Research collaboration

RESTORE Project

Askel participates in the €5.5M EU funded RESTORE research project together with eight other European partners. In this ambitious project we aim for introducing groundbreakingly new ways of treating damaged cartilage using COPLA® technology as a platform. Alongside the high scientific aspirations, we gather data important for fulfilling the regulatory requirements for COPLA® technology for human use.

To answer the clinical and societal challenge of knee cartilage defects, RESTORE will develop smart and functional 3D-matrices by combining COPLA® with nanocarriers and stimuli-responsive nanobiomaterials to modulate inflammatory, cartilage degradation, and infection threats. These functional additives will be remotely stimulated, and their regeneration activity monitored with a non-invasive wearable and wireless device. The RESTORE project gives Askel a lot of new data about COPLA® which is helping us to get the authorization for human use, as well as wide potential of multidisciplinary research towards enhancing the repair capability of COPLA®.

More about the RESTORE project can be found here.

Study of COPLA® Joint Treatment of dog shoulder osteochondrosis at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at University of Helsinki

COPLA® is targeted to treat different kinds of cartilage defects, for example, dog patients with osteochondrosis (OCD). To have extensive comparative information on effective surgical OCD treatment, we are collaborating with the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of University of Helsinki. In the ongoing study, OCD treatment with COPLA® is compared with the conventional cleaning procedure. The study is fully recruited and no more petients are included.

All the dogs participating in the study received top quality surgical treatment and are subjected to extensive 18 month post-surgery follow-up. The study patients were allocated to control (conventional cleaning procedure) and treatment groups (conventional cleaning procedure with COPLA®) by randomization and the follow-up is blinded. Osteochondrotic dogs of various breeds aged 5 to 8 months weighing 15 to 45 kilos were included in the study.

The rehabilitation phase is ongoing and will last until April 2022. The patients are followed up by regular visits, e.g. to better evaluate the possibility to add exercise levels and the general prognosis.

Veterinarians in charge of the study:
Specialist in small animal medicine, DVM Pauli Keränen, email: pauli.keranen@helsinki.fi
Specialist in small animal medicine, DVM Helka Heikkilä, email: helka.heikkila@evidensia.fi