Partners
University of Brighton, Biomaterials and Medical Devices Research Group
The University of Brighton is a leading UK higher education institute with a strong international reputation in life sciences research. The School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences in particular is internationally recognised for its high quality research, teaching, and training. The school has benefited from the construction and equipping of a new £23 million research facility. The BioMeD research group is a highly successful group within the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences and holds a number of UK and EU funded research projects. Research themes surround novel carbon-based technologies in the biomedical field and include extracorporeal ultrafiltration and haemoperfusion devices, immunoadsorbents, biomedical devices for orthopaedic and dental applications, cardiovascular stents and ophthalmic implants, surface modification of biomaterials with biomimetic coatings, protection for CRBN incidents and standardisation of biomaterials
MAST Carbon International
MAST Carbon International is an independent company based in the United Kingdom established in 1996. The company has been operating for over 15 years and prior to that was the Carbon materials group of a major oil company. MCI was established in 1996 for the commercialisation of synthetic carbon adsorbents, catalyst systems and membranes and has an international reputation in the development and application of synthetic carbon materials. Its interests encompass biomaterials, separation, membranes, fuel cells, catalysis and automotive applications.
R. E. Kavetsky Institute of Experimental Pathology, Oncology and Radiobiology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, IEPOR
Led by Team leader Prof. Vladimir G. Nikolaev has won international recognition for its work in the field of medical adsorbents and artificial organs. The group has won major awards for its research work (State Prize of the USSR and State Prize of Ukraine). The group is involved in the development of new means and methods of adsorptive blood purification, enterosorption (oral adsorbent usage) and adsorptive treatment of wounds and burns as well as in designing of the portable systems for hemo- and plasmaperfusion. All these adsorptive means and technologies have been successfully used in the treatment of a multitude of medical conditions. At present the research activity is focused on the development of fast adsorptive systems for the effective removal of protein-bound toxins from blood and blood plasma, new carbonic and combined enterosorbents and nano-silver-containing adsorptive bandages.
The team has been granted permission for the production and clinical use of over 20 different medical devices and adsorptive preparations in Ukraine and other NIS countries. It has been involved in a number of international projects with The Royal Society, NАТО Science Programme and CNRS (France).
Albutec GmbH
Albutec GmbH was founded in 2004 by three associates. Albutec is a research and development company with 6 permanent and 1 part-time employees. Our company is based in the Hanseatic city of Rostock in Germany, at the Biomedical Research Center.
Albutec developed the Hepalbin®-Adsorbent, which can easily remove unwanted stabilisers from human albumin solutions in order to enhance albumin binding capacity significantly. The continued development on the basis of the Hepalbin Adsorbent is the Hepalbin Cluster12 . This scaled up product enables the applicant to process larger amounts of albumin contained solutions such as used in albumin dialysis procedures.
In 2014 they developed an alternative disposable set OPen Albumin (OPAL) dialysis for the albumin dialysis using the MARS Monitor 1TC. The Hepalbin Cluster12 is part of that treatment set. A randomised crossover study is currently ongoing. This study is called Opalesque Study. The aim of that study is to compare this treatment assembly to the standard procedure MARS.
Polymerics GmbH
Polymerics GmbH is a technology-oriented company founded in 1996 as a spin-off from Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. The company currently employs 10 people – all with a higher education degree. Polymerics develops and produces specialty adhesives for high-temperature applications, adhesive tapes, fire protection materials as well as specialty polymers for medical and analytical applications. The adhesives, based on hybrid epoxy-acrylic resins as well as on bismaleimides, are suitable for high-performance applications including microelectronics, sensor technology, and medical devices. All formulations of the adhesives have been developed by the company’s own research team. The company maintains a quality management system certified according to ISO 9001:2008. With the background of a profound scientific knowledge in the fields of polymer and adhesives characterisation and a large number of installed scientific analysis methods the company also offers services of polymer characterisation and quality assurance.
Since 1999 Polymerics has been involved in the synthesis and characterisation of new adsorbent polymers with tailored properties for extracorporeal blood purification devices and for analytical purposes (solid phase extraction). The company’s scientific posters have been awarded prizes for best presentations at the 4th International Symposium on Albumin Dialysis in Liver Disease in 2002 and at the European Society for Artificial Organs’ Winter School in 2012. These activities have led to participation in national and international research projects, including cooperation with Danube University Krems, Austria, 2005–2006, and the “MONACO-EXTRA” IAPP project 2008–2012 within the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission.
Polymerics synthesises adsorbents in volumes from 0.25 to 10 L that can be tailored in terms of chemical composition, specific surface area and pore size distribution as well as particle size in the range from ca. 10 to 200 µm. The company is equipped with methods to purify the synthesised adsorbents and to determine the achieved degree of purity using solid phase extraction, HPLC, SEC, and TGA. The particle size of the adsorbents can be controlled by both the polymerisation parameters as well as by classification. Surface modifications can be controlled by FTIR and titration. The properties of the resulting adsorbent polymers are characterised using methods such as sieve analysis (particle size distribution), nitrogen adsorption (specific surface area and pore size distribution), and ad-sorption tests for specific substances using UV-VIS and FTIR spectroscopy. Polymerics holds several patents on the synthesis and biomedical application of its adsorbent polymers: DE10261910 (2002), US7311845B2 (2005), DE102004063633 (2004), EP1676615 (2005), US7304017B2 (2005).
University College London
UCL is one of the top 4 universities in the world, and is rated 5* in Life and Medical Sciences. The Liver Failure group at UCL is a translational group comprised of 3 Principal Investigators and 17 clinical and basic scientists. Their expertise spans basic biology, animal models of disease and the capability to perform clinical studies in patients and their research is focused on liver failure. The most important observation they made was the discovery that inflammation played a crucial role in the progression of liver failure leading up to current hypotheses and the seminal observation of the role of hypothermia in patients with uncontrolled intracranial hypertension, an intervention that has become routine in many units around the world. The group have developed extensive collaborations with investigators in the UK and around the world to study the pathophysiological basis of liver failure. Their research has led to successful publications of about 200 original papers, reviews, editorials and chapters in high impact journals and 9 patentable inventions addressing novel treatments for hepatic encephalopathy, development of extracorporeal liver assist devices and portal hypertension and discovery of novel biomarkers. Their studies have been funded by grants from the Welcome Trust, MRC, Department of Health, Foreign research councils, Industry and UCL Business and amounts to over £4.5M.
Cardiff University
Cardiff is internationally recognised as being among the very top tier of Britain's research-intensive universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading universities.
The Welsh School of Pharmacy (WSP) undertakes research across the full spectrum of pharmaceutical sciences and practice. In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE2008) 85% of their research activity were judged to be of international standing. WSP research is focused on discovering from natural sources or producing in the laboratory potential new drugs, particularly for the treatment of cancer, cardiopulmonary diseases, and bacterial and viral infections.
Expertise of the Pharmaceutical Biology Research Group, WSP, led by the Prof Baillie includes containment level 3 microorganisms, bacterial spores, bacteriophages, molecular biology, vaccine expression and delivery systems, DNA vaccines, antibody assays, immune signalling, innate immunity.