“Transferring our research to patients who currently have no cure is fascinating work”
Antoni Matilla
PhD in Neurogenetics and Neuroscience from the University of Barcelona and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He did his postdoc in the US and, in 2017, moved to the Institute of Research Germans Trias I Pujol (IGTP), where he heads up the Neurogenetics Research Unit. After extensive experience as a project coordinator, peer reviewer for science journals and business adviser in Spain and abroad, in 2018 he co-founded the spin-off Biointaxis to develop treatments for Friedreich Ataxia and other minority neurological diseases.
Biointaxis is a newly created spin-off of Institute for Health Science Research Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP) that aims to discover, develop and market therapeutics, treatments and new genomic technology for neurological diseases. The company is currently working on a gene therapy to treat a minority disease: Friedreich Ataxia. Antoni Matilla, co-founder and CEO of Biointaxis, explains his experience and motivation for starting up the company.
Why did you want to be an entrepreneur?
One of the challenges I’ve always faced is transferring the results of the research I lead into the development and implementation of treatments for patient with the diseases we research, like the ataxias. This is why, in 2018, I co-founded the biotechnology spin-off Biointaxis to develop a gene therapy to treat Friedreich Ataxia, a minority disease that currently has no cure.
What is the most important strategic decision you’ve made so far?
Perhaps creating the spin-off Biointaxis with the main goal of developing a gene therapy to treat a minority disease like Friedreich Ataxia. It is a project that requires significant investment and the possibility of transferring the excellent results obtained so far in the pre-clinical phase to patients suffering from the disease in a clinical phase is fascinating.
What is the best advice you’ve ever been given?
That I shouldn’t be put off by big challenges.
And now what? What milestones do you want to achieve in the short term?
In the short-term, the milestone I have to reach is raising the funding necessary for Biointaxis to develop the gene therapy for Friedreich Ataxia. The results obtained so far in the pre-clinical phase are excellent and we’ve recently been granted an international patent. Now we’re looking for money to develop the treatment. We sincerely believe that the technology we’ve developed over all these years can lead to a cure for a devastating disease like Friedreich Ataxia in just a few years.
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