Description
Åbo Akademi University is a Swedish-language multidisciplinary university located in Turku, Finland. It was founded in 1918 and is the only exclusively Swedish-language multi-faculty university in Finland. The university is recognized for its research output in various biological subfields, including cell biology, genetics, and nanotechnology.
Role in the project
Åbo Akademi University is the NAP4DIVE coordinator. They are involved in several of the project’s technical developments, such as the production of synthetic nanoparticles, characterisation of nanoparticle-cell interaction, the NP design library, as well as development, training and validation of the digital NP design simulator
Key staff
Description
Finnadvance produces organs-on-chip for preclinical drug testing and personalized medicine. We de-risk drug development by providing relevant in vitro models through the use of our high throughput organ-on-chip technology, named AKITA.
Role in the project
Finnadvance will be responsible of the development and fabrication of the blood-brain barrier-on-chip platform. It includes the AKITA microfluidic plates, multiple cell types from the blood-brain barrier and Trans-Epithelial/Endothelial Electrical Resistance (TEER) measurements.
Key staff
website
Description
AstraZeneca plc is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with its headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Role in the project
They are involved in several of the project’s validation activities, such as the testing of synthetic nanoparticles in microphysiological systems and in transgenic mouse models
Key staff
Description
The University of Gothenburg is one of Sweden’s largest universities with a wide range of education and research. The university was founded in 1891 and today has more than 58,000 students and 6,800 employees. The university is internationally recognized for its research profile across several disciplines, including neuroscience, molecular biology, immunology, and nanomedicine.
Role in the project
The University of Gothenburg will contribute to the development of biologically derived nanoparticles (Bio-NPs) from various cell types, including central nervous system (CNS) cells. The team will focus on the incorporation of RNA-based drugs (such as mRNA) into these Bio-NPs, and on the isolation and characterization of specific Bio-NP subpopulations capable of efficiently crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB).
Key staff
Description
Chalmers University of Technology is a private research university located in Gothenburg, Sweden and funded in 1829 following a donation by William Chalmers, a director of the Swedish East India Company. Chalmers focuses on engineering and science. The university has approximately 3100 employees and 10,000 students. Chalmers coordinates the development of a Swedish quantum computer and the Graphene Flagship, a European Union research initiative to develop commercial technologies with graphene.
Role in the project
Chalmers is involved and responsible for the Characterisation of the Nanoparticle-cell interaction
Key staff
website
Description
The Microfluidics Innovation Center (MIC) is an innovative company (SME) based in Paris, France. With expertise in flow control instruments and microfluidics, the main mission of the company is to provide state-of-the-art instruments to scientists to help them achieve major advances in their research field, by facilitating the access of non-specialists (chemists, biologists) to microfluidics. For this, the MIC collaborates closely with academic and industrial partners to develop easy-to-use and robust automated microfluidic systems.
Role in the project
The MIC will develop a fluidic system to supplement the cells in the Blood-Brain-Barrier (BBB) with growth media and to inject the nanoparticle formulations to be tested. For this task, the MIC will collaborate closely with Finnadvance to develop the BBB in vitro model, and with the whole consortium to determine the best culture and testing conditions.
Key staff
Description
Delft University of Technology is the oldest and largest technical university in the Netherlands, located in Delft. Renowned for its high-quality research and education in engineering and technology, TU Delft has a strong international reputation in fields such as computer science, artificial intelligence, and biomedical engineering. The university is recognised for its interdisciplinary approach and close collaboration with industry and academic partners.
Role in the project
Delft University of Technology (TUDelft) is the Work Package leader for WP3 and WP4. TUDelft is responsible for developing the computational model that predicts the efficacy of drug carriers in crossing the blood-brain barrier. In addition, the team is applying explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) techniques to uncover the factors driving the superior performance of specific nanoparticle designs, enhancing the accuracy, transparency, and reliability of predictive modelling within the project.
Key staff
website
Description
HansaBioMed Life Sciences is a research‐intensive and market-oriented company operating since 2007 in Tallinn, Estonia, engaged in the development of innovative tools for Life Science Research on Exosomes, Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) and Nanoparticle. With our expertise gathered in over 15 years of activity, we actively work not only to improve the current technologies for EV isolation and characterization but also to investigate new fields of application of the extracellular vesicles.
Role in the project
Project partner involved in the production and upscaling of nanoparticle manufacturing and quality control.
Key staff
website
Description
Betthera s.r.o. is a Czech consulting company specializing in health economics, regulatory affairs, and social impact assessments. Their mission is to deliver high-quality services that aid clients in developing, implementing, and marketing medical technologies sustainably and ethically. Betthera evaluates the economic efficiency and effectiveness of investments in healthcare and emerging technologies, providing valuations in contexts such as economic, social, demographic, and quality of life aspects. They also conduct gap analyses of clients’ regulatory strategies, designing necessary steps for successful medical device conformity assessments.
Role in the project
In the NAP4DIVE project, Betthera s.r.o. is responsible for conducting a comprehensive Health Technology Assessment (HTA) to determine the feasibility and usability of the assessed alternatives. This assessment will analyze the expected outcomes and impacts, providing evidence for public or private investors.
Key staff
Description
AMIRES S.R.O. is a consulting company for research, development and innovation projects. Their main strength is the creation of new international sustainable partnerships within innovation focused value chains. Their developed projects remain the main enablers for our industrial clients and their growth and provide the important opportunities for R&D community.
Role in the project
AMIRES will support the coordinator, AAU, in Project Management and Coordination and will lead Dissemination and communication activities.
Key staff
Description
Eindhoven University of Technology, founded in 1956, is a technical university in the Netherlands, located in the Brainport Region. The university is recognized for its research in many science and engineering fields, and is also home to a thriving Philosophy and Ethics group carrying out applied ethics and philosophy of science research.
Role in the project
Eindhoven University of Technology provides ethics and trustworthiness deliverables across several work packages in the project. They examine scenarios and decisions emerging from NAP4DIVE technologies to create ethics guidelines and increase ethical and societal impact, influencing key stakeholders to adopt non-animal models for fundamental medical research.
Key staff
External Advisory Board
Ethics Board
