Rector of the George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Targu Mures, Professor Leonard Azamfirei, PhD., announced on Thursday the signing of a funding contract worth approximately 17 million euro for the biggest research project in the institution’s history, NeuRoX – Establishment of the Romanian Centre of Excellence in Clinical Neurosciences.

‘UMFST Targu Mures is becoming an international hub of innovation in clinical neurosciences. Today, at the George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Targu Mures, the financing contract for NeuRoX – Establishment of the Romanian Centre of Excellence in Clinical Neurosciences was signed together with the Director General of the Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation, Professor Adrian Curaj, PhD. The project was won under the Centers of Excellence – 2024 Call. It is the biggest research project in the history of the George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Targu Mures, with a total budget of 85.9 million lei, approximately 17 million euro, and an implementation period of 60 months,’ Rector Azamfirei said.

According to him, NeuRoX is an innovation project that places UMFST at the centre of a top-tier national initiative.

‘At the George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology, a hub of excellence will be developed to generate new solutions for medicine through the integration of neurotechnology, artificial intelligence and multi-omics approaches, with the aim of accelerating progress in the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of neurological diseases. Within the project, preclinical models and organoids will be developed, therapeutic neural interfaces will be advanced and bioinformatics analysis will be strengthened to better understand the dynamics and causality of genetic regulatory networks, with a direct impact on precision medicine. At the same time, the integration of neurotechnology, artificial intelligence and transcriptomics will support the discovery of biomarkers and therapies, particularly for neurodegenerative diseases, as well as the development of advanced biological models and innovative interventions,’ Leonard Azamfirei underlined in a Facebook post.

The project is implemented by UMFST, with Professor Roxana Carare, PhD., as project director and centre director, supported by the European and Research Projects Service, coordinated by Nicoleta Suciu, in partnership with the Targu Mures County Emergency Clinical Hospital, coordinated by Professor Claudia Banescu, Phd., Transilvania University of Brasov, the National Institute of Research and Development in Pathology and Biomedical Sciences Victor Babes Bucharest, the Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Cluj-Napoca and the Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Iasi.

‘The projects will be developed within the university, making use of both existing research resources and new resources that will be created and consolidated through the implementation of the project, and will benefit from high performance computing capacities and data storage and management solutions needed for advanced analyses and artificial intelligence applications. The clinical component will be carried out in close connection with the George Emil Palade University Clinical Hospital, with the support of the university’s future Data Centre. For the University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology George Emil Palade of Targu Mures, NeuRoX is also a major step towards internationalisation, a project that increases the visibility and collaboration capacity of the scientific community and can place the university on the map of major European initiatives in clinical neurosciences,’ the UMFST rector added. AGERPRES (RO – writing by: Dorina Matis; EN – writing by: Adina Panaitescu)