Next-Generation Drug Discovery Platform for Targeting Cancer Stem Cell Pathways

Informations projet

ACHILLEUS

N° de convention de subvention: 101058224

DOI

10.3030/101058224

Projet clôturé

Date de signature de la CE 5 Avril 2022

Date de début 1 Novembre 2022

Date de fin 30 Avril 2026

Financé au titre de

• The European Innovation Council (EIC)

Coût total

€ 2 433 125,00

Contribution de l’UE

€ 2 433 125,00

Coordonné par

DEUTSCHES KREBSFORSCHUNGSZENTRUM HEIDELBERG
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ACHILLEUS (Next-Generation Drug Discovery Platform for Targeting Cancer Stem Cell Pathways)

Période du rapport: 2022-11-01 au 2023-10-31

Résumé du contexte et des objectifs généraux du projet

Colorectal cancer is one of the most frequent cancers with a high burden on society. Hundreds of thousands of people are diagnosed each year with colorectal cancer. Despite available treatments, the survival of patients with advanced-stage colorectal cancer is poor. Stemness of neoplastic cells has been proposed as a major factor in treatment resistance and high relapse rates, however, drugs targeting stem cell signaling pathways in cancer are still lacking today. The EU-funded ACHILLEUS project aims to develop and validate a novel drug discovery platform that involves patient-derived organoids (PDOs) and phenotypic machine learning-assisted validation to identify therapeutics to target colorectal cancer stem cell signaling pathways. Researchers will target colorectal cancer stem cell signaling pathways to shift the balance between stem cells and differentiated cells, using the targeting of the Wnt pathway as a proof of principle. The goal is to create a new company based on a phenotypic drug discovery platform for targeting cancer stem cell signaling.

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 ACHILLEUS team has developed a novel assay to measure stem cell signaling activity in cultured human cells. In parallel the team optimized the screening platform using patient-derived organoids (PDOs). This comprises both, the work with PDOs in the laboratory and the analysis of complex phenotypic images of PDOs in dedicated data analysis pipelines.

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)

On the business development side, the ACHILLEUS project was presented at several occasions and started to network with relevant groups of people. A business plan was set up and the IP strategy was further refined.