The Center for Pharmacology and Drug Research & Development was established in May 2023, integrating nine university departments, with the aim of coordinating education, research, and development activities in this field across faculties.
The excellent research infrastructure qualification by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office is a major success in the life of this young umbrella organization. This demonstrates that we have created a knowledge and asset pool that can attract external industrial and academic partners as well. – Dr. Péter Ferdinandy
Dr. Péter Ferdinandy, Vice-Rector for Science and Innovations and President of the center, mentioned that in addition to unifying pharmacology education, the center had also noticeably accelerated internal research collaborations and stimulated publication activities. In the last almost two years alone, thirty scientific papers related to the center have been published in prestigious journals. This has contributed to Semmelweis University being ranked among the world’s top 100 universities in Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences according to ShanghaiRanking’s 2024 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects.
The idea of establishing the center was an innovation in itself, and its operation also serves innovation, noted Dr. István Antal, Dean of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Co-President of the center. The goal of the knowledge and infrastructure concentrated here is to enable drug development from molecules to clinical trials within a single network, he pointed out.
“Our vision is to introduce new, innovative drug molecules to the market with the collaboration of industrial partners,” added Dr. Péter Ferdinandy. Ongoing research at the center includes projects such as the development of a drug formulation that promotes and accelerates corneal wound healing after surgery, which was recently recognized with the Semmelweis Innovation Award, and microRNA-type molecular engineering.
The launch of the Pharmaceutical Innovation and Business Administration master’s program is also considered a significant milestone, it aims to train professionals who are familiar with all steps of the drug development process or other innovations and are able to manage them all the way to market utilization.
The other organizational unit at Semmelweis University to receive the excellent infrastructure distinction is the Georg von Békésy Center for Biophysical Research, which was inaugurated in 2018. “Our center, which is located mainly in the Basic Medical Science Center (EOK), was established to enable translational research, in the spirit of which a scientific question can be investigated from the molecular level through animal modeling to the bedside,” recalled Dr. Miklós Kellermayer, Director of the Department of Biophysics and Radiation Biology. “We have special tools that allow us to hold single molecules and then monitor the processes in a living organism,” he added.
The center runs several laboratories, such as the Quantitative in Vivo Molecular Imaging Laboratory and the Optical Microscopy Laboratory, and boasts an equipment fleet that includes an optical tweezer, atomic force microscopy, and other state-of-the-art instruments. The latest addition was a Nanosurf Drive AFM atomic force microscope, but the center also houses a nanoScan PET/MRI 3T instrument, which combines the world’s highest resolution PET with the leading three-Tesla MRI technology, and a STED super-resolution microscope.
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“In addition to the collaborations within the university and in Hungary, we work with several international research groups from Los Angeles to Singapore, we are a member of several networks such as Euro-BioImaging, and the recently obtained certification may stimulate further partnerships,” emphasized Dr. Krisztián Szigeti, Laboratory Head at the Georg von Békésy Center for Biophysical Research. In addition to being a core facility for researchers from other institutes within the university, the center also provides a complex service for international companies and researchers.
The scientific activities focus primarily on muscle research, inflammatory processes in the nervous system, and the labeling and tracking of extracellular vesicles using imaging, which has become increasingly important in the last decade. The center is also actively involved in developments related to artificial intelligence.
Hungary’s excellent research infrastructures were first mapped in 2021 when three organizational units affiliated with Semmelweis University earned the distinction:
- Semmelweis University’s Biobank Network
- Hungarian Center of Excellence for Molecular Medicine (coordinator: Department of Biophysics and Radiation Biology)
- National Cardiovascular Laboratory (coordinator: Small Animal Experiment Service Laboratory; member: Semmelweis University’s Bioinformatics Core Facility)
Pálma Dobozi
Translation: Judit Szabados-Dőtsch
Photos and cover illustration by Bálint Barta, Boglárka Zellei – Semmelweis University
