This interview with Meritxell Teixidó , CEO and co-founder of Gate2Brain , reviews how the industrial doctorate has been decisive in advancing the company’s shuttle peptide technology (the “tractors” that allow drugs to cross the blood-brain barrier), with the first application in pediatric oncology. At the time of the interview, Teixidó placed the project three years away from clinical trials, with Clàudia Resa (industrial doctor of the project) advancing the preclinical research necessary to get there.
A year later, the facts prove him right. Resa’s research on the MiniAp-4 peptide system has been the scientific basis that has allowed Gate2Brain to obtain orphan drug designation for its candidate G2B-002: first by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), at the end of 2024, and also by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States. The double regulatory recognition has coincided with a strategic investment of 7 million euros; the largest raised by the company to date, by Shilpa Biocare, which has taken a 30.4% stake in the capital, with the aim of accelerating the transition from the preclinical phase to the clinic.
Resa’s journey also confirms what Teixidó herself explains in this interview about the value of the industrial doctorate in attracting and retaining talent: a way to get to know a person in depth for four years before deciding if they fit into the company. In this case, the answer has been affirmative. After defending her thesis, Resa joined Gate2Brain as a Preclinical & Regulatory Scientific Project Manager , precisely the field (regulation and project management) that she discovered thanks to direct contact with the company during her doctorate.
His case is added to the 75% of industrial doctors in the Industrial Doctorates Plan who, according to the program’s accumulated data, continue to be linked to the same company once the project has ended: the most tangible proof of how public-private collaboration translates into quality employment and effective retention of high-value talent.
– What are the main benefits that an industrial doctorate has given you, and how do you think they position you in your sector?
– I think that having an industrial doctorate has been very relevant for Gate2Brain, because we considered it when we created the company, in July 2020. We had been in academia for many years creating the technology; when creating the company, it seemed that research had to end, but for me the industrial doctorates have been a way to ensure that research remains the heart of Gate2Brain. The opportunity to have an industrial doctorate has been very crucial to advance our project, which is now three years away from clinical trials.
– Can you give us an example that society in general can understand, and how it contributes to responding to citizens’ challenges?
– Yes, from our technology. What we do, in the best analogy, is a tractor that goes to the brain: a tractor that carries, as a trailer, a drug that would not be able to get there on its own, because it does not know how to go there without a good tractor. We developed this at IRB Barcelona and the University of Barcelona, and with Sant Joan de Déu we saw the power of applying these tractors to bring pediatric chemotherapy to childhood brain tumors. But more research was needed, and that is why it was important to incorporate an industrial doctorate, even though, at the beginning of the project, we had already had more than ten doctoral theses co-directed by me.
"The opportunity to have an industrial doctorate has been very crucial to advance [the project], which is three years away from clinical trials."
– What role do publications play in this transition towards industry?
– I have always defended that you can publish and patent; therefore, making the leap to industry does not mean stopping publishing. In fact, we recently published a couple of very interesting articles about our technology. You need to have the vision of protecting, or consulting whether to protect, before publishing a thesis; they are not two paths that go in opposite directions. In fact, for a company as small as Gate2Brain, publishing is also a way of making visible that we are based on robust research.
– Are these publications only scientific, or are there also more open to the public or in specialized journals in the sector?
– At Gate2Brain we like to work on three levels: research; publication aimed at someone in the field —in our case, the field of peptides as shuttles or tractors in the brain, which is a very specific field— and now we will also have to start disseminating within the oncology community, so that they know about this new potential therapy. But then we have to balance it with good communication to society, because research arises from society and is for society. That is why we also participate in activities such as going to schools to explain it or disseminating it when it has been proposed to us from different channels aimed at the general population; hence the analogy of tractors and trailers.
"The industrial doctorate is a way to create an even more robust technological or scientific base in small or spin-off companies."
– How is the relationship with the university and the research group? What do you think is the key element for it to be successful, or that has allowed you to reach the thesis, now about to be defended?
– I think our case was, I don’t know if it was peculiar, but we were already a spin-off company from the University of Barcelona, the IRB and Sant Joan de Déu; therefore, we already came with a lot of research and many doctoral theses. But the industrial doctorate has allowed us to focus on a very clear objective: to advance the research necessary to reach this possible clinical trial. This focus —having a common objective— has made the management very easy. It probably also helped that I, from the company side, already had experience in directing or co-directing theses; this has created an environment of co-creation in which I believe the industrial researcher has learned a lot. I have also learned to see what a company environment is like and what other options there may be after the doctorate.
– Do you see the industrial doctorate as a policy for attracting, recruiting, training and retaining talent for your organization, or also for other types of organizations?
– I think that the industrial doctorate is a way of creating an even more robust technological or scientific base in small companies or spin-offs, and it is also a trial run: you have the person for four years, you see how they work, how they function with the team. This does not mean that they always have to stay working longer or lengthening the thesis —which is not the case—, but perhaps you discover that there are other areas where they can fit in and, since you already know them, you say: why not incorporate them into this other area?
– Would you repeat an industrial doctorate?
– If I have co-directed ten theses before, and now one industrial doctorate, it is quite likely that I would do it again.
– Is there anything you would like to add, any relevant anecdote? For example, about internationalization?
– Yes. During Clàudia’s industrial doctorate, the start of manufacturing in an outsourced pharmaceutical environment coincided in time, which, in our case, is in India. It wasn’t so much that, during the industrial doctorate, she had to leave, but she already knows that, when she joins, the first thing she will do will be to visit our headquarters in India. In fact, today Gate2Brain is made up of twelve people, with a presence in Tel Aviv and Mumbai, and Clàudia’s first stay will undoubtedly be in Mumbai.
