Slovenia will get a Centre for Gene and Cell Therapy Technology, whose mission will be giving patients with rare genetic diseases and forms of cancer faster access to advanced treatments. Led by the Institute of Chemistry, the €30 million centre will be built with the help of EU funds.

The centre will develop new treatments that are highly effective because they are targeted and tailored to individual patients or groups. They work on the immediate cause and can even lead to permanent cure. Excellence in research in synthetic biology, neurobiology, genetics and immunology is key to the development of such treatments, officials told reporters on 23 December.

A key feature will be the collaboration of scientists and doctors at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, with patients and their advocates also playing an important role. The centre will thus be an important bridge between biomedical research for advanced therapies and their delivery to patients, with access to such treatments also being made cheaper by developing them in Slovenia.

Education, Science and Sport Minister Igor Papič stressed the centre will help bring about a transition from basic to applied research. Roman Jerala, head of the Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology at the Institute of Chemistry, noted that the institute is already at the vanguard of European science.

The centre will feature around 1,400 square metres of research space and will be located adjacent to the Institute of Chemistry. It will be one of few such centres in Europe and the project will also be joined by partners from abroad, from the UK, the Netherlands and Germany.

According to Mojca Benčina, a researcher who collaborates on the project, patient organisations both abroad and in Slovenia have expressed interest in building the centre, which will be organised as a private non-profit research organisation with public interest status.

She expects the centre will be up and running in five years. Funding has been secured for six years. During this time, the centre will have it easier to attract staff from abroad, as researchers' salaries will not be subject to the public wage system.