International Projects Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Institute for Medical Research

Human culture-expanded adipose stromal/stem cells: serial expansion and maintenance of their proliferative, multipotential and regulatory properties

Води : Dr Jauković Aleksandra

Сарадници на пројекту: Dr Bugarski Diana, dr Kocić Jelena, dr Trivanović Drenka

Број пројекта: 451-03-02338/2012-14/05

Трајање пројекта: 2013 – 2014

Водећа институција:

Опис пројекта:

The use of stem/stromal cells derived from adipose tissue as an autologous source of various differentiated cells has great potential for application in regenerative medicine. This project aimed to define effective methods of multipotent stem/stromal cell extraction from adipose tissue (ASC), their expansion and differentiation ex vivo, as well as the examination of their survival and proliferation upon cryopreservation. In addition, the characteristics of ASCs propagated ex vivo were compared in different cell culture model systems, including cultivation in bioreactors and 3D tissue cultures on biomaterial scaffolds. Also, the important aim of this project included investigations of ASCs effects on the proliferation of various tumor cell lines with special emphasis on the maintenance of ASCs biological characteristics and immunoregulatory properties during long-term culture expansion procedures in order to confirm the safety of their clinical use.

Тип пројекта:

International Projects

Role of IL-6/NF-κB/HIF-1 axis in adipose tissue mesenchymal stromal cells-mediated breast cancer cells stemness

Project leader : Dr Trivanović Drenka

Project collaborators:

Dr Aleksandra Jauković, dr Ivana Okić-Đorđević, dr Tamara Kukolj

Project number: SK-SRB-2016-0031

Duration of the project: 2017- 2018

Leading Institution:

Description of the project:

Mesenchymal stromal/ stem cells (MSC) from adipose tissue play an important role in the tumor microenvironment of breast cancer, but the molecular basis of their participation in the regulation of tumor development and progression is insufficiently studied. Persistent inflammation and hypoxia in tumor tissue contribute to the development of cancer stem cells and tumor progression, where transcription factors NF-κB and HIF-1 cooperate to govern the cancer progression.
In order to define potential new targets for the development of antitumor therapeutic strategies, this project aimed to define molecular mechanisms underlying the influence of adipose tissue MSC on stemness properties of breast tumor cells with a special focus on the participation of IL-6/NF-κB/HIF-1 signaling pathway. For these purposes, the effects of MSC adipose tissue or their produced factors on breast tumor cell line MDA-MB-231 were analyzed in terms of mammospheres formation, expression of pluripotency markers, cell cycle/silencing, and modification of NF-κB and/or HIF-1 activation.

Тип пројекта:

International Projects

New therapeutic strategies for reconstruction of bone defects with optimized RIA-derived autologous grafts and bone substitute materials

Project leader: dr Herrmann Marietta

Project collaborators:

Aleksandra Jauković, Ph.D. (coordinator of the work package WP3 and proof-of-concept with 3D Republika), Kukolj Tamara, Ph.D., Hristina Obradović, Ph.D., Milena Živanović, PhD student

Project number: 01DS21004

Duration of the project: July 2021 – June 2024

Leading Institution: University Hospital Würzburg

Description of the project:

Large bone defects present a common clinical problem where autologous bone grafting is the current gold standard. Autologous bone grafts harvested by the Reamer-Irrigator-Aspirator® (RIA) technique are considered advantageous in terms of larger quantities of graft material and yielding two fractions – a solid graft usually used for the transplantation and a liquid fraction often referred to as a waste material. This highly translational project aims to address the regenerative potential of RIA liquid fraction through in vitro studies of its secretory and cellular content as well as by testing pre-conditioning strategies to improve RIA grafts regenerative potential. Also, the project will provide evidence for the new application possibility of bone substitute material PerOssal® (Osartis GmbH) in combination with RIA-graft material. In vitro experiments will be translated into preclinical and clinical trials in Serbia to optimize currently available therapies. In parallel, proof-of-concept experiments with 3D printing materials will be accomplished with the industrial partner from Serbia 3D Republika d.o.o.

Тип пројекта:

International Projects

Horizon FrAmework for ClInicaL trIal participants’ daTA reutilization for a fully Transparent and Ethical ecosystem

Project leader : Dr Luca Pani

Project collaborators: Olgica Djurković-Djaković, Ivana Klun

Project number: 101034366

Duration of the project: January 2022 – December 2025

Leading Institution: Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE), Italy

Description of the project:

FACILITATE is a project built on a patient-centred, data-driven, technological platform where dynamic consent allows the returning of clinical trial data to study participants within a GDPR compliant and approved ethical framework. FACILITATE starts-off by providing clear rules in a trusted ethical, legal and regulatory ecosystem before engaging patients as data generators. This avoids the current situation where clinical data are siloed in separate repositories without any possibility to be used beyond their original single-sided purpose. FACILITATE will provide the technological solutions to comply with GDPR in medical research by building on the empowered stakeholders’ willingness to share and re-use their data. The FACILITATE Consortium was constituted by drawing from a broad range of capacities to tackle the ambitious challenges related to future clinical trials, such as preventive, long-term and real-world evidence trials. The Consortium takes an innovative approach to the data return to study participants by asking them what they need to be implemented to feel in a trusted ecosystem. This requires all Consortium participants to leverage on their existing networks to bring together stakeholders at all levels in the decision-making chain, including patients, healthcare professionals, software designers, clinical trials repositories processors and controllers, ethicists, lawyers and other active regulators. Having obtained a dynamic consent on the data portability FACILITATE will re-use and cross-reference them with those contained in other repositories including RWE data captured across multiple settings and devices. FACILITATE will last 4 years and will participate in the extended Pilot on Open Research Data of Horizon 2020. Its strategy represents a unique and innovative opportunity for medicines drug development and regulation to better understand the clinics of diseases, and to evaluate the effectiveness of products in the healthcare system.

