Organización Curso de verano UIMP. Advanced Therapies

Patients with pathologies treatable by advanced therapies number in millions, attracting the interest of pharmaceutical companies and patient associations. These therapies include gene and cell therapies and tissue engineering or nanomedicine, which provide innovative alternatives for treating multiple diseases.

GENE THERAPY is based on the introduction of genetic material for the treatment or prevention of the pathology, either by replacing or silencing the mutated genes involved in the development of the disease in the organism or by introducing new genes to treat it. This can be done both using viral vectors and non-viral vectors, which is where NANOMEDICINE is beginning to re-emerge with great force because, depending on their composition, nanoparticles can also present modulable optical and/or magnetic properties with which, in addition to gene transfer, a therapeutic or visualization action can be achieved.

There is a need to develop new vehicles that transport the therapeutic genetic material or drug of interest efficiently and allow its tracking and visualization in the organism through IMAGING TECHNIQUES, making it possible for therapeutic vectors to reach the target area in a specific way.

In recent decades, different therapeutic vehicles have been developed. Among them, stem cells have aroused the scientific community's interest notoriously, thanks to their ability to migrate specifically to damaged areas in what is known as CELL THERAPY.

But stem cells are not only used for cell therapies but also REGENERATIVE MEDICINE OR BIO-ENGINEERING. These are promising new technologies that may help reduce the current shortage of organs, thus increasing the number of organs available for transplantation for patients with chronic, acute and debilitating genetic diseases.

This course is aimed at students of biomedical sciences interested in this expanding area of knowledge. It will provide an overview of new tools for advanced therapies and biomedical imaging for their monitoring. In addition, we will analyze their applications and impact on research and clinical application through examples of how they are currently being implemented, including several current clinical trials.

Researcher: 
Jiménez Schuhmacher, Alberto
Participation type: 
Profesor responsable
Institution: 
Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo
Start date: 
08/2022
End date: 
09/2022
Scope: 
Internacional