ARISTOS aims to be the next Postdoctoral Program in Biomedicine and Health Sciences cofunded by the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND scheme and the Consorcio Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red M.P. (CIBER) in Spain. With a total duration of 60 months, it will offer 27 postdoctoral positions for three years each, at CIBER groups led by distinguished principal investigators. Through an open and merit-based recruitment procedure, it will provide excellent opportunities for international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary research and training under attractive working conditions. CIBER is a public research consortium that embraces 511 research groups which belong to more than 100 different Affiliated Institutions (universities, research centers and hospitals) around Spain. It is currently employing more than 800 researchers and clusters some of the most important facilities of biomedicine research in Spain directly participating in more than 17 technology and research platforms. As a network of excellence is tasked with being a reference in research and innovation in Spain and internationally. Fellows participating in the ARISTOS Program will have the opportunity to carry out a research project in on a topic related with disease prevention, diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment and come closer to the private sector by collaborating with medical and healthcare companies during their secondments or special events like the Entrepreuners Dissemination Days. Beyond the Fellows' training through their own research, the ARISTOS Program will also provide to the Fellows career enhancing opportunities through training courses in research techniques, complementary workshops for transferable skills, scientific meetings and conferences and the access to international scientific and clinical networks, with the final aim to promote knowledge exchange and the mobility among the academic, clinical and private sectors.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder, impacting various organs due to CFTR gene mutations. Lungs are severely affected by secretions, harboring bacteria, causing recurrent, chronic, and often fatal infections in 90% of CF patients. Globally, around 105,000 people across 94 countries suffer from CF, with an improved median survival age of 30 to 40 years, yet poor quality of life persists due to daily treatment needs. Staphylococcus aureus (SA) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) are the primary pathogens isolated from CF patients' respiratory tracts, leading to most CF-related deaths. Their factors of virulence contributes to extensive damage, and despite intensive treatments, infections persist, fostering antimicrobial resistance. Antibiotic resistance claims over 35,000 lives yearly in the EU alone, underscoring the urgent need for novel therapeutics to combat SA and PA infections. Nanobodies (Nbs) offer revolutionary immunotherapy potential due to their unique attributes. They are ten times smaller than conventional antibodies, maintaining strong recognition capability at nanomolar levels. Nbs exhibit low immunogenicity, rapid tissue penetration, and can target previously inaccessible antigen sites. Their small size provides enhanced stability, thermal resistance, reversibility of unfolding, proteolytic resistance, and high solubility. Given the prevalence and severe consequences of SA and PA infections, the central aim of the project is to develop therapeutic Nbs to mitigate the impact of these infections and improve the quality of life for CF patients.

Most medical interventions are effective in only a small percentage of the patients. The multifactorial nature of disease and patient differences in presentation, genetics and exposures have been implicated as the causes. Precision medicine aims to maximize the effectiveness of medicine by tailoring the diagnosis and treatment to match individual patients. This proposal will establish an Integrated Precision Medicine Technologies Research Centre of Excellence, a multidisciplinary centre which will be a leader in the development of new technologies to further enable and accelerate the progress and application of precision medicine. The Centre will include all the essential fields: (i) modelling & simulations, (ii) intelligent systems & bioinformatics, (iii) imaging & biosignal analysis, (iv) digital & eHealth, (v) embedded systems & electronics, and (vi) sensing technologies (including nano), with support from (vii) biosciences and (viii) clinical validation. Initially, the clinical emphasis will be on tools and methods for relevant multifactorial diseases: cancer, neurodegenerative disorders and traumatic brain injury. The proposal is a collaboration between leading Cypriot and European institutions. The host, the University of Cyprus, is the country’s leading academic institution, with local partners including major medical centres as well as support from the Ministry of Health and other private organizations. The advanced partners are the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Technology (BMT), Germany, and the Centre for Biomedical Research - Bioengineering, Biomaterials & Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN), Spain. The experience of the partners, combined with the synergies created by this project, provide a great opportunity to establish a sustainable Centre which will (i) conduct vital and timely research, (ii) promote innovation, (iii) provide education and training to a new breed of scientists, (iv) improve the local research capacity, and (v) spearhead economic growth.