The program’s objective is coordinating the efforts of twenty-four leading research groups working in the field of the stem cell translational research. Today, nineteen of these teams are clinical research groups (eighteen of them belong to IDIBAPS – Hospital Clinic de Barcelona and one to Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL). The five remaining centers provide basic laboratory knowledge from the environment of the Medicine Faculty of UB.

The project has been funded by the Catalan Government with 200,000 euros for the next two years. The subjects of the research are very diverse, and include: neurology and musculoskeletal diseases, diabetes and metabolism, hematooncology, pneumology, ophthalmology, immunology and infectious diseases, digestive system, and transplantation. Under this initiative, the teams share knowledge and develop new protocols for differentiation and stem cell culture. The program also provides seminars and workshops, as well as the recruitment of technical support and financing intramural projects.

Each team has its own resources, obtained in competitive calls. In total, add seventy-four active projects in the field of cell therapy, which means about 3.5 million per year. Among these projects, there are seventeen international projects, fifty-three national projects, and four funded by private foundations. Teams joined under the TCUB also drive ten clinical trials funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN-ISCIII), with an overall budget of approximately two million euros. Finally, it’s planned the establishment of cell culture facilities funding by MICINN.

Cell therapy program is a collaboration project of the UB, Hospital Clínic, IDIBAPS and IDIBELL. It also involves the Transplant Services Foundation (TSF), a company of Hospital Clínic; Clínic Foundation, Bosch i Gimpera Foundation and Josep Carreras Foundation. This institutional framework gives TCUB a strong international scientific basis.