Project description
Overcoming key barriers in cancer nanomedicine
Despite decades of research, the promise of nanomedicine to revolutionise cancer treatment has yet to be realised. Many nanoparticles fail to reach the targeted tumour cells and are instead being trapped in the liver by Kupffer cells. The ERC-funded ROMEO project aims to produce a therapeutic vector to escape Kupffer cells. The proposed research will help ensure more effective targeting of tumour cells by combining extracellular vesicles, which act as delivery tools, with optimised nanoparticles, that behave as decoys to saturate liver uptake of Kupffer cells. Using advanced chemical engineering techniques, ROMEO will validate its solutions and overcome hitherto problems of in vivo experiments.
Objective
Today cancer remains a huge health concern, with around 20 million new cases and 10 million deaths per year worldwide. However, according to expectations, Nanomedicine should have ended cancer long time ago. The first nanomedicine (DoxilTM) a liposomal formulation based on the Enhanced Permeation and Retention (EPR) effect, dates from 1995. In the ensuing three decades, hundreds of anticancer nanoparticles with exciting properties were developed, but only a handful have reached the clinic, with rather limited effectiveness. Recent research has identified the root causes of the failure of Nanomedicine in cancer, which can be narrowed down to two problems: first, most nanoparticles (NPs) end up in the liver, trapped by Kupffer cells (KCs) in the slow-flow sinusoids; second, of the small fraction of NPs that escape KCs most fail at delivering therapy to tumor cells, ending up in off-target cells.
ROMEO has been specifically conceived to address these problems and produce a therapeutic vector able to escape KCs, while guaranteeing a high tumor cell targeting capability. To achieve this, we will combine i) extracellular vesicles (EVs) as delivery vectors of high selectivity and ii) optimized NPs, as decoys able to saturate KCs uptake capacity. A novel approach, importing chemical engineering concepts (microfluidics, competitive adsorption/reaction kinetics) will provide actionable information to improve successive generations of EVs, NPs and feeding schemes in order to keep KCs saturated and maximize delivery to tumor cells. The solutions will be validated in a ground-breaking experimental design that circumvents previous problems of in vivo experiments. The final deliverable of ROMEO will be optimized EVs containing a therapeutic load, able to survive repeated sinusoid passes thanks to the optimal feeding of decoy NPs, and with a proven ability to target tumor cells. If successful, the main problem preventing the success of cancer nanomedicine will have been solved.
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 medical biotechnology nanomedicine
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
- engineering and technology nanotechnology nano-materials
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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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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.
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) ERC-2024-ADG
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50009 Zaragoza
Spain
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