Call 4

Leading PI: Olga Kalinina (HIPS) & Robert Bals (Saarland University Hospital) During the first phase of the LifeMat project, researchers focused on lung infections such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, and COVID-19, which are major causes of illness and death. Traditional treatments using antibiotics can be limited by toxicity and resistance, and changes in the lung microbiome […]

Leading PI: Aránzazu del Campo (INM) & Jörn Schattenberg (Saarland University Hospital) Acute cholangitis is a common condition caused by biliary obstruction and infection, most often due to choledocholithiasis or neoplasia. Treatment typically involves antibiotics and drainage procedures, but despite advances in endoscopic techniques, systemic antibiotics remain necessary and carry risks such as side effects […]

Leading PI: Wilfried Weber (INM) The HYPER project addresses a major challenge in the development of living therapeutic materials: preventing uncontrolled proliferation within the host or in the environment. This raises a question: Can we inhibit bacterial proliferation while still preserving their therapeutic activity? Traditional containment strategies, such as encapsulating bacteria in polymers, using kill […]

Leading PI: Andreas Keller (Saarland University & HIPS) As several living therapeutic material (LTM) systems have now reached the prototype stage, the next critical step is to analyze what these materials release under real-world conditions – essentially, to characterize their secretome This includes metabolites, proteins, extracellular vesicles, and RNA, which can interact with the human […]

Leading PI: Sigrun Smola (Saarland University) During the first phase of LifeMat, the project focused on addressing the high incidence of HPV-related precancerous lesions in the female genital tract, which currently require surgical treatment that can compromise fertility. They advanced 3D organotypic culture systems and infection models to study the inflammatory microenvironment in HPV-driven carcinogenesis, […]

Leading PI: Matthias Laschke (Saarland University) During the initial funding phase of the LSC LifeMat implantable living therapeutic materials (LTMs) using Pluronic and PVA hydrogels, which were successfully processed into multilayer thin films that could contain bacteria without leakage for extended periods. These hydrogels were proven non-toxic in vitro, and bioluminescent bacteria were engineered for […]

Leading PI: Shrikrishnan Sankaran (INM) , Tobias Kraus (INM) & Johannes Linxweiler (Saarland University Hospital) The long-term use of Living Therapeutic Materials (LTMs) for chronic disease treatment benefits from the ability to regulate drug release in real time. In the earlier LifeMat projects, researchers developed LTMs using near-infrared (NIR) light to activate thermo-responsive genetic switches […]