Forschungsinstitut Davos
The AO Forschungsinstitut Davos, hereinafter AO Research Institute Davos (ARI) is part of the AO Foundation. The AO foundation is the largest trauma and orthopaedic network worldwide and one of the biggest medical networks on the global scale. ARI is the research arm of the AO Foundation; its mission is promoting excellence in patient care and outcomes in trauma and musculoskeletal disorders. ARI's scientific activities are multidisciplinary and with a very strong approach to basic and translational research, focused on clinical applications and realized through a cooperation network with industrial partners. ARI has a vast experience in managing and supervising research projects with a portfolio of international (EU HORIZON) and national (SNSF) competitive projects.
Within ARI, the Regenerative Orthopaedics Program is a multidisciplinary team focusing on a holistic approach to tissue engineering for repair and regeneration of traumatic injuries and degenerative disorders of the musculoskeletal system. The Program has established research activities in the field of bone, cartilage, and intervertebral disc, with a major focus on regenerative medicine, 3D printing, cell and gene therapy and fracture-related infections. Advancement of in vitro organ models and specific bioreactor systems for preclinical musculoskeletal research is a key expertise of the ARI.
Role within SINPAIN
The main tasks of ARI include (1) the development of 3D OA models using bi-layered cell-scaffold constructs with pericytes/endothelial cells or sensory neurons and articular chondrocytes; (2) the validation of transfection and treatment efficacy of nanotherapeutic functionalised with peptide and RNA in the 3D OA models; (3) the establishment of bioreactor loaded 3D coculture models; (4) the evaluation of the nanotherapeutic agents in the bioreactor loaded chondrocytes-pericytes and chondrocytes-neurons co-culture models under non-inflammatory and pro-inflammatory conditions.
