Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : ResisCHIP (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Day one societa a responsabilita limitata — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : DAY ONE
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 35000.0 €

Drug-resistant infections are one of the greatest threats facing humanity. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) causes over 700.000 deaths each year. Furthermore, AMR is associated to reduced quality of life, increased hospitalization periods and medical costs. Misuse and over-prescription of antibiotics for human or animal treatment are one of the drivers of AMR. At the same time, the development of new antibiotics is virtually nonexistent. Hence, developing fast diagnostic methods to identify the optimal treatment is key to effectively fight AMR and increase survival rates of patients encountering life-threatening infections. So far, diagnostics rely on bacterial cultures, leading to slow turnaround times, which are linked to the preventive administration of broad-spectrum antibiotics, often inefficient and leading to worse disease outcomes and spread of AMR. Novel approaches such as DNA PCR-based diagnostic panels or next generation sequencing methods have been recently proposed to address this issue. However, they are target a limited number of pathogens and genes or require expensive equipment and highly-trained personnel. Furthermore, they require a culture step to reach detection levels, usually lasting a few hours, that can be critical for serious conditions. Recently, using technology derived from ERC StG and PoC grants, we designed a method to concentrate, purify, and isolate bacterial RNA in just 5 minutes. Here, we seek to develop and validate these tools, combined with a rapid RNA chip array with single-molecule resolution, to provide a culture-free, fast, and highly sensitive alternative to bacterial infection diagnostics from direct blood samples. Once developed, ResisCHIP will provide a tailor-made diagnostic kit with the capacity to identify thousands of genes and pathogens from a blood sample in less than 2 hours, allowing the rapid selection of the best treatment, improving AMR stewardess, and becoming a significant breakthrough in AMR diagnostics.
Projet ERC : PepZoPower (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Day one societa a responsabilita limitata — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : DAY ONE
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 35000.0 €

Over the past decades, implantable biomedical systems have greatly advanced, offering previously unavailable therapeutic options for millions of patients worldwide. Such applications most commonly utilize conventional lithium-ion batteries as the energy source. However, while readily providing adequate energetic performance, lithium-ion batteries are inflexible, rigid, may contain toxic substances, and require periodic replacement surgeries due to their limited capacity, posing both health risks and an economical burden. Here, aiming to address these issues, we will develop PepZoPower, a biocompatible energy harvesting, and storage device designed for biomedical applications. Energy harvesting will be facilitated by highly-efficient piezoelectric peptide-based assemblies allowing to harvest mechanical energy from the human body and convert it into electric energy. The harvested mechanical energy will be stored by a biocompatible peptide-based supercapacitor, thus giving rise to an autonomous, miniaturized, controllable, and biocompatible power device with adequate performance and mechanical properties. This ambitious goal will be achieved by utilizing our patent-protected piezoelectric and energy storage peptide-based supramolecular structures, to be incorporated into an integrated device. The performance of each layer will be optimized and the integrated PepZoPower device will be validated to verify efficient incorporation of the two components. We envision the breakthrough PepZoPower technology to serve as the basis for the next leap toward biocompatible, soft, miniaturized, light-weight and morphologically-controllable implantable devices. This will pave the way towards post-project commercial exploitation of the PepZoPower system, which will be further developed by a spin-off company to be integrated into implantable devices ranging from cardiac defibrillators to spinal cords stimulators, opening a huge market opportunity for this radically new technology.
Projet ERC : easi-IPMN (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Day one societa a responsabilita limitata — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : DAY ONE
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 35000.0 €

Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a lethal cancer with rising global incidence and poor survival rates. Early PDAC diagnosis is hampered by non-specific symptoms and by the absence of reliable early biomarkers. On the other hand, intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs), precursor lesions of PDAC, are commonly found during abdominal imaging. IPMN management lacks consensus, leading to inefficient decisions decisions on empirical assessments of high-risk stigmata (HRS) and worrisome features (WF). There is an urgent need for precise IPMN patient classification to guide personalized treatment decisions, reducing unnecessary surgeries and late interventions.  Our ERC-StG project identified a gene signature marking pre-neoplastic cells in PDAC precursor lesions. We propose testing this signature as a biomarker for PDAC in IPMN patients, to distinguish those at high-risk or low-risk of progressing to invasive carcinoma. Successful validation of the signature as a biomarker holds benefit clinical management of IPMN patients, mitigating the economic and societal consequences of over-treatment and under-treatment. At the same time, these activities should advance early detection in pancreatic cancer. Our multidisciplinary approach and groundbreaking discoveries put us in the best position to tackle this key challenge in immuno-oncology.
