Objective
The first weeks of human pregnancy are crucial as early abnormalities or insults result in infertility. Therapeutics acting at the onset of embryonic development would offer huge opportunities to improve public health through effective family planning and to reduce an ongoing global fertility decrease with profound economic, social, environmental, and geopolitical consequences. Unfortunately, a drug development program on human embryos is unfeasible due to the inaccessibility and scarcity of embryos, and to ethical issues associated with them. As a result, the attrition rate of drugs for reproductive health is high for all major In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and pharmaceutical companies.
Recently, an alternative approach arose from stem cells self-organizing into structures closely resembling pre-implantation embryos (blastocysts), which we termed blastoids. Because stem cells can be largely multiplied, this embryo model provides a scalable and ethical alternative amenable to drug screens, thus opening numerous possibilities for therapeutic breakthroughs. Here, I propose to use human blastoids to discover molecules for women’s reproductive health.
Blastoids offer a unique opportunity to establish a drug discovery program for early pregnancy and an alternative to the use of animal and human embryos. As such, this path has the potential to decrease the cost of drug development and to increase the rate of approved drugs for reproductive health. The aim of BLASTOID-DISCOVERY is to investigate the commercial feasibility of using blastoids as a new and highly cost-effective tool in the discovery of therapeutics for reproductive health.
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 gynaecology reproductive medicine
- social sciences sociology demography fertility
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine obstetrics
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine embryology
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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)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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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.
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.
1030 WIEN
Austria
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.