Project description
AI to identify cancer metastasis patterns
The spread of cancer to distant sites within the body, also known as metastasis, is largely responsible for cancer-related mortality. Although the underlying mechanisms of how metastases are formed have not been fully elucidated, circulating tumour cells (CTCs) seem to be implicated. Funded by the European Innovation Council, the 3DSecret project aims to identify stochastic patterns in the formation of metastases. Researchers will isolate CTCs from breast cancer patients, culture them into spheroids and perform transcriptomic, metabolomic, and genomic analysis. The work will contribute to the understanding of tumour heterogeneity and, alongside clinical information, will lead to the development of an AI tool that can identify patterns of metastasis.
Objective
Metastasis remains accountable for 9 out of 10 fatalities within cancer disease. However, the mechanisms governing the onset of metastasis are far from being fully understood. Notably, metastases are predominantly clonal and arise from a single cell. 3DSecret will investigate metastasis from a radically new perspective, with the overarching goal of unravelling stochastic patterns at the single-cell level with predictive and prognostic capacity. Critically, defining the hallmarks of metastasis from holistic studies of single circulating tumour cells (CTCs), thus dissecting tumour heterogeneity, has the power to revolutionise cancer treatment and diagnosis. This will pave the way for game-changing discoveries in what is one of the holy grails of modern clinical science. To achieve our goal, 3DSecret will use a set of key enabling technologies including microfluidics, nanosensors, genomics, and artificial intelligence (AI). Microfluidics will drive the isolation of single CTCs from whole blood samples of 60+ metastatic breast cancer patients. These will be grown on-chip to form 3D spheroids, thus allowing comprehensive genomic and transcriptomic studies of single-cell origin while bypassing the errors typically introduced by single-cell genome amplification. The genomic and transcriptomic data will be combined with clinical information, single-cell growth profiles and dynamic metabolomic analyses obtained by the use of nanosensors and SERS, to develop a multimodal AI analytical tool capable of identifying unknown patterns driving metastasis. The bold assumption that there could be stochastic patterns driving metastasis, cancer evolution and malignancy, makes the approach of 3DSecret exceptionally high-risk, high-gain. We are confident that such a breakthrough would lead to a major paradigm shift with significant implications in biology, physics, disruptive technologies such as AI, and critically, in the medical arena and patient care.
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.
- natural sciences physical sciences classical mechanics fluid mechanics microfluidics
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics genomes
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
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.
-
HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
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-EIC - HORIZON EIC 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.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-EIC-2022-PATHFINDEROPEN-01
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
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.
4715-330 Braga
Portugal
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.