On the 28th of February, the University-Business Knowledge Transfer Network selected 21 out of 83 projects which will be financed by the “II PROTOTRANSFER Competition for Market-Oriented Prototypes” within the framework of the INESPO III Project/ University-Business Knowledge Transfer. Region: Central Portugal-Castile and Leon.
The final phase of the competition will take place on the 30th of November and the selected projects will receive the aid they need to crystalize their prototypes and proposed training programmes. The aim of this competition is to encourage knowledge transfer activities through the development of a prototype and its crystallization in order to obtain a product or a process with the potential for being commercialized on the market.
BISITE is working on its project in collaboration with Eduardo Weruaga Prieto, who is the director of the Neuronal Plasticity and Neurorepair Laboratory of the Neurosciences Institute of Castile and Leon. He is currently researching about selective neurodegradation through mother cell transplant form the bone marrow. Experiments are being performed on mice and the results are promising, producing considerable improvement and delaying the progress of neural degradation.
Our researchers contributed to the development of the project by constructing an olfactometer. This device has an odour presentation tube through which a stream of air flows, the air may be filled with different substances that have a specific odorant. This device makes it possible to perform quantitative, robust and credible evaluation of olfactory abilities in laboratory animals. Principally, the aim is to establish the limits of olfactory abilities and the extent to which animals can differentiate between types of odorants.
This is a pioneering research in Spain and its development can help counteract neural degradation and combat a range of neural diseases, including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and the neurological problems experienced by stroke survivors.
We are very proud of the work our group is doing and are grateful to Eduardo Weruaga for his support.