Official start of “PrintMed - Printing personalized medicines on demand“ at the University of Stuttgart

We warmly welcome Prof. Majid Hassanizadeh from Utrecht University who will join SimTech and SFB 1313 for a period of 18 months in order to conduct research on his project “PrintMed - Printing personalized medicines on demand“ for which he received an ERC Proof of Concept Grant. His research work officially started in November 2020.

An ERC Proof of Concept Grant is aimed exclusively at scientists who already hold an ERC Grant and wish to pre-commercially exploit it. The aim of such an ERC Proof of Concept project is to check the market potential of such an idea. Thus, the ERC does not fund research activities, but rather measures for further development with regard to the application maturity, commercialization or marketing of the idea.

“We are honored that an internationally renowned scientist as Prof. Hassanizadeh has chosen the University of Stuttgart as the host institution of this prestigious grant. It confirms the excellence of a research facility such as SimTech and its international reputation. We are looking forward to the results of this exciting project and are happy to explore this opportunity for an international collaboration”, underlines Heinke Claß, Head of Department Division 1 – Research and Transfer, European and International Research Funding.

The main focus of the project “Printing personalized medicines on demand“ is to investigate the commercial feasibility and validation of an innovative approach to personalized medicine and pharmacy-on-demand, made possible by using the inject printing technology for preparing individually-dosed tablets. In addition, the work will involve a model description of API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) infiltration into tablets made of functionalized calcium carbonate (FCC), preparation of tablet, and experimental determination of the suitability of tablets for the intended purpose.

In this project, Majid Hassanizadeh and his team will combine experimental and computational developments in order to demonstrate the applicability of inkjet printing technique for the production of individually-dosed tablets and formulate guidelines for the production of the tablets. The work is divided into six major tasks that will be carried out partly at Utrecht and partly at Stuttgart. SFB 1313 spokesman Rainer Helmig and principal investigator Oliver Röhrle will be co-supervisors of the project and direct collaboration partners.

“We are very happy to continue the long and excellent cooperation with Majid Hassanizadeh on the basis of this ERC Proof of Concept Grant. The research work within the project “PrintMed - Printing personalized medicines on demand“ will further strengthen the research focus on "Porous Media" in SimTech and in SFB 1313. It will be a great opportunity to transfer basic research into possible applications. We look very much forward to the joint collaboration within the next 18 months and beyond”, says Rainer Helmig.