- Spain is participating in this European project worth more than 2.6 million euros through several centers in the Basque Country, Madrid and A Coruña.
- Researchers from the Molecular Assembly and Nanomaterials (NanoSelf) group of the Interdisciplinary Center of Chemistry and Biology, University of A Coruña (CICA-UDC) participate in the project with the evaluation of materials based on chemically modified graphene
Sepsis and bacterial infections are the main causes of death in hospital environments with more than half a million victims per year. Early diagnosis as well as appropriate and early antimicrobial treatment are of great importance. However, effective treatment is hampered by the misuse of inappropriate drugs due to lack of diagnosis, resulting in resistant pathogens, high risk of recurrence of infection and consequent associated mortality. There is therefore a need for rapid and reliable diagnostic systems that reduce reporting time from several days to a few hours, with consequent savings in medical costs.
ECLectic is an international project of the 2022 Doctoral Network call, funded with more than 2.6 million euros and involving 10 partner entities and 9 associated entities, coordinated by Dr. Giovanni Valenti of the Dipartimento di Chimica of the Università di Bologna. The Spanish participation is carried out through the CIC BiomaGUNE, the Complutense University of Madrid, the BCMaterials, the University of the Basque Country, and the NanoSelf group of the CICA Universidade da Coruña.
The predoctoral researcher hired by the Carbon Bionanotechnology group at CIC biomaGUNE will carry out a research stay at the Universidade da Coruña as part of his/her training. Specifically, the detection of sepsis biomarkers by electrochemiluminescence (ECL) measurements will be studied. For this purpose, carbon-based nanoparticles (Carbon-dots) will be developed at the Donostia-San Sebastian center, while at the UDC different chemically modified graphene materials will be evaluated for the construction of electrodes. It should be noted that the predoctoral researcher will study the PhD program of the UDC in Environmental and Fundamental Chemistry. This program stands out for its internationalization through collaboration with prestigious international collaboration groups, offering the possibility of obtaining the PhD degree with the “International Mention”.
The ECLectic network will address the global problem of sepsis and bacterial infection by developing the next generation of detection platforms, providing completely new diagnostic paradigms. Thus, ECLectic will develop rapid and reliable point-of-care devices with applications for bacterial infection testing, disease recurrence and progression monitoring. disease recurrence and progression. It will bridge the gap between innovative research in the field of nanostructured materials and their application in nanostructured biosensor technology and their application in biosensor technology.
ECLectic will also create a Network of Excellence in Europe for the training of young investigators in the research and development of bacterial infection and sepsis detection platforms. ECLectic will generate a flexible pool of excellent young researchers ready to tackle European challenges in the development of new bacterial infection detection platforms. They will be trained to become leaders in both industrial and academic research and development.
CICA:
CICA is the Centro Interdisciplinar de Química e Bioloxía created at the Universidade da Coruña in 2015. It has more than 200 researchers organized in three scientific areas ranging from biomedicine to materials science. Research excellence, technology transfer and the transmission of knowledge to society form the three pillars on which the research center is based. It is recognized for attracting talent, the visibility of women scientists and the promotion of gender equality, with a female presence of more than 50%.