50 Million euro investment for LUMC spin-off RougeTx advances therapies for inherited bleeding disorders.
Associate Professor Françoise Carlotti and Assistant Professor Anna Alemany from reNEW Leiden are part of a new consortium that receives 3 million euros from the NWO ENW-XL Open Competition. The consortium, called PanCreaTE, will start in May 2025 and is a collaboration between the Leiden University Medical Center, Utrecht University and the University of Twente. The researchers will use the grant to develop implants that aim to cure diabetes.
Patients with diabetes no longer produce insulin, because insulin-producing Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas are attacked by their own immune system. The production of pancreatic islets from stem cells offers opportunities to cure diabetes. However, the scalable production of islets that closely mimic their natural counterparts in the lab remains a challenge.
“Within this project, we will investigate how external mechanical and chemical perturbations guide cell fate commitment in vitro. The acquired knowledge will allow us to guide cell differentiation and recapitulate as much as possible the in vivo counterpart, thereby improving formation of pancreatic islets from induced pluripotent stem cells. Our hypothesis is that this will pave the way to better maturation and engraftment of the islets in in vivo transplantation assays. I can’t wait to get started with this project!” says Alemany.
The islets will then be provided with a thin coating that prevents rejection by the body. Finally, a 3D-bioprinter will glue the protected islets together to form a transplantable, artificial pancreas that holds promise to cure diabetes.
Carlotti concludes: “I am thrilled to get the opportunity to contribute to the advancement of next-generation islet replacement therapy by integrating cutting-edge technologies in tissue engineering!”
About the NWO ENW-XL Open Competition
The Exact and Natural Sciences (ENW) domain wants to create space for wonder, discovery, unexpected connections, and inspiration. Within the Open Competition ENW, NWO funds free and unfettered research within the research areas of ENW. The ENW-XL subsidies are intended for consortia in which research groups create added value through collaboration compared to separate smaller projects. In this subsidy round, 21 research consortia received a total of 64 million euros.
