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H2020Staff exchange2017–2022

Nano-OligoMed · Hybrid Nanostructured Oligonucleotide Platforms for Biomedical Applications

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2017-12-01 → 2022-11-30
EU contribution
€598,500
Participants
8
Scheme
MSCA-RISE

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Hybrid Nanostructured Oligonucleotide Platforms for Biomedical Applications

Nanotechnology (i.e. fabrication and study of properties of objects in the nanometer scale) has received widespread attention in the last several decades due to the technological breakthroughs it has enabled across sectors from electronics to medicine. Providing new nanomaterials with programmed and adaptive properties is one of the ingredients of future personalised medicine. On the other hand, recent years have seen a tremendous shift of interested towards therapeutic treatments based on RNA/DNA technology (e.g. RNA vaccines, siRNA drugs, gene editing). The present project has the purpose to foster research enabling to join DNA/RNA technologies with the fabrication of functional nanostructures for future, more potent and more selective therapeutic agents which have proven applicability in curing most of the more important human diseases. Towards the great challenges that nanotechnology arise, the Nano-OligoMed project had the ambition to establish and support a network of international collaboration, enabling a collaborative scientific team to effectively use a diversity of approaches and strategies to design, generate and test innovative nanomaterials for the efficient and safe systemic delivery of oligonucleotide (DNA/RNA or similar)-based therapeutic agents. To this end, we have set-up a joint multidisciplinary scientific collaborative programme that through exchange, international mobility, and strongly collaborative transfer of knowledge and training activities between 4 European and 3 extra-European countries, brought together leading experts under the field of “nanomaterials in biomedicine”. Nano-OligoMed allowed the creation of smart nanomaterials that can degrade and thus release a therapeutic cargo only in the presence of a specific molecular or chemical input. This is particularly important because often in cancer cells there is a local change of the chemical environment or an overexpression of a specific biomolecule/receptor. To achieve this objective Nano-OligoMed took advantage of the unique features of nucleic acids as responsive elements to be rationally inserted in the structural framework of the nanomaterial. The presence of DNA and artificial mimicks of nucleic acids as structural elements has allowed to functional materials with unique molecular features.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Nanotechnology has received widespread attention in the last several decades due to the technological breakthroughs it has enabled across sectors from electronics to medicine. Towards the great challenges that nanotechnology arise, Nano-OligoMed has the ambition to establish and support a network of international collaboration, enabling a collaborative scientific team to effectively use a diversity of approaches and strategies to generate and test hybrid nanomaterials for the efficient and safe systemic delivery of oligonucleotide-based therapeutic agents. To this end, we have set-up a joint multidisciplinary scientific collaborative programme that through exchange, international mobility, and strongly collaborative transfer of knowledge and training activities between 4 European and 3 extra-European countries, will bring together leading experts under the field of “nanomaterials in biomedicine”. The scientific aim of Nano-OligoMed is the creation of degradable hybrid structures that combine the rigid, inert silica with the delicate programmable oligonucleotides or artificial oligonucleotide-mimics. The possibility to develop novel oligonucleotide-based materials will enable a) the degradation of the drug carrier at the presence of a specific input as a function of the intrinsic bio-responsive feature of oligonucleotides, b) the activation of a therapeutic function as a result of the bio-molecular interaction between the oligonucleotide-based material and the molecular target (i.e. miRNAs) and c) the delivery of the chemical payload (DNA and/or artificial mimics, even in combination with cancer drugs) upon cell internalization. The international academic networking, the broadening of the research skills, the educational activities, will provide to young (PhD students) and senior scientists, specific competences in the field of materials sciences, nanotechnology, molecular biology and molecular medicine.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO · MilanoCoordinatorItaly
  • NANOMOL TECHNOLOGIES SL · CERDANYOLA DEL VALLESSpain
  • ROYAL INSTITUTION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING MCGILL UNIVERSITY · MontrealCanada
  • THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA · OaklandUnited States
  • UNIVERSIDAD DE LA HABANA · PLAZACuba
  • UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PARMA · PARMAItaly
  • UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA TOR VERGATA · RomaItaly
  • UNIVERSITE DE STRASBOURG · StrasbourgFrance

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union