Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI) is a disease affecting over 200 million people worldwide. It represents a condition with a prevalence of 20-50% in women, thereby creating an immense socio-economic burden. The currently available treatment strategies entail various complications and offer only short-term relief to the patients. Tissue engineering using autologous cells offers a feasible alternative for functional restoration of the damaged urinary sphincter muscle and represents an ideal treatment option that could reverse the underlying pathologic conditions. MUSIC aims at translating basic knowledge on regenerative medicine (RM) and stem cell therapy into the clinic by undertaking a "first-in-man" multisystem study using autologous muscle precursor cells (MPCs) in a combination with neuromuscular electromagnetic stimulation (NMES) in 40 female patients. We will carry out the specific tasks to prove safety and efficacy of the proposed novel multilevel treatment as well as reproducibility of the therapeutic effect. Additional objectives are optimization of the advanced-therapy medicinal product (ATMP) towards totally xeno-free and facilitated manufacturing as well as the introduction of a novel injection technique for more efficient and precise implantation of the final product. Combining expertise, MUSIC features a unique infrastructure, including the knowledge of experts in the fields of RM, urology, cellular biology and biomaterials throughout Europe (CH, NL, UK, A, D). The MUSIC consortium has an exclusive opportunity to determine the validity of this MPC cellular treatment in combination with NMES and to further improve its feasibility and clinical efficacy. The ultimate goal is to significantly improve the patients` quality of life and to exploit a future commercial opportunity by expanding the know-how to various smaller RM centers and companies within Europe, thus, making personalized medicine using autologous cells a more feasible SUI treatment option.

The bioreactor industry is currently flourishing with a global market valued estimated at 2.3 B€ in 2020 and predicted to exceed 6.6 B€ euro by 2030, growing at a rate of 10.7% CAGR. Despite this impressive growth, there are challenges which can significantly impede the further advancement of bioreactors: Bioproducts can be sustainable and competitive only if reliable and contamination-free production is ensured. Currently, there is no catholic solution to this issue. To this end, LIBRA project introduces a benchtop smart multi-sensing system for the in-line automatable screening of cultivation processes in bioreactors. The LIBRA sensing technology lies in the use of light based integrated on-chip, real time sensors. A novel integration procedure of the photonic platforms together with disposable microfluidic modules and biofunctionalization units will result in a modular system with interchangeable components enabling the screening of nutrients and pathogens in bioreactor samples, according to the end users need. Furthermore, the LIBRA system will be able to be attached and integrated to various bioreactor systems regardless of their form factors, spanning from stirred tank bioreactors to single use bioreactors (SUB). To achieve this, LIBRA will rely on a highly multi-disciplinary consortium comprising expertise and specialization in several fields spanning photonics, surface functionalization, microfluidics, advanced packaging and assembly, artificial intelligence and bioreactor manufacturers. The exploitable results of LIBRA are expected to disrupt the current PIC-based sensing landscape, as estimated by the two business cases stemming from the project: the market revenues one year after the end of this project are expected to be €7.8 million growing to almost €59 million in 2032, and plethora of new IP and new business opportunities for the partners involved in the joint venture of LIBRA.

InnoCAR-T is a Doctoral Network designed to provide training and carry out breakthrough research on the high impact field of Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapy in a carefully integrated academic and inter-sectoral programme. We aim to develop next-generation CAR-T therapy and deliver a set of young researchers uniquely qualified for a career in academia and/or industry. CAR-T cell therapy represents a revolutionary advance in oncology, particularly for B cell lymphoma patients. However, long-term response is still restricted to ~50% of patients, with resistance being even more prominent in other cancers. Thus, additional innovations to overcome resistance are needed to improve CAR-T responses. Unfortunately, the currently centralized production of CAR-T hampers rapid innovation and associates with prohibitive costs, long vein-to-vein time, and poor carbon footprint due to inter-continental delivery. InnoCAR-T aims touse innovative academic and industrial concepts to address these issues by 1. developing innovative manufacturing solutions for CAR-T production at local academic hospitals and 2. developing the next-generation of more effective CAR-Ts. At the core of InnoCAR-T is its training objective to offer a cutting-edge multidisciplinary training programme. Herewith, outstanding young scientists can generate breakthrough ideas and assume leading positions in academia and industry. The training programme includes an array of disciplines, ranging from biomedical sciences (e.g. immunology, CAR engineering, gene-editing), physical sciences to mechanical engineering. Industrial partners are central to the programme and provide pivotal expertise on how to translate scientific discoveries into commercial reality. Inter-sectoral partners will host Doctoral Candidates, provide key secondments and network-wide training events. Further, InnoCAR-T will foster long-term multi-disciplinary research and bilateral co-operations between academia and industry.

Colorectal diseases are a cohort of pathologies that affect the mucosa and submucosa layers of the anus, rectum, and colon of more than 2 million individual in the EU. Among them, familiar adenomatous polyposis (FAP) and ulcerative colitis (UC) seriously compromise the patients’ quality of life. These pathologies could benefit from the removal of the intestinal mucosa and submucosa, however no strategies exist nowadays for their replacement. Then, when their removal is necessary, the patients undergo a proctocolectomy (i.e., surgical removal of the rectum and all or part of the colon) with a subsequent ileal pouch. Although preserving the patient's continence, the procedure is burdened by significant complications. In this scenario, TENTACLE pioneers a radically new strategy for the surgical treatment of UC and FAP, providing an innovative in situ 4D bioprinting strategy, for the regeneration of colorectal mucosa and submucosa. The TENTACLE in situ 4D bioprinting suite include: i) a colonoscopic bioprinter, featuring an extrusion-based bioprinting unit, an valvejet printhead, a mesh delivery system and a photocrosslinking device; ii) in silico tools for personalizing the bioprinting procedure; iii) two novel bespoken bioink formulations containing patients’ cells, including suitable functionalization strategies. The mucosal formulation will feature a 4D shape morphing behavior to recreate the colorectal mucosal crypts. Within TENTACLE, the entire procedure will be validated ex vivo and in vivo, thus paving the way for translating the bioprinting suite toward the clinics, by: i) identifying a GMP-compliant cell expansion protocol, ii) scaling up of the manufacturing routes, iii) promoting involvement and acceptance of surgeons and patients, iv) aligning with the EU regulation. Collectively, our project will introduce a minimally invasive alternative to proctocolectomy and is expected to have a high impact on the quality of life of patients affected by FAP and UC.