Advanced Human Skin Equivalent and Engineered Neuro-muscular Junction - Tissue Engineering Platforms for Testing Cosmetics and ALS Research Applications.
The Platforma project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No. 951890
Human Skin Equivalent and Neuro-muscular junction - two innovative engineered tissue models
PLATFORMA is a commercially driven collaboration to produce novel high-content phenotypic platforms for screening cosmetics, pollutants and new therapeutics. We propose to create purpose-built, 3D modular human tissues supported by laser-printed bio-compatible scaffolds from which electro-physiological status of the cells can be monitored.
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November 23rd 2020
BIRMINGHAM, CAMBRIDGE, EDINBURGH (UK), HANNOVER (Germany), GEMBLOUX (Belgium) 23rd November: The PLATFORMA consortium has received a prestigious award of €2.0million in funding from the European Commission as part of its EIC Pathfinder ‘Translation to Innovation’ scheme (EIC). PLATFORMA is a commercially driven collaboration to produce novel high-content phenotypic platforms for screening cosmetics, pollutants and new therapeutics. It is a follow-on project to a previous Aston-coordinated successful collaboration, MESO-BRAIN (MesoBrain).
Prof Edik Rafailov, Head of the PLATFORMA project said: “We are building on the successful foundations of the MESO-BRAIN project and moving in the direction of market demand from Central Nervous System (CNS) models to Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) models. The PLATFORMA project will move forward by using the biocompatible scaffolds and stem cell differentiation / culture techniques developed during the MESO-BRAIN project, supported by advanced photonic characterisations systems, to create tissue / cell type modules, and then multi-layered organ-on-chips models for high content screening”
July 8th 2020
PLATFORMA, a new European Innovation Council (EIC) Pathfinder project, will focus on an innovative method for screening cosmetics, pollutants and therapeutics.
The project builds on the results of the Pathfinder (FET-Open) project, MESO-BRAIN, which developed functional 3D human-stem-cell-derived neural networks of defined and reproducible architecture, based on that of a brain cortical module that will display in vivo connectivity and activity.
PLATFORMA wants to present a world-first commercially available innervated human skin tissue model, allowing studies and testing of peripheral nervous system responses to external stimuli in a physiologically relevant context. Such a model can be useful for various application – e.g. in peripheral neurotoxicity testing of cosmetics, pollutants and transdermal delivery of new therapeutics, or in development of wound healing assays and wound healing therapeutic strategies. Last, but not least, it allows further studies of interactions of human sensory neurons and dermal tissue.
Another outcome of the project will be an innovative motor neuron-skeletal muscle tissue model. It allows non-invasive recordings of neuromuscular transmission in real time, which can be used e.g. for investigation of human neuromuscular junction formation and signal transmission upon administration of therapeutic agents.
PLATFORMA starts in October 2020 and will run until September 2022. The participating institutions are from the United Kingdom, Germany and Belgium. The project is coordinated by Aston University in Birmingham.
People Are Talking About Our Work
July 2020
Digital Science & Research Solutions has included PLATFORMA in its Dimensions Grant Details alongside many other prestigious grants in the field.
November 28th 2020
Platforma has its own LinkedIn pages and a rapidly growing network of connections. Look out for relevant posts and articles on high content screening and contributions from our industrial partners, AXOL, Laser nanoFab and StratiCELL
Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, UK
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