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Multicompartment combinatory pre-clinical model for melanoma drug screening

Project description

An innovative melanoma model for drug discovery

Cutaneous melanoma is a type of skin cancer that originates in melanocytes, the cells responsible for producing the pigment melanin that gives skin its colour. Early detection and treatment are crucial for improving disease prognosis. However, drug discovery efforts are hampered by inaccurate disease models that do not represent human physiology. Funded by the HORIZON programme, the SkinModelOma project aims to develop a novel preclinical model of melanoma that uses skin tissue grafted in a multicellular spheroid containing melanoma cells, keratinocytes, and monocytes. This model is expected to revolutionise melanoma research and drug discovery by considering factors such as age, gender, and skin type.

Objective

One of the biggest limitations in developing new treatments for cutaneous melanoma relies on overcoming the inefficient screening, often to animal models, which greatly differ from humans. Also, the 3Rs principle limits the number of therapeutics that actually reach the in vivo evaluation of product/drug development or discovery. Thus, there is a high demand for novel pre-clinical platforms, as alternative models to the use of animals, that can screening new treatments. I propose the establishment of a multicompartmental melanoma graft model based on an ex vivo skin tissue grafted with a multicellular spheroid composed by melanoma cells, keratinocytes and monocytes. The ex vivo melanoma graft model, called SkinModelOma, will be a major breakthrough in the study of melanoma tumor growth and on the effectiveness of new therapies in different types of skin and considering gender and age. To the best of my knowledge, this will be the first ex vivo melanoma graft model, and the first model for skin cancer considering age, gender and skin type as important parameters in novel therapies screening for skin cancer. This proposal includes 3 scientific work packages related to 3 objectives and includes transversal work packages related to my training and improviment as a researcher. The objectives are based in the development and standardization of multicellular spheroid, their graft in the human skin and the validation of this model as a screening platform. I believed that the SkinModelOma proposed here will contribute to significant scientific advances in cutaneous melanoma patients management and also to great international recognition that will enable other researchers to benefit from a novel pre-clinical tool.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) HORIZON-WIDERA-2022-TALENTS-04

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Coordinator

I3S - INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACAO E INOVACAO EM SAUDE DA UNIVERSIDADE DO PORTO
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.

€ 172 618,56
Address
RUA ALFREDO ALLEN 208
4200-135 PORTO
Portugal

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Region
Continente Norte Área Metropolitana do Porto
Activity type
Research Organisations
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Total cost

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