i3S joins European project on nutrition in cancer patients
The MENTORING project - “Addressing malnutrition and metabolic health in non-communicable diseases through precision Nutrition: impact in quality of life and prognosis of lung cancer patients” - of which the i3S is part of, was a winner of the European Innovation Council (EIC) Pathfinder Challenges 2023, receiving €4 million in funding. The i3S will receive €404,000.
Coordinated by the IMDEA Food Institute (Madrid, Spain), the four-year project, which held its kick-off meeting in October, has four partners in addition to the i3S: University Hospital Infanta Sofia/Sermas of the Madrid Health Service (Spain); the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) (Germany); the University of Parma (Italy); and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems Magdeburg (Germany). In Portugal, the project will be coordinated by i3S researchers Celso A. Reis and Joana Gomes, from the Glycobiology in Cancer group.
Based on recent evidence indicating that metabolic characteristics are important in cancer development and patient treatment, and that each patient’s metabolic, nutritional, and other factors affect their clinical condition and treatment response, the MENTORING project will focus on a personalised precision nutrition approach to improve patients’ quality of life, increase treatment effectiveness, and improve survival rates.
According to Celso A. Reis, the goal is to “develop a precision strategy covering genetic profiling, glycomics, proteomics, microbiome, and metabolomics, as well as modelling of inflammation and immunological characteristics to implement personalised recommendations for patients with some of the main types of cancer.”
The project involves two multicentre studies, which will collect a large amount of samples and data to develop models capable of predicting individual responses to personalised dietary plans, considering multiple nutritional and metabolic profiles.
Joana Gomes adds that i3S’s participation “will mainly involve detailed study of glycans (glycomics) and proteins (proteomics) to identify and characterise key factors that modulate cancer metabolism, affecting the tumour microenvironment, inflammation, and each patient’s immune response.”
This collaborative effort, adds Celso A. Reis, “is adapted to the specific needs of lung cancer patients but is designed to be easily scalable to any other vulnerable population.”
About EIC Pathfinder Challenges
The European funding instrument EIC Pathfinder Challenges supports research and development projects to develop advanced, innovative, and disruptive scientific technologies and solutions with the potential to create new markets and/or address global challenges at an early stage of maturity.
A total of 368 proposals were submitted to the EIC Pathfinder Challenges 2023, with 43 projects receiving funding totalling €159 million. Portuguese institutions submitted 58 proposals, of which five were approved, achieving a success rate of 11.6 per cent - higher than the European average. This data represents the best result achieved by Portugal in this programme since the beginning of Horizon Europe.