Project description
Lab-on-a-chip for pharmaceutical characterisation
Many chemical compounds including pharmaceuticals possess a geometric property known as chirality, whereby they exist in two forms which are mirror images of each other. Although the chiral molecules have the same chemical structure, their biological effect is different. This factor must be taken into consideration in pharmaceutical development, to avoid biotoxicity. In this context, the EU-funded TwistedNano project will develop a novel spectroscopy-based device that can identify the chiral nature of drugs under discovery. Despite using minute amounts of sample, the microfluidics chip will exhibit great sensitivity and speed at chirality sensing, ultimately advancing research and development efforts towards new medical drugs.
Objective
The quest for new medical drugs demands reliable, ultrasensitive and fast techniques to identify, refine and test small volumes of candidates for clinical trials. The efficacy of pharmaceuticals depends to a large extent on their chiral composition, and thus enantiomeric purity and selectivity is an important issue for the development of new drugs and to test their biotoxicity. TwistedNano addresses this need with a new generation of integrated nanophotonic devices enabling ultrasensitive chiroptical spectroscopy of sub-nanolitre volumes, revolutionizing at-source the sensing technological toolbox for drug discovery and nanomedicine.
Because of governmental regulations, agencies require pharmaceutical manufacturers to investigate systematically most of drug enantiomers to determine their safety/efficacy. Thus, the development of fast, compact and accurate chiral sensing on a chip is one of the current primary targets of the nanomedicine industry, constituting a growing market that is already exceeding 100 billion Euros. TwistedNano will result in a photonics-enabled chiral sensing technology that integrates vectorial structured light fields with almost arbitrary control onto a microfluidic chip, providing groundbreaking advantages compared to current instrumentation: (i) remote/distributed analysis, (ii) reduced sample consumption, (iii) cost reduction, (iv) parallelization, (v) increased diagnostic speed and sensitivity.
Key elements developed for optofluidic integration include photonic crystal fibers, photonic nanostructures, and metasurfaces operating in close synergy with cutting-edge chiroptical spectroscopic techniques. In the mid-term, TwistedNano will not only lay the foundations of a new lab-on-chip chiral sensing technology revolutionizing drug discovery, theranostics and nanomedicine, but also open a plethora of disruptive applications such as characterization of minute amounts of viruses and macromolecules in general.
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: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy pharmaceutical drugs
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology virology
- engineering and technology other engineering and technologies microtechnology lab on a chip
- engineering and technology medical engineering medical laboratory technology diagnostic technologies
- natural sciences physical sciences optics spectroscopy
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.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
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.
-
HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme -
HORIZON.3.1.1 - The Pathfinder for Advanced Research
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.
HORIZON-EIC - HORIZON EIC Grants
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) HORIZON-EIC-2021-PATHFINDEROPEN-01
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
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.
67100 L AQUILA
Italy
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.