Project description
Insight into senescence for improved immunotherapy
Senescence is a biological process characterised by stable cell cycle arrest, where damaged or stressed cells lose their ability to divide and function properly. While senescence serves as a protective mechanism to prevent the proliferation of potentially harmful cells, the accumulation of senescent cells in tissues can contribute to age-related diseases and disrupt normal tissue function. The ERC-funded EXPLOITsen project aims to harness the unique features of senescent cells to enhance therapeutic outcomes in solid tumours. The idea is to develop chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T and natural killer cell therapies that are resistant to senescence-inducing treatments and can persist in a senescent environment.
Objective
Senescence is a two-component process comprised of a stable cell cycle arrest and a secretory program named the senescence associated secretory phenotype (SASP), altering the surrounding microenvironment. The program serves as a tumor suppressive mechanism inhibiting the propagation of damaged cells, but the accumulation of senescent cells has been connected to multiple age-associated diseases including cancer. Consequently, senescence induction in tumors is not considered a desired therapeutic outcome. Still, therapeutic strategies to treat cancer such as chemotherapy, targeted therapy and radiotherapy induce senescence at least in a subset of cancer cells. We here propose to exploit the specific features of senescent cells in the cancer microenvironment to improve therapeutic outcome in solid tumors. This strategy revolves around the combination of senescence induction with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T and NK cells. We will first assess the role of specific genetic alterations for the senescence program and resulting reciprocal interactions with CAR expressing immune cells. The gained knowledge will be translated into rational designs of CAR T and NK cells to tailor them to the specific senescence context. Furthermore, our strategies involve innovative screening and gene editing approaches of these cellular based therapies to 1) render them resistant against senescence-inducing therapies, thereby uncoupling desired toxic effects on tumor cells from undesired negative effects on immune cells; and 2) to identify single nucleotide variants leading to improved functional persistence of CAR T cells in the senescence context. Successful completion will lead to promising new therapeutic avenues for a wide variety of malignancies. More broadly, it will result in deeper mechanistic insights into T and NK cell biology as well as immune surveillance mechanisms of senescent and non-senescent tumor cells.
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 medical biotechnology genetic engineering gene therapy
- natural sciences biological sciences cell biology
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics nucleotides
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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.
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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.
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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 - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG
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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.
72074 Tuebingen
Germany
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