Biodesign: Strategic alliance in regenerative medicine kicks off
1 February 2012
Austria
Uppsala (Sweden)- Biodesign (www.biodesign.eu.com) is a major collaboration initiative funded by the 7th framework programme of the European Commission. Coordinated by Professor Jons Hilborn from Uppsala University, the alliance is focusing on the modular design and pre-clinical validation of state of the art biomaterials that can actively promote tissue repair in bone, muscle and cardiovascular tissue.
The international partnership brings together 21 groups from leading European, Israeli and Malaysian academic centres, small companies and large medical device companies.
Treatment of conditions caused by damaged or lost tissue as a part of ageing or disease is a major challenge and creates significant socio and economic burden. There are few donors and innovative therapies represent the best strategy for cure. Starting this year, BIODESIGN, will develop methods to use functional materials potentially with stem cells, and growth factors, to get the body to heal itself.
The demand for organ transplants is great, but there are few donors. This has led to the development of an interdisciplinary research field called “regenerative medicine.” This field should be able to help patients with severe burn injuries, muscle injury, cardiovascular problems or patients with broken bones that are not healing.
However, the development of regenerative methods is very slow, owing to lack of infrastructure and communication between research teams and industry. It takes many years for an ultramodern technology to go through all the testing, with comprehensive pre clinical tests necessary before transfer to humans. Very few technologies result in finished medical products that reach the market.
BIODESIGN is seeking solutions to rationalize the entire process from idea to market. It started on January 1, 2012, under the leadership of Jons Hilborn from the research programme Polymer Chemistry - Ångström, Uppsala University. The project has a mission is to create close collaboration between large and small companies and leading research teams in regenerative medicine. The aliiance brings together 21 partners of which 15 academic labs and many opinion leaders in the field from the University of Uppsala, the ETH in Zurich, the AO foundation, the University of Nottingham campuses from the UK and Malaysia, University College and Kings College London, the Universities of Keele and Southampton, the Technion, the EPFL, Regentis, Regentec, Termira and Stryker.
This represents the combination of valuable knowledge and many years of practical and clinical experience that can facilitate a more rapid development and optimization of functional materials and also reduce the number of animal experiments required.
“Incredibly exciting. With our experience of bringing new molecules and materials to clinic, together with leading researchers we can get greater leverage and tackle challenges in a way that wasn’t possible in the past.,” says Jöns Hilborn, professor at the Department of Chemistry - Ångström, Uppsala University.
The international partnership brings together 21 groups from leading European, Israeli and Malaysian academic centres, small companies and large medical device companies.
Treatment of conditions caused by damaged or lost tissue as a part of ageing or disease is a major challenge and creates significant socio and economic burden. There are few donors and innovative therapies represent the best strategy for cure. Starting this year, BIODESIGN, will develop methods to use functional materials potentially with stem cells, and growth factors, to get the body to heal itself.
The demand for organ transplants is great, but there are few donors. This has led to the development of an interdisciplinary research field called “regenerative medicine.” This field should be able to help patients with severe burn injuries, muscle injury, cardiovascular problems or patients with broken bones that are not healing.
However, the development of regenerative methods is very slow, owing to lack of infrastructure and communication between research teams and industry. It takes many years for an ultramodern technology to go through all the testing, with comprehensive pre clinical tests necessary before transfer to humans. Very few technologies result in finished medical products that reach the market.
BIODESIGN is seeking solutions to rationalize the entire process from idea to market. It started on January 1, 2012, under the leadership of Jons Hilborn from the research programme Polymer Chemistry - Ångström, Uppsala University. The project has a mission is to create close collaboration between large and small companies and leading research teams in regenerative medicine. The aliiance brings together 21 partners of which 15 academic labs and many opinion leaders in the field from the University of Uppsala, the ETH in Zurich, the AO foundation, the University of Nottingham campuses from the UK and Malaysia, University College and Kings College London, the Universities of Keele and Southampton, the Technion, the EPFL, Regentis, Regentec, Termira and Stryker.
This represents the combination of valuable knowledge and many years of practical and clinical experience that can facilitate a more rapid development and optimization of functional materials and also reduce the number of animal experiments required.
“Incredibly exciting. With our experience of bringing new molecules and materials to clinic, together with leading researchers we can get greater leverage and tackle challenges in a way that wasn’t possible in the past.,” says Jöns Hilborn, professor at the Department of Chemistry - Ångström, Uppsala University.