Objective
Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) affects 537 million adults globally. The T2D drug market exceeds 50 billion USD annually, with GLP-1 receptor agonists as the fastest-growing class. Developing these drugs requires testing compounds on pancreatic beta cells, yet current models fail: rodent islets differ from human islets in architecture and receptor expression, contributing to a 92% clinical failure rate. Donor islets are scarce and variable. Cell lines lack physiological relevance. PancreaScale is a proprietary iPSC-derived platform that generates functional human pancreatic microtissues containing beta, alpha, and delta cells in 15 days using a chemically defined small-molecule protocol. Microtissues self-organize into 3D structures mimicking native islet architecture and demonstrate glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS). The protocol eliminates recombinant growth factors and animal-derived components, reducing cost of goods by over 90% while ensuring batch consistency from a master iPSC bank.Pan-NAM benchmarks PancreaScale against industrial standards defined by a global leader in metabolic drug development, who specified three validation criteria: (1) reproducible production with CV below 15% and Z-factor above 0.5 in 384-well format, (2) physiological insulin secretion response to GLP-1 agonists benchmarked against human islet data, and (3) a T2D disease model with blunted GSIS and proinsulin-to-insulin ratio above 15%. The 9-month project advances PancreaScale from TRL 4 to TRL 5 through three work packages: industrial scale-up, physiological validation, and T2D disease modeling.
Five Letters of Intent from partners spanning large pharma, contract research organizations, and specialized biotech confirm demand across the drug discovery value chain. The FDA Modernization Act 2.0 and EU Directive 2010/63/EU support adoption of validated human-relevant alternatives for metabolic drug screening.
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.
This project has not yet been classified with EuroSciVoc.
Be the first one to suggest relevant scientific fields and help us improve our classification service
You need to log in or register to use this function
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.
-
HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme -
HORIZON.3.1.3 - Additional EIC activities
See all projects funded under this programme
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-EIC - HORIZON EIC Grants
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
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) HORIZON-EIC-2026-AIC
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
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.
2333 BD Leiden
Netherlands
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
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.