The Bourgine group awarded with the EIC Pathfinder grant

Published 7 November 2023

The Bourgine group will be part of the EIC Pathfinder Consortium "The BuonMarrow Project" aiming to develop a cutting-edge solution to detect early lung cancer relapse

Paul Bourgine and his group have been awarded the prestigious EIC Pathfinder grant for the establishment of a consortium named "The BuonMarrow project". The consortium is led by Prof. Marco Rasponi's research group at the Politecnico di Milano.

Currently, lung cancer relapse is only diagnosed late by radiological evidence as other tools are lacking, which drastically reduces patients’ survival prognosis. The BuonMarrow project, which were selected by the European Innovation Council (EIC) as one of the 53 winning proposals in the EIC Pathfinder Open 2023 call, focuses on early diagnosis of lung cancer relapse. A problem with a significant impact on patient survival.

BuonMarrow aims to develop an innovative technology using bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BM-MSC) to act as a biological sensor for early relapse detection. The project leverages advanced technologies like organ-on-chip, optical sensors, and biological modeling to create an in vitro miniaturized bone marrow device which can be educated to respond to cancer cell exposure through liquid biopsies of lung cancer patients.

The BuonMarrow consortium includes several partners coming from the Politecnico di Milano in Italy (as coordinators of the project), Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori (Italy), Lund University and the Institute for Bioengineering of Calatonia (Spain).