BONE – BIO-FABRICATION OF ORTHOPAEDICS IN A NEW ERA

Osteoporosis is a disease with high occurrence in North-Western Europe. This region is much more affected by bone fractures, with 214 hip replacements per 100,000 inhabitants, compared with an average of 153 in the European Union. This entails significant costs for governments, hence the need to find cost-effective alternative solutions.

With the emergence of regenerative medicine, new avenues are being explored. These include the use of intelligent implants, such as 3D scaffolds created using a technique called electrospinning (ESP), which could make it possible to regenerate skeletal bone without the need for tissue donors or multiple surgical operations.

Unfortunately, at present, there are only a few local initiatives in North-Western Europe using ESP technology. The BONE project aims to bring the different actors closer together, by promoting collaboration between 4 research institutes, 4 business support organisations and 5 industrial actors from 6 European countries, creating 15 jobs. Ultimately, the aim is to develop and test in real-world conditions intelligent implants manufactured by ESP and to reach a TRL 8, for significant advances in the field of regenerative medicine.

PROJECT LEAD: University of Maastricht

CONTACT: l.moroni@maastrichtuniversity.nl

CALL FOR PROJECTS: INTERREG – North-West-Europe

EU FUNDING: €2.04M

TOTAL BUDGET: €3.41M

FUNDING YEAR: 2017

PARTNERS: Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT – The Electrospinning Company Limited – Spraybase – Fianium Ltd – Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, represented by KU Leuven Research & Development – University of Lille – Medicen Paris Region

COUNTRIES: United Kingdom, Netherlands, Ireland, France, Luxembourg, Austria