The Inflammation, Cancer & Immunotherapy (ICI) European Joint Master will aim to introduce students to understand the different pathways in which cancer cells and the immune system interact, to learn how cancer immunotherapies are developed, as well as to learn cutting edge advancement of treatments that are either currently used or are under clinical research to prolong the lives of cancer patients. The course will provide to biomedical or life scientists to acquire an extensive knowledge and key skills relating a deep understanding of inflammation and other immune effector mechanisms, their relation to cancer as well as the fundamental bases of cancer biology and its application to the treatment of cancer. ICI European Joint Master will provide an in-depth understanding of the molecular targets at which the different classes of immunotherapy drugs are aimed, as well as their evolution. Cancer is increasing worldwide, and in a decade, there are expected to be >22M new cases per year. Within this full-time 2 year (120 ECTS) European Joint Master programme the students will be trained to be the next generation of highly qualified interdisciplinary professionals who can be immediately implicated in the design, development and implementation of immunotherapy for cancer, positively impacting on the global burden of cancer. The programme will be delivered by world leaders with internationally renowned research groups at the forefront of inflammation, cancer and immunotherapy research across three leading European universities: University of Murcia (Spain), University of Rouen Normandy (France) and University of Ferrara (Italy). The teachers will also include clinical staff who are involved in the delivery of immunotherapy to patients, as well as in early phases of clinical trials for the study of novel immunotherapy approaches as chimeric antigen receptor T cells. For these goals, ICI will have key non-academic collaborations with hospitals, research centres and industry

The overarching goal of the project is to define "aesthetic learning" as a complex, multi-layered mental process from an empirically informed philosophical perspective. The research project will rely on (a) the philosophical literature concerning aesthetic values and (b) psychological evidence in cognitive sciences about the acquisition and development of perceptual and affective discriminatory capacities. The outcome of the project will be a model of aesthetic learning capable of exploiting the most recent advancements in the cognitive sciences within a rigorous philosophical framework. By focusing on such basic and uncontroversial components of aesthetic appreciation as perception and emotions, the project will establish viable criteria for the definition of aesthetic values that can be perceptually learnt and for the definition of aesthetic appreciation. Such a model will be submitted to experts in art teaching, made available for experimental testing and introduced to broader audiences. Thanks to the fellowship, the ER will fulfill the career goal of becoming an established researcher in the field of philosophical aesthetics, either with a permanent position or as a PI of a research project in a European university.

This Project aims to evaluate a biomimetic mucus gel (BMG) for its use as mucosal vaccine and mucosal restoration for farmed fish. In addition, through a joint experimental and computational approach, rationalizing the design of chitosan (CS)-based nanodevices (ND) to load in BMG to apply on both healthy and disrupted mucosal surfaces. The aim of this project is to develop a treatment for improving animal health and welfare that are important goals in blue economy . The research work will be developed by the applicant, Dr. Collado González, in the group of Prof. María Ángeles Esteban (supervisor) at the University of Murcia (UM, host). Farmed fish constitutes an essential way for providing dietary proteins and nutrients and they are used as a medical research model. In 2016 in EU, aquaculture resulted in about 75000 jobs and 1.3 million tonnes of aquatic animals which resulted in a gross value added of €2 billion in 2017. In fish, all surfaces are covered with mucus layer that is connected to the mucosal immunity. Mucins (MUC) are glycoproteins present at any mucosal surface . Among other functions, MUC increase lubricity of the mucosa and avoid infection by pathogens. CS refers to a family of aminopolysaccharides that have been proposed for the treatment of pathologies related to MUC. The characterization of the effects of the BMG on the metabolic and phagocytic activities as well as the viability of immune system cells will allow to optimize the BMGs to develop an effective mucosal treatment. A key issue in the development of applications in the field is that MUC and CS are families of flexible polymers with high variability in their properties and behaviour, reason why their interactions at the molecular level are difficult to unravel and not fully understood. Elucidating the main physicochemical forces behind such interactions will allow the optimization of transmucosal CS-based ND.