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From cells to systems: Pioneering multi-level thrombosis risk prediction models - “ThromboRisk”

Project description

Multiscale approach to thrombosis and personalised treatment

Blood clots, or thrombosis, cause one in four deaths worldwide. They result in strokes, heart attacks, and venous blockages. Knowing how clots form, grow, or break apart is essential to predict outcomes and customise treatments. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the ThromboRisk project aims to train doctoral candidates to study thrombosis at various levels. Specifically, it will combine computer models, lab experiments, and clinical data. The project will develop tools to improve individualised prognosis and therapies. It will also prepare researchers to tackle complex health issues with innovative solutions that benefit society.

Objective

"Thrombosis, an occlusive blood clot, underlies ischemic stroke, myocardial infarction, and venous thrombosis, causing 1 in 4 deaths globally. Its incidence is rising due to an increasingly aging population and increased cardiovascular diseases, along with more cardiovascular implants. Unfortunately, limited understanding of thrombus formation, growth, and rupture hampers patient-specific prognosis. Current treatment strategies include antithrombotic therapy and thrombectomy, but improvements are needed for patient-specific treatments due to common recurrence and unknown impacts on clot fragmentation and thromboembolism.
To effectively understand disease mechanisms and accurately predict treatment outcomes, it is crucial to integrate knowledge across multiple scales, harnessing a diverse range of cutting-edge in silico, in vitro, and in vivo technologies. This powerful fusion of emerging technologies holds the potential to revolutionize targeted and personalized medicine. However, there remains a significant shortage of trained professionals capable of co-creating such comprehensive and holistic disease models.
ThromboRisk will therefore train 18 exceptional doctoral candidates (DCs) in diverse scientific fields, including mechanobiology, biochemistry, pathophysiology, and modeling. These researchers will collaborate within an international and interdisciplinary consortium to develop a platform advancing our understanding of thrombosis across scales, hereby bridging the gap between micro-level thrombus processes and macro-level impacts on disease prognosis, enabling clinical application.
Unlike traditional engineering curricula, which address well-defined problems, ThromboRisk tackles complex, multifactorial ""wicked problems"" in fields of thrombosis by implementing a Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) doctoral training program to foster creativity, innovation, and societal impact. CBL is growing in undergraduate education but remains underdeveloped in doctoral training, where it has the potential to encourage DCs to step outside their comfort zones, think creatively, manage risks, and use technology responsibly in problem-solving. The DCs will work on real-world problems with peers, supervisors, consortium members, and external stakeholders, who act as ""real clients"" and co-creators."

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-DN - HORIZON TMA MSCA Doctoral Networks

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-DN-01

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Coordinator

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN
Net EU contribution
€ 610 571,52
Address
GROENE LOPER 3
5612 AE Eindhoven
Netherlands
Region
Zuid-Nederland Noord-Brabant Zuidoost-Noord-Brabant
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data

Participants (8)

Partners (9)