Projects Profile
Project Title
UK-Chinese initiative for the development and evaluation of novel Spidrex conduits for peripheral nerve repair
Partnership
Prof. John Priestley from Queen Mary, University of London
Prof. Zheng-Rong Chen and Prof. Liang Chen from Fudan University
Prof. Wenlong Ding and Dr Paul Dalton from Shanghai Jiaotong University,
Project Aim
The aim of the project is to select a suitable collaborator for the development of 30-50mm repair Spidrex conduit through research collaboration. The team will meet with three potential partners to explore their technical capacity and discuss scope of collaboration so as to confirm that the Chinese and the QMUL centre have the complementary skills to constructively and successfully develop a large mammal model in which to test nerve repair conduits.
Inspiration for the projects
Spidrex based nerve repairing conduits over the size of 15mm used in current surgical applications have generally not undergone extensive testing in larger mammals before being used in human patients; this is limiting the development and application of this technology and surgeons have no evidence that it is safe and efficacious.
Commercial Potential and Further Development
The project will produce a detailed project plan with targets, objectives and responsibilities agreed between all the parties that will be involved.
The successful completion of the project will lead to the next stage proof-of-concept research collaboration on the development of Spidrex technology to evaluate the safety and efficacy of 30 to 50mm nerve repair conduits through establishing animal models, which is necessary before any clinical trial can be carried out.
