Objective
Currently, the only cure for many inherited metabolic liver diseases with severe extra-hepatic manifestations, such as Crigler-Najjar disease (CNI), is liver transplantation (LT). LT goes together with heavy surgery, life-long immunosuppression and important public health costs. Development of less invasive treatments will permit important benefits for the patients and economic savings. Combination of gene therapy and hepatocyte (HEP) transplantation is a promising alternative to LT, correcting the metabolic defect while keeping in place the normal native liver. Nevertheless, the major obstacle has been shown to be the insufficient amount of corrected HEP available for transplantation. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) are endowed with intrinsic self-renewal ability and the potential to differentiate into any of the three germ layers allowing cell amplification before differentiation. As such, iPS are heralded as the most promising avenue for cell-based therapeutics. However, recent evidences indicate that the epigenetic features of iPS are heterogeneous and notably influenced by the tissue of origin of the reprogrammed cells.
Hypothesis: HEP reprogramming and differentiation induce profound epigenetic changes that could affect the safety of gene and stem cell therapy combination approach.
Objectives: 1) Reprogramming of patient-specific CNI-HEP into iPS. 2) Correction of CNI-iPS by ex vivo lentiviral transduction. 3) Large-scale amplification of the corrected CNI-iPS and differentiation to HEP-like cells. 4) Epigenetic analysis of patient CNI-HEP, CN-iPS and the differentiated-corrected cells. 5) Therapeutic assessment of corrected CN-HEP-like cells into the liver of the CNI animal model.
This project will allow a step forward to studying the safety, efficacy and clinical potential of differentiated cells derived from patient-specific iPS. Importantly, not only CNI disease but also many other inborn liver disorders are potentially treatable via this approach.
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.
- medical and health sciences health sciences public health
- medical and health sciences medical biotechnology genetic engineering gene therapy
- medical and health sciences medical biotechnology cells technologies stem cells
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine hepatology
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine transplantation
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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.
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.
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.
FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF
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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.
Coordinator
1211 Geneve
Switzerland
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.