Erasmus Mundus - The Nanomedicine for Drug Delivery NANOMED

Objectives

All members of the NANOMED Consortium have been working together hand in hand for several years to create a unique and comprehensive training which aims at teaching our students the latest evolutions in the field of Nanomedicine.

Given the present and future challenges of unmet medical needs and health issues in a European and global perspective, there is a huge expectation on innovative approaches such as Nanomedicine in the fields of therapy, diagnosis and theranostic (combination of therapy and diagnosis).

Europe must be a competitive arena for the development and successful implementation of new sustainable medicine/therapies based on nanosystems, contributing to a better life for Europe’s population and creating opportunities in the field of life sciences. One of the major needs is to develop new International curriculums at the MsC level as identified by the European Technology Platform for Nanomedicine (ETPN) in the report entitled “Education and Training Needs in Nanomedicine”. This report stresses out that there is an unmet need for an international training in the application of Nanomedicine to drug delivery within the currently existing European Master’s programmes.

The NANOMED EMJMD aiming at educating young scientists about the general principles of drug development and focuses more specifically on Drug Delivery Systems and Pharmaceutical Technology using both classical dosage forms and innovative delivery systems. It provides essential knowledge to go from basic training in Drug Delivery to advanced knowledge in Nanomedicine. Joining the NANOMED EMJMD is a great opportunity for future graduates to tackle Nanomedicine through multi-disciplinary perspectives and to learn about the latest advances in the field of Nanotechnology on the development of Advanced Particulate Drug Delivery Systems.

In addition, the NANOMED Consortium can profit from top-level facilities to deliver cutting-edge courses on characterization of nanoparticules (diffraction light scattering and electrophoretic mobility, DSC, FTIR, XRD, HPLC and UPLC – UV detection, mass spectroscopy, Raman Spectroscopy, interfacial rheology, etc.), their visualization by microscopy (Confocal Scanning, TEM, AFM, FRAP and SEM Microscopy Units) and their biological evaluation, both in vitro on cell cultures (complement activation, cytotoxicity assay, oral transport model, etc.) and in vivo on appropriate animal models (housing facilities, live animal imaging platforms, etc..).

What is Nanomedicine?

Nanomedicine is the application of Nanotechnology (materials with sizes in the nanometre range, i.e. 10-9 m) to promote innovation in Healthcare. Nanomedicine is a revolutionary interdisciplinary science, which combines knowledge from Pharmacy, Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Medicine to treat conditions and diseases of the human body at a molecular level. It has many applications, from drug therapy and diagnostics to individual cell repair, to artificial tissues and radiation therapy. The NANOMED EMJMD focuses on the Drug Delivery applications of Nanomedicine.

What is an EMJMD?

Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees (EMJMDs) are highly integrated study programmes delivered by an international Consortium of Higher Education Institutions. They aim at fostering excellence, innovation, and internationalisation in Higher Education Institutions. EMJMDs are supported by the EACEA (European Education and Culture Executive Agency) of the European Commission and are part of the Erasmus + programme.

A key focus of EMJMDs is on encouraging mobility. The NANOMED curriculum is thus designed so that courses are held at different Partner Universities of the consortium, ensuring students spend time in at least two different countries of the consortium and has included two Traineeship periods as the research component of the degree.

Course content

The NANOMED EMJMD is a 23 month-long programme (120 ECTS) that is taught exclusively in English with a strong research component, including traineeships in the first and second years.

It offers high quality education in the emerging field of Nanomedicine with a strong emphasis on multidisciplinarity. Designing nanomedicines for drug delivery requires the combination of knowledge from various fields such as Pharmacy, Biology, Chemistry, Medicine, Physics or Engineering, which is why our Master programme values students from different backgrounds. The NANOMED EMJMD provides both theoretical and practical knowledge for 3 semesters (Semesters 1, 2 and 3, 30 ECTS each) combined with a final internship (Semester 4, 30 ECTS).