IMPLANTSENS is coming soon!!
Starting with the Project!!
INTRODUCTION
EYOWN TECHNOLOGIES is pleased to announce the start of the IMPLANTSENS ITN project, funded by the European Union within Horizon 2020.
IMPLANTSENS is the extension and improvement of the BIOENERGY project that began in 2013 whose purpose is to contribute to the training and formation of our young scientists so that in their maturity they can reach the goals proposed in the area of Biomedicine and the development of Sustainable Energies; the only way to stop Climate Change and the irreversible deterioration of our planet.
In this sense, our participation in the project is both a source of pride and a enormous responsibility.
EXCELLENCE
What are the future visions in biomedical diagnostics? How can we provide tools which control the glucose level of diabetic people at high quality, continuously, pain‐free and over a long term to allow them to live a life similar to that of non‐diabetic people? Can this concept be transferred to other analytes allowing us to monitor the health status of large numbers of people in specific locations to prevent further infection and pandemic outbreaks, or to manage other chronic diseases?
Do we provide adequate education in our European universities to enable young researchers to tackle such challenging interdisciplinary questions that span research fields and affect many different countries? These are all important questions to answer in order to improve our quality of life.
How do we motivate the best young researchers to be flexible, international and brave enough to seek out the best research groups in Europe in order for them to contribute to an improved future? How do we train them to be not only highly responsible scientists but also willing to actively engage with the private sector?
Now this current project can bring us closer to science fiction shown in the film. Our goal would be a small non-human piloted submarine equipped with biosensors become reality.
Important biomedical applications in the far future will be stable over extended time periods, provide access to information or even allow local release of drugs and this will need local energy generation; things which are not achievable today.
Can we imagine a miniaturized submarine actively moving through blood vessels and having integrated sensors and tools, or that can release a drug stored in a polymer structure exactly at a predefined release site that is otherwise inaccessible? A metastasis? A clogged area of a blood vessel?
A specific site in the heart or even in the brain?. These objectives, which until recently were only mere chimeras in writers or film scriptwriters’ imagination can be a real in a short time.
Remember the film “Fantastic Voyage”?. In this 1966 film by Richard Fleischer, a miniaturized submarine called “Proteus” manned by doctors US militaries manages to reduce a brain clot in an important patient.
This project, IMPLANTSENS, is that vision.
Technological advances allow us to realize what half century ago was just fantasy!!
Would you like to collaborate on this project?
Keep reading and you will find the link to be part of the development group.
ImplantSens will answer all these questions while developing implantable long‐term stable biosensors by overcoming mass‐transport based sensing schemes in an innovative research and training program.
ImplantSens will achieve the education and training of young researchers using cutting‐edge science and technology in a strategically important interdisciplinary research field with strong links to the private sector.
The research program objective of ImplantSens is to develop implantable long‐term stable electrochemical biosensors by overcoming mass‐transport based sensing schemes. This will be achieved through innovative, cutting‐edge research to develop specific measuring protocols for designed enzymes to switch them between ON and OFF state, thus preventing any mass‐transport dependent perturbation of the substrate concentration from equilibrium. Achievement of the research program objective will require development of novel enzymes, nanostructured electrode surfaces, specifically designed immobilization techniques and redox polymers coupled to optimized applied potential sequences to switch on and off the enzymes.
ImplantSens will: (i) provide young researchers with the necessary fundamental knowledge and experimental skills to develop a comprehensive understanding of the interdisciplinary field of long‐term stable implantable biosensors; (ii) offer a multi‐disciplinary research education and training program to young researchers by combining knowledge of fundamental electrochemistry, bioelectrochemistry, organic chemistry for surface modification, nanotechnology, nanomaterials design, enzyme engineering, biotechnological processes for enzyme production, and bioanalysis together with at least a basic knowledge of the physiology and integrated electronics required to develop long‐term stable electrochemical biosensors which are unaffected by tissue encapsulation after implantation. ImplantSens will overcome a previously unsolved problem concerning implanted electrochemical sensors and will hence not only contribute to the painless long‐term monitoring of glucose levels for diabetic patients but also to the development of future implantable sensors for the management of other chronic diseases.
Hence, ImplantSens is highly timely and of utmost importance, considering the ageing population in Europe, the steadily increasing economic costs for blood glucose self‐monitoring, and societal impact if continuous monitoring systems are not improved to encourage adoption by the population.
The education and training of ImplantSens fellows will be based on a structured academic curriculum including workshops on generic skills and instrumentation, on‐site research training at state‐of‐the‐art research laboratories, and training at industrial sites. The highly‐skilled early‐stage researchers (ESRs) of ImplantSens, with good industrial experience, education in multidisciplinary fields of science and engineering, and PhDs in chemistry, biochemistry, biotechnology, materials science or engineering, will contribute to enhancing excellence of European research organizations and industries both during, and on completion, of their training.
EYOWN & ICP-CSIC
The participation of EYOWN TECHNOLOGIES in this project would not have been possible without the close collaboration with Miguel Alcalde Directed Enzyme Evolution Research Group Director, from the Instituto de Catálisis y Petroleoquímica (ICP-CSIC).
This research group is primarily focused on the engineering of enzymes by directed evolution and computational design for a wide range of biotechnological purposes; the development of high-throughput biomolecular screening tools and genetic methods for library construction and exploration, as well as synthetic biology studies for environmental and energy applications
During this project timing our ESRs will work together in EYOWN Technologies facilities in Tres Cantos and in the Directed Enzyme Evolution laboratory on Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco Campus.
Advanced technology
Our EYOWN facilities in Tres Cantos are equipped with the most advanced technology in Robotic Laboratory Systems and Bioinformatics LIMS applications for automating and optimizing the High Throughput Biomolecular Screening necessary during the timing of this project.
