Technology Inspired Solutions for Tomorrow's Health Care
In 2017, a strategic alliance between the University of Twente (UT) (then research institute MIRA, now the Technical Medical Centre), the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) and Utrecht University (UU) was signed.
Breakthrough innovations in future health care will have a strong technological basis. The breakthroughs can only be reached by multidisciplinary research in which areas of expertise are combined and boundaries between research domains are broken down. With this in mind the parties have identified one area with particularly high translational potential in existing collaborative research projects.
This area is “Advanced Biomanufacturing”. This term covers a broad range of activities at the three institutions and unites technological and clinical challenges in translational medicine. Advanced Biomanufacturing combines excellence in development of new biomedical technology, the stronghold of the Technical Medical Centre of the UT, with biomedical research and translational excellence in innovative patient care, the stronghold of the UMC Utrecht and Utrecht University.
Advanced biomanufacturing
Within the theme of Advanced biomanufacturing three topics, that are strongly interconnected, have been selected:
- Micro-imaging
- Biofabrication
- Bioartificial organs
These topics deal with specific aspects of the technological and clinical challenges in Advanced Biomanufacturing. At the UT, UMCU and UU substantial efforts are already taking place. Breakthroughs are in reach when these efforts at each of the involved institutions are synchronized and combined.
The selected topics within Advanced Biomanufacturing deal with unmet clinical problems with far-reaching consequences for the individual patient, the health care system and society at a large. They have strong potential for valorization in spin-off activities with substantial economical and societal impact.
Advanced Biomanufacturing has been identified as one of the “hot topics” in the biomedical field with an anticipated growth in the coming years and expectation that substantial part of research funding will be allocated to this research area as evidenced by the outline of the Horizon 2020 EU research agenda. Crossing boundaries in research is one of the objectives of this new research program.
Steering committee
- Prof. dr. Alain de Bruijn (Pathobiology – UMCU)
- Prof. dr. Dimitrios Stamatialis (Bioartifical organs, Biomaterials Science and Technology – UT)
- Prof. dr. Marianne Verhaar (Nephrology and Hypertension – UMCU)
- Prof. dr. ir. Nico Verdonschot (Technical Medical Centre - UT)