Self-feeding implants to improve and accelerate tissue healing using nutritional nanoparticles

Descripción del proyecto

Implantes óseos con autoalimentación

Los implantes óseos tienen un papel crucial en la industria médica, pero su elevada tasa de fracaso aumenta los costes sanitarios y disminuye la calidad de vida de los pacientes. Uno de los principales retos consiste en mantener la viabilidad de los grandes tejidos vivos. Investigaciones recientes han demostrado que el glucógeno puede favorecer la supervivencia de los implantes a largo plazo, promover la formación de tejido, reducir la inflamación y aumentar la vascularización. El proyecto NutriBone, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, tiene como objetivo abordar los defectos óseos de tamaño crítico mediante el desarrollo de un implante óseo autoalimentado. El equipo del proyecto se centrará en defectos óseos significativos y trabajará para crear un producto mínimo viable, una hoja de ruta de certificación, un estudio de mercado y un plan de negocio. El concepto de autoalimentación sugiere que los tejidos deben crear sus propios nutrientes cuando el entorno no puede proporcionárselos.

Objetivo

Keeping large (>1cm3) living tissues alive is an unresolved key challenge that hinders many clinical and industrial applications, including tissue/organ transplants, engineered tissues, drug screening models, and lab grown meat. While natural tissues within our body are continuously provided with nutrients via the blood stream, engineered, explanted, or even implanted tissues have to rely on the slow diffusion of nutrients until perfused vascularization is achieved. This commonly leads to tissue starvation, which inevitably causes tissue failure.

The NutriBone project is based on the logical yet never before explored premise that these tissues need to provide their own nutrients if the environment cannot do so. This is an innovative concept named self-feeding. We have surprisingly discovered that glycogen offers cell-driven long-term release of physiologically relevant quantities of glucose enabling long-term implant survival, accelerated tissue formation, reduced inflammation and immune responses, and improved vascularization. As this approach is a first-of-its-kind, we have patented it and here propose its valorisation.

We propose to develop a marketable self-feeding bone implant to address the current clinical challenge of critically sized bone defects. Although our technology is relevant for many clinical applications, we will focus on large bone defects. Bone is the second most implanted tissue but implant failure remains high, leading to high medical cost and low quality of life for patients. Moreover, bone implants represent the largest, and still fast growing market for engineered tissues, while awaiting a solution to maintain implant viability. Thus, we can foresee a concrete path-to-market. To this end, we will perform product development towards a minimum viable product, establishing a roadmap for certification, and market research as well business plan development to ensure a good product-market fit including a market entry and exit strategy.