Objective
The fact that biophysical and biomechanical properties of cells and subcellular structure influence and are influenced by onset and progression of human diseases is now attracting the physiologists attention. This opens up new routes for disease diagnosis and treatment. The first traditional way to discover a tumor was by palpation, such as sweetness in urine was indicative of diabetes. Nowadays, the biochemical search for diagnosis markers has experienced amazing advancements, while the physical cues have remained almost forgotten; this is mainly due to a lack of powerful tools able to unravel the mechanics of individual cells. This proposal aims to develop a set of tools and demonstrate their potential for the throughout study of individual cell mechanics and sub-cellular structures. The proposed tools will provide the route to develop mechanical and physical assays to extract the elastic and viscoelastic deformability of f.e. cancer cells as compared to healthy cells, providing with mechanical biomarkers for diagnosis. NANOFORCELLS proposes an innovative approach combining optical interferometry together with advanced nanomechanical systems and AFM local characterization. This mechanical lab for cells will provide new knowledge that can not be attained today with present technologies. Also, the proposed nanomechanical devices of this project will provide not only a direct measurement for single cell rigidity but the capability for parallel measurement of hundreds of individual cells per minute, opening the route for portable tests that could prove very general to determine the health status of cells from blood samples. Also, interaction of cell with the environment can be studied in real time and thus the devices will provide tools for the study of drug effects and drug delivery vehicles, or for the assessment of the toxicity of nanoparticles.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine endocrinology diabetes
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
- engineering and technology nanotechnology nano-materials
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
ERC-2011-StG_20101014
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Host institution
28006 MADRID
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.