FLUIDDA-led Consortium secures 1M€ for Lung Transplant Research

KONTICH, Belgium, February 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

The Flemish agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT) has awarded a consortium led by the Belgian-based company FLUIDDA a grant of 1M€ to conduct research to increase survival rates after lung transplantation through Functional Respiratory Imaging (FRI). The international consortium includes, besides FLUIDDA and its long-term research partner Materialise (Leuven, Belgium), also the University of Antwerp (Antwerp, Belgium), Columbia University Medical Center (New York, USA) and the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center (Philadelphia, USA).

Only 50% of the patients receiving lung transplantation reach 5-year survival. The major cause of mortality is the rejection of the transplanted organ. The current lung function tests are often not sensitive enough to detect the early signs of rejection.

Functional Respiratory Imaging (FRI), a state-of-the-art technology developed by FLUIDDA, has the potential to detect signs of rejection in an early stage, thereby increasing the chance of survival through better therapy. The funding will be used to support the technical developments and proof of concept (POC) clinical studies. When the results are positive, the scope of the project will be expanded through collaborations with additional clinical centers and industrial partners to offer the technology on a larger scale.

FLUIDDA's CEO Dr. Jan De Backer states: "This project is very important for us and our partners as it could result in the first application of our FRI technology in the clinical practice, providing in a significant benefit for many patients. Until now FRI has been successfully used in drug development for respiratory diseases such as asthma and COPD."

MATERIALISE department director Dr. Koen Engelborghts states: "FRI is a nice example of how new technologies for engineering on anatomy are being developed using the Mimics Innovation Suite. We're excited and confident about applying our know-how in order to take this a step further and bring engineering on anatomy into the clinic."

About FLUIDDA (http://www.FLUIDDA.com)

FLUIDDA is the world leader in the field of Functional Respiratory Imaging (FRI) research and development. The company's proprietary FRI technology offers pharmaceutical companies and healthcare providers a unique entry point into personalized medicine for patients suffering from respiratory diseases and sleep-related breathing disorders. Implementation of FRI in the clinical practice creates significant added value to the current healthcare standard in the respiratory field.

SOURCE FLUIDDA

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