Projet ERC : BioBone (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Day one societa a responsabilita limitata — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : DAY ONE
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 30000.0 €

Osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma are the most common types of cancer in patients younger than 30 years. The gold standard treatment is bone tumor resection followed by reconstruction of the tissue, thereby allowing the salvage of the limb. Titanium and its alloys are mostly used in such orthopedic surgeries due to their biocompatibility and excellent mechanical properties. A novel, cutting-edge technology of patient-specific implants, 3-dimensional (3D) printed porous titanium implants, was recently introduced to clinical use. Yet, even several years after surgery, the resected section is not fully reconstructed, leading to further medical complications often requiring re-operations. A promising solution is the combination of titanium porous implants with bioactive scaffolds to support bone regeneration following tumor resection. Here, we aim to fabricate a 3D-printed porous titanium implant incorporated with patent-protected bioactive materials we have developed in the scope of the PersonalBone ERC-StG project to provide an optimal microenvironment for stimulating bone regeneration following bone tumor resection. For this purpose, we will optimize the formulation as well as the method of incorporation into 3D-printed titanium implants. The incorporated implants will be tested for biocompatibility and osteointegration in critical-size bone defect models in vivo. As we recently demonstrated for the novel materials, we will examine several success criteria, which will be refined according to input from orthopedic oncology surgeons who routinely perform tumor resections. This novel technology is envisioned to significantly advance the current treatments offered following bone resection, thereby considerably reducing the risk of further complications and offering a major improvement in the quality of life of patients recovering from bone cancer.
Projet ERC : PACMAN (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The PACMAN project aims to develop a novel therapeutic approach for treating pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC), one of the deadliest cancers with limited therapeutic options. The project focuses on targeting an overexpressed cell surface protein in PDAC implicated in tumor proliferation, invasion and migration by driving carcinogenic signaling. This study aims to investigate the ability of a highly specific monoclonal antibody targeting this protein to treat PDAC. By studying the therapeutic efficacy and unravelling associated biomarkers of treatment response in patient-derived PDAC models, the PACMAN program will provide preclinical proof of concept to treat PDAC with a novel class of monoclonal antibodies. Based on a robust patient-derived data package, this innovative approach provides the perspective for a first-in-class therapy for PDAC, addressing a critical unmet medical need and offering new hope for patients with this aggressive cancer.
Projet ERC : IMMCEPTION 2 (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Asthma affects approximately 3% of the population and results in 1,000 daily deaths. It is characterized by chronic lung inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness. First lines of treatment have not evolved in the last decades and actual developments are essentially focusing on severe asthma management (7% of patients) via the targeting of inflammatory mediators. Unfortunately, 60% of asthmatics still suffer from uncontrolled symptoms. The lungs are innervated by peripheral neurons expressing specific sets of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) that contribute to bronchoconstriction and regulate allergic immune response. Among the broad family of GPCRs, the GPCRX has never been studied in a pathological context, albeit human and murine orthologs share a remarkable sequence identity. We have created a new transgenic mouse, GPCRXMut, allowing both to track the receptor expression and to interrogate its function in vivo. The GPCRXMut mouse exhibits normal immune and sensory systems at steady state. Our data demonstrate that a) GPCRX is expressed by both peripheral neurons and certain lung-resident immune cells; b) the selective invalidation of GPCRX completely protects against the development of asthma in various models; and c) lung biopsies from asthmatic patients show high expression of GPCRX in neurons and immune cells. The ERC proof of concept project IMMCEPTION 2 aims to develop a selective antagonist for GPCRX to treat asthmatic patients. We will 1) miniaturize our established screening system for antagonists; 2) identify leads capable of specifically blocking GPCRX; and 3) develop a new mouse model humanized for the GPCRX to further validate identified leads in vivo. The research program has been carefully designed to leverage our expertise in neurobiology, immunology, asthma, and clinical allergy and has the potential to lead to the development of a new oral molecule with a dual mode of action to silence lung neuroimmune circuits.
