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)
Call for proposal
H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016
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Funding Scheme
MSCA-ITN-ETN - European Training NetworksCoordinator
00014 Helsingin Yliopisto
Finland
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Participants (8)
9000 Gent
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00 661 Warszawa
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2110 Wijnegem
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2000 Antwerpen
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Participation ended
1105AZ Amsterdam
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37135 Verona
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4099-002 Porto
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1105AZ Amsterdam Zuidoost
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Partners (4)
59717 Bozeman
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2435 NM Zevenhove
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24240 Salo
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59715 Bozeman
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