Project description
Transcriptional adaptation for preclinical and clinical therapies
Organisms employ mechanisms such as transcriptional adaptation (TA) to counteract harmful mutations. Splice-switching antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) can induce TA by causing the decay of mutant mRNA and upregulating functional gene paralogs. ASOs are FDA-approved for various diseases, making them a promising therapeutic approach for functional compensation via TA. The ERC-funded TA2TRSQ project will investigate TA and its relevance to human health. It will optimise TA-inducing ASOs for duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and laminopathies in human and mouse cell cultures. Following optimisation, it will analyse the effects of the human ASOs on the transcriptome and proteome, while testing the mouse ASOs in wild-type and mutant mice to identify lead ASO candidates for further preclinical and clinical development.
Objective
Organisms display various mechanisms to compensate for the deleterious effects of harmful mutations. One such mechanism is transcriptional adaptation (TA), a recently identified mode of gene regulation whereby mutant mRNA decay triggers the transcriptional modulation of so-called adapting genes, independently of protein loss (Rossi et al., Nature 2015; El-Brolosy et al., Nature 2019). In some cases, TA can lead to functional compensation by upregulating genes that are functionally redundant with the mutated gene. In our funded project, Transcriptional Adaptation and Genetic Compensation (TAaGC), we are investigating the mechanisms underlying TA and its relevance to human health and disease. We have now observed TA in human cells and found that splice-switching antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) can be used as tools to induce TA (Falcucci et al., Nature 2025). By causing the skipping of out-of-frame exons, these ASOs disrupt the reading frame, thereby triggering mutant mRNA decay and the upregulation of functional paralogs. Using this approach, we have induced the upregulation of functional paralogs for both the DMD and LMNA genes, mutations in which cause Duchenne muscular dystrophy and laminopathies, respectively. ASOs have been approved by regulatory agencies, including the FDA, for the treatment of multiple diseases, altogether suggesting that splice-switching ASOs constitute a viable therapeutic approach to induce functional compensation via TA. In this PoC project, we first aim to further optimize the sequence of TA-inducing ASOs for DMD and LMNA in human and mouse cells in culture. The optimized human ASOs will then be fully investigated in relevant human cells in regards to their effect on the transcriptome and proteome; the optimized mouse ASOs will be tested in wild-type and mutant mice. Together, these studies will identify lead ASO candidates ready for further preclinical and clinical development in the treatment of DMD and laminopathies.
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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)
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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
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-POC
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80539 MUNCHEN
Germany
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