Projet ERC : UPGRADE (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer disease (AD) and other age-related dementias affects ~55 million people worldwide, and is a growing problem in aging European societies. However, most drugs fail at clinical trial, and approved treatments aimed at controlling or reversing pathological changes in the brain do not improve cognition in patients, besides having significant side effects. It is thus essential to design and test alternative approaches to enhance cognitive performance and reduce the personal, familial and societal burden of AD. There is abundant circumstantial evidence pointing to a correlation between cognitive decline or AD progression with the age-dependent loss or deregulation of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), a neuropeptide better known for its role in the reproductive axis. Nevertheless, a link between the two processes has not been seriously considered. In a recent groundbreaking study, we have shown that AD-like cognitive deficits in Down syndrome stem from progressive GnRH loss, and restoring native GnRH in a physiologically relevant pulsatile pattern using implantable pumps safely and effectively improves cognition long after the onset of symptoms, together with augmented brain connectivity. Additionally, we have shown that tanycytes, specialized hypothalamic glial cells that control GnRH secretion, are fragmented in AD patient brains. Putting these two findings together, we hypothesize that cognitive performance in AD patients can also be enhanced by administering pulsatile GnRH at normally occurring doses, improving their quality of life,. The UPGRADE project will extend promising results we have obtained on the effectiveness of this strategy in a preclinical mouse model of AD, analyze GnRH activity and pulsatility in an existing cohort of AD patients, and finally, draft a clinical trial protocol to test the safety and efficacy of pulsatile GnRH therapy to reactivate cognitive reserves in patients with mild/moderate AD.
Projet ERC : POPEYE (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Vision enables 70% of our sensorial interactions with the outside world, making blindness a devastating condition with profound impact on quality of life. Glaucoma, the second leading cause of blindness globally after cataracts, affects over 80 million people worldwide, including more than 1 million in France alone. The disease impacts approximately 2% of the population over 40 years old and 10% of those over 70. With an aging global population, these numbers are projected to rise significantly in the coming years. Glaucoma is fundamentally a neurological disorder characterized by optic nerve degeneration and death of Retinal Ganglion Cells (RGC), the crucial neurons that transmit visual information from the eye to the brain. The primary treatment approach focuses on lowering intraocular pressure (IOP) through medications like prostaglandins and beta-adrenergic receptor antagonists, or through surgical intervention. However, these treatments are purely preventative - they can only protect remaining healthy neurons and slow disease progression. They cannot reverse existing damage to the optic nerve or prevent RGC death in advanced cases. Moreover, not all forms of glaucoma are associated with elevated IOP, leaving some patients without effective treatment options. POPEYE introduces a groundbreaking approach to treating glaucoma that represents a significant departure from existing therapeutic strategies. Our innovation lies in developing a first-in-class therapeutic that directly promotes functional recovery through axon regeneration and proper neural circuit reconstruction. The cornerstone of our innovation is the novel use of synthetic peptides to promote both axon regeneration and precise pathfinding. This dual action mechanism distinguishes our approach from all existing regenerative approaches, which have struggled with axon targeting accuracy.
Projet ERC : CAMFLAKES (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Injectable implants are widely used to treat numerous medical conditions, such as stress urinary incontinence, which affects 1 in 5 women. They also represent a large fraction of aesthetic procedures (e.g., wrinkle correction). The efficacy of current products is hampered by the fact that they create a chronic inflammatory response called the Foreign Body Reaction (FBR). As a result, implants have limited durability, requiring repeated procedures, and are associated with complications such as chronic pain and tissue erosion. We propose a new paradigm that avoids the FBR by providing a tissue-engineered injectable implant that is completely biological and human. This non-living product will support the creation of an actual living tissue that will be long-lasting without chronic inflammation. Our strategy is based on a unique material described in the project. The potential of this implants will be demonstrated through two work packages described in the project. Overall, this PoC will increase the technology readiness level of our product from 1-2 to 3-4 work packages. These outcomes will justify optimizing production methods, expanding in vivo analysis, and will support a commercial endeavor targeting multiple clinical applications.
