Another year approaches its end and CRMD looks back at it highlighting some of the achievements reported in previous Newsletters and reporting those of the last three months.

Year Achievements

• At the end of February we received the good news that the UKRI EPSRC accepted our Centre’s grant proposal entitled ‘A biomimetic macromolecular platform for tissue healing and diagnostics at medical device interfaces: a personalised wound dressing model’. The Value of the project is £3,526,574.13 with an UKRI contribution of £2,821,259.31. The grant was received from the EPSRC Investigator-led Award funding scheme that recognizes, alongside the scientific merits of the proposal, the quality of the It has been reported to us that is the largest grant delivered by the EPSRC to one single institution and the largest grant ever obtained by the University of Brighton as a single applicant. It is a matter of pride for our CRMD to receive this grant as the proposal was based on the expertise provided by our researchers. Indeed, the CRMD co-investigators in this project are more than 50% of its total membership. The project officially started on 20 September 2022 and its progress are reported below in this Newsletter.

• Our researchers produced another significant number of multidisciplinary outputs, a number of them co-authored with other international institutions as a proof of our wide collaborative

• Likewise, presentations at various international conference enabled to enhance the visibility of our research. We are particularly proud of those post-graduate students and early career researchers who helped us disseminating our science and technology.

• After two years of limited social interactions, on 23 May we had a chance to meet all together at our CRMD Away Day; another opportunity to appreciate the research delivered by our colleagues and students.

• We were delighted to see 7 new colleagues joining our Centre

Recent Updates

• The large EPSRC-granted project that started on 20 September has been making significant progress in both its management and scientific/technological We appointed two new research fellows, Dr Shirin Saberianpour and Mr Gianluca Melotto and two new posts for research fellows with expertise in surface analysis and computer modelling will soon be advertised. We are proud to have assembled a team of experts in our Independent Advisory Board who will offer advice on wound dressing technology and patients views. These are Prof Medhi Tavakoli (Board Chair, Knowledge Technology Network, over 35 years of experience in medical devices), Prof Stephen Denyer (microbiologist, medical device regulation, Emeritus Professor at our University), Prof Michael Clark (Commercial Director, Welsh Wound Innovation, expert in wound dressing translation to the market), Prof Steven Jeffrey (plastic surgery consultant and expert in wound dressing applications), Mrs Ellie Lindsey (OBE, Founder and Director of the charity called Leg Club), Mrs Jane Hanson (Research Delivery Manager, LCRN Kent, Surrey and Sussex Core Team, NIHR Clinical Research Network). The panel met on 28 October online to establish the Terms of References and discuss the project presentation delivered by Matteo Santin. The research team has submitted the documentation necessary for the ethical approval of the clinical study to the University Ethics Committee (BREAM) and waiting to receive approval. This will enable the researchers to start the study on patients outside the NHS and to submit the same request to the NHIR for the approved of the study in the NHS national registry of clinical study (IRAS) and use samples donated by NHS patients.

• We welcome as a new member of our Centre Dr Anastasios Georgoulas who will strengthen our expertise in mathematical modelling applied to regenerative medicine and devices.
• Ms Giordana Peregrino, PhD student of the i3MED project in collaboration with York University, Toronto spent 3 months at the laboratories of our Canadian partners learning techniques and making excellent progress for her project

Congratulations to Ms Grace Cooksley, PhD Student who attended the International Conference of the Lens in Kona, Hawaii (4 – 9th Dec) as an invited speaker and co-chair, presenting her work ‘Positive resolution of the wound healing response contributing to posterior capsule opacification by Ti3C2Tx’. Grace also won second place for her presentation at Nanoartography 2022, hosted by Drexel University. Grace produced an inspirational art work from the scanning electron microscopy image of the biomaterial she uses for her research. Well done Grace! An example, of truly multidisciplinary approach, talent and commitment to dissemination of our science to the public

• Another of our emerging early career researchers, Dr Dan Hawthorne had the following paper accepted: Hawthorne, , Pannala, A., Sandeman, S. & Lloyd, A., 2022. Sustained and targeted delivery of hydrophilic drug compounds: A review of existing and novel technologies from bench to          bedside.    J.                      Drug      Deliv.                 Sci.        Technol.     78, 103936 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jddst.2022.103936

• Dr Nadia Terrazzini published another paper showing the wide range of interest and impact of the research in our centre linking inflammatory processes following chronic high exposure to stresses in firefighters: Richardson, A, Terrazzini, N, Gage, C, Lee, BJ, Bradley, R, Watt, P & Watkins, E, 2022, ‘Inflammatory and psychological consequences of chronic high exposure firefighting’, Journal of Thermal Biology.

• The distinctive contribution that Dr Paul Harris has been given to the regenerative medicine research by mathematical modelling of diseases and cell behaviour has reached new milestones with the publication of a peer-reviewed paper and a book chapter. These are:

• P J Harris and B E J Bodmann, 2022. A mathematical model for simulating the spread of a disease through a country divided into geographical regions with different population densities. J Math Biol, 85.
• P J Harris and B E J Bodmann, 2022. Modelling the spread of a disease in an epidemic through a country divided into geographical regions. In Integral Methods in Science and Engineering: Applications in theoretical and practical research. Eds C. Constanda,

1. E. J. Bodmann and P. J. Harris. Birkhauser, Cham, Switzerland.

Co-author on both publications was Prof Bodmann, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

• Prof Matteo Santin recently published two peer-reviewed papers and one review These open access publications are:
  • Buonocore, , Santoro, A., Grimaldi, M., Covelli, V., Firoznezhad, M., Rodriquez, M., Santin, M., D’Ursi, A. M., 2022. Structural analysis of a simplified model reproducing SARS-CoV-2 S RBD/ACE2 binding site, , Heliyon. 8, 11, e11568. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e11568
  • Liu, , Gurung, B., Afzal, I., Santin, M., Sochart, D., Field, R., Kader, D., Asopa, V., 2022. The composition of cell-based therapies obtained from point-of-care devices/systems which mechanically dissociate lipoaspirate: a scoping review of the literature, 2022, J           Exp          Orthop. 9, 1, p.           1-25 25                   p.,103.

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40634-022-00537-0

• Perugini, V., Santin, M., The Real-Time Validation of the Effectiveness of Third- Generation Hyperbranched Poly(ɛ-lysine) Dendrons-Modified KLVFF Sequences to Bind Amyloid-β1-42 Peptides Using an Optical Waveguide Light-Mode Spectroscopy System. Sensors 22, 23, 13 p., 9561. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22239561

• Last but not least, this month we gave our farewell to Prof Marco Marengo, a member of our Board, who will leave our University to join the University of Pavia, Italy. Prof Marengo has been an asset of our Centre since 2017 contributing to its research with grants and Marco will remain as an associate member of the CRMD and will continue to contribute to project in progress and PhD students’ supervision. We look forward to establishing new collaboration with Marco and his new organisation. In the meantime, we want to express our deepest gratitude for his dedication, enthusiasm and support to the both the scientific and management activities of our Centre. Thank you Marco and good luck!

On behalf of the Management Board, I would like to thank all CRMD members and external collaborators for their contribution to our research and innovation during this year and I wish you a peaceful festive time and happy new year

Prof Matteo Santin, Director