Severe ocular disorders are affecting the lives of more than 100Mill people world-wide and at least 25% of the population above 70 years of age, a growing demographic group in EU. More than 8 million people lose their lives to cancer every year, making cancer a leading cause of pre-mature mortality in the world. The main hallmarks of severe eye conditions (i.e angiogenesis, inflammation and vascular permeability) play also pivotal roles in cancer, being therapeutic targets to treat both kind of diseases. The overall goal of 3D-NEONET is the improvement of available treatments for cancer and ocular disease by enhancing drug discovery-development and delivery to targeted tissues, through advanced international co-operation between academic and non-academic partners. The interdisciplinary expertise provided by 18 partners in 7 countries encompasses among others: drug screens, ADME, toxicology, preclinical models, nanotechnology, biomaterials and clinical trials. After the success with ongoing FP7-IAPP project 3D-NET (Drug Discovery and Development of Novel Eye Therapeutics; (www.ucd.ie/3dnet), we are assembling 3D-NEONET, this enlarged European interdisciplinary consortium that will join forces and exchange skills to enhance current therapies in oncology and ophthalmology. The 3 global objectives of 3D-NEONET are: 1- Enhance the discovery and development of novel drugs, targets and biomarkers for ophthalmology and oncology. 2- Improve the Delivery of Therapeutics for Oncology and Ophthalmology 3- Enhancement of Research, Commercial and Clinical Trial Project Management Practices in these fields. Through participation in the program, 3D-NEONET is the vehicle for driving synergies between academic and non-academic partners leading to increased scientific and technological excellence as well as tangible innovative outputs that will strengthen the competitiveness of both the researchers and industries of the network even beyond the lifetime of the network.

There is a general consensus that biomedical polymers of natural and synthetic origin should and will play a very important role in the development of new therapeutic strategies to treat diseases. Due to resistance of bacteria to drugs, infection has become one of the toughest problems in the medical world as there are hardly any effective antibiotics left in the fight against many pathogens. This project aims to develop new therapies through a new combination of technology (a) development of new hybrid polymers with antibacterial functionality,(b) introduction of inhibitors that can permanently deactivate bacteriological proteases and (c) new formulations of bioactive ceramics and glasses that have specific charge potential to prevent bacterial growth. The challenge is to develop new medical polymers that have an intrinsic antibacterial functionality to achieve clinical effectiveness in the field. To develop the challenge to practical medical solutions, a new generation of industrial professionals is needed. They should have a solid multidisciplinary background complemented by the required academic and industrial experiences. The objective of this network is to train young PhD researchers to fill this demand in the strategic area of drug-free antibacterial hybrid biomedical polymers. This EID programme will achieve this by a joint training programme of world class academic and industrial institutes who will provide hands-on training in state of the art research projects related to key fundamental issues that determine the future new therapies of antibacterial biomaterials. The goal is to develop professionals that will play a pivotal role in pushing forward this challenging and knowledge-intense field for the coming decades to benefit the European economy, bring state-of-the-art technology to industry with advanced products for hospitals and personal health care and contribute to the development of therapeutic strategies to improve the quality of life.

Cell migration assays are commonly used to study wound healing, cancer cell invasion, and tissue development. Problems associated with the gap closure assays typically employed are that: (i) the stopper or scratch used to make the migration zone damages the extracellular matrix (ECM), (ii) the migration zone size is limited by the size of the stopper, and (iii) the scratched migration zone shapes and sizes are irreproducible. Cell migration is strongly coupled with the structure and mechanical properties of the ECM, and damage to the ECM alters the cell migration path. The main objective of this project is to develop a prototype novel cell migration assay, which will significantly improve the predictive power of cell-based assays while avoiding problems associated with existing assays, based on seeding cells precisely on pristine extracellular matrix tissue mimics with native-like cell-functionality and reproducible migration zones. In accomplishing this, we will also address the following questions: • What are the structure-property relationships between collagen I matrices with controlled thicknesses and fibril diameter and alignment, and their mechanical and electromechanical properties? • What are the critical parameters for achieving functional bonding between the substrate and the highly anisotropic viscoelastic collagen I matrices and controlling the overall mechanical properties? • Does the distribution of collagen fibril polar ordering, i.e., piezoelectric domains, influence cell migration? • What parameters control crimp formation in tendon-like collagen I matrices? • What parameters control and explain the unusual viscoelastic properties (e.g., they not depend on the speed of deformation, at least within the interval 0.01 - 1 mm/sec) of tendon-like collagen matrices? • Which cell types, including cancer cells, co-align with collagen fibril alignment or crimp direction?

