Ricardo de la Torre, CEO and co-founder of 60Nd: “The CDTI Innovation helps us to promote NeoMag, a platform to simulate diseases and improve drug development”

Biomedical research is increasingly moving towards models capable of more accurately reproducing what happens in the human body. For decades, many preclinical trials have been conducted in static environments, far removed from the real conditions in which cells live, behave and become ill. However, human tissues are not immobile systems: the heart beats, the lungs expand, blood circulates with pressure, the skin deforms and the muscles contract.

In this context, 60Nd works, a spin-off of the Carlos III University of Madrid located in the UC3M Scientific Park of Leganés, which develops technology to induce mechanical activations in cells through magneto-sensitive materials. Its aim is to open up new possibilities in the fields of mechanobiology and mechanomedicine, two disciplines that study how physical forces influence cellular behavior and the development of diseases.

The company develops, with the support of CDTI Innovation through NEOTEC, the NeoMag project, a magneto-mechanical platform to simulate pathological processes on biological systems. The technology allows to apply mechanical forces on cells in a dynamic, reversible, remote and non-invasive way, with the aim of generating in vitro models closer to the real conditions of human tissues.

According to Ricardo de la Torre, CEO and co-founder of 60Nd, the company emerges “with a very specific mission”: to put at the service of the pharmaceutical industry a disruptive technology developed at UC3M that allows to study diseases incorporating the mechanical dimension, “something that until now was practically inaccessible outside a handful of highly specialized academic groups”.

Founding team of 60Nd
 

Models closest to the human body

The development of new drugs remains a long, costly and high-failure process, especially as compounds advance into clinical phases. For 60Nd, part of that problem is related to the limitations of traditional preclinical models, which do not always adequately reproduce the actual environment in which the cells are located within the body.

“In vitro biology has traditionally been studied in static conditions, on rigid plastic plates, in conditions that do not at all resemble the real environment of the human body,” says De la Torre. Faced with this, the company defends the need to incorporate a variable that for years has been difficult to control in the laboratory: the mechanical dimension.

The cells do not respond only to chemical signals. They also perceive the rigidity, tension, movement, or deformation of the surrounding environment. This phenomenon, known as mechanotransduction, intervenes in very diverse biological and pathological processes, from tumor progression to cardiac or pulmonary fibrosis, skin scarring or tissue aging.

For the 60Nd CEO, ignoring this component involves analyzing only a portion of the problem. “If we study a disease by ignoring its mechanical component, we are seeing only part of the problem,” he says. And he adds: “One of the reasons why many drugs work on plaque but subsequently fail in the clinic is that the mechanical environment in which they are tested does not resemble that of real tissue.”

Mechanomedicine seeks precisely to move in that direction: to understand how mechanical forces influence biological processes and to use that knowledge to develop new therapies, diagnostic tools or research models.
 

NeoMag: a platform for simulating pathological processes

The NeoMag project was born to respond to that need. The platform combines three elements: a device capable of generating controlled magnetic fields with five degrees of freedom; smart, biocompatible cell culture substrates with magnetic particles; and software based on computational physical models and artificial intelligence, aimed at designing experimental protocols and analyzing results.

As a good summary De la Torre: “The simplest explanation is that the researcher places his cells on one of the 60Nd substrates, introduces them into the device and the platform applies on them the mechanical forces defined for the experiment. All this without touching them, in a reversible and reproducible way.” In this way, NeoMag can simulate phenomena such as a beat, a pulmonary expansion, the rigidity of a tumor or the deformation suffered by the skin.

One of the advantages of the technology is its compatibility with standard microscopes and with equipment already present in many laboratories. This feature is especially relevant to facilitate its adoption by research centers, pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers of biomedical instrumentation.

The platform allows you to work in different areas of application. In oncology, 60Nd studies how certain deformation patterns of the tumor microenvironment influence cell migration and the response to chemotherapy. In cardiac, pulmonary, or hepatic fibrosis, it transmits forces associated with tissue remodeling to the sample. In dermatology and cosmetics, it reproduces deformations linked to processes of healing, aging and fibroblast response. And in neurology, the company has worked with astrocytes subjected to deformations that reproduce conditions related to stroke or traumatic brain injury.

