facilitate the translation of research results to economic revenue, including cutting-edge science in excellent basic research institutions, strong connections to clinical researchers and to a skillful financial industry, governmental support, and “soft” factors such as interdisciplinary communication and the presence of adequately educated, experienced and skilled human capital.  Publicly funded Research Infrastructures are a critical piece of this picture, and their value cannot be underemphasized.  One important role of Research Infrastructures is their ability to provide access to a broad range of technological resources (such as NMR and associated technologies) which require great investments in human and economic capital to maintain.  Individual companies, especially SMEs, cannot typically afford the state-of-the-art-equipment that publicly funded research infrastructures can.

The regions of Tuscany and Berlin-Brandenburg possess unique features and resources that will aid them in their quest to strengthen their profile as pharma/biotech Regions of Knowledge.  Both regions are home to centers that are European-funded Research Infrastructures that have achieved the critical mass of expertise and instrumentation to be international leaders in their field and tackle frontier questions in Structural Biology. 

Objectives

1.

To create research-driven clusters of regional authorities, research entities, and business/industry.

2.

To identify ways that the components of these research-driven clusters can benefit from one another.

3.

To foster transnational and interregional cooperation and learning.                                                                                                     

4.

To mentor regions that are less-developed in EPISODE's subject area.                                       

5.

To develop Joint Action Plans to increase regional economic competitiveness through R&D activities.

Expected Impacts

A strong connection between research and industry can create many advantages for the community, including the following:

a highly educated population more job opportunities in technological sectors increased availability of new pharmaceuticals and therapies new spin-off companies and the growth of existing ones improved technology transfer reinforced economies

Research in the post-genomic era is moving toward new horizons, as traditional Structural Biology research matures into a field integrating numerous analytical techniques with a proven track record of high impact on biomedical research and development.  A major goal of the modern Life Sciences is to obtain a systemic view of Life, implying a change of focus from single molecules and interactions to an integrated view of networks of interactions at varying levels of biological organization.  One such frontier is largely embraced by the broad definition of Mechanistic Systems Biology. 

Mechanistic Systems Biology approaches Structural Biology through a Systems Biology framework.  Systems Biology addresses the properties of entire biological systems and subsystems as opposed to the isolated study of their individual components.  Fundamental properties of biological systems rely on the spatial and temporal interactions of the macromolecules that compose the system and can only be understood by looking at the system as a whole.  The ability to model systems to predict biological outcome at the molecular level is unthinkable without an appreciation of dynamic structures, the specificity of interactions and the resulting properties of molecular machines, pathways and entire networks, hence the mechanistic contribution to Systems Biology. 

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is an invaluable technology not only for the investigation of the structure and dynamics of biomolecules, but also for their interactions, i.e. their mechanisms.  In fact, it is the only biophysical technique that can be used to detect and quantify molecular interactions while simultaneously providing detailed structural information at atomic resolution.  For this reason, NMR is an integral part of on-going Structural Biology efforts, and is ideally suited for pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications, such as drug discovery, where it is broadly applicable at several stages.  NMR should also be considered within the broader landscape of tools for research in the Life Sciences.  Laboratories that exploit the power of NMR to study complicated biological processes rely heavily on many other technologies (referred to as associated technologies) that facilitate the production, handling, and characterization of molecular targets and proteins.  Examples of such technologies include HTP protein expression and biophysical characterization, e.g. through mass spectrometry, surface plasmon resonance, isothermal titration calorimetry, circular dichroism, and bioinformatics tools.  Additionally, research at the frontiers of Structural Biology often requires other technologies that flank NMR, such as X-ray methods, and electron and light microscopy to facilitate the provision of a structural and dynamic picture of key biological processes at all scales.

The revolutionary perspectives and technologies described above are fundamental to biology’s continued ability to impact medicine, biotechnology, and pharmacology.  There is a growing need for integrated information at the systems level - knowledge that is invaluable for the research and development programs of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors.  Industries in these sectors, at all levels, from SMEs to global corporations, need access to a broad range of cutting-edge techniques, tools and expertise to maintain and expand their programs, with corresponding repercussions for their financial health, the economic health of their home regions, and the bodily health of the populations that they ultimately serve.