Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : reMARK-AML (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Pérouse — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UniPG
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is one of the most aggressive, clinically and biologically heterogenenous, hematological alignancies. The different genetics classify disease entities, and define the prognostic risk category to which AML patients are assigned and the treatment choices.There is one entity, the AML with nucleophosmin (NPM1) gene mutations, that accounts for onethird of all adult AML (the most frequent) and where another gene mutation - the Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3)-internal tandem duplication (ITD) - acts as ‘tip of the balance’ for patients’ risk definition, drastically worsening the prognosis and hanging treatment in those 40% of patients where it is detected. This has been a main field of research of Prof. Maria Paola Martelli and her team since years and specifically of her ERC consolidator grant ContraNPM1AML. Here, she will exploit concepts stemming from her ERC funded studies on the key role of kinases in the NPM1-mutated AML development, response to therapy and initiating relapse, and focus on that 60% of patients regarded at favorable prognosis, who nevertheless in 40% of cases will relapse with extremely dismal outcome. Currently, successful strategies to identify novel frontline key markers to refine risk are not available. reMARK-AML takes the challenge and changes prognostic risk parameters, pointing at re-envisioning the marker at single-cell level. A first strategy has been designed and will be tested for the proof-of-concept in patients in a prospective non-interventional study. We have established contacts with industrial partners for the development of fit-for-purpose diagnostic assay prototypes to test then in the study. The success of reMARK-AML will open the next challenge of developing marketable diagnostic kits and defining a strong business plan in order to measure the impact of our idea and PoC in the real-world clinical setting.
Projet ERC : SPOTTED (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Padoue — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UniPd
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Cancer remains a leading global cause of death, with incidence projected to increase significantly by 2050. Despite advances in detection and treatment, there is an urgent need for more effective and personalized therapies. Personalized medicine (PM) is emerging as the future of cancer care, using 3D patient-specific models to replicate the tumors complexity. Current in vitro models struggle to accurately mimic the tumor microenvironment (TME), including the extracellular matrix (ECM) and stromal interactions, which are critical to tumor progression and therapy response. SPOTTED aims to address these limitations by developing patient-derived (PD) in vitro models integrated into a microfluidic device, by exploiting patient-derived organoids (PDOs) from bioptic tissues from the Biobanca di Ricerca of the University Hospital of Padua. The first vertical case study is on pancreatic cancer (PC), projected to become the second deadliest type of solid tumor by 2040. Our SPOTTED platform will use PDOs and PD-ECM hydrogels to reconstruct a realistic 3D model of PC, incorporating stromal and immune cells. By replicating the TME, SPOTTED enables precise drug screening and therapeutic testing in a highly controlled and automated environment. Its design allows for real-time monitoring and analysis, while the platform’s versatility supports scalable, reproducible experiments tailored to individual patients. SPOTTED, with its customizable, patient-specific approach, aims to bridge the gap between laboratory research and clinical application, paving the way for more effective, tailored therapies for PC and other solid tumors, with the potential to revolutionize personalized cancer treatment.
Projet ERC : ARACHNID (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Padoue — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UniPd
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 125000.0 €

Despite the improvements in cancer treatments, diagnostic tools and prevention/early detection strategies, cancer is still a major public health burden as one of the 6 leading causes of death worldwide. In 2020, 90% of the 10 million deaths registered out of 19.3 million new cancer diagnoses were associated not with primary tumors but with the secondary ones generated by the metastatic process. The complex time-dependent chain of events and cascades of biophysical and biochemical factors regulating tumor metastasis cannot be replicated using conventional in vitro cell models (such as transwell invasion and scratch/wound healing assays) nor in vivo animal models. The scientific and medical communities are striving to better understand the steps of metastatic spreading to devise strategies to stop its occurrence, especially in pediatric oncology, as in the case of Neuroblastoma, the most common and difficult to treat among tumors of preschool age (15% of pediatric oncology deaths). To solve these limitations we propose ARACHNID, a unique, multiplexed, automated, and increased-throughput multi-organ on a-chip platform conceived around the complex process of cancer metastatic spread. The project's potential for breakthrough innovation resides in its unique capabilities, promising to accelerate research, reduce costs, and contribute to the development of more effective cancer treatments. The ARACHNID project aims to explore and prove the technical-commercial potential of our proprietary tumor-metastasis-on-a-chip (TMOC) platform, starting from pediatric tumors and extending the application to adult cancers, involving Biogenera, biotechnological SME operating the pharma NB domain, as a testbed and early adopter.
