Descripción del proyecto
Ensayos clínicos de una «piel» prometedora creada a partir de las células cutáneas del propio paciente
La función principal de la piel es proteger de los impactos mecánicos, los cambios de temperatura, los microorganismos, los productos químicos y la radiación. Millones de personas en todo el mundo sufren lesiones cutáneas graves y, al eliminarse esta barrera fundamental, se ven expuestos a patógenos peligrosos. Las intervenciones quirúrgicas como los injertos de piel suelen ser dolorosas y producir multitud de cicatrices. Además, es posible que se necesiten varias operaciones para curar el daño. SkinFactory 2.0 ha desarrollado una tecnología para producir novedosos injertos de piel mediante bioingeniería a partir de las células del paciente. En la actualidad, los injertos están en la fase II de los ensayos clínicos en Europa. La financiación europea respalda la aplicación de tecnologías de vanguardia de «conjuntos de buenas prácticas de fabricación (GMP, por sus siglas en inglés)», para la producción en masa de terapias celulares autólogas, superando los métodos actuales limitados a pequeñas cantidades en virtud a las directrices más estrictas de GMP.
Objetivo
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.
Ámbito científico
- 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
Programa(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaConvocatoria de subcontratación
H2020-INNOSUP-2019-02
Régimen de financiación
CSA - Coordination and support actionCoordinador
8006 Zurich
Suiza
Organización definida por ella misma como pequeña y mediana empresa (pyme) en el momento de la firma del acuerdo de subvención.