Bio-TUNE · Fine tune of cellular behavior: multifunctional materials for medical implants
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2020-01-01 → 2024-12-31
- EU contribution
- €814,200
- Participants
- 10
- Scheme
- MSCA-RISE
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Fine tune of cellular behavior: multifunctional materials for medical implants
Making Better, Safer Medical Implants In the world of medical implants—like artificial joints, dental implants, or bone screws—one of the biggest goals is helping these devices connect and work well with the body’s tissues. But there’s a catch. The same surfaces that help the body’s cells stick and grow can also make it easy for harmful bacteria to attach. When bacteria grow on implants, they can form something called a biofilm—a sticky layer that’s very hard to get rid of. This can lead to serious infections, which may cause pain, complications, or even the need to remove the implant. It’s a growing concern in healthcare. On the other hand, if we design implants that stop bacteria from sticking, they might also harm the body’s own healing cells. So, the ideal solution would be to design implant materials that fight off bacteria without interfering with the body’s natural healing and cell functions. Unfortunately, most current methods only focus on either helping the body’s cells or stopping infections—not both at the same time. What Did Bio-TUNE Do? It worked on a smart solution: special multifunctional coatings for implants that help the body’s cells grow and prevent bacteria from sticking. This was a new way of thinking in the field—addressing a need that hadn’t been fully solved before. Bio-TUNE’s Main Goals: 1. Understand how body cells and bacteria interact We studied how both helpful body cells and harmful bacteria behave when they touch an implant, right down to the molecular level. 2. Create smart implant surfaces We used chemistry and tiny surface textures to build coatings that tell body cells to grow while making it hard for bacteria to survive. 3. Get these materials ready for real-world use We looked at what’s needed for these coatings to meet medical rules and be used in actual hospitals and clinics. With that knowledge, we built new high-tech materials that can do multiple things at once. We also worked directly with companies and developers to bring these materials from the lab into the real world. The result? Next-generation implant materials that are inspired by nature and designed to help the body heal—while fighting off infections.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Bio-TUNE aims to develop innovative multifunctional materials to produce a new generation of medical implants with cell instructive and antibacterial potential.In biomaterials science, it is well accepted that implant biointegration with surrounding tissues is a major goal. However, implant surfaces that facilitate cell adhesion, may also favor colonization of bacterial cells. Infection of biomaterials and subsequent biofilm formation can be catastrophic and significantly reduce patient quality of life, representing an emerging concern in healthcare.On the other hand, research efforts devoted to inhibit bacterial colonization are frequently related to cytotoxic agents or treatments that do not positively affect host tissues. Hence, ideally, to enhance the long-term success of medical implants, biomaterial surfaces should reduce bacterial colonization levels without compromising the physiological functions of eukaryotic cells. Yet, the majority of current approaches tend to only focus on either improving cell adhesion or preventing bacterial infection but rarely explore a combined effect.In Bio-TUNE we focus on multifunctional coatings to simultaneously address and mitigate both these problems. Thus, Bio-TUNE introduces a new mindset and different paradigms in the development of biomaterials to respond to unmet clinical needs.Bio-TUNE ambitions to 1) Study and understand the interaction of eukaryotic cells with bacteria at the biophysical and biomolecular level; 2) To develop cell instructive and antibacterial surfaces via biochemical and topographical approaches; 3) Transfer this technology to medical implants.We seek to decipher the mechanistic of eukaryotic and bacterial cell competition, generate new selective and multi-potential coatings and topographically-active patterns, and their technological transfer leading to a generation of advanced biomimetic materials for tissue regeneration and personalized medicine.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA · BARCELONACoordinatorSpain
- GADJAH MADA UNIVERSITY · YogyakartaIndonesia
- INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA SANTE ET DE LA RECHERCHE MEDICALE · ParisFrance
- MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV · MUNCHENGermany
- UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE GENERAL SAN MARTIN · San Martin Buenos AiresArgentina
- UNIVERSIDAD PERUANA DE CIENCIAS APLICADAS SAC · LIMAPeru
- UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI CAMERINO · CamerinoItaly
- UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA* · PenangMalaysia
- UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL · BRISTOLUnited Kingdom
- UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW · GlasgowUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union