Doctoral Program in preclinical and clinical Advanced Therapies (DPAT).

The proposed doctoral program in advanced therapies (DPAT) focuses on preclinical development and clinical adoption of advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP), a new class of drugs based on cells, genes or engineered tissues with great potential to effectively treat, or cure, a wide range of diseases.

Today, patient access to ATMPs is limited by a lack of personnel with the knowledge of the field needed for these drugs to become routine clinical practice.

A coordinated effort to ensure education of health care professionals is needed.DPAT targets teachers within programs relevant to the topic; medicine and dentistry, nursing, pharmacy and biomedical analyst education.

The curriculum builds on the core doctoral training programs, complemented by newly co-developed courses and education activities about the ATMP development chain from research, via translation to implementation in health care, including manufacturing, quality control, regulatory and legal aspects, health economics, ethics, and entrepreneurship.DPAT is a national initiative by five Swedish universities, coordinated by Lund University.

The universities contribute with their areas of strength and excellent research milieus within ATMP, as well as collaboration with internationally leading institutions in Europe and the US.By educating the teachers and connecting them closer to research, the doctoral program will significantly strengthen Sweden’s competence in this important field of tomorrows Health Care.