TheraTools has arisen as a multidisciplinary research and training network that encompasses a full academical and technological view of the development of scientific tools for the comprehensive research of malignant tumors localized beyond a biological barrier, as in brain tumors. This challenging objective needs of the concerted effort of both academic and industrial organizations. As such, TheraTools is formed by a consortium composed by (a) four academic beneficiaries (POLYMAT-University of the Basque Country, Spain; University of Aveiro, Portugal; Italian Institute of Technology, linked to Sant´Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy, and Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel). All the partners will be involved in both research and training activities framed within this network.
Specifically, TheraTools doctoral network has been carefully tailored to set up a supportive environment that instructs future leaders in the area of the development and validation of therapeutics, covering research and training areas that include biochemistry, polymer chemistry, microfluidics, 3D printing, biology, drug delivery, fabrication of cancer models, cell biology, and therapeutics. The participation of the consortium of several industrial partners makes TheraTools highly intersectorial and provides the opportunity to young researchers to follow the industrial path of the products/services that they develop in the laboratory.
TheraTools consortium aims to develop novel strategies to ensure an effective transport of biomacromolecular therapeutics across biological barriers, while protecting them from protease degradation/denaturation and allowing their sustained release at the target site to avoid off-target side-effects. In parallel, TheraTools aims at assembling biomimetic real-scale models including vascularised tumors (and not individualized cancer cells) and sensors in close proximity of the cells to facilitate temporal and spatial resolution of cell-cell and cell-therapeutic interactions, which could pave the way towards monitoring the dynamic tumor responses with much higher accessibility compared to current in vitro and in vivo models.
