![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2023\/06\/Michal-Masternak-and-Katia-Sirna.jpg\")
UCF is one of two American colleges participating in a European scientific exchange designed to bridge the gap between academic research and the development of tomorrow\u2019s medical therapies.<\/p>\n
The Orbis (Open Research Biopharmaceutical Internships Support) project was created to address the scientific and economic challenges of bringing new drugs to market and was implemented under the European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie-Research Innovation Staff Exchange. It has participants from Poland, Ukraine, Germany, Finland, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and the U.S. and has weathered a pandemic and a war to bring together professional, student and academic researchers for collaboration.<\/p>\n
College of Medicine faculty researcher Michal Masternak and researchers from Rutgers University are the two U.S. partners. Masternak has had 13 European researchers working in his lab in the last 18 months.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to accomplish something in research, you can\u2019t do it alone,\u201d he says of the program. \u201cYou need to work with others.\u201d<\/p>\n
The European Union began Orbis in 2018 with an investment of $2.2 million Euros. Funding pays for researchers to travel between Europe and the U.S. and their living accommodations. Travel was halted during the pandemic and the war in Ukraine has kept participants from traveling to that country.<\/p>\n
But despite the challenges, the partnership has successfully joined hundreds of academic researchers who do much of the basic science in medicine and pharmaceutical researchers at universities and industry focused on using that basic science to create tomorrow\u2019s cures.<\/p>\n
Because the two groups often work in isolation, they lose opportunities to streamline the research process to create discoveries faster, says Professor Janina Lulek, the program\u2019s primary investigator.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorking together helps us better address the different problems that take place in translational research,\u201d she said during a recent meeting at Dr. Masternak\u2019s lab at the Burnett Biomedical Sciences building in Lake Nona. \u201cOrbis helps us share each other\u2019s expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Participants from across the world will meet in Poland in July to report the results of their collaborations, including joint research projects and grants.<\/p>\n