Projet ERC : EnzyMiner (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut Pasteur — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Microplastics represent an emerging global health crisis, with nearly 500 million people directly impacted worldwide. Current solutions for plastic waste management are inadequate, with degradation into microplastics (<5mm) and nanoplastics (<1μm) creating pervasive contamination. These particles have been detected in human tissues including the brain, gut, arteries, placenta, and breast milk, with evidence linking them to inflammatory conditions, hormone disruption, and increased disease risk.  The EnzyMiner project aims to revolutionize microplastic remediation by leveraging computational genomics to discover and optimize highly efficient plastic-degrading enzymes. Building on our ERC CoG project IndexThePlanet, we have developed a highly optimized search engine for enzyme discovery across the world’s most comprehensive genomic datasets. Our preliminary work has yielded several candidate plastic-degrading enzymes with activity superior to the current gold standard.  This PoC grant will establish three critical pillars for commercialization: (1) a demonstration of our sequence mining methodology with experimental validation of synthesized candidate enzymes; (2) a regulatory pathway strategy for enzyme deployment in environmental and consumer applications; and (3) a consolidated IP strategy and startup creation plan. The results will create a robust foundation for bringing this breakthrough technology to market, offering transformative solutions to microplastic pollution across multiple industries while safeguarding human health.
Projet ERC : AcoustoSort (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Acoustofab ltd — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Sorting on conveyor belts is a fundamental process across industries, ensuring efficiency and quality in pharmaceutical labs, recycling, and agriculture. In agriculture, precision seed sorting is critical, driving a €2.9B global market growing at 4.5% CAGR through 2030. However, current pneumatic sorters are high-maintenance and costly, gravity sorters lack precision for similar-density seeds, and robotic pick-and-place systems, though precise, are too slow and expensive for industrial-scale operations.  AcoustoFab is introducing a step-change in sorting technology through its patented ultrasonic phased array transducer system, which uses precisely controlled sound waves to manipulate and eject seeds from a conveyor belt. Unlike traditional methods, this high-speed, contactless approach enables multi-category sorting, eliminates mechanical wear, and reduces operational costs. Originally developed under the ERC Advanced Grant “Interfaces” for interactive media applications, our acoustic manipulation technology has unexpectedly revealed a high-impact opportunity in AgriTech, unlocking new levels of precision and efficiency in seed sorting.  Rising global food demand, climate change-driven variability in seed quality, and increasing sustainability regulations make high-precision, low-waste sorting solutions more critical than ever. This proof-of-concept funding will allow us to advance and benchmark our technology against seed industry KPIs, validating its speed, accuracy, and efficiency while developing prototypes that demonstrate industry feasibility and commercial potential.  Beyond agriculture, our contactless sorting technology can revolutionize high-purity metal recovery in recycling, such as copper extraction from solar panels, enhancing efficiency and reducing waste. Leveraging acoustic manipulation, AcoustoFab is therefore on a mission to pioneer a more scalable, sustainable, and intelligent approach to industrial automation.
Projet ERC : PA-PYR-us (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : VIB
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The introduction of immunotherapy revolutionized cancer treatment, nevertheless, pancreatic cancer is still an omen of death with a dismal 5-year survival rate. Improvement of the current therapies for pancreatic cancer patients is thus an unmet medical need. The research we performed for the ERC CoG ImmunoFit identified novel metabolic pathways shaping the tumor microenvironment toward immunosuppression. Our latest publication in Nature Cancer characterized the CDA-UDP-P2Y6 axis as a major determinant of pancreatic cancer immune escape. With this PoC grant, we want to start the valorization of our findings, generating first-in-class P2Y6 biological blockers. Characterization of the metabolic crosstalk between cancer cells and the immune infiltrate, identified the UDP-elicited, P2Y6-dependent pathway as the most promising target to induce strong anti-tumor response and immunotherapy sensitization at minimal risk of side effects and generation of resistance. Evaluation of the current landscape of small molecules available for P2Y6 inhibition highlighted the urgent need for an out-of-the-box approach to generate a new class of molecules suitable to target this pyrimidine receptor in vivo. Here, we will take advantage of the specific know-how present in our host institute to generate (in collaboration with the VIB drug discovery center) VHH nanobody blockers. The feasibility of this ambitious project is ensured by (I) the strong results supporting the scientific rationale, (II) the compelling freedom-to-operate analysis, (III) the keen evaluation of the landscape of competitors as well as (IV) the presence of an outstanding experience, within our institution, on GPCR-targeting nanobody generation. With this application, we aim to start the generation and validation of P2Y6 biological blockers and file a “composition of matter” patent application to foster the further clinical development of our identified lead.
