Optogenerapy team starts working on bio-electronic implants to treat Multiple Sclerosis
Barcelona 20th February, 2017 – Researchers from eleven institutions and companies in seven different European countries met at Eurecat’s facilities in Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona) to launch the Optogenerapy project, which aims to develop optogenetic cellular therapy implants as a new treatment for Multiple Sclerosis.
The devices, based on technology developed at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Basel, member of the consortium, will enable the administration of therapeutic protein doses for patients with multiple sclerosis, an illness that affects 2.3 million people all over the world and 700,000 in Europe.
According to Dr. Esther Hurtós, Project Coordinator at Eurecat, “the Optogenerapy project will enable a more efficient and less invasive therapy for multiple sclerosis patients, who will not require the regular injections they are now subject to”.
The kick-off meeting was attended by all consortium partners with representatives from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, the Lodz University of Technology in Poland, the Erasmus University of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the National Health and Medical Research Institute of France, the global company Boston Scientific, which wishes to take the product to the market, geneXplain from Germany, and the Spanish entities Neos Surgery, Ultrasion, Twoptics Systems Design, UNE and Eurecat.