Projet ERC : MeTLAND (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Nexus epigenomics ab — Pays : Suède — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 105000.0 €

Epigenetic dysregulation is a key contributor to numerous major diseases, including cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, and autoimmune conditions, underscoring the critical need for scalable and cost-effective profiling technologies. A central challenge in precision medicine is the heterogeneity in patient responses to treatment, which is influenced by inter-individual epigenetic variability. DNA methylation, a fundamental epigenetic modification, plays a central role in disease pathogenesis and therapeutic outcomes. However, existing methylation profiling methods, such as whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) and affinity-based enrichment approaches, are hindered by high costs, technical complexity, and DNA degradation associated with harsh chemical treatments. To overcome these limitations, we developed MeTLAND, an innovative enzyme-based DNA methylation profiling method that enables efficient and selective detection of methylated regions in a single-step reaction. This streamlined, single-step workflow significantly reduces sample processing time, degradation, and cost. Designed to be broadly compatible with established genomics platforms, MeTLAND also supports integration with other epigenomic assays, facilitating multimodal data generation. Its compatibility with bulk, single-cell, and spatial epigenomic applications further enhances its versatility. With the global epigenomics market valued at $17 billion, MeTLAND addresses the growing need for accessible, high-sensitivity methylation profiling, positioning it as a transformative tool for both research and clinical applications.
Projet ERC : Lectibodies (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Antibody-mediated delivery of therapeutic compounds to tumor cells for the treatment of cancer is a rapidly growing multibillion-euro market. One class of tumor markers, the glycosphingolipids (GSLs), are only rarely addressed in this context, due to the difficulty of obtaining antibodies against them. In this proof-of-concept program, we will develop a novel class of products — lectibodies — for the delivery of therapeutic compounds to tumor-specific GSLs. Our lectibodies are based on a naturally occurring GSL-binding protein with intrinsic tumor targeting capacity. We will rely on a proprietary phage library technology to isolate lectibodies against GSLs (or cocktails thereof). In this PoC program we will optimize and apply our technology to specifically target O-acetyl GD2, a GSL highly expressed in neuroblastoma tissues. This will enable us to generate lectibody-based therapeutics against neuroblastoma in children, a devastating disease for which the drug market is predicted to reach 118€ million in 2022. We will explore two options for further business development: a) building off of our current partnership with OGD2 Pharma (a biotech based n Nantes, France) and b)creation of a spin-off company which will license deals to several pharmaceutical partners based on pathology. We will capitalize on the expertise in launching start-ups of our principle investigator and on close links with clinicians and industry partners. Our technology has truly groundbreaking potential as, in principle, chimeric lectibodies can be developed against virtually any tumor-specific cocktail of GSLs thus opening the door for the development of novel therapies for several cancers. Thus, following the development of neuroblastoma-specific lectibodies, we foresee a wider range of future applications for our technology.
Projet ERC : POPTex (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP) is a major medical issue for women. It is estimated that 1 in 10 women will undergo a surgery to treat POP during her lifetime. To provide mechanical support to the slipping organ, strong and stiff synthetic meshes have been used. Transvaginal meshes are now withdrawn from the market in many countries due to high complication rates. Hence, there is a strong medical and societal need for breakthrough innovations.  We propose a new paradigm targeting the fundamental problem of synthetic meshes, i.e., the foreign body reaction, by providing a completely biological, tissue-engineered mesh to treat POP. Our strategy is based on a unique, biological material: the Cell-Assembled extracellular Matrix (CAM) produced by cells in vitro. Robust CAM sheets are cut to produce yarn subsequently knitted into a mesh.  In 12 months, this proof of concept (PoC) aims to deliver unambiguous experimental evidence that a CAM-based tissue-engineered mesh has the potential to become a relevant alternative surgical solution to treat POP. This project is divided in 2 main tasks: 1) Production and mechanical characterization of a human CAM mesh, and of an equivalent ovine mesh, with properties justifying a preclinical test. 2) In vivo validation of an allogenic CAM mesh in a female sheep model at 2 and 6 month.  This PoC will provide: 1) Proof that a human CAM-based knitted mesh can have clinically relevant mechanical properties; 2) Demonstration that an ovine CAM mesh can be successfully implanted to treat POP in a clinically relevant, allogeneic, large animal model; 3) Direct comparison between the biointegration of an ovine CAM mesh setting and the inflammatory response to a synthetic mesh.  Overall, this PoC will increase the technology readiness level of our product from 1-2 to 3-4 by validating the functionality and safety of CAM meshes in a relevant in vivo environment. These outcomes will lead us closer to clinical trials and support a commercial endeavor.