Global healthcare associated with chronic non-healing wounds can be considered a main public health problem as affects up to 2% of the world population. A novel approach is needed mainly to support the quality of life of the people suffering from this silent epidemic and additionally, alleviate the impact in costs and resources for the healthcare system. Up to date, no smart bandages have made it to the real market and research state is still going on for a reliable and sensitive inspection method. The main goal of WOUNDSENS project is to lead the development of a novel generation of wearable biosensors with a synergy of technological breakthroughs in transversal fields of knowledge. Sensor elements, for the first time, will directly become a compatible part of the wound dressing material itself resulting in enhanced wearing comfort and operability. Accordingly, they will be integratable into manufacturers' existing standard processes (suturing, embroidery, roll-to-roll). Our proposal presents a parading shift in smart wound dressings constructed on novel hollow fibers with radial bio-signaling based on engineered novel enzymes. WOUNDSENS presents a leading-edge new technology with the design and development of innovative electrochemical materials with step forward advances in CONDUCTIVE MATERIAL, the development of electrospun neofibers and processes with leading edge methodologies on ELECTROSPINNING and the ENZYME ENGINEERING of a new family of detection biocatalysts (resurrected and extant enzymes) to secure a sensitive and reliable signal. WOUNDSENS proposal accepts the challenge of pushing forward the new technological platform to design a new concept in continuous wound control and monitoring improving the life of millions of people.

Pre- and post-marketing data on drug side effects show that neurotoxicity and cardiotoxicity are frequently missed or underestimated during pre-clinical testing. Neuro- and cardiotoxicity caused by pollutants including pesticides and industrial chemicals are equally difficult to assess. This results in suffering of individuals and in a considerable burden to society. One of the main reasons is that currently available testing approaches have several shortcomings, including sensitivity, human-relevance and suitability for non-invasive long-term recording. This project will develop a revolutionary and fully non-invasive technology to record in-vitro electrical signals from human neuronal and cardiac cells. High spatial resolution, combined with parallel recording of electrical signal coordination and propagation among thousands of neurons or cardiomyocytes, will allow the assessment and quantification of subtle disturbances by toxicants from the drug, pesticides and industrial chemicals sectors. The full non-invasiveness will enable, for the first time, the long-term functional in-vitro monitoring of biologically relevant cellular models, paving the way toward the reliable assessment of chronic toxicities. The novel biosensing technique (VICE) will emerge from the efforts of nanotechnology developers in close collaboration with toxicologists and specialists in surface functionalization and electrophysiological data acquisition. With its joint expertise, the consortium will continuously refine the VICE biosensor with innovative functionalities while thoroughly testing it in toxicology and pharmacologicy experiments. This will not only lead to a revolutionary approach to monitor functions of heart and brain cells, but also ensure the direct applicability to relevant questions in safety sciences and pharmacology. Ultimately, the project will elicit the future development of a whole new class of biosensors based on the groundbreaking concept of VICE.

Chronic Neuropathic Pain is frequently associated with peripheral nerve injury or disease. Peripheral injury activates both neuronal and glial components of the peripheral and central cellular circuitry. While it is widely known that the subsequently altered interactions between neurons and glial cells contribute to pain development and to its chronification, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Developing mechanism-based therapies targeting neuron-glial interactions to treat chronic pain will be crucial for improving the quality of life of many patients. Hence the development of novel therapeutic solutions represents a major challenge that demands a multi-disciplinary approach to decipher and understand pathological mechanisms and to translate them into predictive tools for drug development. The NGN-PET consortium addresses this challenge by forming a highly interdisciplinary team that builds upon expertise in areas of academic research on pain mechanisms, industrial knowhow on human stem cell-based tool development, HTS technologies and drug discovery. To achieve its goal we will develop preclinical model systems and assays which recapitulate the human in vivo situation and which can be interrogated for the identification, validation of molecular targets and the development new treatments. A focus of the project will be chemotherapy induced NP and the interplay between nociceptors, microglia and Schwann cells. NGN-PET will carefully characterize rodent in vivo and in vitro models to identify these mechanisms, and will develop rat and human iPSCs based in vitro systems of neuron-glial co-cultures that can be interrogated for targets and used for compound identification and validation. NGN-PET will thus pose the basis for the translation of these model systems into high throughput screening platforms for pharmaceutical research and drug discovery.