The Working Group and Management Committee meeting is scheduled on 12 June 2015 at The Culture and Convention Center - Het Pand, Gent, Belgium.
Latest news
SUMMER TRAINING SCHOOL 2015 “Corneal Transplant Immunology, Imaging, Stem Cells and Artificial Cornea” is held at University Hospital of Cologne, Department of Ophthalmology during 7th to -11th June, 2015. Trainees are gathered to have lectures and practical courses given by experienced COST participants and invited speakers.
Research group of Dr. Martine Jager has published the work of implanting fish scale-derived collagen scaffold in rat model. The work was done by T. Huibertus van Essen together with other research partners within NExCR/COST BM1302. The free full-text article can be downloaded as a PDF file. “A Fish Scale–Derived Collagen Matrix as Artificial Cornea in Rats: Properties and Potential”, Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. May 7, 2013 vol. 54 no. 5 3224-3233
Successful Horizon 2020 project of several COST Action members funded: ARREST BLINDNESS
The successful Horizon 2020 project addresses corneal blindness, which is the second largest cause of blindness globally. The four-year project is called Advanced Regenerative and RESTtorative Therapies to combat corneal BLINDNESS (ARREST BLINDNESS). The objective of ARREST BLINDNESS is to develop new regenerative-based therapies for the cornea, addressing the translation of regenerative medicine, bio-artificial organs, tissue-engineered scaffolds, and advanced cell and molecular therapies into clinical use. This program will help to alleviate the worldwide problem of corneal blindness. ARREST BLINDNESS is a consortium of 14 partners across 8 European countries including 5 companies, comprising some of the leading academic centers for corneal regeneration research in Europe. The consortium is led by Neil Lagali (Linköping, Sweden), and includes (amongst others) Claus Cursiefen (Cologne, Germany), Nadia Zakaria (Antwerp, Belgium), Juana Gallar (Alicante, Spain), Isabel Dapena (Rotterdam, The Netherlands), Jesper Hjortdal (Aarhus, Denmark) and Martine Jager (Leiden, The Netherlands).
ARREST BLINDNESS builds on the recently funded 4 year EU COST Action (BM1302: JOINING FORCES IN CORNEAL REGENERATION; www.biocornea.eu) which aims at developing an artificial Biocornea and helped to form a paneuropean network of corneal regeneration researchers. This is led by Prof. Cursiefen from Cologne and Prof. Jager from Leiden and includes cornea researchers from most European countries.
2016 Summer Training School
29 May - 03 June 2016 Medical University Varna, Bugaria
Responsible Organizer: Prof. Christina Grupcheva
MC WG meeting 9 Sept 2016 Copenhagen
COST BM1302 MC/WG meeting
6 pm to 9pm Sept 9, 2016
Copenhagen, Bella Center (parallel to EuCornea)
Final action dissemination video - COST BM1302 Joining Forces in Corneal Regeneration Research