Projet ERC : CRYSTAL-SHINE (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : VIB
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Asthma is characterized by airway obstruction, causing difficulty in breathing. The major cause of therapy resistant obstruction is mucus plug buildup in 60% of severe asthmatics. Mucus plugs form as a result of abnormal mucus production by airway barrier cells and recruitment of eosinophils that change the mucus from a gel- to a glue-like state. Eosinophils also release galectin-10 (Gal10) protein, which crystallizes and forms Charcot-Leyden crystals (CLC). My advanced ERC grant unraveled how CLCs damage the epithelium to aggravate airway inflammation, cause more mucus build-up and physically impede the clearance of plugs, because of their needle-like shape. We therefore developed crystal-dissolving antibodies, that improve mucus clearance in mice. Meanwhile we also found that chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and 10% of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients have CLC-rich mucus. The current problem we are facing in the further clinical development of crystal dissolving antibodies is that we do not have a biomarker for CLC-rich mucus, and therefore it would be hard to predict which patients benefit from treatment with CLC-dissolving antibodies. The solution is to develop a non-invasive imaging technique to visualize crystal-containing mucus. We have therefore generated a Gal10 PET tracer. We have developed humanized mice that express Gal10 and form CLCs in their airways, and will be used to test the feasibility of Gal10 PET tracer imaging. A major challenge is to find the best conjugation format of the PET biomarker, and unravel the pharmacokinetics and - dynamics of the imaging modality. In parallel, we will test if Gal10 antibodies bind to human biopsies from asthma, CRS and CF patients, and how this biomarker correlates to CLC presence. Gaining PoC that Gal10 PET imaging works as a biomarker to detect CLCs will personalize the approach and create deal-making value for our antibody program.
Projet ERC : EWiC (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Inspiralia — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 35000.0 €

Domain specialisation (e.g., AI) coupled with skyrocketing manufacturing costs of chips led to a paradigm shift towards chiplet-based computing. However, the current Network-on-Package (NoP) is not suited for the increasing chiplet (CPUs, AI accelerators, etc) count and diverse communication needs. As a result, communication has become the main bottleneck to computing advances. Wireless transmission can enable one-hop communication with low latency parallelism. The wireless links can be reconfigured dynamically for demand-specific services. Finally, the native broadcast capability of wireless transmission will provide natural support for scalability. However wireless communication is limited by the bandwidth. Hence, the ERC Starting Grant WINC explored via simulation combining wireless communication with the high bandwidth of wired connections, proving potential for >5× speedups. In EWiC we aim, for the first time, to emulate and demonstrate wireless communication among chiplets inside a computing system. The goal is to experimentally validate our simulation results, which have shown high speedups in multi-chiplet systems. Successful results will generate interest in the industry for further research and application in various domains, such speeding up computation in pharma for new drug design. EWiC will thus help fully realise the trillion-euro potential of advanced computing, alongside immense social benefits, and establishing EU leadership in this field. The EWiC project will thus assess the commercialization potential of our technology, engaging with key stakeholders such as chipmakers and end-users. Exploitation options including licensing, startup creation, or joint ventures, will be explored based on prototyping results and market entry considerations. Our IPR strategy will involve a thorough analysis to identify and protect the novel results of the project. We will additionally carry out a Freedom to Operate (FTO) analysis to ensure exploitability.

