Project description
Towards safer gene therapy procedures
Gene therapy for haematopoietic malignancies or inherited haematopoietic diseases entails the ex vivo genetic manipulation of haematopoietic stem or progenitor cells, which are reinfused back into the patient. The concept is that these cells will attach to the bone marrow and reconstitute a healthy haematopoietic and immune system. The scope of the EU-funded IMPROVING-GT project is to address the toxicities associated with the required bone marrow conditioning and the mobilisation of haematopoietic progenitors, which reduce the cells’ reconstitution potential. Researchers will identify milder myeloablative and mobilisation regimens with an ultimate goal to reduce toxicity and improve patients’ clinical outcome.
Objective
Hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell gene therapy (HSPC-GT) refers to the transfer of nucleic acids into HSPCs, to either add a new copy of a “healthy” gene or to correct a mutated gene. HSPC-GT is successfully used in clinic to treat patients with hematopoietic malignancies and several inherited diseases of the hematopoietic system. Yet, its current use is accompanied by acute conditioning-related toxicities, which impose a burden on patients and limit its application to the most severe conditions. HSPC-GT requires the following steps: HSPCs are mobilized and harvested from the patient, genetically corrected ex-vivo by gene transfer or gene editing and infused back to the patient, after administration of partial or fully myeloablative conditioning to make space in the bone marrow for the modified cells. Administered HSPCs home to the bone marrow, where they engraft and reconstitute a healthy immune system, theoretically throughout life. However, two major shortcomings undermine the full therapeutic potential of HSPC-GT: (i) a decrease in short- and/or long-term engraftment potential due to the ex vivo manipulation of HSPCs and (ii) a toxicity in the hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic organs related to the conditioning regimens, which are based on cytotoxic drugs. The project IMPROVING-GT proposes to develop innovative schemes to increase engraftment and dodge genotoxic conditioning, which are some of the most coveted but still unaccomplished goals of HSPC-GT. The candidate aims to (1) increase the fitness of genetically modified HSPCs by uncovering new players of engraftment and (2) bypass the toxic conditioning requirement by exploiting enhanced mobilization reagents. IMPROVING-GT will pave the way towards non or milder genotoxic regimens, which should greatly minimize undesirable toxicity of current treatments and ameliorate patients’ outcome. Moreover, it may help broadening applications of HSPC-GT to more diseases, including patients with lower disease burden.
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.
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules nucleic acids
- medical and health sciences medical biotechnology genetic engineering gene therapy
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology
- medical and health sciences medical biotechnology cells technologies stem cells
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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.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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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.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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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-MSCA-IF-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.
20132 Milano
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.