AccelBio’s CEO, Bárbara Gomes, attended the workshop “Knowledge Valorisation in Action: from Results to Policy” on October 8th, 2026, at the Centre Albert Borschette in Brussels. The event was organised by the European Research Executive Agency (REA), in cooperation with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, and brought together a cluster of Horizon Europe projects that piloted new approaches to knowledge valorisation.
The day opened with remarks from Martin Špolc, Director for Prosperity at DG Research and Innovation, and Stephen Collins, Director of REA. It continued with testimonials from project partners on how valorisation methodologies changed their business plans, partnerships, and relationships with citizens, before moving on to sessions on bringing research results to society and bringing research results to the market. Speakers presented lessons from projects such as CO-VALUE, BEAGLE, KALEIDOS, and VOICE, covering topics from citizen engagement and living labs to industry-academia collaboration and user-driven innovation in healthcare. The afternoon was dedicated to a plenary discussion on carrying these learnings forward, followed by a wrap-up from Iphigenia Pottaki of DG Research and Innovation.
Knowledge valorisation is at the heart of AccelBio’s work. As a collaborative laboratory bridging academia and industry, we are committed to translating scientific discoveries into real-world impact, and we coordinate TransBioNet, a European project building the first pan-European network of knowledge valorisation intermediaries dedicated to drug discovery. Events like this are a valuable opportunity to learn from other projects, connect with the wider European valorisation community, and keep our work aligned with the policy conversation
From September 30th to October 2nd, 2026, the neuromuscular disease research community gathered aboard the SS Rotterdam for the iPSC Modeling in Neuromuscular Disorders Meeting (iMND meeting 2026), three days of sharing and discussing the latest advances in the field. Our Principal Scientist in Advanced In Vitro Systems, Afonso Malheiro, took part in the meeting and was one of the selected speakers.
Scientists from around the world presented innovative strategies to model neuromuscular disorders, with a particular focus on the use of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to study diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/frontotemporal dementia (ALS/FTD) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).
On the first day, September 30th, Afonso spoke in the afternoon session “Therapeutics and Toxicology”, where he presented AccelBio’s latest advances in developing a human-based platform for modelling sporadic ALS, with the ultimate goal of enabling drug screening and accelerating the discovery of new therapeutic strategies.
The meeting was a great opportunity to exchange ideas, connect with fellow researchers, and contribute to the ongoing efforts to advance neuromuscular disease research. We are already looking forward to the next meeting, in Aachen in 2028.
Our COO, Ricardo Viais, represented AccelBio at BioSpain 2026, the international biotech trade show and partnering event held in Bilbao, Spain, from September 29th to October 1st, 2026, under the theme “Bioinnovation that clicks”.
The event brought together biotech companies, investors, and ecosystem players from Spain and beyond, offering a valuable setting to meet potential partners, explore new collaborations, and look ahead at opportunities for AccelBio.
It was also a chance to learn from Spain’s thriving regional biotech ecosystems. Ricardo attended the panel on “The role of regional ecosystems in driving the biotech sector”, a topic that closely reflects AccelBio’s own mission of strengthening the Portuguese biotech ecosystem and connecting it to Europe.
Participating in international events like BioSpain is part of how AccelBio builds partnerships and brings new ideas and opportunities back to the national ecosystem.
On September 29th, 2026, Biocant Park in Cantanhede hosted the Portugal Centro Region BIO-RED Cross-Regional Hackathon, which AccelBio helped organise together with the other Portuguese BIO-RED partners: Biocant Park, INOVA+, and the Região Metropolitana de Coimbra (CIMRC). The event followed a warm-up evening on September 28th, with ice-breaker activities and bilateral matchmaking to welcome participants.
The hackathon builds directly on the ATMP Thematic Lab organised by AccelBio in June, which identified three systemic gaps in the development of advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs). Participants were challenged to develop viable, scalable, interregional business models for each of them: making ATMP regulatory expertise accessible, affordable, and reusable for biotech companies; bridging the talent gap between the research laboratory and GMP manufacturing; and making GMP manufacturing capacity more visible and accessible across the ecosystem.
