| Nov 04, 2013 |
Winners of the first-ever Nanomedicine Award revealed at BIO-Europe
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(Nanowerk News) The winners of the first ever Nanomedicine Award were officially announced during the Nanomedicine Panel at BIO-Europe conference in Vienna, November 4th 2013. The Award review Board agreed to distinguish two projects in two different categories: The winners are Endomagnetics Ltd in the nanodiagnostic category and the I-CARE project from Linköping University in the regenerative medicine category.
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“We have received a lot of exceptional applications for the Nanomedicine Award, with 23 candidates coming from all over the world and from different horizons and application areas. It has been incredibly hard for the judging committee to select the winners that are excelling in their innovative nanomedicine approaches”, said Laurent Levy, chairman of the Award review board and vice-chairman of the European Technology Platform Nanomedicine ETPN that founded the Nanomedicine Award. “It is a great pool of examples to show the true potential of nanomedicine in providing important solutions for currently unmet medical needs and a major opportunity to enhance the synergies of the field with the pharmaceutical industry, a crucial stakeholder in the development of products towards the patients.”
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The nanodiagnostic Award winning company, Endomagnetics Ltd, is developing advanced magnetic sensing technology to increase access to the standard of care in breast cancer staging by providing an alternative approach to locating sentinel lymph nodes (www.endomagnetics.com).
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“Endomagnetics is very honoured to have been selected for an inaugural Nanomedicine Award, particularly given the global candidates and great promise of this convergent industry. This award enhances the medtech facet of nanomedicine and increases our visibility to potential partners as we develop further across the nanomedicine field.” said Dr Eric Mayes, CEO of Endomagnetics Ltd.
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The jury also decided to award in the regenerative medicine category the candidate Linköping University for the European Project entitled Integrative nano-Composites And Regeneration of the Eye (I-CARE), a regenerative medicine-based treatment for Corneal Herpes Simplex Keratitis (HSK), that simultaneously treat the disease while regenerating the damaged cornea (www.hu.liu.se/igen/griffith-may?l=en).
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“For the I-CARE team, the Nanomedicine Award 2013 is an acknowledgement of our hard work and multidisciplinary approach to successfully extending regenerative medicine approaches to restoring organs that are failing due to immunopathologic causes, in this case, corneas with herpes simplex keratitis, the leading cause of infectious blindness worldwide. We hope that we will successfully bridge the translational gap from clinical need to clinical trials, allowing us to continue to work together and with others within the nanomedicine community in further European projects”, said May Griffith, Professor at Linköping University, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine.
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Award winners benefited from a full registration (including partnering) for BIO-Europe 2013 and presented their application in a 5-minute speech at the Nanomedicine Panel Discussion during the event. In addition, the winners will be granted a 15-minute presentation slot during the CLINAM conference 2014 in Basel, Switzerland, along with 1 year’s free ETPN membership and two days consultation by the members of the ETPN Translational Advisory Board for experts’ advice and guidance. The Nanomedicine Award was handed over by the award-sponsors Nanobiotix and EBD Group.
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About ETP Nanomedicine
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The European Technology Platform Nanomedicine was established in 2005 as a joint venture of the European Commission and CEOs of large industrial companies, SMEs and academic research institutions to investigate and advance joint activities in the area of nanotechnology in medicine. Since 2005 the ETPN published a number of strategic documents outlining the needs and roadmaps for nanomedicine research in Europe. The ETPN contributed to set up numerous European funded projects providing a first impression of the conditions for a suitable social and economic environment and the structural requirements for an efficient translation of R&D results into innovative nanomedicine. The ETPN supports its members in coordinating their joint research efforts and improving communication amongst the members as well as towards the European Commission and the European Member States.
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About BIO-EUROPE 2013
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The 19th annual BIO-Europe® event is the largest biotechnology partnering conference held in Europe. Over 3,000 global decision makers from biotechnology, pharma and finance, representing upwards of 1,700 companies from over 50 countries, annually attend BIO-Europe to identify new business opportunities and develop strategic relationships. BIO-Europe features the industry’s most advanced web-based partnering system enabling delegates from all parts of the biotechnology value chain to quickly identify, engage and enter into strategic relationships that drive their business successfully forward. BIO-Europe takes place November 4–6, 2013 in Vienna, Austria.
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