Project description
Nature's intercellular 'metastasis scouts' teach us how to make nanoparticle therapeutics
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are one of nature's many cargo trafficking systems, a way to get important materials from one cell to another over short and long distances. They show significant diversity in size, composition and mechanisms related to their functions and fates. Interactions with recipient cells can also have myriad and varied effects. Harnessing all this complexity to deliver therapeutics is no easy task, but the EU-funded MIMIC-KeY project is up to the challenge. The team will profile tumour-derived EVs to better understand how they recognise and target new tissues while performing their role in metastasis. It could lead to the rational design of nanoparticles for therapeutics that mimic nature.
Objective
The MIMIC-KEY project proposes to study extracellular vesicles (EVs) to understand their targeting behavior and cargo delivery in natural systems. Such comprehension will be used to build up new artificial materials that have the same targeting capabilities, but are much more scalable and mono disperse of the natural EVs. The MIMICK-KEY concept is to learn from tumor-derived EVs and from their ability to recognize and target tissue-specific features during metastasis. Thus, cancer is not the disease to treat but a source of inspiration to build artificial nanomaterials that mimic the EVs and enable them to fight other clinically unmet diseases, specifically metabolic bone disorders. To achieve this ambitious goal, two main steps are required: 1) Deep understanding of the key molecular features enabling EVs for specific targeting and cargo release to the recipient cells. This will be achieved thanks to a synergistic combination of groundbreaking and multidisciplinary approaches (correlative flow cytometry and super-resolution imaging, biological proteomic profiling, multiscale simulations) of an excellent partnership throughout Europe. 2) Synthetically build artificial EV-mimics towards a clinically relevant formulation. The new EV-mimics will be core-shell structures coated by a mobile, dynamic lipid bilayer shell incorporating key-functional proteins for targeting, enabling a novel enzyme-based therapy against metabolic disease that will be tested in vitro and in vivo.
The breakthrough idea of artificial EV-mimics, using only essential building blocks and amplifying their therapeutic functions, will overcome the current limitations of natural EVs and represent a challenge at the frontiers of research. MIMICK-KEY is a high-risk proposal that if successful can lead to a completely new way to conceive bio-inspired mimetic nanoparticles and their functions, impacting on a plethora of applications, primarily the pharmaceutical industry and theranostic nanomedicine field.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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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.
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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.1.2. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.2.1. - FET Open
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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.
RIA - Research and Innovation action
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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) H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2020
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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.
10129 Torino
Italy
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.