CoMMiTMenT Consortium gathers for 4th Progress Meeting in London
Almost exactly 2 years after the project’s kick-off, CoMMiTMenT coordinator Lars Kaestner of Saarland University welcomed the CoMMiTMenT consortium at the Royal Society of Medicine in London, where the Marcus Beck Library provided a dignified setting for the 4th Progress Meeting. As dense fog cut off London airports from traffic, some participants’ flights were cancelled; however, the technical skills within the consortium allowed them to join the meeting virtually and participate in the discussions from their local institutions’ sites.
The one day meeting was tightly packed and dedicated to present, discuss and evaluate the work progress achieved since the last meeting in Roscoff (France). The development of the µCosmos devices for identification, isolation and examination of malfunctioning red blood cells as well as possible personal treatment approaches for rare anaemia diseases has advanced considerably, and they will have to be tested and fine-tuned during the following months. This is done by the clinical and academic partners, who are already busily defining the necessary measurements to be carried out and the required data to be collected with the help of the µCosmos devices, in close cooperation with the SME partners. The progress of work was intensely discussed by the team and the partners determined the short-term steps to be taken so that sample examination and data analysis can start on time.
The Consortium was very pleased to welcome Advisory Board member Prof Mark Sansom from Oxford University, who had kindly agreed to join the meeting. Prof Sansom gave a highly interesting lecture on ‘Molecular Simulation Studies of Membrane Proteins: from Channels and Transporters to Complex Membranes’, allowing an insight into his team’s current work at Oxford University. At the end of the meeting, he also shortly summarized his impressions on the project’s progress, particularly pointing out that the obviously excellent communication and cooperation as established between the partners was one of the key factors to ensure the project’s success.
CoMMiTMenT is a five-year Collaborative Project funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union. The project aims to develop combined imaging technologies based on optofluidic microscopy and scanning ion conductance microscopy. An integrated, completely simultaneous device named µCOSMOS will be used as a proof-of-principle for therapeutic interventions in rare anaemias.
Eurice is the management partner of CoMMiTMenT and contributes to the successful implementation of the project goals.
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