NeoMag device developed by 60Nd
 

New possibilities for drug development

The potential impact of NeoMag lies especially in the development of new drugs and therapies. The platform can contribute to improving the predictive quality of preclinical trials by allowing compounds to be tested in in vitro models that better reproduce the mechanical conditions of the actual tissue.

Además, NeoMag abre la puerta al cribado de fármacos dirigidos a dianas mecanosensibles. As interest in force-modulated channels and pathways grows, tools capable of testing composites under relevant mechanical conditions are needed. “There are more and more therapeutic programs that act on channels and pathways modulated by forces,” explains De la Torre. NeoMag allows those compounds to be studied in an environment that standard tools do not offer.

The technology also aligns with the progressive replacement of animal models, offering more physiological in vitro models. In addition, for its contribution to biomedical research and the development of new technological tools, the project is linked to the Sustainable Development Goals, especially with SDG 3, health and welfare, and SDG 9, industry, innovation and infrastructure.
 

A contactless and laboratory-compatible technology

One of the differential elements of NeoMag is that it applies mechanical forces without direct physical contact with the sample. Many existing systems deform samples by grips or mechanical elements that can limit the modes of deformation, damage the biological material, or make it difficult to combine with live imaging techniques. Instead, 60Nd uses magnetic fields to act remotely.

Added to this is the versatility of the platform. Its five degrees of freedom allow complex, dynamic and reversible deformation patterns to be generated, including movements such as rotation, beyond simple stretches. The integration with standard microscopy, both vertical and inverted, and with nanoindentation and advanced imaging equipment, strengthens its potential for use in existing research environments.

The company also highlights the role of software, which turns the device into a comprehensive platform. The work of computational modeling and artificial intelligence allows to design experiments and analyze results, providing an additional layer of value against a purely instrumental equipment.

Another of the relevant features is portability. NeoMag fits in the palm of the hand and can be introduced directly into a cell incubator, allowing physiological culture conditions to be maintained throughout the experiment. For De la Torre, this combination of contactless performance, versatility, compatibility, software and portability makes a clear difference: “Today there is no other commercial product that combines these five elements.”
 

NeoMag integrated in a microscopic environment
 

The push of NEOTEC at a key stage

60Nd is based on a technology developed in the research environment of the Carlos III University of Madrid and protected by patent applications in Europe and the United States, transferred exclusively to the company. Now, the challenge is to transform that scientific base into an industrializable, scalable and market-oriented product.

In this process, the support of CDTI Innovation through NEOTEC has been a decisive impulse. “It came at a key moment, when we had a technology validated in the academic field but not yet an industrializable product,” says the CEO.

The funding has made it possible to scale up the production of consumable substrates, redesign the hardware according to manufacturing criteria and strengthen the equipment. In addition, this support has brought credibility to customers, partners and investors. “Without NEOTEC, the schedule would be different and much slower,” he says.
 

Towards a European reference in mechanomedicine

The reception of NeoMag confirms the interest of mechanomedicine in the research and industrial field. 60Nd has letters of support and pilots with centers such as the University of California San Francisco, Imperial College London, University College London or the Institute of Nanoscience and Materials of Aragon, and maintains contact with international reference groups and companies in the pharmaceutical and instrumentation sector.

For De la Torre, the message the market receives is clear: “There is a real gap in the market and NeoMag is the first tool that covers it completely.” In the short term, the company focuses its efforts on executing the EIC Transition project, advancing the product to levels close to commercialization, consolidating its first industrial customers and expanding the equipment.

In the medium term, 60Nd aims to have a stable commercial presence in Europe and the United States, expand its patent portfolio and contribute to the consolidation of mechanobiology as a standard preclinical tool, maintaining the DNA of “a young, European company, with solid scientific credentials

Thus, the support of the CDTI Innovation through NEOTEC contributes to bring to the market a science-based technology with university origin and potential to promote new tools in biomedical research.
 

CDTI Innovation

The Center for Technological Development and Innovation, CDTI E.P.E. It is the innovation agency of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, whose objective is the promotion of technological innovation in the business environment. The mission of the CDTI is to ensure that the Spanish business fabric generates and transforms scientific and technical knowledge into globally competitive, sustainable and inclusive growth. In 2025, within the framework of the Strategic Plan 2024-2027, the CDTI provided 2,423 million euros of support to Spanish companies and startups.

 
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