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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Training4CRM (European Training Network for Cell-based Regenerative Medicine)

Teaser

Summary

Training4CRM is addressing existing gaps within Cell-based Regenerative Medicine (CRM) for treatment of neurological diseases such as ParkinsonÂ´s, HuntingtonÂ´s, and Epilepsy, which occur as a result of progressive loss of structure, function and/or death of neurons in the brain. These disorders have a high prevalence and are associated with short- and long-term impairments and disabilities with high emotional, financial and social burden to the patients, their families and their social network.
In the Training4CRM project we have now established an inter- and transdisciplinary educational program for young Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) from different scientific disciplines whom at the end of their education will be equipped with both scientific- and transferable skills and accustomed to stepping out of their comfort zones, working together on new ideas and problems, with the ambition to reach new horizons in cell regenerative medicine together.

In order to meet the gap within CRM for the mentioned neurological disorders, the overall objective has been to recruit, educate and train 15 ESRs in a specially designed Training for CRM program in which the ESRs will become accomplished within and across different scientific disciplines, mastering the design, fabrication and testing of completely new tools and materials relevant to CRM within the fields of micro-and nanoengineering, biotechnology and pre-clinincal studies. At the end of the program the ultimate goal is that the ESRs have developed into highly inter-disciplinary researchers with transferrable skills, capable of mastering techniques and methods across the borders of their own disciplines, recognizing ideas applicable to their own work, as well as being able to communicate and exploit their research and findings to the benefit for society as a whole.

Work performed

As seen in Figure 1, the Training4CRM program is centred around three scientific & technological workpackages, WP1-3, each with dedicated ESRs linked to them. ESRs 1-7 and 15 are linked to WP1. ESR8-11 are linked to WP2 and ESRs 12-15 are linked to WP3. However, it should be noted that this is not a strict link since the different ESRs have contributed, have been collaborating and are expected to collaborate across WPs and disciplines, as will be seen in the WP reports below.

WP4 involves project management and WP5 training and education of ESRs in cross-disciplinary scientific topics related to the project as well as various transferrable skills. All ESRs have participated in the two first research school (RS1-Micro and Nanoengineering and RS2-Biotechnology) and RS3-Pre-clinical analysis will take place directly following the midterm review meeting. WP6 involves the projectÂ´s communication and exploitation strategies and is linked to the training program in WP5 through the upcoming RS4-Exploitation of knowledge, which will take place in February 2019.
In the midterm review report the Commission stated that: The project has achieved most of its objectives and technical goals for the period and that good progress has been made in all aspects and for all proposed goals. Further, that milestones and deliverables are progressing well and all fellows have well defined research projects. The supervisory board is active in overseeing the research and training of the fellows and actively engages in strengthening the network collaboration. There is a meaningful cooperation between partners, and which promotes numerous interactions between fellows.

The consortium finds that the good integration between the different project participants, is facilitating the good progress.

Final results

The number of PD patients is predicted to double by 2030 due to the ageing population, and neurogenerative diseases, such as Epilepsy and PD, are estimated to surpass cancer as the most common group of medical conditions by 2040. Moreover, the annual European cost of PD and Epilepsy is estimated at approx. 27 billion Euro, with a clearly rising trend. To deal with this societal-wide burden, challenge-driven multidisciplinary research and innovation is needed to develop intelligent optogenetic DBS implants for neurodegenerative diseases. The formalised inter-disciplinary training and the wide set of transferrable skills, potentiates the ESRs employability. By moving between the complementary research groups in Training4CRM, ESRs will transfer cutting-edge knowledge from leading universities into relevant companies and bring new business and research perspectives from industry to academia. The ESRs will receive an integrated academic/commercial program far beyond what would be possible through work at any single institution or an exclusively academic doctoral programme. The interdisciplinary and intercultural knowledge acquired within the research training program, the transferrable skills training, and the exposure to training in entrepreneurship by the industrial partners will generate highly employable researchers for jobs in academia and in industry research, development and production/commercialization in both established companies and small start-up companies.