Bottom-up reconstruction of a Synthetic Erythrocyte

Project Information

SynEry

Grant agreement ID: 101046894

DOI

10.3030/101046894

EC signature date 10 March 2022

Start date 1 April 2022

End date 30 September 2026

Funded under

• The European Innovation Council (EIC)

Total cost

€ 3 685 549,50

EU contribution

€ 3 685 549,50

Coordinated by

KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SynEry (Bottom-up reconstruction of a Synthetic Erythrocyte)

Reporting period: 2023-04-01 to 2024-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The overarching aim of SynEry is to build a synthetic erythrocyte from the bottom-up that could provide an alternative strategy from donated blood for transfusion medicine.
While relatively well under control in western countries, blood availability suffers from insufficient supply and elevated risks of transfusion-transmitted infections in less developed regions, where it burdens the effective delivery and safety of key health services and interventions. Likewise, in scenarios of natural disasters, pandemics or military conflicts, donated blood becomes a scarce life-saving resource. Hence, obtaining artificial blood has been a long-sought-after quest, since it has the potential to disrupt the current practice of blood transfusion worldwide.
To set the groundwork to achieve this goal, SynEry will elucidate biomimetic strategies to reproduce key features of natural erythrocytes: (1) excellent biocompatibil-ity, (2) prolonged circulation and (3) capacity for gas exchange and vascular flow regulation.
If successful, the achievements of SynEry could lead to the development of a safer, durable and sustainable blood substitute for transfusion medicine.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

So far the we have been able to validate the possibility to integrate the most important cytoskeletal proteind for red blood cells, Band 3, into GUVs.
While we are currently working on demonstrating that the transport function and the ability to stabilize a cortical cytoskeleton of this protein remain intact, we have already confirmed that the orientation (at least partially) and the ecto-domain structure of this protein in our GUVs are correct.
We are further developing strategies to specifically place these proteins in our GUVs, hence formint well-localized lipid-raft-like nanodomains.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

We have demonstrated the ability to integrate complex membrane proteins within GUVs that remain conformationally intact.
If we can further demonstrate that their transport function is also preserved, we will be in the position to claim an achievement that goes beyond the state of the art in the context of generating artificial cells.
This achievement will pave the way not just for our project, but for the rest of the scientific community to be able to produce more cell-like artificial facsimiles.