All 3 EU projects at TERMIS conference

30.05.2019

On the TERMIS EU 2019 conference a dedicated symposium on the 3 EU funded projects BIOCAPAN, DRIVE, and ELASTISLET for researching novel therapeutic strategies on diabetes has taken place. The symposium called "Biomaterials and devices for the treatment of diabetes mellitus" focused on the recent developments to bring forward cell transplantation as a treatment. The three different approaches of the projects were discussed e.g. such as their methods to encapsulate islets or islet-like cells; their strategies to enable transplanted cells' immunoisolation, and to improve graft survival and function within the organism. BIOCAPAN's coordinator Dr. Frédéric Bottausci explained that producing a favourable environment for the encapsulated islets and protect them from the immune rejection, BIOCAPAN researchers developed a new composition for the microcapsule that enhances biocompatibility, functionality, and survival of transplanted islets aiming for patients being 2-years free of insulin injections. Furthermore an automatized microfluidic platform has been developed to encapsulate freshly harvested islets and providing standardized and reproducible bioactive microcapsules in short time.
During the dedicated symposium and the TERMIS conference the three research teams could share their results obtained in the past 4 years of the projects and exchange on their experiences.

Website of the event: www.h2020research4diabetes.eu
Flyer of the event available here