Objective
Most organ functions unfold beneath our awareness. We sense the heart, gut, and vessels through interoception, yet this sensing rarely reaches perception; instead, afferent messages tune reflexes that set heart rate, blood pressure, and metabolic tone. In disease and chronic dysregulation, these pathways are corrupted. If we can encode the right sensory messages, we can steer those reflexes – and organ function. Two prominent dysregulations are hypertension and obesity – each affects >1 billion people, drives premature mortality, and often resists durable control despite lifestyle change and multi-drug therapy.
To address this need, I will develop VisceraLink: a sensory-first interface on organ-specific vagal branches, paired with an actuator that reproduces natural mechanical signals the brain already understands – enabling organ-specific, feedback-guided autonomic control.
Two tracks structure the work. Cardiovascular: engage the baroreflex via the aortic depressor pathway to reduce arterial pressure. Metabolic: engage vagovagal reflexes via gastric branches to adjust motility, satiety, and metabolic tone. I will map and select branch targets, redirect them into living biologic grafts that reinnervate to form a sensory hub, and integrate a programmable actuator to deliver tonic and pulsatile distension that drives the intended reflexes.
The program targets translation-critical steps: branch selection, construction of the biohybrid sensory interface, integration of an implant-ready biomimetic actuator, and a clear input-to-effect map for closed-loop use. Out-of-surgery preclinical testing will confirm durability, usability, and safety, positioning VisceraLink for early human evaluation.
If successful, VisceraLink establishes a first-in-kind platform for selective, intuitive, and repeatable autonomic modulation, a practical way to write the body’s visceral code, delivering organ-specific therapies for resistant hypertension and obesity, scalable to other conditions.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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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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(opens in new window) ERC-2026-STG
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1090 Wien
Austria
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