Descrizione del progetto
«Pelli» promettenti create da cellule cutanee proprie del paziente in fase di sperimentazione clinica
La principale funzione della pelle è quella di proteggere l’organismo da urti meccanici, sbalzi di temperatura, microrganismi, sostanze chimiche e radiazioni. Milioni di persone in tutto il mondo soffrono di gravi problemi alla pelle e la rimozione di tale fondamentale barriera li espone ad agenti patogeni pericolosi. Interventi chirurgici quali gli innesti cutanei sono spesso dolorosi e deturpanti a causa delle cicatrici. Inoltre, potrebbero essere necessari più interventi chirurgici per riuscire a risolvere il danno. SkinFactory 2.0 ha sviluppato una tecnologia per produrre nuovi innesti cutanei bioingegnerizzati dalle cellule proprie del paziente. Gli innesti sono attualmente nella fase II di sperimentazione clinica in Europa. I finanziamenti dell’UE stanno supportando l’applicazione della tecnologia all’avanguardia «Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)-in-a-box» per la produzione in serie di terapie cellulari autologhe, superando i metodi attuali limitati a piccole quantità secondo le più rigide linee guida delle buone prassi di fabbricazione.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
- 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
Programma(i)
Invito a presentare proposte
Vedi altri progetti per questo bandoBando secondario
H2020-INNOSUP-2019-02
Meccanismo di finanziamento
CSA - Coordination and support actionCoordinatore
8006 Zurich
Svizzera
L’organizzazione si è definita una PMI (piccola e media impresa) al momento della firma dell’accordo di sovvenzione.