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Abstract
There is an ever-growing need of human tissues and organs for transplantation. However, the availability of such tissues and organs is insufficient by a large margin, which is a huge medical and societal problem. Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM) represent potential solutions to this issue and have therefore been attracting increased interest from researchers and clinicians alike. But the successful large-scale clinical deployment of TERM products critically depends on the development of efficient preservation methodologies. The existing preservation approaches such as slow freezing, vitrification, dry state preservation, and hypothermic and normothermic storage all have issues that somehow limit the biomedical applications of TERM products. In this review, the principles and application of these approaches will be summarized, highlighting their advantages and limitations in the context of TERM products preservation.

The research leading to these results has received funding provided by Fundacio para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia through the project PTDC/BBB-EBB/1676/2014-DesZyme. Funding from the European Union, Horizon 2020 program has also been granted through project Des.solve (ERC consolidator) ERC-2016-COG 725034. This work was supported by the Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry, LAQV, which is financed by national funds from FCT/MCTES (UID/QUI/50006/2013) and cofinanced by the ERDF under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007265). ; In this paper, four natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) systems were prepared at specific molar ratios, La:Bet (2:1) (lactic acid/betaine), La:Hist (9:1) (lactic acid/histidine), Ma:Bet:H2O (1:2:3) (malic acid/betaine/water) and Ma:Bet:Pro:H2O (1:1:1:2) (malic acid/betaine/proline/water). Their physical and thermodynamic properties were studied, namely viscosity, electrical conductivity, and heat capacity. The viscosity and electrical conductivity were determined as a function of temperature and the correlation for the temperature dependence was obtained and discussed based on Arrhenius theory. The heat capacity for all eutectic systems was measured by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) over a temperature range of 293.15-363.15 K. The ability of these NADES to reduce cellulose crystallinity was evaluated. Cellulose crystallinity after suspension in these NADES was studied by X-ray diffraction. Cellulose suspended in Ma/Bet/H2O (1:2:3) suffer the highest crystallinity reduction among the systems studied and was about of 20%. ; authorsversion ; published

An Open Access paper submitted under the category "Uncovered". ; We acknowledge the financial support from European Union H2020 programme (SponGES – 679849, CHEM2NATURE – 692333 and FORECAST – 668983) and FP7 programme (ERC Advanced Grant COMPLEXITE, ERC- 2012-ADG-20120216-321266).

The research leading to these results has received funding provided by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), through project PTDC/BBB-EBB/1676/2014 - DesZyme. Funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 program has also been, granted through the project Des.solve (ERC consolidator), ERC-2016-COG 725034. J.M.S. would also like to acknowledge the financial support by the FCT through the post-doctoral grant with reference number SFRH/BPD/116779/2016. ; Natural deep eutectic systems (NADES) are mostly composed of natural primary metabolites such as sugars, sugar alcohols, organic acids, amino acids and amines. These simple molecules have been identified in animals living in environments with extreme temperature amplitudes, being responsible for their survival at negative temperatures during winter. Herein, we report for the first time the use of NADES based on trehalose (Treh) and glycerol (Gly) in cryopreservation, as cryoprotective agents (CPA). The evaluation of the thermal behaviour of these eutectic systems, showed that NADES have a strong effect on the water crystallization/freezing and melting process, being able to reduce the number of ice crystals and hence ice crystal damage in cells, which is a crucial parameter for their survival, upon freezing. Using this NADES as CPA, it is possible to achieve similar or even better cellular performance when compared with the gold standard for cryopreservation dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). In this sense, this work relates the physical properties of the NADES with their biological performance in cryopreservation. Our comprehensive strategy results in the demonstration of NADES as a promising nontoxic green alternative to the conventional CPA's used in cryopreservation methods. ; proof ; published

We present a phototriggerable system that allows for the spatiotemporal controlled attachment of selected cell types to a biomaterial using immobilized antibodies that specifically target individual cell phenotypes. o-Nitrobenzyl caged biotin was used to functionalize chitosan membranes and mediate site-specific coupling of streptavidin and biotinylated antibodies after light activation. The ability of this system to capture and immobilize specific cells on a surface was tested using endothelial-specific biotinylated antibodies and nonspecific ones as controls. Homogeneous patterned monolayers of human umbilical vein endothelial cells were obtained on CD31-functionalized surfaces. This is a simple and generic approach that is applicable to other ligands, materials, and cell types and shows the flexibility of caged ligands to trigger and control the interaction between cells and biomaterials. ; We thank Martina Knecht (MPIP) for help with the synthesis of caged biotin and Dr. Ron Unger and Prof. C. J. Kirkpatrick (University Clinic Mainz, RepairLab) for providing HUVECs. C.A.C. acknowledges funding support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) (fellowship SFRH/BD/61390/2009) and from the International Max-Planck Research School in Mainz. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. REGPOT-CT2012-316331-POLARIS. ; European Community's Seventh Framework Program

Advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) are potential game changers in modern medical care with an anticipated major impact for patients and society. They are a new drug class often referred to as "living drugs," and are based on complex components such as vectors, cells and even tissues. The production of such ATMPs involves innovative biotechnological methods. In this survey, we have assessed the perception of European citizens regarding ATMPs and health care in Europe, in relation to other important topics, such as safety and security, data protection, climate friendly energy supply, migration, and others. A crucial question was to determine to what extent European citizens wish to support public funding of innovations in healthcare and reimbursement strategies for ATMPs. To answer this, we conducted an online survey in 13 European countries (representative of 85.3% of the entire EU population including the UK in 2020), surveying a total of 7,062 European citizens. The survey was representative with respect to adult age groups and gender in each country. Healthcare had the highest ranking among important societal topics. We found that 83% of the surveyed EU citizens were in support of more public funding of technologies in the field of ATMPs. Interestingly, 74% of respondents are in support of cross-border healthcare for patients with rare diseases to receive ATMP treatments and 61% support the reimbursement of very expensive ATMPs within the European health care system despite the current lack of long-term efficacy data. In conclusion, healthcare is a top ranking issue for European Citizens, who additionally support funding of new technologies to enable the wider application of ATMPs in Europe.

Advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) are potential game changers in modern medical care with an anticipated major impact for patients and society. They are a new drug class often referred to as "living drugs," and are based on complex components such as vectors, cells and even tissues. The production of such ATMPs involves innovative biotechnological methods. In this survey, we have assessed the perception of European citizens regarding ATMPs and health care in Europe, in relation to other important topics, such as safety and security, data protection, climate friendly energy supply, migration, and others. A crucial question was to determine to what extent European citizens wish to support public funding of innovations in healthcare and reimbursement strategies for ATMPs. To answer this, we conducted an online survey in 13 European countries (representative of 85.3% of the entire EU population including the UK in 2020), surveying a total of 7,062 European citizens. The survey was representative with respect to adult age groups and gender in each country. Healthcare had the highest ranking among important societal topics. We found that 83% of the surveyed EU citizens were in support of more public funding of technologies in the field of ATMPs. Interestingly, 74% of respondents are in support of cross-border healthcare for patients with rare diseases to receive ATMP treatments and 61% support the reimbursement of very expensive ATMPs within the European health care system despite the current lack of long-term efficacy data. In conclusion, healthcare is a top ranking issue for European Citizens, who additionally support funding of new technologies to enable the wider application of ATMPs in Europe.

The high prevalence of bone defects has become a worldwide problem. Despite the significant amount of research on the subject, the available therapeutic solutions lack efficiency. Autografts, the most commonly used approaches to treat bone defects, have limitations such as donor site morbidity, pain and lack of donor site. Marine resources emerge as an attractive alternative to extract bioactive compounds for further use in bone tissue-engineering approaches. On one hand they can be isolated from by-products, at low cost, creating value from products that are considered waste for the fish transformation industry. One the other hand, religious constraints will be avoided. We isolated two marine origin materials, collagen from shark skin (Prionace glauca) and calcium phosphates from the teeth of two different shark species (Prionace glauca and Isurus oxyrinchus), and further proposed to mix them to produce 3D composite structures for hard tissue applications. Two crosslinking agents, 1-[3-(dimethylamino)propyl]-3-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride/N-Hydroxysuccinimide (EDC/NHS) and hexamethylene diisocyanate (HMDI), were tested to enhance the scaffolds' properties, with EDC/NHS resulting in better properties. The characterization of the structures showed that the developed composites could support attachment and proliferation of osteoblast-like cells. A promising scaffold for the engineering of bone tissue is thus proposed, based on a strategy of marine by-products valorisation. ; This work was funded by INTERREG under the POCTEP Project 0687_NOVOMAR_1_P and the Atlantic Area Transnational Cooperation Programme Project MARMED (2011-1/164), as well as by European Union FP7 under the project POLARIS (REGPOT-CT2012-316331). The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding support received from European Union through INTERREG—POCTEP Project 0687_NOVOMAR_1_P and Atlantic Area Transnational Cooperation Programme Project MARMED (2011-1/164)—and Research and Development Framework Programme FP7–project POLARIS (REGPOT-CT2012-316331). The authors acknowledge also the Centro Tecnológico del Mar (CETMAR, Vigo, Spain) and COPEMAR SA (fishing company, Spain) for the supply of fish by-products. J.M.S. and R.P. thank FCT respectively for the Post-Doctoral fellowship financed by POPH/FSE (SFRH/BPD/70230/2010) and for the contract IF/00347/2015. G.S.D. thanks Norte2020 by the PhD scholarship (NORTE-08-5369-F SE-000044). ; Peer reviewed