Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

A combined diagnostic and targeted gene therapy platform for brain tumor relapse

Project description

Innovative therapy platform for brain tumour relapse treatment

Therapy resistance is the main cause of death after conventional chemotherapy and radiation in children and adults with malignant brain tumours. The EU-funded Soxradicate Relapse project proposes prognostic and suicide gene therapy tools with engineered viruses as innovative approaches to target therapy-resistant brain tumours. It involves targeting cells from brain tumour biopsies to predict the risk of developing relapse and a gene therapy tool to remove cells causing the relapse. The strategy will use an engineered virus targeting non-dividing tumour cells that enable therapy escape.

Objective

Emergence of therapy resistance is a major cause of death following conventional chemotherapy and radiation for children and adults with malignant brain tumors. It is imperative to find novel options to target therapy-resistant brain tumor populations to save lives. We propose a novel platform providing a prognostic tool and a suicide gene therapy tool using engineered viruses. It involves targeting freshly biopsied cells from brain tumor patients with our strategy in combination with standard therapy to predict risk of patients developing relapse and a gene therapy suicide tool to remove cells causing relapse.

Previous suicide gene therapies have only used viruses hitting dividing tumor cells. Our strategy will use an enigneered virus targeting non-dividing tumor cells that we know escape standard therapy. After removing the tumor bulk using standard treatment, we propose to use our virus with a marker for diagnostic purposes or a with a suicide gene that will be activated by a prodrug to eradicate therapy-resistant cells. Prodrug administration before recurrence will eliminate relapsed cells once they start dividing and become dangerous.

The impact of our strategy will be high, providing health care professionals with a better tool to identify patients at high risk of developing recurrence. Such patients can receive a better, more tailored treatment that will not only increase their chance of survival but also reduce their time under hospital care and rehabilitation. We protected our strategy with a filed patent and assessed our regulatory needs. We completed a market analysis to evaluate market size and potential benefit for cancer patients. We have disclosed competitors but also potential collaborators that can cofinance and move our strategy forward to in vitro diagnostic device registration and initial clinical trials. In our proposal we will apply for funding covering lab work to test efficacy and safety, help with registration and negotitation strategies.

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.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

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.

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.

HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept 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.

(opens in new window) ERC-2022-POC1

See all projects funded under this call

Host institution

UPPSALA UNIVERSITET
Net EU contribution

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.

€ 110 000,00
Address
VON KRAEMERS ALLE 4
751 05 Uppsala
Sweden

See on map

Region
Östra Sverige Östra Mellansverige Uppsala län
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

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.

No data

Beneficiaries (2)

My booklet 0 0