Regional Center of Excellence at the Orbeli Institute of Physiology

Through the Horizon Europe ERA Chairs action program, we aim to enhance the research environment in the Orbeli Institute of Physiology (IPH), a major biomedical academic entity established over 75 years ago in Yerevan. With the help of the Horizon Europe ERA Chair action program, we aim to modify the research and innovation landscape within the Orbeli Institute of Physiology (IPH), a major academic entity established over 75 years ago in Yerevan, Armenia. Under the direction of the proposed ERA Chair, a new scientific direction is to be developed and a number of key structural changes within IPH are to be implemented. These include 1) establishing a regional research center with a focus on tissue engineering, 2) educating a new generation of junior researchers in modern methods and approaches to collect and analyze data, 3) improving the institute's research compliance environment, including setting up committees on animal and human subjects, 4) institute-wide training in grant writing and management. In addition, to achieve long-term sustainability of IPH research efforts, the ERA Chair holder aims to establish collaborations with regional medical centers with an ultimate goal to help to manufacture bioscaffolds & implantable biomimetic tissues as well as to establish protocols for testing and culturing patient-derived pluripotent stem cells. In addition to being one of the most exciting scientific fields of the 21st Century, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine represent a true bridge between academia and medicine which brings scientific discoveries to the realm of everyday life. Horizon Europe ERA Chair grant can enable the IPH to build upon its existing scientific arsenal and resources to achieve regional leadership in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, becoming a driving force for strengthening Armenias science base in a variety of disciplines, ranging from biology, physics, chemistry, nanotechnology, and biomedical engineering.