Objective
Hematotoxicity is a major determinant of treatment intensity and dosing in cancer therapy and a frequent cause of late-stage attrition in drug development. Current pre-clinical assessment strategies provide limited mechanistic insight into how drugs perturb human hematopoiesis. Animal models often translate poorly to human lineage sensitivities and rely on late aggregate outcomes, such as cytopenias, while human in-vitro assays typically lack bone-marrow niche context. As a result, lineage-specific toxicity mechanisms remain difficult to anticipate, particularly for complex or combination therapies.
This project will test a mechanism-informed framework (HemaTrax) for predicting hematotoxicity. HemaTrax integrates human hematopoietic niche co-culture systems with early lineage-resolved single-cell profiling and computational modelling of gene-regulatory perturbations. Drug-induced changes in transcription-factor activity detected at early differentiation stages will be mapped onto lineage-specific regulatory programmes derived from a large human bone-marrow reference atlas to predict downstream hematopoietic effects.
The main objective is to determine whether early transcription-factor perturbations predict clinically observed hematotoxicity patterns. Model-derived predictions will be systematically benchmarked against longitudinal hematological data from retrospective patient cohorts treated with selected chemotherapeutic agents.
If successful, this framework will establish a human-relevant and mechanistically interpretable basis for hematotoxicity assessment, enabling improved pre-clinical decision-making and informing the design of prospective clinical validation studies. More broadly, the approach supports regulatory efforts to increase human relevance while reducing reliance on animal experimentation.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy drug discovery
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2026-POC
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
4051 Basel
Switzerland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.