Kick-off meeting of the National Network for Complement Thematic Research in Health and Disease

On Tuesday, July 11, the kick-off meeting of the National Thematic Network in Complement: Health and Disease (MICIU RED2022-134750-T) was held. The Network is part of the “State Program to Promote Scientific-Technical Research and its Transfer” of the State Plan for Scientific, Technical, and Innovation Research 2021-2023.

The Network's main goal is to consolidate a group of researchers from basic, translational, and clinical research areas by providing them with an efficient and competitive structure to tackle the many interesting challenges posed by the biology and physiopathology of the complement system.

The Network in Complement: Health and Disease is coordinated by the researcher of the Margarita Salas Center for Biological Research (CSIC) M. Cristina Vega, and it also includes the groups of Santiago Rodríguez de Córdoba, F. Javier Cañada and Sonsoles M. Santamaría from the same center. The Network brings together researchers from 7 other institutions: the groups led by José Ramón Regueiro, Elena Goicoechea de Jorge and Manuel Praga Terente from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM); Mercedes Domínguez and Inmaculada Moreno from the National Center for Microbiology of the Carlos III Health Institute (CNM-ISCIII); Jose Mª Aran from IDIBELL, Pilar Sánchez-Corral and Gema Fernández Juárez from the IdiPAZ health research institute; Sebastián Albertí from the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB); Alfredo García Layana from the University of Navarra (UNAV); and Fernando Caravaca from the i+12 Health Research Institute. In addition, the Network has two associated companies, Abvance and Secugen, both spin-offs of the CSIC.

The Network aims to promote the participation of the member institutions in R&D activities, training, and dissemination of the results, and to bring to society the latest advances in knowledge of the complement system in health and disease, with special emphasis on patient associations. The Network includes a program of mobility, R&D activities, and training of personnel across the participating laboratories. It will promote the translation and technology transfer to the clinical and private sectors of the results derived from the synergies between the 8 beneficiary institutions of the Network.