The European project ADMAIORA, coordinated by the BioRobotics Institute of the Sant'Anna School, participates in the new edition of the AeQuilibrium Beach Volley Marathon in Bibione
The sports event, scheduled from 12 to 14 May, hosts the ADMAIORA project for an innovative paradigm for the treatment of osteoarthritis. Cartilage tissue-related diseases affect 15 million people in Europe alone. The project aims to improve people's quality of life and reduce public health costs
Injectable gels with very special particles inside them so small that they do not exceed one micron, stem cells and ultrasound stimulation technologies used, for the first time, to become capable of regenerating damaged cartilage tissues, acting directly from inside the human body and delaying, or even avoiding, surgery and the implantation of a prosthesis.
Words that might spontaneously refer to a scientific laboratory are in fact the very concrete results that the ADMAIORA project (ADvanced nanocomposite MAterIals fOr in situ treatment and ultRAsound-mediated management of osteoarthritis) is ready to present to the over 20 thousand people expected for AeQuilibrium Beach Volley Marathon®, the most attended sports event of its kind in the world, scheduled on the beach of Bibione from 12 to 14 May.
The choice of ADMAIORA's scientific team - led by Leonardo Ricotti, Andrea Cafarelli and Lorenzo Vannozzi, and present in Bibione with numerous colleagues from the research group - represents a decidedly effective form of open-air dissemination to communicate to the general public the steps forward that are being taken to provide a new cure for osteoarthritis. This disease affects around 300 million people worldwide - 15 million of them in Europe alone - and is set to increase as the average age rises, with a considerable impact on people's quality of life and a very high incidence on the healthcare costs of dealing with it.
The solution for the very near future - the ADMAIORA trial is now at an advanced stage and with very encouraging results - is taking shape around these special 'nanostructured' materials, inserted into the human body through a small, non-invasive operation and capable of attaching themselves to the compromised cartilage, stimulating its regeneration thanks to the action of stem cells, activated by ultrasonic stimuli.
Detailed information combined with audio and video supports will be disseminated during the AeQuilibrium Beach Volley Marathon® by the researchers of the Institute of BioRobotics of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, which - we are pleased to point out - is the coordinator of the entire ADMAIORA consortium, whose partners include the Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli in Bologna, Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and four companies based in France, Germany, Poland and Sweden.
"We strongly believe in this project, which can change the lives of millions of people in the future. It is important to communicate to everyone that we are progressing in this field with very interesting results, but also to make it clear that, as with all research projects, it will take time to consolidate these results and to try, in the future, to translate this approach to patients. ADMAIORA aims to delay or stop the process of arthritic cartilage degeneration. This problem affects a large percentage of the population at an advanced age, but also a number of young people, especially athletes who suffer joint damage. Consequently, the Beach Volley Marathon is the right showcase to share the results of our project with many sportsmen and women, and not only." Statement by Andrea Cafarelli, assistant professor at the BioRobotics Institute.
