Menu
MapConnectionsTopicsBulgariaThe Night (K-TRIO)Marie Skłodowska-CurieFor studentsFor teachersMethodologySurprise me
H2020Doctoral network2016–2020

OcuTher · Educational Network in Ocular Drug Delivery and Therapeutics

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2016-11-01 → 2020-10-31
EU contribution
€3,933,729
Participants
18
Scheme
MSCA-ITN-ETN

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Educational Network in Ocular Drug Delivery and Therapeutics

Ocular drug therapy, especially the treatment of diseases affecting the posterior eye segment, is hampered by the ineffective drug delivery to the target sites. Therefore, development of drugs against age-related macular degeneration, glaucomatous retinal degeneration, diabetic retinopathies and inherited retinal degenerations has been slow, and most retinal diseases are still without pharmacological treatments. Lack of treatments is related to the problems of drug delivery and lack of systematic tools for ocular drug development. OCUTHER brings together all the necessary expertise for preclinical development of retinal drug treatments, including chemistry, drug delivery system design, experimental and computational pharmacokinetics, and ophthalmology. The project integrates together combined efforts of 9 beneficiaries from academia and industry, 2 academic, and 7 non-academic partner organisations. Our objectives are to develop new experimental and computational tools for ocular drug development, and test new potential regenerative treatments for retinal diseases, including both drugs and novel delivery systems. OCUTHER will train the next generation of scientists in this field by offering an extensive joint training programme to 15 ESRs. The project focuses on promoting scientific excellence and exploits the specific research and commercial expertise and infrastructure of the OCUTHER network as a whole. The exposure to all elements of ocular drug development enables OCUTHER to translate expertise from all disciplines to the ESRs and educate the future scientists in the field of ocular drug development.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Ocular drug development has transformed from niche area to a major field in drug development in which many companies, including European big pharma has entered recently. Ocular drug development is a unique field in terms of drug targets and end-points of activity, local drug administration routes, tissue barriers and pharmacokinetics, drug delivery and formulation challenges and local toxicity issues. These issues are slowing down the development of drugs for the unmet needs in ophthalmology. The main objective of the proposal is to educate experts of preclinical ocular R&D to facilitate the success of European pharmaceutical industry and research community. This objective will be reached by joining forces of the leading European academic and industrial researchers in ophthalmology, materials science and nanomedicine, drug delivery and targeting, and systems pharmacology. We shall educate 15 Early Stage Researchers in a network where they will receive tailored, multi-disciplinary and inter-sectoral education in preclinical ocular drug development. The thesis projects are directed to the drug treatment of retinal diseases, the major challenge in the field. The proposal combines new drug candidates from the experts of ophthalmology, innovative drug delivery technologies from pharmaceutical scientists and companies, and modern in vitro, in silico and in vivo methods from various partners. The thesis projects include secondments in academic and industrial partner laboratories and course programme that encompasses the relevant fields in ocular drug development. Therefore, this proposal presents unique combination of innovation and education in the field with obvious need for such education. The ESRs and other outcomes of this project will greatly benefit the future competitiveness of European science and industry in this field of expanding importance.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • ITA-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO · KUOPIOCoordinatorFinland
  • 20MED THERAPEUTICS BV · ENSCHEDENetherlands
  • BAYER AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT · LeverkusenGermany
  • Bio-Ker s.r.l · GessateItaly
  • CERTARA UK LIMITED · LondonUnited Kingdom
  • DELSITECH OY · TURKUFinland
  • EBERHARD KARLS UNIVERSITAET TUEBINGEN · TuebingenGermany
  • INNOCORE TECHNOLOGIES BV · GroningenNetherlands
  • OZ BIOSCIENCES SAS · MarseilleFrance
  • Retina International · ZürichSwitzerland
  • SLASKI UNIWERSYTET MEDYCZNY W KATOWICACH · KatowicePoland
  • TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN · EindhovenNetherlands
  • THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST · BELFASTUnited Kingdom
  • UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID · MadridSpain
  • UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA · PadovaItaly
  • UNIVERSITE DE STRASBOURG · StrasbourgFrance
  • UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT · UtrechtNetherlands
  • Vasgen Limited · LondonUnited Kingdom

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union