"One focus will be the translation of Nanomedicine and Quantum Technologies to the market"

2024 marks the 15th anniversary of nanoGUNE's official opening. What have been the key milestones that have defined the center's journey so far? Where is the current focus of nanoGUNE's research now?

Jose M. Pitarke: Over the past 15 years, we’ve made significant progress in all fronts: cutting-edge research, industry collaboration, and the creation of new start-up companies. I would particularly emphasize the fact that we have been able to combine state-of-the-art fundamental research with specific activities of industrial research and experimental development, aimed at exploiting at all times the opportunities we have been finding along the way. 

We’ve been publishing in the very best journals research of very high impact worldwide. We've filed a substantial number of patents, many of which have already been licensed to both local and international companies. We’ve been conducting contract research, thus transferring our knowledge to industry. We’ve been training a large number of researchers, some of them (both local and international) now working at Basque companies. And to date, we’ve launched seven start-up companies.

Where is the current focus of nanoGUNE's research now?

J. M. P. : Over the past few years, our research has primarily focused in the fields of Quantum Nanoscience, Nanomaterials, and Nanomedicine. For the translation of our knowledge and technology to industry and society in general, we have been particularly successful in the area of nanomaterials, and now, with a focus on applications, we are strengthening our efforts in the areas of Quantum Nanoscience and Nanomedicine with the opening last year of two new research groups led by Ikerbasque Research Professors Mariana Medina-Sánchez and Fernando González-Zalba. Mariana, who joined us from Germany, is heading the new Nanobiosystems group, while Fernando, coming from the UK, is leading a new group on Quantum Hardware.

To which societal challenges can nanoscience really contribute?

J. M. P. : What are at least some of the major challenges of our society? Sustainability, energy, water, medicine, aging. Nanotechnology has the potential to contribute to all of them. 

Thanks to the ability we have nowadays to structure matter at the nanoscale, now we have better materials for industrial manufacturing processes that should become more sustainable. Indeed, nanotechnology is well-known to have emerged as a powerful tool for a sustainable development. And nanotechnology has also the potential to contribute to the energy sector, for example, for the conversion of energy from one type to another one.

Then we have healthcare and medicine with important emerging applications. Here, much progress has been made already, and the impact of nanotechnology is expected to be huge with significant advances in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases.

And then we have quantum technologies, which are being developed, to a large extent, thanks to the ability we have nowadays to do science and technology at the nanoscale. Quantum computing, in particular, has the potential to tackle problems that are currently beyond the reach of classical computers, such as the design of new drugs or the production of new sustainable materials; but we still have a long way to exploit the full potential of quantum technologies.

What will be the focus of the Nanobiosystems group?

J. M. P. : Mariana Medina-Sánchez and her research group are working mainly in the field of nanobiomedical engineering, with a focus on the development of nanotools for diagnostics and therapeutics and the translation of fundamental research into clinical applications. This includes the design of microfluidic nanobiosensors, microrobotic tools for cell manipulation and drug delivery, smart sensoractuators for organ-on-a-chip platforms, in vivo imaging, and, in particular, the development of nanotools for the transport and release of gametes with the aim of assisting in vivo reproduction in cases of infertility, which is planned to be done in collaboration with the Basque Fertility Institute (IVF) in San Sebastian.

Quantum technologies seem to anticipate a new scientific revolution. How will the Quantum Hardware group strengthen nanoGUNE’s quantum nanoscience research?

J. M. P. : We have always been working in the field of quantum nanoscience, and now the new research group, led by Fernando González-Zalba, is focused on the integration of silicon quantum dots in silicon platforms as qubits for quantum computing and quantum technologies in general, in the framework of a collaboration with the British scale-up company Quantum Motion. And all this will be done at the new tower, the Quantum Tower, that we have started to build right here, as an extension of the existing nanoGUNE building, and will house the laboratories of the new research group on Quantm Hardware.

Appart from the new industrial collaborations, nanoGUNE has launched a new company, Optec4Life, in 2024. What is the scope of this new spin-off? 

J. M. P. : We have just launched this new spin-off company, in the framework of the so-called Basque Tek Ventures initiative of the Basque Government, on the development of a medical device for a noninvasive, continuous, real-time diagnosis of perinatal asphyxia based on photonics and machine learning. This research was initiated a few years ago, in the framework of a collaboration with Biogipuzkoa, a health research institute in San Sebastian, in order to address what at the time was a market gap. We patented our technology, and now we are developing the device for commercialization.

Looking to the future, what are the next strategic steps for nanoGUNE?

J. M. P. : Now we need to keep doing cutting-edge research in the fields of Quantum Nanoscience, Nanomaterials, and Nanomedicine with a special focus on the consolidation of what we have been doing so far and also the translation of nanomedicine and quantum technologies to the market, thus discovering, I hope, unknown territories and responding at all times to our commitment to society and to industry: the industry of the present and, above all, the industry of the future. That is the big challenge of the small.