Evercyte joins innovative research and training project

Vienna, Austria: – Innovative biotech manufacturer Evercyte is participating in the H2020 EU ‘in3’ project aiming to drive the synergistic development and utilization of in vitro and in silico tools for human chemical and nanomaterial (NM) safety assessment.

The project is part of the Marie Curie European Training Network (ETN).

As a result, Evercyte is looking for one of 15 PhD-level researchers to work on the project, to be recruited from international research groups at universities among Masters students in the fields of toxicology and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell research, CROs and pharma, chemical, cosmetics industries producers specializing in toxicology.

hiPSC leadership

Evercyte Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Regina Grillari commented: “We want to attract the best international (EU wide) PhD students in this field to join us on this project and further Evercyte’s high reputation in the field of differentiation of human induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (hiPSC) to toxicologically relevant target tissues.”

“We will be able to offer successful applicants a chance to develop a PhD thesis with a innovative high-tech company offering competitive training in all major techniques of stem cell biology and toxicology, in the company of a network of leading toxicologists,” said Dr. Grillari.

“We believe our participation will further raise our visibility in the fields of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell research as well as in in vitro toxicology carried out within the 3R animal trials principles of replace, reduce and refine,” Dr. Grillari added.

About Evercyte

Evercyte GmbH, based in Vienna, manufactures a range of innovative cell-based products; including primary/normal cells; telomerase (hTERT) immortalized or life span extended cells and differentiated cells from immortalized or normal stem cells.

Recently, Evercyte has become a key player in the development of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from human urine as a non-invasive source for generating cell material. The company also offers a range of cell-based assays, used in development of drug screening strategies and other applications. It also develops assays to individual specification to help customers reduce their time and spend on drug discovery and development.

Evercyte’s Pharmacocellomics™ is also improving the predictability of substance efficiencies and side effects in the general population by systematically establishing and commercializing relevant cell type specific model systems from donors of different genetic backgrounds.

About Marie Curie in3

The in3 project is being staged as part of the Marie Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN) that aims to drive the synergistic development and utilization of in vitro and in silico tools for human chemical and nanomaterial (NM) safety assessment. The project will focus on differentiation of human induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (hiPSC) to toxicologically relevant target tissues including; brain, lung, liver and kidney.

Tissues from the same genetic backgrounds will be exposed to several compounds, with data generated used to develop safety assessment approaches by integrating cheminformatics, mechanistic toxicology and biokinetics into computational models.

The project will hire 15 PhD students to carry out these activities in a coordinated and highly collaborative fashion. The scientists trained within in3 will acquire a unique multidisciplinary skill set, focused on core scientific activities that include:

• Differentiation of well-characterized human iPSC into brain, lung, liver, kidney and vascular cells
• Delineation of tissue specific and donor specific effects of compound exposures (uptake, metabolism, extrusion, and mechanistic toxicity)
• Development and optimization of quantitative adverse outcome pathways (qAOPs) for each target organ which will be unified in an organism-level model
• Optimization of QSAR and read-across tools for safety assessment
• Creating a unified expandable integrated testing strategy for chemical and NM safety assessment

More information at: http://estiv.org/in3/index.php