Descrizione del progetto
Laboratorio su chip rivoluzionario per la diagnosi del cancro
Le cellule tumorali circolanti, trasportate nel corpo attraverso la circolazione sanguigna, sono responsabili delle metastasi del cancro. Il progetto BIOCELLPHE, finanziato dall’UE, propone la generazione di batteri ingegnerizzati in grado di identificare e legarsi a specifici bersagli proteici sulla superficie delle cellule tumorali circolanti, innescando la produzione di segnali chimici che possano essere identificati con estrema sensibilità tramite spettroscopia Raman amplificata da superfici (SERS). La SERS è una tecnica analitica che impiega nanoparticelle plasmoniche come potenziatori ottici per analisi chimiche ultrasensibili a livello di rilevamento di singole molecole. I ricercatori creeranno un dispositivo SERS lab-on-a-chip per l’identificazione ultrasensibile e la fenotipizzazione multiplex delle cellule tumorali circolanti. Questa iniziativa aprirà la strada a una nuova era della diagnostica medica, fornendo un nuovo paradigma per la biologia e la biomedicina.
Obiettivo
BIOCELLPHE provides frontier scientific and technological advancements to generate a breakthrough technology realizing the identification of proteins (i.e. phenotyping) as diagnostic biomarkers at single-cell level with unmatched sensitivity, multiplexing capabilities and portability. BIOCELLPHE proposes the generation of engineered bacteria able to recognize and bind to specific protein targets on the surface of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) responsible for cancer metastasis, thereby triggering the production of chemical signals that can be detected simultaneously, and with extremely high sensitivity by surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). SERS is a powerful analytical technique that employs plasmonic nanoparticles as optical enhancers for ultrasensitive chemical analysis achieving single-molecule detection level. BIOCELLPHE will implement these advancements toward the generation of an optofluidic lab-on-a-chip SERS device enabling ultrasensitive identification and multiplex phenotyping of CTCs. We anticipate that BIOCELLPHE long-term vision and scientific breakthrough will lead to a sky limit technology that will be widely applicable, not only in the diagnostic arena, but also in many other applications (e.g. biomedical, environmental). No one has previously been able to attempt this vision due to current challenges and technical limitations, but we believe to be in a position to pave a way for achieving this now. To realize this highly ambitious project, BIOCELLPHE gathers a highly multidisciplinary community of leading experts in synthetic biology, nanotechnology, plasmonics, microfluidics, artificial intelligence, and cancer diagnosis. We believe that successful deployment of BIOCELLPHE has the potential to usher in a new era of medical diagnostics and it will provide new paradigms in biology and biomedicine, advancing frontier science and technologies at the European academic and industrial sectors.
Campo scientifico
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligence
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesclassical mechanicsfluid mechanicsmicrofluidics
- natural sciencesbiological sciencessynthetic biology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteins
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineoncology
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Invito a presentare proposte
Vedi altri progetti per questo bandoBando secondario
H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2019-2020-01
Meccanismo di finanziamento
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinatore
36310 Vigo Pontevedra
Spagna