Documentation and conservation of Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) is crucial to preserve humankind’s history and traditions, safeguarding tangible testimonies of past human life while ensuring its accessibility to present and future generations. TECTONIC project will promote an intersectoral collaboration between academic and non-academic professionals (such as technical experts, archaeologists, conservator, geologists, engineers, computer scientists) working in different topics related to the UCHs to respond and find solutions to the complex issues still existing in the field of UCH. The overall aim is the exchange of skills and expertise, the training activities for the implementation, improvement and assessment of innovative materials, techniques, tools and methodologies to develop solutions and marketable products for the conservation, restoration and management of the UCH (objects, artefacts, structures, remains etc.). To achieve its overall aim, TECTONIC project will undertake innovation and development activities driven by the following objectives: Study, documentation and 3D reconstruction of the selected pilot sites; Decision support tool for UCH risk assessment in a changing environment; Conservation studies, protocols and suitable procedures for preservation/conservation activities; Development of open and low-cost robotic solutions for the inspection, documentation and monitoring of UCH; Raising the public awareness and knowledge about the importance to preserve the underwater historical and archaeological heritage. All the objectives will be devoted to stimulate new ideas that would bring to the development of new marketable products by capitalizing on the research results that will be achieved in the project, creating a link between business, research and higher education.

Genetic lethal interactions, which describe the lethal effect of combined perturbations in two or more genetic factors whilst individually have no effect, have emerged as a significant topic in the field of targeted cancer therapy. Despite their promising performance in clinic, current genetic lethality-based therapies focus mainly on digenic interactions restricting the size recipient patients. Complex genetic interactions that involve deregulation of innate mechanisms or cellular responses offer an alternative approach in the development of anti-cancer therapy. Impaired licensing of DNA replication represents a common feature of cancer cells fuelling genomic instability. Cancer cells manage to proliferate and expand under conditions of impaired licensing suggesting that have acquired special mechanisms that are not present in normal cells. Here, my aim is to unveil genetic interactions that induce lethality by investigating the mechanisms that enable the survival of licensing-defective cancer cells. Using colorectal cancer as a model, I will first identify the genes that are overexpressed in tumour cells that exhibit licensing defects. Secondly, I will interrogate the consequences of genes inactivation in the survival of cells by employing a CRISPR/Cas9 screen in a cell system of inducible licensing defects by the overexpression of the licensing factor Cdt1. Finally, the identified hits will be validated through functional experiments in cell systems and model organisms to establish their lethal effect. Our results will identify novel factors that upon inhibition induce the selective cell death of cancer cells and we anticipate that they will be attractive targets for future studies on drug design and development.

The management and reconstruction of bone defects is a significant global healthcare challenge. While autografts offer ideal compatibility, they are often not suitable for large bone defects, and allografts suffer from potential immunorejection.The limited efficacy of conventional treatment strategies for large bone defects and the increasing aged population, has inspired the consortium to propose a SMART RESORBABLE BONE (SRB) IMPLANT embedding stem cells and bioactive agents with the aim of a controllable and fast restoration. The proposed solution includes 3D printed medical grade polymers enriched with electrospun fibers (for increased mechanical properties) that can be customized for patient physiology, pathology, and gender. The scaffold design will ensure easy and minimal Injury placement, and will embed different sensors for monitoring e.g. pressure, pH value and temperature based on biocompatible conductive inks. The smart implant will thus be able to provide vital information of implant performance in terms of bone growth and infection/inflammation. The proposed method is unique because it includes a customized smart implant (3D printed parts with adjustable sensors and communication electronic system), together with tissue engineering methods i.e. in-vitro programming of stem cells for embedding into the smart implant. The proposed solution introduces an innovative regenerative chain, from early testing and characterization (identification/adjustement of the proper specifications) and embedding regenerative stem cells and particulate bioactive agents into the smart implant in preclinical research (in-vitro). The in vivo proof of concept of SBR solution will be tested in (large animal model) preclinical studies within the scope of the project. Finally the regulatory and commercialization strategy on how to further explore the proposed concept and deliver it for clinical testing will be elaborated.

Personalized medicine uses pharmacogenomics (PGX) to individualize therapy upon patients’ unique DNA profiles. With ~200,000 deaths/year in Europe due to adverse drug reactions, it has become an imperative to improve treatment. In Western Balkans (WB), individualization of therapy is done sporadically. IMGGE (Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia) is a pioneer in the PGX in WB. PharmGenHUB will strengthen IMGGE’s PGX R&I potential by exchanging knowledge between IMGGE and EU partnering institutions: University of Patras, Greece (UPAT), University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (UL), University of Trieste, Italy (UNITS). Through collaboration and knowledge sharing with 3 EU partners, IMGGE will become WB central place for PGX diagnostics and R&I, education and trainings, and translation of PGX knowledge into clinically applicable digital solutions. IMGGE’s research project, high-throughput DNA sequencing of WB populations, with support of UPAT and UL, will identify WB specific drug-PGX marker pairs and enable design of electronic tool for better decision-making in clinical practice, electronic PGX assistant for WB (ePGA-WB). iPSC model for validation of novel PGX markers relevant for Europe will be introduced at IMGGE with support of UNITS. IMGGE will renew, reinforce and establish new connections through networking with WB institutions. Project will be realized through short-term visits of IMGGE staff to EU partner institutions, staff exchanges, on-site trainings, experimental laboratory work. Outreach activities will include PGX days, WB conference and joint summer schools. To strengthen research management capacities and administrative skills of IMGGE staff, a research management unit will be established with assistance from UPAT. As focal point of PGX translational research, IMGGE will impact on WB health-care cost benefits and facilitate WB integration to EU-PGX research area through R&I activities and digitalization.