COLOTAN-ETN

The Colon Targeting Network (COLOTAN) is a European Training Network that will train 13 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) in (bio)pharmaceutical sciences to improve targeting of oral drugs to the colon. Oral administration of drugs is the preferred delivery route due to its non-invasiveness and convenience for the patient. However, issues related to solubility, absorption, and metabolism often cause oral drug candidate attrition. Oral formulations that release the drug in a pH- or time-dependent manner in the colon have been developed for local treatment of colonic diseases. However, currently available colon-targeting formulations suffer from an inconsistent performance and lack of efficiency due to intra- and interindividual (patho)physiological variability. Moreover, the available tools to predict drug absorption mainly focus on the upper gastrointestinal tract and fail to recapitulate events occurring in the colon, resulting in a lack of validated models to predict drug and formulation behaviour in the colon. To meet these challenges, we must move beyond traditional, mainly monodisciplinary education and train a new generation of pharmaceutical scientists in diverse disciplines ranging from drug delivery to chemistry, cell biology, microbiology and gastroenterology. This project has received funding from the European Union's EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 under Grant Agreement No 956851.