
1. History and mission
TEDD ( Tissue Engineering for Drug Developemnt and Substance Testing) was established together with the introduction of 3D cell cultures technologies to the wider audience. The center aims at fostering 3D cell culture approaches for drug development, personalized, regenerative medicine and basic science, contributing actively to key technology development and translating in vitro assays into predictive tests of clinical and pharmaceutical relevance. In order to maximize the success, cooperation of partners with complementary skills – academia, industry (in particular biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medtech and cosmetics companies) and clinics is required. TEDD community strengthen the research and business location of Switzerland and Europe by responding to key medical, pharmaceutical and societal demands. By routine application of 3D tissue models, the 3Rs initiative will be implemented by reducing, refining and replacing animal experimentation.
TEDD was initiated in 2011 by Zürich University of Applies Sciences (ZHAW) and InSphero AG and received initial funding from Gebert Ruef Foundation (BREF 2010).
TEDD integrates all relevant natural sciences and technologies in order to create in-vitro organ-like tissues for their application in medicine and pharmacology. TEDD will provide a sustainable contribution to the 3Rs initiative.
2. Organization
TEDD is guided by the steering committee that consists of experienced academic and industrial professionals. Members of steering committee meet on the regular basis to identify milestones for TEDD.
Members of steering committee:
Steering committee is mentored by the international advisory board. The advisors are academic and industrial world recognized experts. The board is involved in defining well adapted strategies according to the international recognize needs and requirements with the final goal to implement 3D cell culture into routine application.
Members of advisory board:
Execution of goals defined by the steering committee and advisory board together with organization and administration is done by the core team.
Members of core team:
3. Platform members
Currently TEDD consists of 90 members from industry (59 % of total), academia (34 %), hospitals (6%) and organizations (1%). Approximately 20% are international members (mostly European) – companies and academic institutions.
Map of Swiss TEDD partners institution with 3D cell culture activities.
4. How to become partner and benefits
Professionals from various fields can join TEDD network: experts from basic, applied and clinical research, technology companies, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, medical product manufacturers, hospitals, funding associations, societies and clusters.
The membership fee is 500 CHF per year. Follow the link for more information or contact TEDD Project manager Dr. Katarzyna Kopanska.
Partners have the opportunity to actively contribute to the TEDD platform and take advantage of the available activities. Funding applications to kick off network projects (CHF 10,000) for are assessed and approved by the steering committee. The full list of benefits for TEDD partners is presented in details below.
4.1 TEDD partner benefits:
5. New and events
For most current events, news and other information please refer to our website: www.zhaw.ch/icbc/tedd.