About
NANO4TARMED brings together an interdisciplinary scientific cluster in which chemists, biologists and physicists bring their extensive expertise to reach a mutual aim—to deal with the fundamental issue of nanotechnology-driven anticancer drug delivery.
Nanotechnologies for combating cancer
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Great efforts are still necessary to individuate new therapeutic strategies aimed to reduce cancer recurrence and to define new potential adjuvant targets for inhibiting invasion and metastasis, two significant contributors to death among patients.
The combination therapy using nanocarriers for simultaneous administration of two or more pharmacologically active agents with different modes of action could represent an effective strategy for the treatment. The increase in efficacy of a therapeutic formulation is causally related to its ability to selectively target diseased tissue, overcome biological barriers, and smartly respond to the disease environment to release therapeutic agents. The increasing interest in the employment of nanostructured materials to medicine-related branches is attributable to its unique properties allowing highly efficient drug delivery, molecular sensing applicable in diagnosis, multiplex imaging, or construction of point of care therapeutic devices. This project aims at an establishment of a consortium consisted of Regional centre of advanced technologies and materials (part of Palacký University Olomouc), The Institute of Science and Technology for Ceramics (ISTEC, part of CNR) and Maynooth University (NUIM) which will through a set of workshops, seminars and extensive exchange of early-stage researchers develop an efficient scientific cluster. The research of the cluster will aim the development of functional 3D dual-modality nanostructures for targeted drug delivery and cell imaging.
Objectives
NANO4TARMED creates an interdisciplinary scientific cluster in which chemists, biologists and physicists share their extensive expertise and different points of view with a mutual aim—to deal with the fundamental issue of nanotechnology-driven anticancer drug delivery. This mutual effort of UP, ISTEC and NUIM will lead to impactful outcomes, which will contribute to increasing the knowledge in the fields of biomaterials, chemical functionalization, cancer stem cells, imaging, etc. The project objectives will lead to establishing a scientific platform with results further applicable to pharmaceutical practice, including open dialogues with respective companies and dissemination of results through an Open innovation platform. The intended exchange of the knowledge base will be accomplished through series of planned workshops, seminars, summer schools, conferences and exchanges of researchers. The aims of the project will be achieved through a following set of specific objectives:
- Strengthening knowledge and implementing new approaches to the development of advanced nanocarrier systems for anticancer drug delivery.
- Strengthening knowledge of novel platinum based anti-cancer drugs and study of their effects on cell lines and 3D models.
- Strengthening scientific profile and collaborations mainly of Early-stage researchers and research management and administration skills of the coordination institution, establishing new links between the Twinning partners and beyond.
- Strengthening the network with the application partners and thus enhancing the competitiveness of the region.
- Implementing open science models.
This project has received funding from the European Union´s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under the grant agreement No. 952063.