The day began with a welcome from Ana Moreira and Joana Branco of Biocant Park. Our Innovation Manager, João Maia, then presented the challenges generated in the Thematic Lab, followed by a business case briefing by Jorge Figueira from the University of Coimbra. Throughout the day, interregional and multidisciplinary teams, with participants from Portugal, France, Greece, and Lithuania, worked to define their challenge and value proposition, assess viability, market potential, and funding routes, and build a roadmap. In the afternoon, the teams presented their pitches to an international jury, which evaluated them on innovation, technical feasibility, commercial viability, alignment with BIO-RED, interregional added value, and team engagement.
The winning teams will now compete in the Inter-Regional Final Pitch Session on October 26th, 2026, for a place in the BIO-RED Biotech & Pharma Accelerator Programme. We look forward to attending and wish all the teams the best of luck.
Our thanks go to Biocant Park for hosting such a successful and welcoming event, and to all the participants, speakers, experts, and jury members who contributed their knowledge, experience, and perspectives.
AccelBio’s CEO, Bárbara Gomes, attended the first day of the I Congresso Internacional de Investigação em Saúde Militar, held on September 25th and 26th, 2026, at the Fundação Champalimaud in Lisbon, where she presented the poster “Dual-Use Translational Science for Military Health.”
The congress brought together military health leaders, researchers, and emergency and disaster-response specialists from Portugal and abroad. Its programme was organised around three areas: military health in new conflicts, force protection and operational readiness, and research and innovation in military health. The first day included sessions on adapting emergency medical services during prolonged crises, applied defence research in the NATO ecosystem, the use of artificial intelligence in military health, operational health and force protection, and the role of health systems in disaster response.
The AccelBio poster showed how the translational drug-discovery platforms already validated in academic and industry partnerships can be applied to the needs of armed forces. It outlined three dual-use pillars: physiological monitoring and operational readiness through multiomics-based biomarker panels, accelerated development of defence-adapted therapeutics such as antivirals, antibodies and vaccines through AI/ML-driven virtual screening, and personalised medicine for the military using organoids derived from a combatant’s own cells. It also set out how AccelBio can work with defence and health partners through co-development and risk-sharing projects and access to its core facilities.
Taking part in events across the wider health and innovation landscape is part of how AccelBio stays connected with developments beyond its core biotech and pharma ecosystem, and with the people working on them.
On September 24th and 25th, 2026, our researchers Mariana Branco and Inês Saraiva attended the 3rd Consortium Meeting of the IMPACT project, hosted by Maastricht University in the Netherlands. IMPACT ACM Project (Cardiogenomics meets Artificial Intelligence: a step forward in Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy diagnosis and treatment ) is a European-funded initiative in which AccelBio is a partner, and the meeting brought the consortium together for two days of scientific exchange and planning as the project enters its final year.
Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM) is a genetic cardiovascular disease that predisposes individuals to ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death, particularly among young people and athletes. The disease is characterised by the progressive loss of cardiomyocytes and their replacement by fibrotic and fatty tissue, leading to structural and functional abnormalities of the heart. There are currently no effective treatments able to prevent or reverse its progression, so clinical management focuses on reducing the risk of sudden cardiac death and slowing the disease.
IMPACT aims to advance the understanding of ACM by combining large-scale omics data from patients with structural and functional analyses of in vitro and in vivo disease models. By integrating these complementary sources of information, the project seeks to identify and validate new molecular mechanisms and therapeutic targets for ACM, paving the way for new therapeutic strategies. Within the consortium, AccelBio contributes with a human heart organoid platform that supports the characterisation of the structural and molecular pathological features of ACM. By modelling disease-associated phenotypes in human heart organoids, we aim to shed light on the mechanisms underlying disease progression and contribute to the identification and validation of potential therapeutic targets.
At the meeting, Mariana presented AccelBio’s latest results and contributions to the project. The scientific sessions covered clinical data, predictive genetics, advanced disease models, therapeutic screening, and bioimage analysis, with particular attention to how AI tools can support more efficient and standardised image analysis. Partners also discussed the main priorities, open challenges, and activities for the final year, as well as the next steps towards turning these findings into new opportunities for ACM research and therapy.
We thank Maastricht University for hosting the meeting, and all IMPACT partners for the contributions, discussions, and energy brought to these two days.
