The Centre for Health Technologies at the University of Pavia aims at:
Providing Technological Solutions
for solving problems in human health, from bench to bedside, by fostering interdisciplinary research that integrates basic sciences, medicine, pharmacology and engineering.
Dealing with legal and ethical issues
related to science and technologies applied to human beings and society in a way that guarantees fundamental rights without hampering technological applications and their benefits.
Providing strong interaction and dialogue
between the conceptual models of science and technology, with a view toward mutual improvement regarding both legal and scientific technological aspects.
About the CHT
Why?
The Centre for Health Technologies (CHT) grounds on the experience of the former Interdepartmental Centre of Tissue Engineering (CIT) and represents a strategic initiative for the University of Pavia, thanks to a number of local, national and international factors:
“The right place to be”:
the CHT will leverage on the uniqueness of the Pavia context in the Lombardia Region and on its peculiarity in our Country. The University of Pavia is the only University in Lombardia with Departments and Faculties in all of the followings areas: Medicine (including the Medical School and Sport Science), Science (including Biology, Biotechnology, Chemistry and Physics), and Pharmacology and Engineering (including Bioengineering). Moreover, Pavia has three excellence centres for clinical research (IRCCS). Therefore, the CHT is an organization that would support the cross-fertilization of the different scientific disciplines and motivate participation in competitive research programs.
“Renowned similar experiences worldwide”:
the CHT will take advantage of successful experiences of some important universities around the world, such as: Harvard-MIT, Cambridge, USA; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland; Aalborg University, Denmark; and the University of Pennsylvania, USA.
The CHT will thus be consistent with similar international centres, promising to support research achievements through collaboration among Departments and across Universities. Moreover, the CHT is likely to increase the competitiveness of the University of Pavia in the area of international grants.
CHT is designed to be on-going over the years; it cannot be considered as a standard “research project”, but as a strategic initiative that should improve the standing of the University of Pavia in national and international research and education. The CHT is now an interdepartmental centre at the University of Pavia that will provide a “living tool” to the University for the benefit of scientific and social development.
Research Activities
The CHT aims at providing technological solutions in five biomedical areas, quali: including Regenerative Medicine and Cell Therapy, Diagnostics, Surgery and Prosthetics, Rehabilitation, and Personalized Medicine.
The research will be organized through a horizontal coordination layer and a number of technological and application challenges that will be redefined every three years.
For the 2015-2017 timespan, six strategic key activities (pillars) will represent the main focus:
Advanced diagnostic instrumentation
Bio-medical informatics systems and Big Data for translational medicine
Regenerative Medicine
Nano-medicine technology for diagnostics and therapy
Legal, ethical and socio-technical aspects of new technologies in biomedicine
Horizontal activities, including teaching and education, and pillars integration
However, other research activities are also planned, in particular in the areas of neurosciences and exposomics.