Objective
Despite ever-increasing investments in the development of new treatments, many cancers remain incurable. One reason is that most current therapies target redundant functions around which tumour cells can build resistance. We focus instead on a unique and essential cellular function: the Myc oncogene, deregulated in more than 70% of human cancers. Targeting Myc has long been considered unfeasible because of potentially catastrophic side effects. Against this dogma, using a Myc inhibitor called Omomyc, we showed that Myc inhibition displays extraordinary therapeutic benefit in various mouse models of cancer (e.g. lung, brain, pancreas and skin) and causes only mild and reversible side effects. Importantly, no resistance to Omomyc has been observed, and Omomyc constitutes the best Myc inhibitor known to date. Omomyc has so far been used only as a transgene and proof of principle. However, thanks to the ERC-2013-CoG n° 617473, we now have evidence that the Omomyc peptide has cell-penetrating activity, and reaches lung and brain upon nasal administration, where it exerts its anti-tumorigenic activity in cancer cells (data protected by a patent application EP13382167.8). Thus, the Omomyc peptide could become the first clinically viable direct Myc inhibitor to treat lung, brain and other types of cancer.
Our overall project encompasses the preclinical development of the Omomyc peptide to reach Phase I/II clinical trials, at which point the technology will be transferred to a pharmaceutical company for further commercialization. Hence, in this ERC Proof of Concept application, we propose to achieve specific, essential early milestones for the pharmaceutical development of the Omomyc product that will de-risk it and noticeably increase its value and the probability of reaching the market.
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.
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
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.
-
H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
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.
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.
ERC-POC - Proof of Concept Grant
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
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.
(opens in new window) ERC-2015-PoC
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
08035 Barcelona
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.