Implant-associated infections, commonly caused by biofilm-forming bacteria, are highly problematic for the patient, the healthcare system, and society. BIOREMIA will recruit 15 doctoral students (ESRs) and provide a highly inter-disciplinary joint research & training programme focused on the key issues that determine the future antibacterial biomaterials and technologies for orthopaedic and dental applications. BIOREMIA links 7 academic and 4 non-academic beneficiaries as well as 6 partners from 11 European countries (Germany, Austria, Greece, Sweden, UK, Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, Ireland and the Netherlands) and the USA. The ESRs will be supervised and trained by world-class academic and industrial organisations, combining technical knowledge with hands-on training in state-of-the-art research projects. BIOREMIA training program will include face-to-face and online scientific courses in biomaterials & surface engineering, biotechnology,nanotechnology, implant manufacturing, biochemistry, microbiology and biofilm. This will be complemented by education in transferable skills such as entrepreneurship, management, IPR, communication etc. useful for getting an innovation-oriented mind-set of young researchers. Participating in BIOREMIA will make PhD students highly attractive for employers and open up doors for their successful careers in research, regulation, consulting, industry and the healthcare system. They will be experts for the better assessment of the antibacterial functionality of materials and surfaces and for delivering successful strategies for the medical device industry and the healthcare system. The strong involvement of the industrial sector will provide the ESRs with a holistic perspective on career opportunities. Beyond the trained researchers, this network will produce innovative materials and technologies that will enhance the productivity of European industry and improve the well-being of European citizens by minimizing implant-associated infection rates.

The concept behind MOZART is to develop a library of inorganic nanomatrices to be used as smart platforms for effective, non-invasive and highly targeted therapies. MOZART will address, as proof of concept, nanomatrices to treat delayed bone healing and non-healing chronic skin wounds, which are both characterised by an inflammation and often infection. Mesoporous therapeutic glasses (MTGs), doped with selected ions (e.g. Ag+, Li+, Cu2+, Sr2+, Ce3+, B3+) and having nanopores of adjustable size within 2-50 nm, will be synthesised and then loaded with the chosen payload. Ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) will also be manufactured to host a wide range of biomolecules and higher payload. As in an orchestra, where the integration among the different participants allows a harmonious symphony to be created, in MOZART the synergistic release of ions and drugs will be directed to achieve a radically improved therapeutic effect. The exploitation of the response of self-immolative polymer coatings upon pH changes will be used as an elegant and effective way for triggering the payload release. The (coated) nanomatrices will be incorporated in a thermosensitive gel that is liquid at room temperature and undergoes sol-gel transition in the physiological environment. These gels are perfect candidates to develop non-invasive procedures to introduce MOZART nanomatrices to the pathological site and keep them in place for the required time. Clinical and societal impacts of MOZART will be enormous, considering the extraordinarily high number of pathological cases potentially involved. Only in EU, 350 000 patients per year are affected by non-union bone fractures and 2.2 million people suffer from chronic wounds. We expect that MOZART approaches will significantly reduce the healing time of non-union bone fractures (within 4 months vs. a minimum of 12 months) and will allow at least 50% of people suffering from chronic wounds to heal fully.