Europe recognises the merit of Porto in the health cluster and grants one million community funds to the Engineering Faculty

A work group of the Engineering Faculty of the University of Porto (FEUP) was granted one million community funds to develop new medicines to inhibit antibiotic resistant bacteria.

This project is financed by the Programme Horizon 2020 (H2020) and it underscores the international presence of Porto as a health cluster.

"This is a rather relevant project at a time when the news on outbreaks of multi-resistant bacterial strains are frequently recurring", stated Professor Nuno Azevedo from the Laboratory of Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy (LEPABE), from FEUP, quoted by Lusa.

The project will last for three years, with the team establishing the area of investigation, levering technological and logistic skills.
The researchers will work on the process of continuously developing new antimicrobial compounds. 

This project relies on the support of the Nucleic Acid Centre of SDU, of Denmark, who develops nucleic acid mimes and the Laboratory for General Biochemistry and Physical Pharmacy, of Ghent University (Belgium), which create strategies for the delivery of nucleic acid in animal tissue.

The Health Cluster Portugal is headquartered in Porto and its fundamental mission is to develop the Portuguese health system and position Portugal as an important player regarding research, development, design and manufacturing of health related products and services.