UM and Sabanci University mark early progress on microRNA Research Project

The BioGeMT team at the Centre for Molecular Medicine & Biobanking at the University of Malta continues its international research collaboration with Sabanci University in Türkiye through the PHACT-miRBind project, a 24-month initiative focused on advancing research in microRNA target prediction. The project is funded under the Xjenza Malta/TÜBİTAK joint call for Research and Innovation proposals in Artificial Intelligence in Health.

Since the project’s launch in 2025, the two partner teams have continued work on the first phase of the collaboration, while also strengthening coordination through regular exchanges and joint planning. A collaborative meeting hosted at Sabanci University in Istanbul between 24 and 28 November 2025 provided an opportunity to review progress achieved so far and plan the next phase of the project.

The visit formed part of the project’s broader international collaboration framework, which includes bilateral visits, periodic joint meetings and continued knowledge exchange between the Maltese and Turkish teams. The partnership brings together complementary expertise from the two institutions, with the University of Malta contributing strengths in microRNA biology and machine learning, and Sabanci University contributing expertise in phylogenetic and evolutionary analysis.

The project has also reached an early public milestone through the release of its first dataset, reflecting the partners’ shared commitment to open and accessible research outputs in line with the project’s wider objectives.

The PHACT-miRBind project is led at UM by Prof. Panagiotis Alexiou, while the Sabanci University team is headed by Dr Ogün Adebali. The collaboration will continue over the coming months with further joint research activities and continued engagement between the two institutions.

The project is funded by Xjenza Malta and TÜBİTAK.