Competitive call for joining as partners the FP7 ‘ENCITE’ health project
In order to address the current needs in cell imaging and tracking and to address a significantly wide variety of cell therapies, horizontal (generic) and vertical (specific) subprojects within the ENCITE project comprise the following objectives: • New imaging methods to improve the spatio-temporal tracking of labelled cells • Dual- and multimodality imaging procedures to cross-validate each individual approach • New contrast agents and procedures that will improve the sensitivity and specificity of cellular labelling • Combining of molecular biology for the generation of molecular and cellular imaging reporters with multimodal imaging techniques The development of relevant imaging tools will lead to a better understanding of how cell therapy works, the possibility of response monitoring in patients and sufficient safety of the treatment. ENCITE is launching a competitive call to incorporate new partners to carry out tasks in the following research fields: A) Development of novel imaging techniques for cell tracking B) Visualisation of the localisation of stem/precursor cells in the spinal cord; Monitoring of changes in their functional state “in vivo” including differentiation C) Development of novel reporter genes and generating reporter mice for in vivo imaging (iron protein transporter MRI reporters, magnetite synthesis MRI reporters) D) Development of novel approaches for imaging cell death (extracellular MRI contrast agents for detection of cell death, endogenous contrast MRI markers of cell death) E) Pre-clinical and/or clinical validation of novel imaging techniques for cell tracking in cardiovascular disease, in particular myocardial infarction (tracking of transplanted cells, assessment of myocardial regeneration) F) Visualisation of cellular activity in cancer patients G) Sequences for the visualization of SPIO labelled cells (pancreatic islets) transplanted to patients at clinical scanners The full text version including guidelines for applicants can be downloaded at www.encite.org Date of close of call: 25/03/2009 Time of close of call: 17h00 (GMT+1) Proposals should be in English and submitted electronically to: ehaas@eibir.org ENCITE is co-ordinated by the European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research.
Countries
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, United Kingdom