Project description
Revolutionising bone tumour therapy
Primary bone cancers are aggressive tumours, frequently affecting children and adolescents. Although they are often treated with a combination of surgery and chemotherapy, prognosis remains poor, with approximately 30 % of patients dying within five years. To address this, the ERC-funded PANACEA project aims to develop a novel bi-functional biomaterial system to treat bone tumours and accelerate repair. Leveraging advancements in tissue engineering, it will design a collagen-nanohydroxyapatite scaffold, reinforced with reduced graphene oxide, featuring tailored porosity, mechanical properties and bioactivity for bone regeneration. This system will be further adapted for controlled, on-demand, non-viral ultrasonic delivery of microRNAs to eliminate cancer cell growth and induce host stem cells to regenerate stable bone.
Objective
Primary bone cancers are aggressive malignancies that characteristically arise during childhood/adolescence. Current treatment involves a multidimensional approach of surgery and chemotherapy but response to therapy can be poor-about 30% of primary bone cancer patients die within 5 years. Despite treatment with various chemotherapy regimens in the past 20 years, survival rates have not
improved and no efficacious targeted therapies have been developed. Bone tumours also often colonise large expanses of bone making it difficult to repair itself, thus resulting in a deleterious effect on patient life quality. Therefore, aligning bone tumour therapy and bone regeneration are highly challenging in the clinic. Building on my experience in this area, I propose a frontier technology to progress beyond state-of-the-art; PANACEA describes the engineering of a novel bi-functional biomaterial platform as a new strategy for bone tumour therapy. PANACEA will conquer the issues of current biomaterials approaches by utilising advances in bone tissue engineering to promote more timely bone production. A collagen nanohydroxyapatite based scaffold containing reduced graphene
oxide will be developed with pore architecture, mechanical properties and bioactive composition tailored to regenerate bone. Importantly, reduced graphene oxide is suitable for photothermal treatment of cancer cells and promotes bone repair. Utilising the expertise of the applicant on internationally recognised innovative research on scaffold-mediated gene delivery, this system will be
further functionalised for the controlled ultrasonic on-demand non-viral delivery of microRNAs to ablate cancer cell growth and direct host stem cells to regenerate stable bone at the tumour location in a timely manner. The proposed PANACEA platform is a groundbreaking exemplar disruptive technology that will revolutionise bone tumour therapy using minimally-invasive therapeutic strategies.
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.
- engineering and technology nanotechnology nano-materials two-dimensional nanostructures graphene
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine surgery
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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)
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 - HORIZON ERC 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-2025-COG
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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.
D02 YN77 DUBLIN 2
Ireland
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.