Objective
According to ECDC, over 4 million healthcare-associated infections in the EU cause 37,000 deaths and cost EUR 7 billion/year. Half of them are related to medical devices (i.e. catheters, implants) and 80% of these are related to bacterial biofilms. A recent EC report highlighted the medical device sector’s role in driving EU economic growth, employing 500k people in 25k companies (80% are SMEs) with annual sales of EUR 85 billion. The strategy to prevent medical device-infections is alteration of the device’s surface with antimicrobials. However, current antimicrobial surfaces don’t control bacterial growth in tissue surrounding implants, and only Sterilex® has received regulatory approval in the US as anti-biofilm agent. Participants in this proposal have earlier demonstrated a dramatic in vitro inhibition of biofilm formation by 3D-printing surfaces with antibiotics incorporated into the carrier polymers. This discovery opens new possibilities for printed medical devices that better resist biofilms. Our objective is to set-up a new European education platform to guide and inspire young researchers in the intersectoral exploration of innovative routes to counteract microbial biofilms by fabricating anti-infective, tailored, 3D-printed medical devices. Current opportunities for young researchers to receive an structured, inter-sectoral and up-to-date education on personalized medicine and medical devices are marginal, and to our knowledge PRINT-AID is the first ETN set up for this purpose. State-of-the-art printing technologies will be combined with in vitro and in vivo biofilm models and novel tools for data integration/standardization. Doctoral training will be performed within a high-quality network of 12 participants (5 industrial) from the EU and US. It will include online and face-to-face courses taught by researchers with academic and industrial expertise in biofilms, 3D-printing research, antimicrobials, material science, and drug development.
Fields of science
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacydrug discovery
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologybacteriology
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsantibiotics
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespersonalized medicine
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmanufacturing engineeringadditive manufacturing
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-ITN-ETN - European Training NetworksCoordinator
00014 Helsingin Yliopisto
Finland
See on map
Participants (8)
9000 Gent
See on map
00-661 Warszawa
See on map
2110 Wijnegem
See on map
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
2000 Antwerpen
See on map
Participation ended
1105AZ Amsterdam
37135 Verona
See on map
4099-002 Porto
See on map
1105AZ Amsterdam Zuidoost
See on map
Partners (4)
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
59717 Bozeman
See on map
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
2435 NM Zevenhove
See on map
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
24240 Salo
See on map
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
59715 Bozeman
See on map