The medical biotechnology company, which belongs to the business area of the University of Valencia Science Park, has been working since March 2021 on population screening and volunteer recruitment for the iSARC-GENETICS project for the first intelligent platform to facilitate the early detection, diagnosis and monitoring of sarcopenia, and will have a genetic results module.
Sarcopenia is a pathological process that affects millions of people worldwide, especially older adults, and is characterized by the progressive loss of muscle mass and strength. In the last ten years, with the impulse of different expert working groups at a global level, scientific research in this field has increased notably, especially since in 2016 the WHO included sarcopenia within the ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases) with the aim of promoting the study and treatment of this pathology in routine clinical practice.
In this line, the Valencian company Overgenes, located in the Science Park of the University of Valencia, has been actively working on a marketing campaign to attract participants for the project, for which it has enabled a specific section on its website through which you can complete a form to participate. Currently, the company has the collaboration of leading centers such as RX2 Center (Sports Medicine Center), the CellMedik clinic, CIARD-UCAM (Research Center for High Performance Sports of the Catholic University of Murcia) or Dawako, among others.
Sarcopenia is a pathological process that affects millions of people around the world, especially older adults, and is characterized by the progressive loss of muscle mass and strength
The iSARC GENETICS consortium, together with Overgenes, includes the biotechnology companies Dawako and Sabartech, the CoMMLab group (Computational Multiscale Simulation Lab) of the University of Valencia and Ci2B (Center for Research and Innovation in Bioengineering) of the Polytechnic University of Valencia. The consortium is supported by the Agència Valenciana de Innovació (AVI), under the Strategic Collaborative Projects program, with a grant of 770,000 euros co-financed by the European Union through the Comunitat Valenciana ERDF program 2014-2020.
Ultrasound resonance imaging analysis of a patient at the Dawako clinic. Photo: Overgenes
The marketing campaign, which is already underway, has favored the recruitment of volunteers, and the first to take samples have been the participants of Dawako, which has recently opened its clinic in the Science Park of the University of Valencia. Dawako, as a member of the consortium, will contribute to the project the results obtained through its patient monitoring devices and image analysis of physiological parameters. These data, combined with the genetic results, will try to detect early sarcopenic patients. The results of the study are intended to help develop effective prevention strategies to improve muscle health and quality of life in the adult population.
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