Better treatment of severe COVID-19 courses with the help of artificial intelligence
The NRW Ministry for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy is funding the CovidDataNet.NRW joint project with around 3.2 million euros. The leader of the consortium is Prof. Michael Adamzik from the University Hospital Knappschaftskrankenhaus Bochum. Together with other scientists from the Ruhr University Bochum, other university hospitals from Bochum, Bonn and Münster, the hospital in Cologne-Merheim and the association of miners' hospitals, he is working on solutions to provide the best possible treatment for patients suffering from COVID-19.
Together with the entrepreneurial partners Kairos GmbH and Chimera Biotec GmbH, the consortium wants to create the basis for predicting severe courses of COVID-19 disease at an early stage. The use of artificial intelligence and big data will make it possible to treat patients in a more individualised and targeted manner right from the start and thus save lives, explains Prof. Adamzik. The intensive care units will be relieved because they can concentrate on those cases that require specialised intensive medical treatment.
Doctors and scientists from numerous NRW hospitals and research institutions around the Ruhr University Bochum have been researching sepsis for years. This is a life-threatening immune reaction that is difficult to treat and is triggered by infections.
triggered by infections. It also plays a major role in severe COVID-19 courses. In order to network the facilities with each other, digital structures have already been promoted in the past, which can be excellently built upon here.
Chimera Biotec & MACIVIVA
Chimera Biotec Awarded Grant to Support Ultra Sensitive Efficacy Testing of an Oral and Nasal Vaccine Delivery Platform with low volume mucosal tissue samples
Chimera Biotec GmbH- specialists in ultra sensitive immunoassay development- have received a significant project grant as part of a consortium looking to establish cold-chain independent virosome-based vaccine candidates.
Utilizing the proprietary Immuno-PCR based Imperacer® technology, Chimera aims to analyze vaccine specific immune-response in low volume preclinical sample material after oral and nasal administration of a nano-pharmaceutical vaccine.
A total project fund of €5.3 million has been awarded as part of Horizon 2020, the European Union research and innovation framework program, with additional funding of up to €3.1 million from the Swiss State Secretariat Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) for the Swiss based consortium partners, resulting in a total project grant of €8.4 million.
The EU Horizon 2020 project is named MACIVIVA, which stands for “Manufacturing process for Cold-chain Independent Virosome-based Vaccines.” The total duration of the project is 3.5 years and joins experts in the field of vaccine virosomes, drug formulation, and drug delivery. As leading experts in the field of ultra sensitive target quantification, Chimera Biotec is looking forward to being a part of the consortium.
Chimera Biotec will perform studies at its Dortmund-based laboratory, where it will use its expertise to analyze vaccine efficacy in different biofluids from individually sampled rats. Through the extremely high sensitivity of the Imperacer technology, a vaccine specific immune-response may not only be detectable in blood samples, but also in mucosal samples collected from mucosal tissues - the port of entry of most pathogens.
The total project grant is distributed amongst all consortium partners: Chimera Biotec GmbH (Germany); Mymetics SA (Switzerland), Mymetics BV (Netherlands); Catalent (UK); Upperton Inc (UK) and Bachem AG (Switzerland).
“Chimera Biotec is looking forward to applying its know-how regarding ultra sensitive target quantification in extremely low sample volumes to this global project and helping to establish a new non-invasive cold-chain independent vaccine candidate,” commented Beena Punnamoottil Sen. Project Manager at Chimera Biotec GmbH. “The success of this project will have a major impact on vaccinations strategies for new fields of vaccination and on global health care especially in countries with limited cold-chain availability.”
The MACIVIVA consortium recognizes the importance of this work and the impact it may have on global vaccine development.
The MACIVIVA project will receive funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 646122.
Chimera Biotec Promotes National Multi-Center Study “Joint Research for a Healthier Future”
The German national cohort (NAKO) conducts a long-term study “Joint Research for a Healthier Future” for prevention and early diagnosis of prevalent wide spread diseases.
NAKO selects and invites 200.000 German citizen aged between 20-69 years to a medical examination. The study center is part of the Leibniz Institute in Bremen and receives medical data from 18 study centers all over Germany, which already started recruiting and examining study participants since 2014.
As part of the worldwide Lifescience community, Chimera Biotec is more than happy to actively support the success of the NAKO long-term study. We do not only foster the engagement of our employees who wish to participate in the study but also contribute to an improvement in the health situation in Germany.