Objective
Immunotherapy recently became an important alternative to conventional treatment regimes, yet cancer remains a universal leading cause of death. Thus, novel cancer theranostic approaches are still much desired. Although altered cell surface glycosylation is one of the hallmarks of cancer, targeting this ‘sweet aim’ for cancer therapy has been elusive, largely due to carbohydrates poor immunogenicity and the low affinity of antibodies against them. A red meat-derived carbohydrate antigen is a novel immunogenic moiety providing a key to unlock the theranostic potential of tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens. This foreign non-human sugar can be acquired only through the diet and subsequently appears on diverse cell surface glycoconjugates as ‘self’, accumulating mostly on carcinomas, and resulting in a polyclonal xeno-autoantibodies response. I have shown that such antibodies have both diagnostic and therapeutic potential, although basic understanding of their specificity and potency is scarce. The primary objective of this proposal is to design a novel personalized cancer therapeutic approach based on xeno-autoantibodies against the dietary sugar antigen. We propose an innovative interdisciplinary approach crossing the boundaries of cancer research, glycosciences, immunology and nanotechnology, with cutting-edge technologies, to design, engineer, screen and fully investigate potent targeting of ‘SweetAim’ moieties. Our discovery line is based on a two-arms platform to generate optimized antibodies for passive/active therapy, together with refined tumor cells through glyco-engineering/reprogramming for unveiling novel theranostics, finally evaluated both in vitro and in vivo. I expect our groundbreaking achievements will lead to promising new clinical tools, particularly for cancer, but also for other chronic inflammation-mediated diseases. Importantly, it will establish fundamental new concepts regarding carbohydrate recognition and response by the immune system.
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 basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy pharmaceutical drugs vaccines
- medical and health sciences health sciences nutrition
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules carbohydrates
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology immunotherapy
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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.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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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.
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
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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-2016-STG
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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.
69978 Tel Aviv
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.