Тип пројекта:

International Projects

Relationship between sero-prevalence in the main livestock species and presence of Toxoplasma gondii in meat

Project leader: Dr Joke van der Giessen

Project collaborators:

Olgica Djurković-Djaković, Ivana Klun, Aleksandra Nikolić, Branko Bobić, Aleksandra Uzelac, Irena Rajnpreht

Project number: GP/EFSA/BIOHAZ/2013/01

Duration of the project: November 2013 – November 2015

Leading Institution: National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), The Netherlands

Description of the project:

The overall goal of project was to gain information and knowledge on the presence (and viability) of T. gondii cysts in meat and other edible tissues in main meat‐producing animals, and its relationship with T. gondii seroprevalence in animals by carrying out an extensive literature search and review of available data on the subject, as well as performing experimental studies on T. gondii in meat‐producing livestock species in the EU in order to assess the relationship between indirect detection methods (antibody detection), and direct detection methods of infective cysts in meat and other edible tissues (by bio‐assay).

Тип пројекта:

International Projects

Epidemiological risk models for vector borne diseases in a changing world: The case study of mosquito and tick-borne diseases under different conditions of habitat integrity, environment and climate

Project leader: Prof dr Duško Ćirović and Dr Tizzani Paolo

Project collaborators: Dr Snežana Tomanović and Dr Darko Mihaljica

Project number:

Duration of the project: 2013-2015

Leading Institution: Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade

Description of the project:

The principal goal of the project is to verify if, and to what extent, anthropic impact and climatic changes affect the risk of vector borne diseases transmission. The project aims to develop an epidemiological model where the environment is modeled on both italian and serbian characteristics, the wild animal host is the red fox, and the pathogens cause vector-borne diseases. The diseases considered are transmitted by mosquitos (Dirofilaria immitis), by ticks (Babesia sp. Ehrlichia sp., Anaplasma phagocitophylum), and by sandflies (Leishmania infantum). The pathogens to be studied were chosen because they are very different from the phylogenetic and biological points of view and in their ecological needs. In this way it will be possible to verify the large number of mechanisms through which environmental changes can affect the spread of pathogens.

Тип пројекта:

International Projects

Importance of wild canids as hosts and reservoirs for ticks and tick-borne pathogens in Austria and Serbia

Project leader: Dr Snežana Tomanović and Dr Georg Duscher

Project collaborators: Dr Snežana Tomanović, Dr Darko Mihaljica and Dr Ratko Sukara

Project number:

Duration of the project: 2016-2017

Leading Institution:Institute for Medical Research, University of Belgrade

Description of the project:

Identification of ticks and tick-borne diseases, as a growing problem in last decades, coincides with the increase of anthropogenic influence on biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems. As a result of direct and indirect anthropogenic impact, the migration of these pathogens to new areas is enabled. Wild canids are important hosts of ixodid ticks and recently they have been recognized as potential reservoirs of several tick-borne pathogens of zoonotic and domestic animals importance. The species like red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and golden jackals (Canis aureus) also represent an important source of infections for domestic animals and humans, mostly due to their close proximity to human settlements and frequent exposure to different vector species. Currently, these populations are both still rapidly growing in urban areas and spreading their ranges toward Central and Eastern Europe increasing the risk of human and animal exposure to pathogens. However, many aspects of the epidemiology of tick-borne diseases in wild canids, such as host range, tick range and their geographical distribution are still poorly understood.

Тип пројекта:

International Projects

Toxoplasmosis in HSC transplant recipients: how to improve prevention at a reasonable cost?

Project leader:

from the Serbian side: Dr. Olgica Đurković-Đaković, from the French side: Prof. Florence Robert-Gangneux

Project collaborators:

dr Tijana Štajner, dr Jelena Srbljanović, Neda Bauman, Aleksandra Uzelac

Project number: /

Duration of the project: January 2018 – December 2019

Leading Institution: /

Description of the project:

Diagnosis and monitoring of reactivated toxoplasmosis (RT) in HSCT recipients was introduced into the transplantation practice in Serbia in 2013 (cooperation of the Mother and Child Health Care Institute and the NRL for toxoplasmosis). Despite its many benefits, clinical experience with this approach to control T. gondii infection in HSCT patients has also revealed gaps including diagnostic challenges pertinent for decisions on treatment, and lack of consensus on the frequency and duration of blood sample monitoring by qPCR after HSCT, respective of clinical setting and administration of prophylaxis. Thus, the goal of the proposed project is to, after standardization and harmonization of the qPCR protocol in both partner laboratories, identify subgroups of patients (according to the clinical setting, type of prophylaxis etc.) at the highest risk of RT, that would benefit the most from systematic PCR monitoring, with the final outcome to devise a cost-effective alternative for the prevention of RT after HSCT.

Тип пројекта:

International Projects