Friday, 5 August 2022

Biotechnologies: 3.4 million euro for Life4hub

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The Ministry of Health has announced it will fund the new National Hub for Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering.

The hub, led by the University of Trento, involves many partner organisations from the scientific community and public institutions: the Autonomous Province of Trento, the City of Rovereto, Trentino Sviluppo and HIT-Hub Innovazione Trentino, with Azienda Ospedale-Università di Padova, the Chiefs of Defence and the Ministry of Defence, Fondazione Banca dei Tessuti di Treviso Onlus and Fondazione IRCSS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza di San Giovanni Rotondo, and the Florence-based Consorzio interuniversitario per lo Sviluppo di sistemi a grande interfase.

Life4hub will become a major reference point at national and European level for life sciences, regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. At first, the hub will not have centralized headquarters and will use the network of infrastructures and skills made available by in the laboratories of the partners, in Trento, Rovereto and Padova, but it will become an autonomous institution over time.

The project was officially launched by the Ministry of Health when it announced the allocation of 3.4 million euro as part of the actions included in the Operational Health Plan (POS), which defines the strategic and operational programming of Italy in the area of health research. The ranking of projects that have been selected was published days ago as part of the Trajectory 4 of the POS, "Biotechnology, bioinformatics and pharmaceutical development".

The Hub will provide valid, effective and biocompatible diagnostic and therapeutic responses to healthcare professionals and citizens.

The work of the hub will develop in four directions, in line with the requirements of Trajectory 4 of the POS, to launch pilot projects that can be extended on a larger scale and become Italian best practices in the field of regenerative medicine:

  • engineering of highly biocompatible hybrid supports;
  • three-dimensional bioprinting for biobanks and implantable devices;
  • creation of organoids for pharmacological screenings;
  • organ reconditioning for transplantation.

The main objective of Life4hub (Living Innovative Fully Engineered for HUman Bioreplacement) is to put together the goals and skills of the laboratories of the various partners to create a system to share results and resources, an essential condition for the creation of a supply chain for pre-clinical research, clinic practice and the industry.