Projet OncoProTools (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Doctoral Networks
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Europe has a high cancer burden: in 2020, 2.7 million EU citizens were diagnosed with the disease and 1.3 million lost their lives to it. This toll is expected to increase further, mainly because Europe's population is ageing: by 2035, cancer will be the leading cause of death in the EU. In 2021, the EC published its ‘Europe's Beating Cancer Plan’ (EBCP), calling for a big push in cancer research. Cancer diagnostics and therapeutics should rapidly become more effective and selective, patient-friendly and personalized.  All these goals are directly addressed by developing better tumor targeting strategies. Typically, they consist of equipping diagnostics and therapeutics with a vector unit. The vector unit binds to a protein that is overexpressed on cancer cells or in the Tumor Micro-Environment (TME), causing the diagnostic or therapeutic payload to accumulate in the tumor. Over the last decades, huge effort has gone in approaches that use antibodies as vectors, but return-on-investment has overall been rather poor. Exciting, recent innovations rely on small molecule vectors that target TME proteases. Proteases are ideal candidates for tumor targeting: they are often strongly overexpressed in the TME and possess an active site that allows high-affinity anchoring of vectors. Members of this consortium have played a leading role in these developments.  OncoProTools wants to force breakthroughs in cancer diagnosis and therapy by: 1) Exploring innovative venues for protease targeting in CAR T cell therapy. 2) Discovering novel vectors that bind to other TME proteases: cathepsins S, B, L and granzyme B 3) Personalize applications of protease targeting: deliver innovative diagnostics through deeper understanding of TME biology.  At the same time, OncoProTools will deliver a training program that truly captures the MSCA values, to 10 Doctoral Candidates. They will be provided with all capabilities to become leaders of tomorrow's R&I in Europe.

Mots clés : protease, oncology, diagnostics, pet, tumor targeting

Participants :
- Dehne matthias (Pays-Bas) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Cellply srl (Italie) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 259437.6 €
- Scv gmbh (Allemagne) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Université technologique de Dresde (Allemagne) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Insel gruppe ag (Suisse) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Quintessence consulting (Belgique) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Histogenex n.v. (Belgique) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Copenhague (Danemark) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 301788.0 €
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (Allemagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 260539.2 €
- Université Johannes-Gutenberg de Mayence (Allemagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 260539.2 €
- Université Semmelweis (Hongrie) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Lisbonne (Portugal) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 243403.2 €
- Vixen biosystems bv (Belgique) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Cancer patients europe (Belgique) — Partner, associated partner, Autres, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université d'Anvers (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 525240.0 €
- Conseil supérieur de la recherche scientifique (Espagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 251971.2 €
- Université de Bologne (Italie) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Berne (Suisse) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université autonome de Madrid (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €