European Projects Involvement

While not being an EU Project by itself anymore, the PharmaTrain Federation continues to contribute to other EU Projects. This contributions may vary, ranging from external consultancy to consotrium partner.

Ongoing European Projects

TRIM-NET Project

A training network in drug discovery targeting TRIM ubiquitin ligases.

2019 - 2023

PharmaTrain Involvement: Partner Organisation
Pharmatrain is a partner organisation of the consortium TRIMNET 2 which received a Grant approval by the EU Commission – Horizon 2020. The overall grant volume is 3,2 Mill Euro. In 2020 and in 2021, PharmaTrain contributed to the European TRIMNET 2 Programe by providing teaching/educational support for Drug Development and providing a workshop about Commercialization and Entrepreneurship

Tasks and contributions of PharmaTrain for TRIMNET in 2020 and 2021
  1. 12 Early Stage Researches (ESR) from more than 8 EU countries participated in the programes provided by Pharmatrain. The participation of those ESRs in the TRIMNET initiative in most cases had been part of their overall PhD programs-
  2. The Pharmatrain contributions to the European TRIMNET programe was conceptualized and led by Heinrich Klech with technical and admin support by Bryan Michaux
  3. Pharmatrain between Dec 2020 untill March 2021 provided access to a set of updated Pharmatrain online modules for the broad topic of “Drug development". In this context PharmaTrain provided 19 learning sections for a total of 10 ECTS. The series consist of 4 chapters: Overview Medicines Development (6 sections), The Optimal Dose Masterclass (4 sections), Registration of Medicinal Products (8 sections), Health Economics (one section). Thanks to Bryan Michaux who supported well all the technical and procedural elements
  4. Pharmatrain in October 2021 organized a 2 days virtual Workshop Commercialization and Entrepreneurship for start-ups and small biotech companies , (chairman and concept: Heinrich Klech) dealing with development and management of biotechnology businesses, with a focus on commercializing discoveries and inventions. Main topics were
    • Development and management of biotechnology businesses;
    • financing at each stage of company development;
    • fundamental aspects of science-based companies (business plan, collaboration between large and small companies, corporate intelligence, role of boards)
    The faculty consisted of
    • Wolfgang Wein, MD, PhD, Assoc. Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University Vienna, former global Business Head Oncology, Merck Darmstadt
    • Karin Brauneis, MSc and Mario Schwarz-Maurer, MSc, both international business and financial consultants from Brauneis and Partner, Vienna
The TRIM-NET Innovative Training Programme
The TRIM-NET innovative training programme will provide Early-Stage Researchers with the skills to identify novel therapeutic targets and develop the strategies to validate them in preclinical studies. Integrating complementary expertise and multidisciplinary approaches TRIM-NET aims to address this goal, focusing on the Tripartite motif (TRIM) family of Ubiquitin E3 ligases, which plays an important role in many physiological processes. The importance of the role of TRIM proteins in these processes is underpinned by their recognized involvement in many disease processes such as cancer, neurodegeneration and rare genetic diseases. As such, they are excellent targets for therapeutic manipulation.

The TRIM-NET consortium created a critical mass with complementary and interdisciplinary expertise, from Life Science to Chemistry, around this family of proteins to identify and exploit common targeting strategies for translational applications. The consortium is designed to train a cohort of researchers in skills and expertise essential for biomedical research in the era of personalised medicine, focusing on determining how: i) TRIM proteins contribute to disease; ii) to develop strategies to modulate TRIM proteins activity; iii) to design high throughput screening assays for drug discovery. The training programme comprises 7 highly integrated work packages: 4 scientific and 3 dedicated to training, dissemination and management. The proposal consists of 12 individual research projects that will form the basis of the research training aspects for the Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) recruited to the programme.

As the scientific work packages are highly integrated, recruited ESRs will avail of techniques and training opportunities, including secondments, across the work packages. Through a unique international partnership between academic and non-academic partners the TRIM-NET training programme will provide ESRs with skills that are essential for future biomedical research in industry and academia.

The ultimate goal of the TRIMNET programe is the identification of novel therapeutic strategies to target specific ubiquitination steps mediated by TRIM family members that are involved in common and rare pathologies thus heavily impacting on public health.

The TRIM-NET consortium is designed to bring together a multidisciplinary team that connects different expertise (genetics, biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, chemical biology, structural biology) across Europe to address TRIM proteins activity and to develop novel therapeutics for the treatment of different types of cancer, rare genetics neuromuscular disorders, and neurode-generative diseases. TRIM-NET is structured around 9 Beneficiaries (Bs), from 6 European countries and representing 8 Research-Academic Institutions and a Research-Hospital, which will host 12 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs). TRIM-NET includes 1 academic and 4 non-academic Partner Organisations (POs) that will provide training, advice, technologies, and reagents to the network.

The consortium is composed of both experienced and younger group leaders and three of the beneficiary main scientists, the coordinator included, are females. The Consortium is composed of scientists with longstanding experience in the study of TRIM E3 ligases and ubiquitination processes, at the forefront of ubiquitination research as evidenced by the publications in high profile journals and who regularly participate/lead national, EU and international projects, ITN programme included (e.g. UPStream, UbiCODE). The ESRs will be thus trained in the groups of world-renowned scientists in the field and within a network with solid experience in research training and mentoring. Each recruited ESR will be enrolled in a Doctoral degree and will be in charge of a dedicated Individual Research Project (IRP).