Partners

The National Research Council (CNR), funded in 1923, is the largest public research institution in Italy, the only one under the Research Ministry performing multidisciplinary activities (www.cnr.it). Its 115 research institutes, centres and sections, are distributed all over the national territory and form a network of research centers with multidisciplinary competences spanning various fields: from health and biology to computer science, environment and climate, chemistry and physics, economic and social sciences.

Two distinct CNR Institutes are involved in the project:

1) Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie Chimiche “Giulio Natta” (SCITEC)
2) Istituto per la Tecnologia delle Membrane (ITM)

The Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie Chimiche “Giulio Natta” (SCITEC), formerly known as Istituto di Chimica del Riconoscimento Molecolare (ICRM), is one of largest CNR institutes, it is based in Milano and employs 115 scientists and technicians. Its activities cover the following areas:

• Biomolecules and Mechanisms of Bioregulation;
• Chemical Biotechnologies and Green Chemistry;
• Macromolecular and Materials Science.

In this project, SCITEC will be involved through its Chemistry and Technology for Bioscience Group (www.ctbio.eu). CTB is a multidisciplinary group with a broad and comprehensive expertise at the crossroads of chemistry, biology and technology with strong translational components towards medicine and diagnostics. It is composed by chemists and molecular biologists and has a consolidated expertise in peptide and DNA synthesis, polymers and surface chemistry, supramolecular chemistry and nanomaterials, innovative bioassays for proteins and DNA including microarrays, extracellular vesicles characterization. CTB group has a wide experience as partner and coordinator in many collaborative national and international research and innovation projects. The interdisciplinary characteristics of the group ensure an incisive work of development of new materials and advanced methodologies for a wide range of applications in biosensing and diagnostics. The group is composed by 6 CNR research scientists with permanent positions and is currently complemented by 3 PhD students, 5 post-graduate researchers and several undergraduate students.

The Institute on Membrane Technology (ITM) is a Research Institute of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR). Mission of ITM is the research and development of membrane science and technology. The Institute has 35 units of permanent staff and about 100 temporary units represented by visiting professors, associate professors, Ph.D. students, postdoctoral fellowships, high-educational fellowships from national and international Institutions. ITM is the major critical mass in the world specialized in membrane technology and it is internationally recognized for its peculiar skills in the preparation and characterization of membranes (organic, inorganic, mixed matrix, biohybrid); transport phenomena through membranes; molecular selective membrane separations; development of catalytic membranes, catalytic membrane reactors, membrane contactors (including emulsifiers and crystallizers); development of integrated membrane processes; development of membranes in biotechnology, regenerative medicine and tissue engineering.

Cardiocentro Ticino Institute (CT) is a specialized center for cardiac diseases with a cardiology unit and cardiac surgery unit. It is also engaged in education and research activities, including cardiovascular engineering, cardiovascular biology, imaging and computational sciences. CT is an associated institute of the University of Zurich and it has been recognized as a Research Center according to article 5 of the Swiss Federal Act on the Promotion of Research and Innovation (RIPA). CT is also a partner institute of Faculty of Biomedical Sciences at Università della Svizzera Italiana for the doctoral program in Cardiovascular/ Human Cardiovascular Sciences.

CT features a cell factory, which is a GMP certified facility for the development and clinical application of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMP). The facility is also authorized by the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health to operate as Cardiovascular Tissue Bank for the processing and storage of aortic and pulmonary valve and pericardium. The GMP facility includes an R&D area mainly dedicated to the set-up of methods for production and testing of ATMP and innovative biological products.

CT research groups are studying the diagnostic and therapeutic potential of exosomes for cardiovascular diseases. Laboratory of basic research of CT has developed long-stand experience in EV characterization and isolation from cell-conditioned culture media and by working closely with a GMP facility, these methods have been translated from the basic research to a clinical grade level. The scale up process for clinical grade EV resulted in a recently deposited patent (C F B. 12515 CH – B. 17160 IT).

The Vita-Salute San Raffaele University (UniSR) is a prestigious Italian private not-for-profit university leading the most important national rankings for quality of education. It hosts more than 3000 students and comprises the faculties of Medicine, Psychology and Philosophy.

Ever since its establishment in 1996, teaching and research at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University uniquely merge resulting in high quality education and training at all levels: specialized post-graduate masters, residency programs in various medical specialties, international PhD programs, undergraduate and graduate courses.

UniSR integrates its activities with the research conducted by San Raffaele Hospital, a leading private research hospital in Italy performing cutting-edge translational research aiming at advancing the knowledge about human diseases and novel therapies. The relationship between UniSR and San Raffaele Hospital is managed by a Master Agreement. A common campus hosts all teaching and research activities in a large state-of-the-art infrastructural compound. Therefore, UniSR offers students the opportunity to study in a unique environment where research Units, hospital Departments and teaching activities effectively interact on a daily basis allowing for unsurpassed training.

Currently, more than 370 projects funded by National, European and International research and training programmes are active in UniSR and San Raffaele Hospital. Among them, 65 projects funded by Horizon 2020 and 3 projects funded by IMI2. The Urological Research Institute (URI), funded by Prof. Francesco Montorsi, directed by Prof. Andrea Salonia and affiliated with the Department of Urology (87 beds and 5000 surgical and 40000 diagnostic procedures/year) is focused on research and innovation in the field of urological and andrological diseases.

The URI Biobank is the result of the daily collection of blood, urines, and tissues derived from surgical resections from which cell lines are established as preclinical models used also to reproduce human pathologies in lab animals. URI research team includes expert urologists providing counseling on preclinical and clinical aspects of the proposed research and state-of-art therapies; a pathologist in charge to the analysis of surgical specimens and data managers.

HBM-LS is a research‐intensive and market-oriented company operating since 2007 in Tallinn, engaged in the development of innovative tools for Life Science Research on Exosomes and other Extracellular Vesicles.

From May 2017 HBM-LS is part of Lonza Group with R&D focused on rapid translation of self‐standing solutions for EV isolation, analysis into high-value exosome based immune‐ and molecular diagnostic assays, and comprehensive and QC compliant scalable production and pharma solutions.

Since 2018 the company is ISO9001 certified and provides custom services in the field of EV isolation and characterisation from different sources.

Paperdrop Dx is a SME located in the campus of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), in Spain, that develops rapid diagnostic tests based on paper microfluidics, dealing with non-covered medical needs and emerging health problems, with special interest in critical and prevalent diseases.

Our technology is based on lateral flow tests, adapted to act as a low-cost and high-sensitivity clinical decision tool. Just a single drop of patient’s fluid (e.g. blood, urine or saliva) is required to carry out the test.

Paperdrop Dx is a spin-off company of the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), the Catalan Institute of Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) and the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).

AMIRES is a consulting and management company for research, development, and innovation projects, which provides the necessary strategic and administrative support to high-quality international teams to achieve their objectives and facilitates the research-industrial and research-policy making interface.

AMIRES follows projects from their initiation and planning, through negotiation, execution, and management to the final stage, where exploitation of new technologies, products or services is facilitated. Moreover, main mission of the company is to facilitate the access of European research to high-tech SMEs and improve exploitation of innovative ideas.

AMIRES s. r. o. is based in the Czech Republic but provides its services all around Europe.