Project description
Engineered NK cells against cancer
Tumours have evolved mechanisms for evading immune system responses including T cell exhaustion. To address this problem, scientists have come up with immunotherapy strategies to awaken or reeducate the immune system against cancer. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) natural killer (NK) cells are genetically engineered to recognise a specific target antigen. Despite their great promise, CAR-NK cell production is laborious and costly. The ERC-funded CHEMCELL project aims to address this limitation through an innovative labelling and engineering approach. Researchers will produce antibody-modified NK cells and test them against conventional CAR-NK cells for their anti-cancer efficiency.
Objective
Our immune system evolved to protect our bodies from different invaders and to fight against infections and diseases. Immune cells use sophisticated ways to detect and destroy abnormal cells, while sparing our own cells. Unluckily, cancer cells often develop sneaky tricks enabling them to evade this protecting machinery and to survive and proliferate. Immunotherapy, an emerging concept of treatment, aims to employ the power of immune system to fight cancer by boosting or reeducation of immune cells. One of the approaches, the adoptive cell transfer therapy, especially in the form of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) cells, has shown an unprecedented success in the treatment of certain types of cancer. CAR cells are genetically modified immune cells engineered to recognize and kill cells with specific cancer antigen. Unfortunately, production of genetically modified CARs is problematic, inefficient, time consuming and therefore, associated with high costs. New approaches enabling production of modified immune cells more effectively, faster and cheaper could therefore change the way the therapy is used. Within this proposal, we will explore the potential of an innovative approach for production of chemically engineered immune cells and their application in immunotherapy. In particular, we will employ our technology based on combination of metabolic engineering and subsequent biocompatible chemical labeling to produce an antibody modified natural killer (NK) cells that we will investigate in cancer killing experiments. We will perform a side-by-side comparison of our technology with the traditional CAR-NK cells both, in vitro and in vivo, to evaluate the pros and cons of both approaches. Finally, in collaboration with our Tech Transfer Office, we will present the technology to potential stakeholders to bring it to the next step in the form of patent licensing or eventually, develop the technology further within spin-out company.
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 clinical medicine oncology
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology immunotherapy
- medical and health sciences medical biotechnology cells technologies
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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.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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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-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept Grants
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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) ERC-2022-POC2
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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.
16610 Praha 6
Czechia
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.