The European Consortium for Communicating Gene and Cell Therapy Information (EuroGCT) unites 49 partner organisations and institutions across Europe, including the major European advanced therapies learned societies, with the common goal of providing reliable and accessible information related to cell and gene therapy development to European stakeholders. EuroGCT has two major objectives: • To provide patients, people affected by conditions, healthcare professionals and citizens with accurate scientific, legal, ethical and societal information and with engagement opportunities, and thus to support better informed decision-making related to cell and gene-based therapies. • To facilitate better decision-making at key points in development of new therapies and thus enable improved product development, by providing the research community and regulatory and healthcare authorities with an information source on the practical steps needed for cell and gene therapy development. To achieve our aims, EuroGCT will adopt a highly structured system for coordinated management of information related to cell and gene therapy development and, from this, will implement an ambitious programme of online and direct stakeholder information provision and engagement. All outputs will be delivered in 7 European languages, to ensure broad accessibility, and will be rigorously evaluated against measurable objectives throughout the project duration. The proposed consortium comprises leading cell and gene therapy-related organisations and basic and clinical research labs across Europe, including new member states; together with experts in product development, ethical, legal and societal issues, and in evaluating clinical outcomes; patient representatives; and science communicators. It thus is uniquely placed to develop a world-leading cell and gene therapy information resource and to meet the challenge outlined in Topic SC1-HCO-19-2020.

The aim of the research is to study the effects of smallest traffic related ultrafine- or nanoparticles beyond the lung on brain health. Air pollutants have been shown to cause a vast amount of different adverse health effects. These effects include impairment of many respiratory (e.g. asthma, COPD) and cardiovascular (ischemic heart disease, infarction, stroke) diseases. However, in recent years, the evidence showing effects beyond the lungs and circulatory system are becoming more evident. Neurological diseases, namely Alzheimer´s disease (AD) has shown to be associated with living near traffic. However, reason for this has remained unresolved until today. This consortium aims on revealing the mechanisms and exposures both behind cardiorespiratory diseases and beyond the current knowledge in neurological diseases. This consortium includes experts in areas of aerosol technology, emission research, engine and fuel research, human clinical studies, epidemiology, emission inventories, inhalation toxicology, neurotoxicology and disease mechanism studies. This enables research of resolving the effects of nanoparticles from different traffic modes for both air quality and concomitant toxic effect of these air pollutants. In this study, we will investigate adverse effects of air pollutants using cell cultures, animal exposures and volunteered human exposures as well as the material from epidemiological cohort study. These are going to be compared according to inflammatory, cytotoxic and genotoxic changes and furthermore beyond the current state of the art to neurotoxic and brain health effects. With this approach, we are aiming in to a comprehensive understanding of the adverse effects of nanoparticles from traffic. In current situation only particles above 23nm are measured in regulations, traditional toxicological methods are used in risk assessment and emission inventories and regulations are largely based on old technology engines. Our project will change this.

WhyNotDry will deepen our knowledge on reversible drying in cells and germplasm toward the development of a dry biobanking as an alternative to the current freezing in Liquid Nitrogen (LN). LN is expensive, requires dedicated facilities and power supply, and has a high CO2 footprint. WhyNotDry will achieve its aims through a multidisciplinary, intersectoral, international network of scientists that will: i) Develop a drying/rehydration platform using naturally desiccation-tolerant midge (Polypedilum vanderplanki) Pv11 cell lines; ii) Identify the best combination of naturally occurring xeroprotectants (xero=dry) from desiccation-tolerant insect cell line and the best performing water subtraction platform. iii) To use the best xeroprotectants mix and the drying/rehydration protocol for mammalian cells/germplasm. vi) Develop a prototype for controlled dehydration of microvolumes of cell. The R&I activities leading to these aims will be carried out by knowhow sharing through Staff Exchanges between: 3 EU academies, 2 EU SMEs, 2 international partners (Japan, Thailand). Outcomes of WhyNotDry will be incorporated into a cheap, environmentally friendly, and easy biobanking for biodiversity conservation, assisted reproduction, stem cell/personalized medicine. Successful development of this technology will set the basis for a radically new, ‘green’ biobanking paradigm, simplifying the maintenance and shipping practices in life sciences, with enormous reduction in costs and carbon footprint. Moreover, knowledge generated in WhyNotDry would be applicable to other fields such as agriculture, environmental science, food processing, and the pharmaceutical industry, where elective or enforced (by climate change) drying is dealt with. Finally, WhyNotDry will empower young scientists with transferable skills, ensuring career prospects in academia/industry, and strengthen the international/sectorial network between disciplines, boosting European excellence.