Project description
Oral metabolite-based treatment against obesity with long-term results
Obesity is a global epidemic with serious health risks. While GLP-1 treatments can aid in weight loss, maintaining this is not easy. Research suggests specific metabolites may influence weight gain. However, effective oral solutions for long-term weight maintenance in conjunction with these therapies are lacking. The ERC-funded ACHIEVE project aims to develop a metabolite-based treatment or supplement that safely reduces weight gain, maintains long-term weight loss, and improves metabolic function. The project will create metabolite-based drugs and/or medical foods, with efficacy, safety, and mechanism testing in obese and lean mice, followed by a first-in-human trial in obese individuals treated with GLP-1. It will also focus on commercialisation.
Objective
Obesity constitutes an alarming global epidemic, exposing billions of individuals to a multitude of metabolic, infectious, & neoplastic health ramifications. While weight reducing interventions of the GLP-1 family are transforming medical weight reductive therapy, long-term weight loss maintenance remains a daunting unmet challenge, with most medically treated individuals rebounding to obesity. In our project, we will generate a first-of-its kind solution to this global need that will involve oral human utilization of microbiome-modulated weight-regulating interventions. In our ERC-funded project (Fluhr et al., Nature 2021), we discovered that depletion of several microbiome-modulated metabolites drives weight gain in smoking-cessation-induced weight gain. Oral supplementation of several of these molecules has led to a generalizable & significant weight reduction across multiple obesogenic conditions.
Building on these findings, the ERC-PoC will develop a commercial metabolite-based treatment or supplement, that will safely attenuate weight gain, maintain long-term weight reducing impacts, and improve metabolic functions. The project includes four work packages:
(1) Development and production of metabolite-based drugs and/or medical foods (following a rigorous market study in a dual path approach). (2) Testing these molecules for efficacy, mechanism and safety in obese/lean mice. (3) performing a first-in-human trial (using the most efficacious formulation) in obese/GLP-1-treated individuals (4) in parallel, conducting an extensive commercialization effort to translate our findings into a NewCo, based on 1-2 new products. Notably, there is currently no such orally administered long-term solution complementing weight-reducing therapies in maintaining weight over time. As such, our ERC-PoC project will provide a proof-of-concept product/s for prevention & treatment intervention, providing a unique and commercially scalable solution to an important unmet global problem.
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.
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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)
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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.
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
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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-POC
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7610001 Rehovot
Israel
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.