Objective Blood and bone are closely intertwined. Their intrinsic regenerative capacities are disturbed in many hematological and musculoskeletal diseases. Re-establishing the regenerative potential is the key to cure these diseases by regenerative medicine. Multipotent stem cells of both tissues – hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) for blood and mesenchymal stem/stromal (MSCs) for bone – are the basis for their regenerative capacity. While it is well established that HSCs are influenced by the bone marrow in their natural environment including MSCs and their progeny, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the reciprocal relationship. The hypothesis of the current proposal is that only when taking both tissues and their mutual crosstalk into account, we will be able to understand how the regenerative potential of blood and bone is impaired in disease and how it can be re-established with novel treatment strategies. For this purpose we need to understand the early events of disease onset and progression. Due to the limitations of such studies in human beings and animals, I propose to develop human in vitro models of healthy bone marrow, which can be induced to develop hematological and musculoskeletal diseases with high incidence, namely leukemia, multiple myeloma and bone metastasis. Previously my team and I developed a simplified bone marrow analog that bases on macroporous, cell-laden biomaterials with tunable physical, biochemical and biological properties. This versatility will enable us to create biomimetic human in vitro models of the human bone marrow in health and disease, which are ground-breaking in their applicability to investigate how the regenerative balance of bone marrow is maintained in health and disturbed in the different kinds of diseases – a prerequisite to develop novel regenerative treatments – as well as their scalability and thus suitability as in vitro test systems for screening of novel drugs or treatments. Fields of science medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnologycells technologiesstem cellsmedical and health sciencesclinical medicineoncologyleukemiaengineering and technologyindustrial biotechnologybiomaterials Keywords bloodANDbone Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme Topic(s) ERC-2017-STG - ERC Starting Grant Call for proposal ERC-2017-STG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-STG - Starting Grant Host institution GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ UNIVERSITAET HANNOVER Net EU contribution € 1 355 804,54 Address WELFENGARTEN 1 30167 Hannover Germany See on map Region Niedersachsen Hannover Region Hannover Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 1 355 804,54 Beneficiaries (2) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ UNIVERSITAET HANNOVER Germany Net EU contribution € 1 355 804,54 Address WELFENGARTEN 1 30167 Hannover See on map Region Niedersachsen Hannover Region Hannover Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 1 355 804,54 KARLSRUHER INSTITUT FUER TECHNOLOGIE Participation ended Germany Net EU contribution € 144 115,46 Address KAISERSTRASSE 12 76131 Karlsruhe See on map Region Baden-Württemberg Karlsruhe Karlsruhe, Stadtkreis Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 144 115,46
