WURZ Universitätsklinikum Würzburg was founded more than 400 years ago and it’s one of the oldest – and modern – teaching hospital in german speaking Countries. It counts 19 clinics, 3 autonomous polyclinics and 4 clinical institutes that offer high-quality medical care and conducts cutting-edge research. Every year the Hospital accommodates more than 330.000 inpatients and outpatients.
Close cooperation with the Medical Faculty of the University of Würzburg and other research institutions enables the provision of innovative treatments in numerous fields.
The hospital is ranked as one of the best in Germany attracting patients and professionals from all over the world.
Role in TENTACLE:
WURZ is the project coordinator and it’s responsible for empowering the youth & gender equality. WURZ will lead the development and validation in lab environment the in situ 4D bioprinting procedure. The University will also participate in the development and testing, on a purposely developed phantom and the in situ 4D bioprinting procedure.
The University of Pisa is a public institution, officially established in 1343. With 20 departments and high-level research centers in multiple areas.
In TENTACLE, this institution is represented by the Biofabrication Group of the Research Center “E. Piaggio” of the University, one of the oldest interdisciplinary research and technology transfer centers in Europe. Since its foundation in September 1965, the Center “E. Piaggio” has paved the way for the convergence of minds by bringing together scientists from different fields of knowledge, with bioengineering and robotics as main research topics.
Role in TENTACLE:
UNIPI will lead the development of the lab-scale colonoscopic bioprinter, comprising both the actuation systems and the software for the multifunctioning toolhead. University of Pisa will also lead the development of the AI algorithms and quality control algorithm for the bioprinting and finally will be in charge of the design and fabrication of a human intestine phantom.
Finally, UNIPI is responsible for the support in coordination activities, the intellectual property rights (IPR) and risk management.
Inaugurated in 1817, counts several Nobel Prize winners between its alumni and it’s the first European University in South Korea.
The IBD Research Unit is expert in model systems (in vitro, ex vivo, organ on a chip, mouse models) to study the inflamed bowel, translational medicine and initiating academic clinic trials, biobank, gut fibrosis and gut-brain communication.
Role in TENTACLE:
UGent will lead the development of gelatin-based formulations for the bioinks, synthesizing PATs for MEW grid, in vitro validation of all the produced biomaterials, and of the 4D bioprinted structures. It will also support SCINUS for the scale-up cell growth and be responsible for small and large animal tests.
Founded in 1404, the University of Turin is a public institution of High Education. UNITO boasts the largest Department of Surgical Sciences in Italy. The faculty staff has the leading positions in the international arena of scientific research especially on minimally invasive therapy, robotics, clinical imaging and interventional radiology and innovative materials for surgical applications.
Role in TENTACLE:
UNITO will conduct the identification of the design limits of the bioprinting device through procedures performed by the surgeons. The university of Turin will lead the preparation and collection of questionnaires for patient feedback and the data collection and curation. UNITO surgeons will lead the performance of the advanced bioprinting and of the TENTACLE complete procedure on the phantom. Finally, UNITO will be conducting the testing of the preclinical colonoscopic bioprinter on phantoms and will be the prime responsible for the ex vivo testing.
Politecnico di Torino was the first Italian Engineering Schoolfounded in the wave of the technical and scientific innovation that gave rise to the most prestigious European polytechnic schools in the mid-19th century.
Founded as School for Engineers in 1859, it then became Regio Politecnico di Torino in 1906. Engineers, architects, designers and urban planners have been trained at Politecnico di Torino for over 160 years.
Role in TENTACLE:
POLITO’s Team (http://www.irisgroup.polito.it/) will lead the development of polymeric micro- and nano- carriers by spray drying technology for the release of antibiotic and antifibrotic molecules and will participate in several other tasks to incorporate these particles into 3D-printable formulations.
AdBioInk is a pioneering high-tech company specializing in the production of advanced biomaterials, especially bioinks, biopolymers and extracellular matrix (ECM) and was the first company to introduce the BioPen, a portable bioprinter system. AdBioInk is committed to providing innovative, easily accessible, and high-quality biomaterials.
Role in TENTACLE:
AdBioInk will lead the process of testing and validating the multifunctional toolhead mounted on a commercial colonoscope, the miniaturization of the bioprinter for the small animal testing and lead the designing and assembling of a preclinical colonoscopic bioprinter.
THIOM is a research center situated in Innsbruck. Founded in 2003, Thiomatrix currently counts 10 to 15 employees. The center is specialized on the development of non-invasive drug delivery systems utilizing its core technologies: Thiomer Technology and SEDDS Technology.
Role in TENTACLE:
THIOM will play a key role in the development of thiolated polysaccharides, leveraging its expertise in the field. The center will contribute to the industrial scale-up of TENTACLE Biomaterials towards standardization by providing support in specific tasks related to the development of manufacturing methods and the formulation of 4D bioink. Additionally, THIOM will be involved in several other tasks across the project.
BEWH is the Belgium branch of the Italian company Warrant Hub S.p.A. – Tinexta Group, a privately held consultancy services company that provides full-spectrum consulting in business finance. BEWH has extensive experience in project management, communication, dissemination, and exploitation of project results, as well as environmental, economic, and social impact assessment. BEWH offers a methodological and strategic approach for the successful implementation of EU-funded research and innovation projects.
Role in TENTACLE:
BEWH leads the project management tasks and coordinate the dissemination, communication, and exploitation of project results. The company will also lead the networking and clustering activities and the outreach and training activities.
Scinus Cell Expansion is a company who provides technologies and process development to enable and improve cell therapy and regenerative medicine. Their main product is the SCINUS bioreactor NG, which is a closed bioreactor system for the controlled cultivation of cells, supporting R&D as well as GMP processes.
Role in TENTACLE:
Scinus Cell Expansion will be involved in the industrial scale-up of Tentacle’s Biomaterials towards standardization. More accurately Scinus will be leading the scale up of cell growth to clinically relevant numbers and partecipate in several other tasks.
The Italian National Institute of Health is the main Italian research institute in the biomedical and public health field. It is the technical and scientific body of the Italian National Health Service. At ISS, 1800 people, including researchers, technicians and administrative staff, work daily with the aim of protecting the citizens’ health.
The main activities of the ISS are distributed in 6 Departments, 16 National Centres, 2 Reference Centres, 5 technical-scientific services and a Notified Body for the assessment of the conformity of medical devices.
Role in TENTACLE:
ISS has the responsibility of the regulatory supervision of the project, they will collect and organize the documents and obtained data with a view of a perspective technical file of TENTACLE products, even though a proper regulatory submission is not foreseen in the time window of the project.