EU FET OPEN PRIME

'A Personalised Living Cell Synthetic Computing Circuit for Sensing and Treating Neurodegenerative Disorders.' PRIME is a H2020 FET-OPEN Founded Project. The objective is to develop an autonomous implantable living cell system with engineered bio-computing logic gate that sense, compute, and actuate epileptic seizure suppression. These cells will be implanted into the brain and will co-exist with natural neural tissue. There remain urgent and unmet needs for the treatment of neurological diseases. Epilepsy is a serious, chronic brain disease characterized by recurrent seizures. Epilepsy is one of the most common serious neurological condition, affecting about 1% of the population, i.e. about 60 million people globally (6 million in Europe). The end result of PRIME is a software design tool for designing engineered cells that compute, diagnose, and produce therapeutic molecules capable of preventing seizures. The design tool is governed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) integrated with Molecular Communication simulations that utilize Biophysical and Statistical Mechanics modelling. This trans-disciplinary project aims to approach a serious neurological problem through a solution bringing together synthetic biology, computer science, communication engineering, nanomedicine, bioengineering and material science. This vision of implanting programmable synthetic cells that mimic electronic computing circuits is not limited to managing epileptic seizures but may extend to many other neurological diseases. PRIME’s results will provide a transformational diagnostic-therapeutic treatment for epilepsy and other neurological diseases. PRIME brings together partners from across Europe into a strong multi-disciplinary team: Walton Institute at SETU, AARHUS University Denmark, Omiics ApS Denmark, Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI) Ireland, The University of Ferrara Italy, Tampere University Finland, and EPOS-IASIS Cyrpus. Find out more: https://fet-prime.eu/