They will recreate the skin in the most realistic way possible to study its conditions and increase the safety of products for topical use and will simulate the metastasis process in breast cancer in the laboratory with samples from patients to achieve treatments according to the characteristics of each one of them.
The European Moore4Medical project focuses on research and the application of technological advances to the health field to achieve a more personalized and sustainable medicine. Led by the Philips company, it is made up of a multidisciplinary team of Aragonese researchers and has the participation of 66 companies, universities and research institutes from 12 countries. Endowed with a budget of 68 million euros, the project responds to one of the lines of action of the European Union in the search for solutions for health systems.
One of the lines of research of this project is the development and improvement of organ-on-chip technology, with which specific functions of human organs are simulated in the laboratory in a much more precise way than the current one, and they will try to advance the models in the laboratory so that they better reproduce what actually happens in patients. From Aragon, the Aragon Engineering Research Institute (I3A) of the University of Zaragoza, the Aragon Health Research Institute (IIS Aragon) and the spin-off company BEonChip.
This technology is becoming established around the world as an effective alternative to animal experimentation and traditional culture in Petri dishes. In addition, it is expected to significantly reduce drug costs by reducing false positives, which cost extra time and money to develop new drugs.
Moore4Medical will join forces between the electronic components and systems industry and the pharmaceutical industry
The project Moore4Medical It will give the possibility of joining forces between the electronic components and systems industry and the pharmaceutical industry to help reduce hospitalizations, develop personalized therapies and improve diagnostic tools. In addition to Organ on Chip technology, the research teams will try to advance in the development of implantable devices, in the monitoring of adherence to treatments, in carrying out radiation-free interventions or in the new generation of intelligent ultrasound.
The objective of Moore4Medical is to create a universal platform that enables automatic drug testing under the most physiological conditions possible and with the participation of different organs (body on chip). “It is the part of the European project in which there are more people involved”, explains Rosa Monge, CEO of Beonchip, who adds that it is “a new technology, but it is where we are going when it comes to testing and it is good to start create standards ”.
Organ-on-chip technology simulates specific functions of human organs in the laboratory in a much more precise way than at present.
From Beonchip they will recreate, through the organ-on-chip, the biomimetic environment for the skin and these models that are developed will be biologically validated by researchers from I3A and IIS Aragón. It is one more step to avoid animal experimentation, already prohibited in cosmetic research.
Skin diseases and cancer metastases
Part of the Aragonese research work in the Moore4Medical project will focus on the skin study. It is one of the most important organs that we have due to its protective function against external agents and its diseases, although usually mild, occupy the fourth place in terms of economic cost for society.
Researchers from the TME Lab group of the I3A of the University of Zaragoza and the Beonchip company will be in charge of recreating the different layers of the skin (the epidermis and the dermis) in the laboratory. With these models they will study conditions such as psoriasis or atopic dermatitis, some types of skin cancer (melanoma) and will analyze pharmacological and / or cosmetic compounds without the need for experimental animals.
The Aragonese participation also includes other lines of work such as the development of a model that simulates the process of metastasis in cancer, focusing on breast cancer. This section is led by the Medical Oncology group of the Miguel Servet University Hospital and the IIS Aragón. Here, the researchers will try to place cells from breast cancer patients in a device that simulates how these tumor cells escape into blood vessels, causing metastasis. In this way, in the future, there could be a tool that helps to know which drugs are effective for each patient and thus combat the spread of cancer to other tissues.
The researchers will try to place cells from breast cancer patients in a device that simulates how these tumor cells escape into blood vessels, causing metastasis.
The IIS Aragón will use the organ-on-chip technique to work on metastatic breast cancer. The research institute will provide patient samples, either tissue or tumor cells. With this material, cultures will be made to establish the characteristics of these tumors and whether it is possible to predict the sensitivity to chemotherapy treatments, as well as to verify the resistance mechanisms that they can offer to these treatments. “If we see that it really has an adequate projection, the technique will be transferred to other types of cancer, such as lung cancer, pancreatic cancer or melanoma”, points out Antonio Antón, principal investigator of the IIS Aragón in the project and head of Medical Oncology from the Miguel Servet University Hospital.
Iñaki Ochoa, group researcher TME Lab of the I3A-Unizar, underlines, as one of the strengths of Moore4Medical, “the public-private collaboration to bring to clinical reality something that until now was in the laboratory.”
For his part, Dr. Antonio Antón highlights that from “the IIS Aragón we will give the clinical vision of the transfer of the project so that the patient has a benefit. If the forecasts are fulfilled, in the near future we will come to fulfill one of the dreams of the oncologist: to predict what will happen with the treatments ”.
Related
–
