Project description
Insight into the brain capillary network
Capillaries deliver oxygen and nutrients to the brain and help maintain healthy development and homeostasis. However, how these tiny vessels organise into a functional network after birth remains poorly understood. The working hypothesis of the ERC-funded AngioArchitects project is that endothelial tip cells, known for forming new vessel sprouts, act as guides during capillary growth. They propose that these cells signal instructions to microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells. Researchers will employ a multidisciplinary approach to generate the first detailed view of vascular-immune interactions in the developing brain. Project findings could have potential implications for neonatal care and cerebrovascular therapies.
Objective
Brain capillaries are the lifelines of the brain, supplying essential nutrients and oxygen and safeguarding its delicate environment. Therefore, proper establishment of this hierarchically branched circuitry is crucial for brain growth and function throughout life. Orchestrating the creation of a functional vascular network requires coordinated signalling among endothelial cells, the vessels´ building blocks, with adjacent cells. Despite its importance, the exact spatiotemporal events, and molecular bases of the capillary network construction during postnatal development remain a mystery. Elucidating this dynamic process within the intact developing mammalian brain in both space and time is a challenging but a necessary step to unveil this fascinating biological knowledge gap. Towards this goal, I recently established a longitudinal live imaging approach to capture brain development processes with minimal perturbation. Based on preliminary work, I postulate that endothelial tip cells instruct microglia, the brain resident immune cells, to serve as pathfinders and guide them to their target vessel. To address this original and innovative hypothesis, ANGIOARCHITECTS proposes to employ a powerful multi-disciplinary combination of mouse genetics, two-photon live imaging, omics profiling, high-resolution microscopy mapping, and computational modelling tools to reveal the developmental principles of building the capillary network, focusing on communications between endothelial tip cells and microglia. This pioneering project will be the first to offer unprecedented imaging of vascular-immune interactions during angioarchitecture formation in the neonatal period, when the brain is highly susceptible to insults and injuries. ANGIOARCHITECTS will not only advance the frontiers of vascular research but also holds immense potential for driving future investigations in neonatal healthcare and clinical therapies targeting cerebrovascular disorders.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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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.
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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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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-2025-STG
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3004-531 Coimbra
Portugal
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