Bottom-up reconstruction of a Synthetic Erythrocyte

Informations projet

SynEry

N° de convention de subvention: 101046894

DOI

10.3030/101046894

Date de signature de la CE 10 Mars 2022

Date de début 1 Avril 2022

Date de fin 30 Septembre 2026

Financé au titre de

• The European Innovation Council (EIC)

Coût total

€ 3 685 549,50

Contribution de l’UE

€ 3 685 549,50

Coordonné par

KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
Belgium

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

Période du rapport: 2023-04-01 au 2024-09-30

Résumé du contexte et des objectifs généraux du projet

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.

Travail effectué depuis le début du projet jusqu’à la fin de la période considérée dans le rapport et principaux résultats atteints jusqu’à présent

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.

Progrès au-delà de l’état des connaissances et impact potentiel prévu (y compris l’impact socio-économique et les conséquences sociétales plus larges du projet jusqu’à présent)

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.