Project description
Promising 'skins' created from a patient's own skin cells are moving through clinical trials
The primary function of the skin is protection from mechanical impact, temperature changes, microorganisms, chemicals and radiation. Millions of people worldwide suffer from severe skin damage and removing that critical barrier exposes them to dangerous pathogens. Surgical interventions such as skin grafts are often painful and plagued by scarring. Further, multiple surgeries may be necessary to address the damage. SkinFactory 2.0 has developed the technology to produce novel, bioengineered skin grafts from a patient's own cells. The grafts are currently in phase II clinical trials in Europe. EU funding is supporting the application of cutting-edge 'Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)-in-a-box' technology for en masse production of autologous cell therapies, overcoming current methods limited to small quantities under the strictest GMP guidelines.
Objective
CUTISS AG is a Swiss start-up company that develops customized human skin autografts (denovoSkin™) for the treatment of large skin defects like burns and malformations. DenovoSkin™ possesses the right features to minimize scarring after transplantation and is currently in clinical phase II in Europe. While manual production of denovoSkin™ is sufficient in the development phase and clinical trials, automation of the manufacturing process is essential to scale the technology for larger demand and internationalization, and to be competitive with current standard treatments. The proposed recruitment of an Innovation Associate will have significant impact on the development of an automated system for the manufacturing of denovoSkin™ (SkinFactory 2.0) enabling production lines at industrial scale and around the world. The grant will help to overcome the recruitment barriers of being a relatively unknown, small start-up enterprise that cannot compete with larger companies due to limited visibility, brand awareness, (perceived) career opportunities, salary and recruitment budget. The translation of the manual production process of denovoSkin™ to an GMP-in-a-box automation platform requires the employment of a multi-disciplinary researcher that understands both the cell biology and complex requirements of tissue engineering as well as the mechatronics and industrial design of automation. The envisaged Innovation Associate has to bring a multidisciplinary set of skills in to CUTISS and will have the opportunity to become an expert in the emerging field of bio-engineering. It is in the interest of the company to continue the employment after the initial year in order to develop the delivered prototype into an industrially producible end product. Successful market introduction of SkinFactory 2.0 will put CUTISS in the forefront of a new, emerging field of automated production of personalized, bio-engineered tissue, which is expected to change medicine radically.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringcontrol systems
- social sciencessociologyindustrial relationsautomation
- medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnologytissue engineering
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementemployment
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinetransplantation
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
CSA - Coordination and support actionCoordinator
8006 Zurich
Switzerland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.