Month: January 2023

March 3rd, 2023 – Zagreb, Croatia

Školska knjiga – The Great Hall, Masarykova Street 28

Nanotechnologies fundamentally change the current therapies and enable development of novel treatments and diagnostic approaches. The improvements in medical therapies and diagnostic achieved through innovative medical nanoproducts has a great and direct clinical importance and provide benefits for the patients. Hence, best practices in design and development of such nanoproducts will contribute to societal prosperity and welfare, by providing access to better and safer treatments.

This meeting aims to strengthen relations between industry, R&D&I sector, regulatory agencies, clinics, and patients with the ultimate goal of fostering the clinical translation of nanomedicine from bench to bedside. By promoting scientific exchanges, technological implementation and innovative solutions, the meeting will enable dialogue for rationalizing and focusing research efforts at the EU level in dealing with the grand challenge of nanomedicine translation for cancer therapies.

The meeting will focus on several factors that need to be discussed and considered in order to achieve the best societal impact:

1) Safety aspects: by discussing the best practices for the application of the Safe-by-Design concept during early stages of development and production of novel medical nanoproducts.

2) Regulatory aspects: by discussing necessary steps for regulatory acceptance of novel nanoproducts.

3) Training and education aspects for a solid skilled workforce and patients: by facilitating and expanding cross-disciplinary training for researchers, medical care providers, public health professionals working in industry, government, and academia, as well as for patients.

Participation is free of charge. If you would like to register, sign up with the link down below until the 20th of February 2023.

Nano2Clinic – Synergies for Clinical Translation of Nanotechnology in Cancer Therapies

Organizer: NANO2CLINIC: Cost Action CA17140 –
Cancer nanomedicine – from the bench to the bedside

Supported by: PHOENIX-OITB: Pharmaceutical Open Innovation Test Bed for Enabling Nano-pharmaceutical Innovative Products

SENDER: Safe-by-Design Approach for Development of Nano-Enabled Delivery Systems to Target the Brain

Local organizer:
Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Zagreb, Croatia

For updated information and agenda visit: phoenix-oitb.eu/news-media/

The PHOENIX-OITB project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon  2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 953110. COST Action CA 17140 “Cancer Nanomedicine from the Bench to the Bedside”  is supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).  SENDER Safe-by-Design Approach for Development of Nano-Enabled-Delivery Systems to Target the Brain is a project financed within the “Research Cooperability” Program of the Croatian Science Foundation funded from the European  Social Fund.

The Horizon Europe project NABIHEAL, coordinated by the Center for Biomedical Research Network (CIBER) at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), was launched on 11-12 January 2023 in Barcelona with the first meeting of the international consortium, formed by 14 partners from 7 countries, including research centers, universities, and private companies. 

NABIHEAL stands for “Antimicrobial Nanostructured Biomaterials for Complex Wound Healing” and is funded under the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation programme with a total budget of nearly 5 million euros over four years. NABIHEAL aims at solving two unmet medical needs in complex wound healing: on the one hand, affordable treatments for wound infections and prevention of complications during wound healing, and on the other, a strategy to optimize the composition and efficacy of wound dressings.

The kickoff meeting, held at the CSIC Researcher’s Residence in Barcelona, was opened by the project coordinator, Nora Ventosa, from CIBER and ICMAB-CSIC, and by institutional and political representatives, including Riccardo Rurali, Vice-Director of ICMAB-CSIC; Ramon Martínez Mañez, Scientific Director of CIBER-BBN; Jordi Aguasca, Director of Technological Transformation and Disruption Unit, ACCIÓ; and Xavier Aldeguer, General Director of Society of Knowledge, Transfer & Territory of the Catalan Government. The meeting provided the opportunity to interact in person with all the consortium partners and establish the first collaborative activities to ensure timely delivery of the project milestones.

Complex wound healing as a global health problem

The NABIHEAL project will advance on the synthesis of advanced nanostructured biomaterials as an alternative to the commonly used silver-based materials. “The project will work to produce multifunctional materials for the treatment of complex wound healing, which has become a global health problem. For example, in developed countries, it affects the quality of life of more than 2% of the total population,” affirms Nora Ventosa, coordinator of the project.

Complex wounds, such as chronic wounds, are highly susceptible to microbial infection and biofilm formation, and thus difficult to treat. The most common antimicrobial products to treat these infections are based on silver. However, they have several economic, environmental and safety drawbacks. The biomaterials developed within the NABIHEAL project will offer a safer, more sustainable and more cost-effective alternative.

The project aims to obtain innovative multifunctional wound healing biomaterials using affordable EU-based manufacturing technologies. In the long term, NABIHEAL could become a game-changing alternative to silver in wound healing dressings.

An International Consortium

The goals of the project will be tackled by an interdisciplinary consortium from 7 countries, combining expertise in different areas, such as synthesis and characterization of biomaterials, biocompatibility and safety, regulatory aspects and ethics, or wound healing product development and scale-up. “We are excited to launch this project, in which 8 academic institutions and 6 private companies will join forces to face the challenging problem of complex wound treatment,” adds Prof. Ventosa.  

In addition to the Center for Biomedical Research Network (CIBER) at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB), as coordinator, the international consortium is formed by the following centers and companies: from Spain, the Center for Biomedical Research Network (CIBER) at the University of Extremadura and the University of Cantabria, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Nanomol Technologies S.L. (NT), Bioiberica S.A.U (BIO), Histocell S.L (HCELL), the University of Granada (UGR), and Asphalion (ASPH); from Germany, MyBiotech GmbH (MyB) and Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin (CH); from Croatia, the Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health (IMI); from Denmark, the Aarhus University (AU); from Israel, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (IT); from Austria, BioNanoNet Forschungsgesellschaft mbH (BNN); and from Slovenia, the University of Maribor (UM).

More information:

Prof. Nora Ventosa, Project Coordinator, CIBER, ICMAB-CSIC ventosa@icmab.es

Caitlin Ahern, Communication, BioNanoNet caitlin.ahern@bnn.at