EU Fet Open PRIME Newsletter
EU FET OPEN PRIME
PRIME project aims to prevent epileptic seizures by developing autonomous implantable living cell systems for the brain.
Keep up to date with the latest project news and updates from the PRIME project consortium of partners.
EU FET OPEN PRIME project: “A Personalized Living Cell Synthetic Computing Circuit for Sensing and Treating Neurodegenerative Disorders.” Funded by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme, working to achieve the PRIME project objectives are researchers from 7 partners across Europe, bringing together a strong multi-disciplinary team.
A message from PRIME Project Coordinator Dr. Deirdre Kilbane
‘’As we approach the end of year 4 of the EU FET OPEN PRIME , it is a good time to reflect on highlights across the past 12 months. Significant progress has been made towards reaching work package objectives, and the team have been busy with dissemination activities highlighting their achievements working across PRIME.
Below we look back on the project plenaries that took place this year where representatives of our 7 university partners from across Europe traveled to come together in person and discuss their latest work package updates, share results, pool thoughts while talking through potential risks, and of course, explore some beautiful locations in the host university coties. The first plenary of 2024 was hosted by PRIME partner Tampere University in Finland in January, and the last of the year was hosted by Università degli Studi di Ferrara in northern Italy, in November.
We also reflect on EPE activities partners undertook across 2024, where researchers showcased their work on the PRIME project at public facing engagements. We saw PRIME promoted at some fantastic events this year, including at Neuroscience Conference 2024 in Chicago; European Researchers’ Night in Ferrara, Italy; UPM Biomedicals 10th Annual Conference in Switzerland; and SETU Post Grad Research Conference in Ireland.
Numerous PRIME partners submitted papers for publication in 2024 with significant and fascinating research to share with peers; we await to celebrate some successful outcomes.
Walton Institute at South East Technological University is proud to lead the Eu Fet Open PRIME project as coordinator and to see results emerge from each work package. We look forward to continued success in 2025, as we work towards achieving PRIME’s grand vision: to develop an autonomous implantable living cell system with engineered bio-computing logic gate (AND, OR gates) that sense, compute, and actuate epileptic seizure suppression. These cells will be implanted into the brain and will co-exist with natural neural tissue.’’
Dr. Deirdre Kilbane is Project Coordinator for EU Fet Open PRIME and Director of Research at Walton Institute, South East Technological University (SETU), Waterford, Ireland.
EU Fet Open PRIME Plenary 7, UnIFE, Italy
Throughout 6th-8th November 2024, EU Fet Open PRIME consortium partners from across Europe travelled to northern Italy, coming together for the 7th Plenary of the project, held at University of Ferrara (UniFE.)
This in-person, two-day meeting, provided the opportunity for project partners to meet face-to-face to hold collaborative discussions on project progress, share recent results, deep-dive new ideas, mitigate potential risks and make plans for next steps across the upcoming work package deliverables.
The beautiful city of Ferrara proved a stunning location to spend a few days, and in the evening time partners enjoyed exploring the historical sights during a city tour, tasting the delicious local cuisine, and networking with stakeholders and representatives at the university.
Neuroscience Conference 2024: EU FET Open PRIME showcased in Chicago
EU FET Open PRIME partners representing Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and Università degli Studi di Ferrara (UniFE) Italy, attended the Neuroscience Conference 2024 (SfN) in Chicago. Neuroscience 2024 was held in the McCormick Place Convention Centre in Chicago, USA from 5-9th October 2024.
SfN, which holds a yearly Neuroscience conference, is the world’s largest neuroscience organisation. Each year, scientists from around the world congregate to discover new ideas, share their research, and experience the best the field has to offer. The conference takes place in a different city each year and covers all areas of neuroscience which spans across several days. This year’s SfN meeting gathered thousands of neuroscientists from over 70 different countries to share their cutting-edge research on the brain and nervous system.
EU FET Open PRIME presented at UPM Biomedicals Conference
Tampere University (TAU), a partner in the EU FET Open PRIME project, attended the 10th annual UPM Biomedicals conference on October 24th 2024 in Basel, Switzerland. This conference gathers participants from academia, research institutions, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companied around the world. The theme for this year was “Utilizing Animal-Free Biomaterials for Next-Gen 3D Cell Platforms and Injectable Implants”.
EU FET Open PRIME project showcased at ‘European Researchers’ Night in Ferrara, Italy
The European Researchers’ Night is an initiative promoted by the European Commission which has been running since 2005, and sees the participation of thousands of research institutions across Europe every year. The project is funded by the European Community under the Marie Sklodowske-Curie actions, with the aim of promoting the careers of researchers in Europe.
Society reAGIAMO is a project that has brought the European Researchers’ Night to Ferrara, and other parts of Italy, for the past 3 years. Researchers at University of Ferrara (UniFE) working on the EU FET Open PRIME project took part in this innovative event recently, held at Piazza Castello on 27th September 2024, with activities taking place from 6pm until midnight!
EU Fet Open PRIME Project Plenary 6, Finland
Kick starting 2024, back in January representatives of the consortium of partners traveled to Tampere University , Finland, to participate in the 6th PRIME project plenary.
The in-person two-day meeting offered the opportunity for project partners to come together face-to-face not only to discuss the project, deliver updates and share recent results, but also to explore one of the European partner locations, visiting the fantastic sights and enjoying local cuisine, during evening downtime. Tampere, an inland city in southern Finland, provided a stunning backdrop this January, with snow-covered ground and temperatures reaching -12 degrees. The team also had the opportunity to tour the impressive on-site lab facilities at the university.
Meet the PRIME Partners
Across 2024, we interviewed several of the multi-disciplinary partners that represent the PRIME project. We asked about their research, what they enjoy the most, their collaboration with other work packages and partners, and what they hope to achieve through their work on the PRIME project.
You can find these fascinating partner insights below:
EU FET OPEN PRIME consists of several multi-disciplinary European partners working on the project, funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme. The PRIME project aims to prevent epileptic seizures by developing autonomous implantable living cell systems for the brain.
Led by Walton Institute at South East Technological University, EU FET OPEN PRIME project's consortium of European partners is made up of Tampere University Finland, Università degli Studi di Ferrara Italy, EPOS-IASIS Cyprus, Aarhus University Denmark, omiics Denmark and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) in Ireland.
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