Biointerface Advanced Summer School

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The 2nd Interrogations at the Biointerface Advanced Summer School, which will focus on the self-renewal/differentiation interface, will take place in Barcelona on 25th-29th June and is hosted by IBEC.

The School is jointly organized by THE GRAIL’s partner Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), Institute of Biomedical Engineering (INEB) and Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto (IPATIMUP). It is the second in a series of Advanced Summer Schools under the general theme of “Interrogations at the Biointerface”, which are to be hosted in Porto and Barcelona alternately. More info

Ethical Committee approves in vivo protocol

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The in vivo experimentation protocol for the testing of the THE GRAIL’s scaffold received green light from the ethical committee. We worked closely with the ethical committee to draft a in vivo protocol that could meet both the requirements for statistical significance and the “three Rs” (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement) to safeguard animal welfare.

Press Release, 17/02/2012

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PRESS RELEASE
February 17, 2012
THE GRAIL (Tissue in Host Engineering Guided Regeneration of Arterial Intimal Layer) project has been granted FP7 EU funds to develop bioactive and bioresorbable scaffolds that locally regenerate arteries after endovascular treatment in patients with atherosclerosis.
The concept of THE GRAIL project is the creation of an in vivo deployable bioactive scaffold to treat atherosclerosis. Arterial obstruction due to arteriosclerosis is the cause of a wide spectrum of diseases, disabilities and death. The purpose of the in vivo deployable bioactive scaffold is to offer an alternative treatment to mechanical re-channeling or by-passing of obstructed arteries by using a regenerative approach compatible with current minimally invasive surgical techniques.
Regeneration of the diseased artery using an absorbable bioactive scaffold is a previously unexplored area of arterial obstruction therapy. The scaffold is intended to be repopulated by resident and circulating patient cells with the aim of replacing the diseased and stiffened area of artery with the scaffold, which drives arterial regeneration, leaving physiologically responsive regenerated tissue.
This project gathers together a multidisciplinary team of four research centres: Univ. of Liverpool (UK), Univ. of Valladolid (ES), Institut of Bioengineering of Catalunya (ES) and the Biomaterial Centre of the Univ. of Naples Federico II (IT); one clinical centre, University Medical Centre of Utrecht (NL); and, four SMEs: Explora Biotech (IT), Technical Proteins Nanobiotechnology (ES), Conic Vascular Technology (CH) and Donawa Lifescience Consulting (IT).

 

THE GRAIL project starts

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On January, 1 2012 the EC officially strats the THE GRAIL project aiming at designing and developing a bioactive and bioresorbable scaffold that locally regenerates intima growth after endovascular treatment of the obstructed arteries in patients with atherosclerosis.