In 2013, High on Nano started a crowdfund campaign to attract funding for research on cannabinoid nanoparticles. This eventually led to the NWOwetenschap NAVISTROKE program, funded by Sensi Pharma and NWO_TTW.
PhD student Thijs Beldman discusses his role in the NAVISTROKE program in a short video:.
Every year, approximately 43,000 people suffer a stroke. In case of a stroke, part of the brain receives insufficient oxygen. This leads to the failure of important brain functions, and in many cases, even to death. The scientific research project Navistroke was set up to tackle this important social problem. Navistroke’s goal is to deploy the anti-inflammatory effects of cannabinoids to limit the damage after a stroke.
In order to achieve this goal, a Grant was awarded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) in order to achieve a collaboration between universities and the industry. This collaboration consists of research groups of Leiden University, Amsterdam UMC and the University Medical Center Utrecht. This team of researchers is joined by the industrial partners Sensi Pharma and Enceladus and is supported by experts in the areas of (endo-)cannabinoids, immunology, nanomedicine and neurology.
Read more about this project here.
On May 2nd 2017, the High On Nano project reached an important milestone, as a first set of scientific results were published in the high-impact journal ACS Nano. The study was partially funded by Sensi Pharma BV, a company that was established to solidify High on Nano’s success in 2014, and is aimed at developing and applying natural cannabinoids for medical purposes. Using natural molecular building blocks, an international research team, spearheaded by investigators from the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam, shows that hyaluronan-based nanoparticles (HA-NPs) can be employed to molecularly image atherosclerosis-associated inflammation as well as to effectively ameliorate atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is the underlying cause of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke, and represents the highest expenditure in the world health care. Read the complete press release here.
Campaign Site of the project High on Nano, on the (crowd funded) production of a series of documnentaries about the work of nanoscientist Willem Mulder