Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN SkinTERM coordinated by Willeke Daamen and Toin van Kuppevelt

In the new training network SkinTERM, 12 PhD candidates will search for a novel way of wound healing without scars and contractions. The European Union has granted more than 3 million euros to reach this goal. SkinTERM is coordinated by Radboudumc with Willeke Daamen as coordinator and Toin van Kuppevelt as vice coordinator (both RIMLS, theme Reconstructive and regenerative medicine, Dept. of Biochemistry). 

The SkinTERM consortium will address wound healing in a different way than the current standard autologous split-thickness skin (the epidermis with a tiny layer of dermis). Skin regeneration will be induced by key elements taken from the extracellular matrix of foetal and non-scarring species and by employing (stem) cells from relevant cellular origins. The starting point for the study is the remarkable capability of early foetal skin and skin from the spiny mouse (Acomys) to heal perfectly without scars/contraction and with appendices such as hair follicles. Novel biomaterials and skin substitutes will be developed and evaluated. In order to effectively embrace this new approach, the PhD candidates need to have knowledge in key elements of basic science, regenerative medicine and biomaterial sciences.

As translation to medical devices and especially advanced therapy medicinal products is currently too limited, we will give the PhD students a solid theoretical and practical foundation on topics like regulatory affairs, GMP and GCP, as well as secondments in industry. The SkinTERM program will thus create a new generation of entrepreneurial, multidisciplinary and inter-sectorially trained scientists with excellent career perspectives in either academia, industry or government.

The project starts from October 1 2020. All PhD students are expected to start in March 2021, where the Mobility Rule applies: Early Stage Researchers (ESRs/PhD-students) must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting beneficiary for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the recruitment date.

Recruiting companies:

• Medskin Solutions Dr. Süwelack, Germany
• CUTISS, Switzerland

Recruiting academic institutions:

• Radboud university medical center, the Netherlands
• University of Algarve, Portugal
• VU medical center, the Netherlands
• Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany
• Durham University, United Kingdom
• University of Zurich, Switzerland

Partner organisations:

• atoms & art, Belgium
• OTR3, France
• Paul Hartmann Group, Germany

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