METABOLATE · METABOLic immuno-engineered biomATErials
Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2023-04-21 → 2025-07-20
- EU contribution
- €242,476
- Participants
- 3
- Scheme
- HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
METABOLic immuno-engineered biomATErials
Delayed or non-healing bone fractures remain a major clinical problem, especially in older patients, and place a growing financial burden on healthcare systems in Europe. Current strategies such as bone grafting or the use of growth factors have clear limitations, including poor availability, risks of complications, and limited long-term effectiveness. A key obstacle is the inflammatory environment at the defect site, which reduces the regenerative potential of biomaterials. The METABOLATE project worked intensely on this challenge by developing a novel immuno-engineering approach. The project focused on human macrophages, immune cells that play a central role in inflammation and repair. By metabolically reprogramming macrophages towards a more regenerative state, researchers generated extracellular vesicles with hybrid properties that promote both angiogenesis and osteogenesis. These vesicles were then incorporated into scaffolds, creating immuno-engineered materials designed to modulate inflammation and stimulate bone regeneration. Through this strategy, METABOLATE provides a proof of concept for combining extracellular vesicle biology, immunometabolism, and biomaterials science to develop safer and more effective regenerative therapies for large bone defects.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Large bone defects display compromised healing associated with pronounced inflammation and constitute a major clinical problem.Recently, a range of novel biomaterial-based approaches have been engineered to promote bone regeneration. However, once theseconstructs are implanted, they encounter the harsh environment of damaged tissue and often fail to induce a regenerative response.With this MSCA Post-Doctoral Fellowship, I will address the clinical problem of large bone defect repair by harnessing extracellularvesicles (EVs) derived from metabolically modulated macrophages to promote the immunogenic, angiogenic, and osteogenicresponse in the long-term healing cascade. Specifically, my research goal is to generate an immuno-engineered scaffold with thesemultitargeted regenerative EVs to maximise bone repair. The proposed multidisciplinary project will be carried out in the TissueEngineering Research Group (TERG) at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), which is a leading partner in the ScienceFoundation Ireland (SFI) funded Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research Centre (AMBER) under the supervision of Prof.Annie Curtis. Additionally, as part of my project training plan, I will carry out a secondment in Trinity College Dublin, under thesupervision of Prof. David Hoey, gaining expertise in materials for bone regeneration. At the end of the fellowship, with my non-academic placement at TAmiRNA, a biotech company specialising in diagnostic and therapeutic miRNAs, I will investigate the smallRNA-cargo of the pro-regenerative EVs for the identification of new specific therapeutic targets. METABOLATE is a unique opportunityto acquire advanced research competencies and complementary skills through interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral training. This willallow me to mature as an independent scientist and to enrich my professional profile, preparing me for a multitude of career choices.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/101106209
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e5032b3b6a&appId=PPGMS
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e51e1fec2e&appId=PPGMS
Data: CORDIS, © European Union