Five researchers from four BIST centres have received prestigious Proof of Concept (PoC) grants from the European Research Council (ERC): Eva Novoa and Luis Serrano (CRG), Gerasimos Konstantatos (ICFO), Marcos García Suero (ICIQ), and Samuel Sánchez (IBEC). This is an outstanding result for the BIST Community, representing 5% of the 100 grants awarded in this call and half of those awarded in Spain.
ERC Proof of Concept grant winners from the BIST Community. Left to right (top): Luis Serrano, Eva Novoa and Gerasimos Konstantatos, (bottom): Marcos García Suero and Samuel Sánchez.
The European Research Council, in its efforts to help ERC grant-holders bridge the gap between their research and the earliest stage of a marketable innovation, created the Proof of Concept (PoC) funding scheme for researchers who have already been awarded an ERC grant previously. This top-up programme is designed to help ERC grantees explore the innovation potential of their research and/or commercialise its results. Awardees receive funding of €150 000 each over 18 months to help bridge the gap between frontier research discoveries and its practical applications.
Five outstanding researchers from four BIST Community centres have been awarded ERC Proof of Concept grants in this call:
Designer antibodies: Luis Serrano (CRG)
Antibodies are crucial in medicine, and the biotechnology industry responsible for manufacturing them was worth $160 million in 2023. Antibodies are normally made by immunising animals and then using cells to produce them. However, with growing calls to limit the use of animals in research, scientists are increasingly studying how to create antibodies in the lab instead. These designer antibodies also have the added benefit of targeting specific parts of a disease more accurately.
ICREA Prof. at CRG, Luis Serrano, head of the Design of Biological Systems Group, will use his PoC grant to help leverage advances in AI and precise modelling to design antibodies in the lab. His research group has previously demonstrated, using their proprietary software FoldX and ModelX, that small fragments of antibodies, known as nanobodies, can be designed from scratch and bind strongly to a receptor.
Dr. Serrano’s project involves automating his group’s design pipeline to show that it can quickly and cheaply create effective nanobodies. The grant will help pave the way for creating custom, designer antibodies that may eventually benefit patients with different types of diseases.
Liquid biopsies for cancer: Eva Novoa (CRG)
Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are small RNA molecules that play a crucial role in translating genetic information into proteins. In cancer cells, tRNA levels and modifications often become abnormal, leading to increased production of certain cancer-related proteins. Despite this, clinicians do not use this knowledge for cancer diagnosis or prognosis due to the lack of simple and affordable methods to measure tRNA levels and modifications.
Dr. Eva Novoa, who leads the CRG Epitranscriptomics and RNA Dynamics Group, has developed Nano-tRNAseq, a new method which uses a technology known as nanopore sequencing to accurately and cheaply measure tRNA levels and modifications. The PoC grant will help her research group fully validate the technology by analysing small RNA samples from liquid biopsies, starting with cancer but potentially expanding to other diseases.
A new generation of laser technology: Gerasimos Konstantatos (ICFO)
ICREA professor at ICFO Gerasimos Konstantatos will use his PoC grant to develop the project IRQUAL, whose main goal is to explore and develop a new generation of solution-processed, versatile infrared laser technology that can be produced at scale and be compatible with CMOS electronics.
IRQUAL addresses the critical need for compact, low-cost and integrated lasers operating in the short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectrum (1.3 – 2.5 µm) for diverse applications such as consumer electronics, automotive, IoT, and AR/VR. Specifically, lasers in the eye-safe window (around 1.4 µm and > 2 µm) are crucial for LIDAR systems, 3D face recognition, and environmental monitoring. Current technologies, including solid-state lasers and III-V semiconductor laser diodes face limitations in size, cost, and scalability. IRQUAL aims to develop a versatile heterogeneous-integrated laser platform that will exploit SWIR CQD laser technology pumped by established GaAs-based high-power laser diodes to develop a device that covers the range 1.5 to 2.5 µm.
The realisation of low-cost CMOS compatible lasers at eye-safe and telecom wavelengths has the potential to disrupt in many possible ways, and the IRQUAL project pioneers a new era in SWIR laser technology, featuring compactness, cost-effectiveness, and scalability for a multitude of high-impact applications.
With this grant, ICFO researchers have reached the milestone of their 50th ERC grant.
New chemical warheads for covalent drug discovery: Marcos García Suero (ICIQ)
Over the past two decades, the pharmaceutical industry has witnessed an exponential growth in approved covalent drugs. In this type of drug, we find aspirin (as the first covalent drug), penicillin and omeprazole, among others. Covalent drugs block protein function by forming a specific bond between the ligand and target protein. These drugs offer the added advantage of terminally inactivating the target protein, which translates in high potency, extended duration of action and less-frequent dosing.
Among the covalent drugs on the market, more than 25% are used in oncology. Key examples in this therapeutic area include the Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor Ibrutinib, with sales totalling US$8.43 billion, and Sotorasib – an inhibitor of mutant KRAS(G12C), a GTPase that resisted decades of drug discovery efforts. The latter example clearly underlines that potent inhibition through covalent modification can enable targeting of traditionally ‘undruggable’ proteins. Moreover, covalent drugs have also been developed to treat cardiovascular disorders, as well as CNS (Central Nervous System), infectious and gastrointestinal diseases.
Covalent drugs incorporate warheads, a mild electrophilic reactive functional group, that forms covalent bonds in a reversible or irreversible manner with nucleophilic aminoacid residues (cysteine, serine, threonine, tyrosine and lysine, among others) near a binding site of the target protein. Currently, a major need in the field is the discovery and development of these new covalent reactive moieties. Prof. Marcos García Suero, ICREA Prof at ICIQ and leader of the New catalytic C−H & C−C functionalization strategies for chemical synthesis group, will use his PoC grant to evaluate the viability of a new chemical warhead for the discovery of novel kinase inhibitors.
Nanorobots able to travel through synovial fluid to fight arthritis: Samuel Sánchez (IBEC)
Samuel Sánchez, ICREA Prof. at IBEC, will lead the OrthoBots project, which focuses on the treatment of joint diseases using nanorobots. This project starts with some of the results of Noelia Ruiz González’s doctoral thesis, from Samuel Sánchez’s group, recently published in Small. In it, Ruiz studies the design and development of enzyme-driven nanorobots for use in the treatment of joint diseases such as arthritis.
Arthritis, an inflammatory disease that affects millions of people worldwide, is mainly characterised by osteoarthritis, a chronic degenerative disease that worsens with age and represents a significant economic burden for healthcare systems.
A promising alternative to current treatments is platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy. PRP harnesses the regenerative potential of growth factors, proteins found in the blood that play a key role in injury repair, to stimulate tissue repair processes, particularly in cartilage and bone cells. However, it is common for these proteins to be rapidly degraded upon contact with synovial fluid, limiting their therapeutic efficacy and distribution.
To overcome these obstacles, scientists are exploring advanced drug delivery systems that use nanoparticles as transporters. Although promising, passive diffusion of nanoparticles across viscous biological barriers, such as synovial fluid, remains a significant obstacle. OrthoBots is presented as an answer to this problem. The project aims to develop enzyme-powered nanoparticles, known as nanorobots, to improve the transport and delivery of these growth factors, facilitating targeted cartilage regeneration.
Learn more:
ERC press release
CRG news
ICFO news
ICIQ news
IBEC news
