BONE- Bio-fabrication of Orthopaedics in a New Era


Project Summary

A distinctive problem for NWE is the high occurrence of osteoporosis, leading to the highest rates of bone fractures of all EU regions. The number of hip replacements per 100k population is 214 in the NWE region versus the EU28 average of 153 (OECD 2016). The economic and societal burden of bone fractures is enormous and could be reduced by the implementation of affordable, curative healthcare solutions that ensure a faster recovery with lower health care costs. The emerging field of regenerative medicine offers potential solutions: smart implants, such as 3D scaffolds created through an innovative technology called electrospinning (ESP) hold the promise to support the regeneration of skeletal bone and replace the need for tissue donors, repeat operations or ongoing medication. However only local ESP technology R&D driven initiatives currently exist in NWE. The objective of BONE is therefore to accelerate the valorisation of cost-effective 3D smart implants fabricated by electrospinning technology (reaching TRL8) by collaboration between 4 research institutes, 4 business support organisations and 5 industry organisations. As such, BONE enables new jobs (15) to be created, two new products to be developed and tested in real life conditions (ESP technology and 3D smart implants) and intensive collaboration between Innovation leaders (Westphalia, London, Paris) strong innovators (Vlaams-Brabant, Southern-Limburg, Ireland) and moderate innovators (Nord-pas-de-Calais) in order to increase the regions’ innovation capacity in the area of regenerative medicine based on ESP technology.

Project Partners

Lead partner

Organisation Address Email Website
Maastricht Universiteit 40 Universiteitsingel
MAASTRICHT
6229 ER
Netherlands
l.moroni@maastrichtuniversity.nl merln.maastrichtuniversity.nl
Name Contact Name Email Country
Fraunhofer Institut für Lasertechnik Nadine Nottrodt nadine.nottrodt@ilt.fraunhofer.de Germany
The Electrospinning Company Limited Rob McKean brendan.robb@electrospinning.co.uk United Kingdom
Spraybase Ellen Byrne ebyrne@spraybase.com Ireland
Fianium Ltd Peter Moselund roger.kirke@fianium.com United Kingdom
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, vertegenwoordigd door KU Leuven Research & Development Frank Luyten frank.luyten@uzleuven.be Belgium
Université de Lille Nicolas Blanchemain nicolas.blanchemain@univ-lille2.fr France
Medicen Paris Region Olivier Fontaine ofontaine@medicen.org France

News


BONE at REGMED Europe: The European event and matchmaking on Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine

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On June 3, 2022 Medicen Paris Region organized REGMED Europe, the second edition of the European event on biomaterials and regenerative medicine. Within the Cité Universitaire de Paris campus, more than 80 people from 12 European countries met to share and discuss the future of this discipline. REGMED Europe was the opportunity to review the results of the Interreg NWE BONE project: Bio-fabrication of Orthopedics in a New Era coordinated by the University of Maastricht. This projectis coming to an end after 5 years of collaboration. The project consortium was created in 2017 following the undeniable observation that the way to curative and affordable solutions goes through 3D implants which also respond to the economic and societal repercussions of bone fractures. Together, 4 research institutes, 4 business support structures and 5 industrial players have joined forces to address the need to accelerate the development of the profitability of 3D implants produced by the MEW: Melt ElectroWriting technique. The progress after 5 years of collaboration The latest advances from the BONE project: Improved printing performance thanks to the development of an auger allowing the molten polymer to be extruded with more control (compared to the more common air pressure); First report of a laser irradiation system for a MEW application; Optimization of scaffolds, including the incorporation of calcium phosphate and BMP2 growth factors to improve bone regeneration; Realization of biohybrid tissue layers combining unique scaffold designs via MEW with aggregated micro-tissues from stem cells. Advances in this area undeniably raise the question of the challenges of European regulations which were then addressed by our guest Aymeric Lebon, from Strategiqual, through the regulation of devices (Medical Device Regulatory). This promising start for the day was followed by a round table on the future of biomaterials with the shared views of Dr David Koper from Maastricht University, Dr Guillaume-A Odri from Inserm, Dr Didier Letourneur from CNRS – National Center for Scientific Research and Julien Payen, CEO and co-founder of Lattice Medical. Read More

BONE @Termis conference 2021

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Next week the exciting World Termis conference will take place. The BONE consortium would like to invite all of you to also visit a symposium that we are organizing within TERMIS as a satellite lunch symposium. This symposium is on the “BONE: Bio-fabrication of orthopaedics in a new era” project, a North-West Europe Interreg consortium. If you are attending TERMIS, please join us at this symposium too and enjoy the presentations that BONE partners have prepared. Below see more information on the program, including the presenters and the topics. Name of symposium: A future outlook on melt electrowriting: from academic to manufacturer to clinic Embedded within the 6th world TERMIS congress (15th-19th November 2021) Time: 15th November 2021, at 12.00-13.30 Dr. Paul Wieringa (MERLN institute, Maastricht University): Title: The BONE Project: Clinical Considerations for MEW Applications Dr. Matei Cirstea (The Electrospinning Company): Title: Beyond the simple scaffold: The next level of medical electrospinning Prof. Dr. Peter Kessler (MUMC+) Title: Bone has to be replaced by bone - a gold standard still valid today Distinguished Prof. Dr. Dietmar Hutmacher Title: Are MEW scaffolds having a role in bone tissue engineering? Read More

BONE consortium meeting March 2020

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During the 10 and the 11th of March 2020 the BONE consortium met each other at the facilities of KUL. As this took place just before the lock down in Belgium and the Netherlands due to COVID19, some other partners needed to join the meeting via conference call. Nevertheless flexibility was requested, the consortium succeeded to have an in-depth analysis on each work package and created a strict time line plan for the upcoming months of the project. Read More

BONE consortium meeting and BONE advisory board meeting October 2019

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On October 1-2, 2019, the Interreg Bone Consortium held its project meeting at the facilities of The Electrospinning Company. We have had a successful two day meeting with fruitful discussions on the project progress. For the second day of the meeting we invited the BONE advisory board. The advisory board members discussed with the consortium the goals of the project and gave valuable hints towards the application and the approval of our planned technology and implants. Read More

BONE presented at Bioregate event in Nantes

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BONE partners participated to the BIOREGATE event in Nantes on December 12th-14th, a leading European Forum dedicated to the field of regenerative medicine. BIOREGATE was the occasion to network with key European stakeholders in the field and exchange on the project progress and perspectives, but also to gain a high visibility in front of an audience of 250+ participants. Actually, the BONE project was presented by Medicen Paris Region during a closed international interclustering workshop with representatives from Europe, US and Canada as well as during a plenary presentation by our partner University of Lille: In vivo evaluation of 3D printed BCP scaffolds for maxillofacial bone reconstruction in a critical-size bone defect model of rabbits. Read More

BONE project meeting combined with an BONE advisory board meeting and a lunch symposium during the ESB conference in Maastricht September 2018

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On September 9-10, 2018, the Interreg Bone Consortium held its fourth project meeting at the MERLN Institute, Maastricht University. We have had a successful two day meeting with fruitful discussions on the project progress. For the second day of the meeting we invited the BONE advisory board. The advisory board members discussed with the consortium the goals of the project and gave valuable hints towards the application and the approval of our planned technology and implants. We would to thank them for their support! Read More


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