On 8th July 2025, the EU Fet Open PRIME project was presented at The European Symposium on Electrochemical and Electrospun Engineering (ESEE2025), a novel and vibrant European conference held at the University of Cyprus. The symposium brought together leading minds in electrospinning, bioengineering, and computational modelling to explore transformative advances in materials science and healthcare technologies, amongst others.
With over 150 attendees from academia, startups, and biotech industries, ESEE2025 served as a cross-disciplinary platform for knowledge exchange and scientific collaboration.
PRIME project consortium partner EPOS-IASIS, a vibrant nano-biotechnology SME based in Cyprus, was selected to deliver an inspiring talk emphasizing the convergence of electrospun biomaterials, advanced biotechnology and computational biophysics in designing next-generation Combined Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (C-ATMPs). This approach has been fulfilling PRIME’s outmost aim to create modular, immunocompetent brain implants capable of monitoring, sensing and responding to disease cues with high spatial precision and long-term biocompatibility.
Spanning through diverse backgrounds in materials science and biotechnology all the way towards modelling of physical processes, the presentation highlighted how computational mechanics (FE modelling in COMSOL), nano characterization (AFM roughness metrics), and soft-matter fabrication (electrospinning) can converge to produce clinically viable smart implants hosting the project’s engineered sensing and therapeutic “biocomputing” cells.
”Presenting PRIME at ESEE2025 offered us direct feedback from experts in nanofabrication and smart biomaterials, which will help us refine implant mechanics and biophysical integration. It was inspiring to connect with researchers working on similar challenges in other fields of biotechnology and regenerative medicine and discuss solutions to our current technological challenges,” Nikolas Sochorakis, presenter and PRIME Researcher at EPOS-IASIS, stated. “The conference fostered valuable dialogue on regulatory frameworks, industrial translation, and the integration of material science with therapeutic logic—a perfect match for PRIME’s vision of “biocomputing living drugs”, he concluded.
As PRIME continues to develop personalized, responsive neural implants, engaging with events like ESEE2025 ensures it remains grounded in both state-of-the-art science and practical translational pathways. From bioengineering to material properties and simulations and, every layer of innovation counts to improve burden-to-use of medicinal products.
Nikolas continued: ”Special thanks to the EPOS-IASIS team members for an insightful interdisciplinary approach. In particular, Marios Konstantinou for the mechanical properties characterization, Katerina Polemidiotou & Savvas Papageorgiou for cell technologies, Ana Sremac & Igor Balaz Mathematical modelling and ultimately, Andreani Odysseos & Costas Pitris for their inspiration and overview of this work.”
About PRIME:
EU FET OPEN PRIME project is funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme. The PRIME project aims to prevent epileptic seizures by developing autonomous implantable living cell systems for the brain.
Led by Walton Institute at South East Technological University PRIME project’s consortium of European partners is made up of Tampere University Finland, Università degli Studi di Ferrara Italy, EPOS-IASIS Cyprus, Aarhus University Denmark, omiics Denmark and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI).
