The kick off meeting of the European project PERSEUS - oncological therapy based on 2D materials activated by low-energy X-rays, coordinated by the Institute of Materials for Electronics and Magnetism of the CNR (CNR-IMEM), will take place in Parma on 15 and 16 March 2023. Funded with over 2.7 million Euros by the European Union within the competitive EIC Pathfinder Open (Horizon Europe) programme for the development of emerging innovative technologies and supported with 257.000 euros by the Research and Innovation Agency of the United Kingdom, PERSEUS will have a 48 months duration and an expected important impact in areas and applications that touch the fields of materials science, physics, chemistry, biology and medicine.
In addition to CNR, the project includes a multidisciplinary consortium composed by: Karolinska Institutet (SE), Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (IL), Universidad de Vigo (ES), Wigner Fizikai Kutatóközpont (HU), Bedimensional SPA (IT), QED Film & Stage Productions LTD (UK).
The opening day of the project, organised by CNR-IMEM, will see the participation of world-leading institutions in the field of biology, medicine and materials science as well as representatives of the European Commission, the Research Support and Grant Office of CNR - detached office - and an Open Science Expert from the GARR Consortium.
PERSEUS, whose full name is "2D Material-Based Multiple Oncotherapy Against Metastatic Disease Using a Radically New Computed Tomography Approach", aims at the realization of an organic/inorganic nanosystem that, carried by liposomes guided by specific monoclonal antibodies (mAb) and under low-energy X-ray irradiation, induces the destruction of the DNA of deep solid tumor cells not reachable by other probes (e.g. light). An important innovation of the project is that the nanosystem is agnostic to any type of solid tumor. In addition, besides being cytocompatible, the nanosystem is totally inactive in the body in the absence of X-ray irradiation. The project includes applications in the fields of oncology, theranostics and the use and development of therapeutic systems based on low-energy X-ray irradiation, CT etc. The expected impact is wide-ranging as PERSEUS intends to test possible additive or synergistic effects with other therapies, including immunotherapy and molecular target therapies (base therapy of personalized medicine). A distinctive feature of the project is its intrinsic interdisciplinarity, which involves a multi-year collaboration between physicists, chemists, biologists and physicians. The project also has potential important industrial repercussions of interest both for innovative start-ups and for companies engaged in the development of therapeutic CT.
The coordinator and scientific responsible of the project is Giancarlo Salviati, Research Manager Associate at CNR-IMEM. Giancarlo Salviati has proven international and national experience, acquired in over 40 years of research activity at CNR, in the study and engineering of materials, films and nanostructures for optoelectronic, nanoelectronic and bio-medical applications.
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