The ibs.GRANADA participates in a European project on medical and industrial applications of ultrasound
The UGR and the ibs.GRANADA participate in a European project on medical and industrial applications of ultrasound
The Granada-based company Policlínica SMD is also participating in this project, called Listen2Future, which has a total funding of more than 30 million euros.
The objective is to develop research on ultrasound with multiple applications, ranging from more precise hearing aids, smaller microphones, diagnosis of diseases or analysis of materials to cancer treatments.
The University of Granada (UGR) participates in a European project called "Listen2Future - Acoustic sensor solutions integrated with digital technologies as key enablers for emerging applications fostering Society 5.0" on medical and industrial applications of ultrasound, which was presented this week in Villach (Austria), and which also includes the company Policlínica SMD from Granada.
This is a project with a total budget of 30 million euros, with funding from the European Union and member states, with the participation of 27 partners from 7 countries, under the leadership of the company Infineon Austria. Its objective is to develop research on ultrasound with multiple applications, ranging from more precise hearing aids, smaller microphones, diagnosis of diseases or analysis of materials, to cancer treatments.
The University of Granada will have a budget of approximately 875.000 euros, and it has full participation, which will serve to develop, on the one hand, research and transfer tasks with a team led by Professor Guillermo Rus, co-investigator responsible for the Maternal Health group. Fetus and Elastography from ibs.GRANADA and from the Department of Structural Mechanics and director of the Ultrasonics Lab, and, on the other, coordinating all the dissemination of the project, through Medialab UGR, through Professor Esteban Romero, from the Department of Financial Economics and Accounting.
Ultrasonics Lab's participation in this project focuses on designing and testing a non-invasive therapeutic technology using quasi-ultrasonic waves to stop the proliferation of tumor stem cells.
As Guillermo Rus points out, “this European project will accelerate the work we do in the laboratory. On the one hand, because we will work hand in hand with the leading centers in Europe in their respective specialties to develop the components of the medical device, and, on the other, because it will finance a team of expert researchers who will be able to fully dedicate themselves to materializing this project”.
The researcher Juan Antonio Marchal, director of the "Advanced therapies: differentiation, regeneration and cancer" group, stresses that, in addition, "this technique could be used in combination with chemotherapy or immunotherapy, reducing the doses of these drugs and, therefore, the effects secondary”.
Such a large and complex project, with various practical applications, requires intense communication work with society and the various groups interested in its multiple applications. The University of Granada, through Medialab UGR, assumes this challenge which, as Esteban Romero points out, "is an unbeatable opportunity to innovate in the way in which we transfer the results of the research to society, as well as to value the developments technologies that are financed through public funds and public-private partnerships”.
In this sense, the University of Granada also acts as a driving force for economic development in Granada, incorporating the company Policlínica SMD as a partner in the project (with an approximate budget of one million euros), whose managers, Jorge Ruiz and Alejandro Linares, express their "firm commitment to provide innovative and definitive solutions, hand in hand with the research carried out at our University, to the important problem that alopecia represents in women with cancer treated with chemotherapy."