Prof. Ph. Eng. Tomasz Ciach has become the head of the Scientific Council established at NanoSanguis S.A. The newly established team will include leading experts in the fields of transplantology, pharmacy, veterinary medicine and biotechnology, who will support the company in the implementation of the NanOX organ perfusion system.
The Scientific Council of NanoSanguis made up of those associated with the NanOX project: prof. dr. hab. n. med. Maciej Kosieradzki, President of the Polish Transplantation Society and head of the project’s transplant team, and Ph. Eng. Jarosław Woliński, prof. D., associate professor at the Institute of Physiology and Animal Nutrition. Institute of Animal Physiology and Nutrition, named after Jan Kielanowski of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Jan Kielanowski of the Polish Academy of Sciences. This team, to be joined by more experts, is to support the implementation of the organ perfusion system project with knowledge and experience.
– The establishment of the Scientific Council is another key step in the implementation of the NanOX project. We believe that continued cooperation with experts, as well as maintaining the current pace of research, will allow us to sign a commercialization agreement with an industry partner next year. At the same time, it will be an important step in the company’s activities so that the NanOX system has a chance to reach hospitals around the world in the future – says Prof. Ciach, founder, board member of NanoGroup.
From sci-fi to the real world
In Poland, according to POLTRANSPLANT, in June 2024. for a kidney were waiting approx. 1170 patients, a liver more than 180, and there were almost 420 patients in line for a new heart. Although the number of operations performed involving transplantation of organs from deceased donors is increasing year by year – in 2023. a total of more than 1,800 were performed, while five years earlier it was approx. 1390 – there are still many patients who die before they receive a new organ.
– Transplantation is a struggle against time,” says Prof. Ciach and adds. – We have found a way to extend this time, and at the same time not only take care of the full functionality of the harvested organ, but even improve its condition.
The organ perfusion system designed by the Polish company is made up of the innovative NanOX perfusion fluid, the NanOX Recovery Box perfusion device and an advanced data analysis model and organ perfusion protocol.
In mid-July, NanoSanguis S.A. reported a successful kidney autotransplantation. The experiment involved taking one kidney from an animal after a 30-minute cardiac arrest, perfusing it for 12 hours with NanOX fluid and using the NanOX Recovery Box device under extracorporeal conditions in subnormothermia, ie. at a temperature of 25 degrees Celsius.
Wykazano jednocześnie, że system NanOX nie tylko przedłuża czas, w którym organ po pobraniu nadaje się do przeszczepu, ale dzięki wspieraniu procesu jego regeneracji, umożliwia wykorzystanie narządów nawet, gdy doszło do zatrzymania krążenia. To niezwykłe osiągnięcie, które może zrewolucjonizować transplantologię oraz stanowi odpowiedź na potrzeby społeczne. Jednym z głównych wyzwań, przed jakimi stoi współczesna medycyna, jest problem braku wystarczającej liczby narządów do przeszczepienia – według danych Światowej Organizacji Zdrowia w kolejce po nowy organ jest około pół miliona pacjentów na całym świecie. System NanOX otwiera zupełnie nowe możliwości nie tylko związane z dłuższym czasem przechowywania organów. Dzięki temu, że płyn wspiera proces regeneracji narządów, w przyszłości możliwe będzie pobieranie ich od znacznie większej grupy dawców, wśród których znaczną grupę stanowią osoby, u których doszło do śmierci z powodu zatrzymania akcji serca.
The solution developed by NanoGroup is a true revolution. The ability to keep organs in extracorporeal conditions for days and regenerate them at the same time would allow to significantly increase the number of transplants performed. This is an opportunity that tens of thousands of patients around the world have been waiting for for years,” explains Prof. Kosieradzki. Kosieradzki, a member of the newly appointed Scientific Council and head of one of the research teams.
Scientific Council members:
Prof. dr. hab. n. med. Maciej Kosieradzki is President of the Polish Transplant Society and a nationally and internationally recognized transplant surgeon (he obtained his specialization in 2009). He specializes in kidney, pancreas and liver transplants, using organs from healthy as well as deceased donors.
Since 2016. has served as head of the Department of General and Transplant Surgery at the Infant Jesus Clinical Hospital, although he has been with the institution itself much longer, since 1997. Importantly, the team of the Department of General and Transplant Surgery qualifies patients with organ failure for transplantation (including qualifying patients with severe lower urinary tract defects for kidney transplantation).
He has also been active in the international arena for many years. Since 2011, he has been a member of the Surgery Section and the European Board of Surgery in the European Union of Medical Specialists, Section of Surgery European Board of Surgery, and represents Poland in the European Society of Organ Transplantation (ESOT).
Dr. hab. n. biol. Eng. Jaroslaw Wolinski is an employee of the Jan Kielanowski Institute of Animal Physiology and Nutrition of the Polish Academy of Sciences, with which he has been affiliated since 2000, and has served on the unit’s Scientific Council since 2023. Among other things, he specializes in preclinical and clinical research with large animals, including in the field of transplantation.
In 1999, he graduated with a master’s degree in zootechnics from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. Four years later, in 2003, he defended his doctoral thesis in agricultural sciences/zootechnics at the Jan Kielanowski Institute of Physiology and Nutrition of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 2012, he was habilitated in the field of biological sciences/biology at the Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology of Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin. He is the author of numerous scientific papers and studies that have appeared in leading scientific titles.
