Project description
Improving prediction to immunotherapy response
Harnessing the immune system to tackle cancer has encountered specific challenges that require a more in-depth understanding of the interaction between immune and cancer cells. The ERC-funded Interact-ALL project aims to develop a framework to map single-cell immune landscapes and interactions. The research team will focus on patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia who have received therapy with bispecific antibodies, a type of antibody engineered with two bindings sites, that can bind to different epitopes or antigens. The project aims to identify key cellular interactions linked to beneficial treatment outcomes and develop a precision diagnostic tool for predicting response to immunotherapy.
Objective
Immunotherapies have revolutionized cancer treatment by utilizing the patient's immune system, offering hope for treating a wide range of diseases. However, challenges such as therapy resistance, poor response rates, and high costs remain. Precision diagnostics that accurately identify patients likely to benefit from specific immunotherapies could optimize treatment efficacy, reduce unnecessary treatments, and significantly decrease healthcare expenses. A major limitation of current predictive biomarkers is their focus on the abundance of individual immune components, such as T cell numbers or specific surface markers, without considering the crucial interactions among immune cells or between immune and cancer cells. Such cellular interactions are particularly relevant for the efficacy of the immunotherapeutic class of bispecific antibodies, which target cancer by facilitating direct interactions between cancer and immune cells. Traditional methods for predicting response to immunotherapies fail to account for the complexity of these cellular interactions. Our ERC-Starting Grant project introduces an innovative framework for simultaneously mapping single-cell immune landscapes and cellular interactions at a low cost and ultra-high scale. Applying this approach to pre-treatment samples from children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia undergoing bispecific antibody therapy has allowed us to identify specific cellular interactions associated with therapy response or failure. Here we suggest to refine, validate and prepare the clinical implementation of our approach with the goal to develop a novel precision diagnostic tool that accurately predicts response to bispecific antibodies.
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 basic medicine immunology immunotherapy
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology leukemia
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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-2024-POC
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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.
10117 Berlin
Germany
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.