Irene Marco-Rius, principal investigator of the Molecular Imaging for Precision Medicine group ath the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) has been awarded an ERC Proof of Concept Grant. These prestigious grants are awarded by the European Research Council (ERC) to explore the commercial and social potential of research projects that have previously received ERC funding. Applicants use this funding to verify the practical feasibility of scientific concepts, explore business opportunities or prepare patent applications.
Led by Irene Marco-Rius, the CAMP project seeks to commercialise technology combining microfluidics and hyperpolarised magnetic resonance. This development is based on technology generated by the LIFETIME project, which focuses on paediatric liver cancer models.
CAMP will enable the simultaneous analysis of up to 30 samples by integrating microfluidic chips with magnetic resonance technology, significantly increasing sensitivity.
This combination reduces the number of cells required per sample by over 50%, which is highly relevant for rare diseases such as hepatoblastoma, where available material is limited. The team will validate the system in preclinical and clinical settings, and define a robust intellectual property and commercialisation strategy.
The platform could provide deeper, more accurate and more reproducible metabolic analyses, facilitating significant advances towards personalised medicine.
“Boosting throughput is key to taking hyperpolarised magnetic resonance beyond specialised labs; CAMP will make it possible,” explains Marco-Rius.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.'
This work is supported by ERC (CAMP, 101291716).