ENCITE - European Network for Cell Imaging and Tracking Expertise

Researchers define cell therapy as the transplantation of living cells for the replacement or repair of damaged tissue and/or cells. Hot on the heels of stem cell therapy research is a group of leading cell imaging experts who are participating in ENCITE (European network for cell imaging and tracking expertise), a four-year project supported by the EU with €11 million in funding. Coordinated by the Vienna-based European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research (EIBIR), ENCITE aims to develop imaging technologies and methods in the cell therapy field.

Experts have established three different principles underlying the treatment of medical disorders: (1) transplanted cells used as an 'active drug'; (2) transplanted cells used to replace damaged and degenerated tissue; and (3) cells used as a drug delivery vehicle.

The medical world has been using cell therapy over the years to treat a myriad of disorders, including cancer, spinal cord injuries, autoimmune disorders and Alzheimer's disease. Contrary to what some people may think, cell therapy is not a new concept; one can trace its history to the German-Swiss physician and alchemist, Phillippus Aureolus Paracelsus, who in 1536 theorised that illnesses can be treated with living tissue.

Fast forward to 2008 and it's clear that the medical world lacks a single imaging modality that would be effective in stem cell therapy. But experts say that several types of imaging have the capacity to play major roles in this line of research, particularly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and optical imaging. Both these imaging types are being researched by the ENCITE team.

The partners will develop and test innovative MRI imaging methods and biomarkers so as to better understand what happens to a cell and how the immune system responds. The potential impact of ENCITE is that the researchers will break new ground in cell therapy research, as well as strengthen Europe's role in this type of research. Applications of the results can be seen in the treatment of cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

ENCITE kicked off last month and comprises 21 partners from 10 countries. Team members say that as ENCITE advances, the collaboration of other highly qualified partners will prove positive for the project. They add that their contribution will strengthen research or dissemination and training activities for the newly developed methods. ENCITE will launch a Competitive Call in autumn 2008 to secure new partners.

The following actions will be taken by ENCITE in order to meet the call and tackle the different cell therapies that exist: (1) deliver new imaging methods to improve the spatio-temporal tracking of labelled cells; (2) establish dual- and multimodality imaging procedures to cross-validate each individual approach; (3) set up new contrast agents and procedures to enhance the sensitivity and specificity of cellular labelling; and (4) combine molecular biology to produce molecular and cellular imaging reporters with multimodal imaging techniques.

ENCITE states that the application of the targeted imaging tools will contribute to raising awareness of cell therapy, response monitoring in patients and treatment safety.

For further information, please visit:
http://www.eibir.org

Related news article:

Copyright ©European Communities, 2008
Neither the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, nor any person acting on its behalf, is responsible for the use, which might be made of the attached information. The attached information is drawn from the Community R&D Information Service (CORDIS). The CORDIS services are carried on the CORDIS Host in Luxembourg - http://cordis.europa.eu. Access to CORDIS is currently available free-of-charge.

Most Popular Now

Unlocking the 10 Year Health Plan

The government's plan for the NHS is a huge document. Jane Stephenson, chief executive of SPARK TSL, argues the key to unlocking its digital ambitions is to consider what it...

Alcidion Grows Top Talent in the UK, wit…

Alcidion has today announced the addition of three new appointments to their UK-based team, with one internal promotion and two external recruits. Dr Paul Deffley has been announced as the...

AI can Find Cancer Pathologists Miss

Men assessed as healthy after a pathologist analyses their tissue sample may still have an early form of prostate cancer. Using AI, researchers at Uppsala University have been able to...

AI, Full Automation could Expand Artific…

Automated insulin delivery (AID) systems such as the UVA Health-developed artificial pancreas could help more type 1 diabetes patients if the devices become fully automated, according to a new review...

How AI could Speed the Development of RN…

Using artificial intelligence (AI), MIT researchers have come up with a new way to design nanoparticles that can more efficiently deliver RNA vaccines and other types of RNA therapies. After training...

MIT Researchers Use Generative AI to Des…

With help from artificial intelligence, MIT researchers have designed novel antibiotics that can combat two hard-to-treat infections: drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae and multi-drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Using generative AI algorithms, the research...

New Training Year Starts at Siemens Heal…

In September, 197 school graduates will start their vocational training or dual studies in Germany at Siemens Healthineers. 117 apprentices and 80 dual students will begin their careers at Siemens...

AI Hybrid Strategy Improves Mammogram In…

A hybrid reading strategy for screening mammography, developed by Dutch researchers and deployed retrospectively to more than 40,000 exams, reduced radiologist workload by 38% without changing recall or cancer detection...

Penn Developed AI Tools and Datasets Hel…

Doctors treating kidney disease have long depended on trial-and-error to find the best therapies for individual patients. Now, new artificial intelligence (AI) tools developed by researchers in the Perelman School...

Are You Eligible for a Clinical Trial? C…

A new study in the academic journal Machine Learning: Health discovers that ChatGPT can accelerate patient screening for clinical trials, showing promise in reducing delays and improving trial success rates. Researchers...

New AI Tool Addresses Accuracy and Fairn…

A team of researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has developed a new method to identify and reduce biases in datasets used to train machine-learning algorithms...

Global Study Reveals How Patients View M…

How physicians feel about artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine has been studied many times. But what do patients think? A team led by researchers at the Technical University of Munich...