The Genomics Department at ITER began its journey in September 2016 as an initiative by the Tenerife Island Council for the promotion and development of research projects related to Precision Personalized Medicine in the Canary Islands. Their work, with significant international impact, on individual DNA sequencing during the covid-19 pandemic consolidated the department’s position, where seven people work, as the jewel in the crown of the Institute’s research.
The department’s activities enable the realization of one of ITER’s social objectives: the creation of infrastructures, training and development of scientific and technical personnel, and the exploitation of the company’s resources in the field of Biotechnology as an industrial and commercial activity. To achieve this, the Genomics department has a Molecular Biology laboratory, equipped with state-of-the-art DNA sequencers and the necessary auxiliary instrumentation for the preparation of nucleic acid libraries. Massive nucleic acid sequencing using various methodologies is possible.
The team is composed of scientific and technical personnel specialized in Life Sciences, Biomedicine, Computer Science, and Computer Engineering, among others. The network of collaborators includes academic and hospital institutions, as well as national and international scientific entities.
Begoña Ortiz, CEO of ITER, values: “Genomics is based on DNA sequencing that uniquely identifies each person. They analyze the individual but also others and their ancestors”. She adds that “this allows us to define characteristics, even about what diseases they may have in a few years”
Researcher José Lorenzo, coordinator of the department, explains with great didactic mastery that, in addition to the regular staff, “we have visitors who spend a period of immersion with us of different kinds because they demand sequencing services and training in these types of technologies”. With scholarships or doctoral contracts. Lorenzo appreciates that “science remains precarious in this country”. However, these young people, a characteristic he highlights, can be considered privileged. Because of the space, without excesses, the equipment, and the working conditions.
They have strong connections with healthcare centres on the island, especially with Nuestra Señora de Candelaria Hospital. Doctors or pharmacists are trained here. The department forms a group for R&D, Innovation and Development, which also takes care of the dissemination and communication of the results achieved. An initiative by the Tenerife Island Council to work on precision, personalized medicine, from the Canary Islands and for the Canarian people. The department’s work is focused on studying genetic variation which is responsible or causative of disease. It is known that 70% of human diseases have a genetic cause.
Lorenzo explains, “The tools we use are called massive sequencers that allow us to check, in extremely high resolution and with great statistical robustness, all positions of your genomes”. He adds: “We can know the letters that make up your genomes. They are the instructions that serve to build new beings. All that information is encoded in DNA”. In summary: “With the resources we have equipped ourselves with in the last seven years, we are capable of obtaining a map with very high resolution of genetic sequences of any species, not just humans, although we are focused on them”. He emphasizes that “we have been sequencing the famous SARS-CoV-2 virus (covid) with special dedication to PCR. We know it is SARS-CoV-2, but then there are the variants; alpha, beta, gamma…”
José Lorenzo values: “We have always had the support of the three island corporations that have come through since 2026. It took them just ten minutes to understand the need to invest in this technology and in this group, as demonstrated by the unanimous support of the plenary in June 2022”.
He recalls that “in 2020, while everyone was opening their Christmas gifts, we learned about the first virus sequence and saw that it was a SARS type. The alarms were immediately raised, and our role, as he said, was quite relevant although very quiet because when working in human health, all reserves must be kept”.
He goes on to explain: “Some of us, instead of being confined at home, worked day and night helping our colleagues at the hospital to do PCR tests. We helped optimize and speed up the methods to obtain them and be able to assist during the critical moment of the pandemic. Thousands of people were entering the emergency rooms, and it was necessary to accelerate the diagnostic process”.
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The fight against covid-19 continues to this day, although, he emphasizes, “we have shifted from addressing the emergency and assisting in the virus characterization for vaccines to focusing more on patients and the aftereffects of the disease. We try to elucidate the reasons why some patients suffer from a more severe covid or have pathologies similar to pulmonary fibrosis. In this field, we are a powerful and cutting-edge group. We collaborate with others from America and the UK who have a lot of experience in hormonal fibrosis issues”.
