What is ENCITE?

ENCITE - European Network for Cell Imaging and Tracking Expertise - consists of 29 project partners from 10 countries with leading expertise in the field of cell imaging, with EIBIR as the coordinating partner.
The 4-year project started in June 2008 and is supported by the European Commission with a financial contribution of €12m.

Objectives
Cell therapy can be defined as the transplantation of living cells for the treatment of medical disorders. Three different principles underlie the increasing interest in cell therapy:

1. Transplanted cells used as an ‘active drug’
2. Transplanted cells used to replace damaged and degenerated tissue.
3. Cells used as a drug delivery vehicle.
   

Promising results have been obtained in pre-clinical and clinical studies, but success rates have been variable and clinical benefits have been limited. A major issue is the fact that the mechanisms by which cell therapy works in the different disease areas are still poorly understood. The ability to non-invasively monitor the fate and modes of action of transplanted cells over time is mandatory.

In order to address the needs of the call and to address a significantly wide variety of cell therapies, horizontal (generic) and vertical (specific) subprojects within the ENCITE project comprise the following objectives:

• New imaging methods to improve the spatio-temporal tracking of labelled cells
• Dual- and multimodality imaging procedures to cross-validate each individual approach
• New contrast agents and procedures that will improve the sensitivity and specificity of cellular labelling
• Combining of molecular biology for the generation of molecular and cellular imaging reporters with multimodal imaging techniques
  

The development of relevant imaging tools will lead to a better understanding of how cell therapy works, the possibility of response monitoring in patients and sufficient safety of the treatment.