Mots-clés : wireless interconnects emulation multi chip systems computer architecture
Projet ERC : CHEMCELL (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry — Pays : Rép. Tchèque — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ÚOCHB AV ČR
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Our immune system evolved to protect our bodies from different invaders and to fight against infections and diseases. Immune cells use sophisticated ways to detect and destroy abnormal cells, while sparing our own cells. Unluckily, cancer cells often develop sneaky tricks enabling them to evade this protecting machinery and to survive and proliferate. Immunotherapy, an emerging concept of treatment, aims to employ the power of immune system to fight cancer by boosting or reeducation of immune cells. One of the approaches, the adoptive cell transfer therapy, especially in the form of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) cells, has shown an unprecedented success in the treatment of certain types of cancer. CAR cells are genetically modified immune cells engineered to recognize and kill cells with specific cancer antigen. Unfortunately, production of genetically modified CARs is problematic, inefficient, time consuming and therefore, associated with high costs. New approaches enabling production of modified immune cells more effectively, faster and cheaper could therefore change the way the therapy is used. Within this proposal, we will explore the potential of an innovative approach for production of chemically engineered immune cells and their application in immunotherapy. In particular, we will employ our technology based on combination of metabolic engineering and subsequent biocompatible chemical labeling to produce an antibody modified natural killer (NK) cells that we will investigate in cancer killing experiments. We will perform a side-by-side comparison of our technology with the ‘traditional’ CAR-NK cells both, in vitro and in vivo, to evaluate the pros and cons of both approaches. Finally, in collaboration with our Tech Transfer Office, we will present the technology to potential stakeholders to bring it to the next step in the form of patent licensing or eventually, develop the technology further within spin-out company.
Projet ERC : HySENSE (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Conseil national de la recherche — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNR
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 110000.0 €

Accurately assessing hypoxia and acidosis in the tumor microenvironment is crucial for understanding tumor behavior and determining treatments effectiveness. These conditions, caused by uncontrolled cancer cell proliferation, are key indicators of aggressiveness and metastasis risk, yet remain difficult to measure precisely. The HySENSE project addresses this gap with an innovative sensor kit capable of real-time, cell-specific measurements of oxygen and pH at high spatio-temporal resolution. This advanced technology surpasses current tools, offering deeper insights into tumor behavior and therapeutic effects. HySENSE will be validated using patient-derived colorectal cancer models, and a business feasibility study will define the path to commercialization. By enabling precise analysis of hypoxia and acidosis, HySENSE aims to transform cancer diagnostics and treatment planning, ultimately improving patient care.
Projet ERC : TNext (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Conseil national de la recherche — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNR
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 116000.0 €

Big-data management is currently placing a high demand on both the hardware performance level, e.g. access latency, storage capacity, cost performance, and on the cognitive level, e.g. data processing, architectures, and algorithms. The ever-growing pressure for big data creates urgent global challenges like energy consumption and memory efficiency. New device architectures beyond the von Neumann paradigm are demanded which are inspired by the biological synaptic operativity towards the so-called neuromorphic computational scheme. The memristor is the more viable device emulating the synaptic behavior. Advanced materials are required to make memristor-based circuits energetically sustainable and outperforming. The integration of 2D semiconductors in memristors is a promising path to tackle these global challenges within the neuromorphic computation. In this scenario, here we propose a single-element memristor cell design based on tellurene (2D tellurium) mimicking artificial synaptic behavior and thus enabling memristor applications. Tellurene offers solid advantages over other 2D players owing to the structural and chemical simplicity, the low thermal budget of its synthesis, and the versatility to adapt to rigid and flexible layouts. Our goals are the scalable production of a tellurene standard and its integration in single memristor cells and in cross-bar arrays of memristors aiming at the fabrication of a neuromorphic circuits. The peculiar production process makes tellurene fit to delamination and transfer to any kind of surface, either rigid or flexible, flat or curve, and readily available for testing in edge-computing applications like environmental sensing signal elaboration. The translational purpose is to further up technology transfer of the developed products (either materials and processes) by retrieving stake-holders among small- and medium enterprises addressing the AI computing market.

Mots-clés : tellurene,2d tellurium,memristor,neuromorphic,electronics