Objective Within our ERC Starting Grant “Direct Drug Delivery”, we developed a method controlled fusion of liposomes and cells: a new pathway for direct drug delivery.Our method of membrane fusion is inspired by natural occurring SNARE proteins, which control this process in-vivo. A set of complementary peptide amphiphiles were designed and these are able to induce the rapid and efficient fusion between two opposing membranes. In the ERC-project we have shown that our method of fusion can be applied to liposomes and to live cells. Since liposomes can be loaded with drugs, this enables the direct delivery of drugs into live cells.We have recently found that our method also works in-vivo, which makes surface tagging and fusion applicable to zebrafish larvae. Drug screening and testing in Zebrafish larvae is becoming increasingly more popular as it reduces cost and enables rapid screening, making it easier to find new drugs. In this proposal, we want to investigate whether the market for applying our tagging and fusion of liposomes with zebrafish larvae enabling rapid in vivo drug screening is sufficiently large to make the commercialization of this method attractive for investors. Fields of science natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteins Programme(s) FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) Topic(s) ERC-OA-2013-PoC - European Research Council ERC Proof of Concept Call for proposal ERC-2013-PoC See other projects for this call Funding Scheme CSA-SA(POC) - Supporting action (Proof of Concept) Host institution UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN EU contribution € 131 926,00 Address RAPENBURG 70 2311 EZ Leiden Netherlands See on map Region West-Nederland Zuid-Holland Agglomeratie Leiden en Bollenstreek Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Ton Brouwer (Mr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Beneficiaries (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN Netherlands EU contribution € 131 926,00 Address RAPENBURG 70 2311 EZ Leiden See on map Region West-Nederland Zuid-Holland Agglomeratie Leiden en Bollenstreek Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Ton Brouwer (Mr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data
