European Training Network on risks of vascular intimal calcification and roads to regression of cardiovascular disease

INTRICARE is a European joint doctorate (EJD) program funded under the Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions between CARIM/MUMC+ Maastricht; Universitätsklinikum Aachen; Karolinska Institutet Stockholm and King’s College London, and is shaped to address the urgent, unmet medical needs concerning vulnerable plaques.
INTRICARE is guided by the academic and industrial demand for a new generation of entrepreneurial scientists, who have the skills, expertise and know-how to expedite our understanding of early atherosclerosis and translation thereof into concrete clinical interventions for prevention and therapy.

INTRICARE is an interdisciplinary and international consortium involving 4 leading academic institutions and 9 SME's. The 15 early stage researchers (ESRs) will engage in network-wide training events, public engagement activities and international collaboration through secondments, at industrial or academic partner institutions within the EU.

Organised around three pillars, notably Initiation of atherogenesis, vascular remodelling associated microcalcification and imaging of microcalcification and vulnerable plaque formation, four front-running research institutes in the field of biochemistry and vascular biology will join forces to address the aforementioned needs through training and research. Each of the three themes will incorporate both basic and translational science and education, supported by a strong network of academic and non-academic partner organisations. The INTRICARE ESRs will be pivotal in the identification of selective targets for vascular calcification including microcalcification, and its consequences for plaque stability, and provide subsequent strategies for prevention or amelioration of vulnerable plaque formation, both during as well as beyond the INTRICARE project.

Moreover, the INTRICARE consortium is shaped to cover the complete spectrum of relevant expertises from chemistry, biochemistry, and vascular biology to clinical disciplines such as Radiology, Cardiology, Nephrology, and Pharmacology and includes a number of private partners, which not only ensures smooth translation of new findings into the clinical practice but also creates a scientific setting that encourages ESRs to think and act multidisciplinary and translational.

Source:http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/137415_en.html?isPermaLink=true?WT.mc_i...