Cancer occurs in more than 2 million individuals every year in Europe alone. It is widely recognized that early diagnosis and monitoring of the disease - during therapy and post-treatment follow-up- is a key step for successful patient management: it helps to offer on-time curative intervention and selecting the most appropriate therapy, improves the quality of life, while contributing to reduce the economic and social burden for both patients and society. There are screening programs available for early detection of some cancers such as colorectal cancer (CRC). Unfortunately, current CRC screening tests suffer with unsatisfactory sensitivity and specificity and low compliance of targeted population. On the other hand, there are cancers with poorly performing biomarkers as in the case of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), or no biomarkers at all (e.g. renal cell carcinoma (RCC), which limits not only the screening options but also the diagnosis or monitoring of the disease. Therefore, there is a need for new diagnostic biomarkers and accurate technologies to enable precise detection of asymptomatic tumors in a short time, low costs and, if possible, with minimal invasiveness and risks for the patients. From this perspective, cancer specific small non-coding RNAs (small ncRNAs) circulating in body fluids such as blood serum or plasma present promising diagnostic approach. Project RNADIAGON aims at development of personal skills and knowledge of early-stage and experienced researchers working in the field of small non-coding RNA diagnostics from five European research institutions through their long-term stays at one of the world-leading ncRNAs research centers in United States and traineeships at the education center and manufacturing facilities of industrial partner developing small ncRNAs-based certified diagnostics. This research and innovation staff exchange will increase the scientific excellence and quality of related research in the EU research institutions.

There is an enormous and unmet medical need to find efficient methods of prevention, diagnosis and disease- modifying therapies for neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), other tauopathies and Parkinson’s disease (PD). The common molecular denominator of tauopathies are pathological forms of tau protein, and in Parkinson’s disease these are pathological forms of -synuclein. Moreover, -synuclein has a distinct role in pathophysiology of tauopathies, mainly in tau hyperphosphorylation and aggregation, and vice versa. Tau pathology relates to conformational changes during oligomerization and assembly resulting in toxicity. Given their role in the pathogenesis, conformationally altered and assembled tau or -synuclein would be a promising molecular target for disease-modifying therapies. However, the field is still lacking a deeper understanding of associated structural changes in the course of assembly and their inducers on the pathway towards pathological forms of these proteins; therefore, the pharma development is hampered. The main aim of the InterTau project is the detailed structural and biophysical characterization of tau and -synuclein -synuclein protein and their variants in monomeric, oligomeric and fibrillar states relevant for AD, other tauopathies. The InterTAU consortium is composed and academic partners with cutting- edge methodologies suitable for functional and structural characterization of the tau assembly pathway by solution and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), cryo-electron microscopy and cellular assays corroborated by bioinformatics. The mutual transfer of complementary expertise envisaged in the project will facilitate academic outcome and biotechnological development. Specific expertise will be transferred from three institutions in North America and one institution from Argentina. The results of InterTAU will be directly translated into innovation in biotech through the non-academic partner. The platform for sharing knowledge will be a foundation of sustainable cooperation beyond the InterTau project.

The project aims at diagnosing oral and respiratory tract infections (RTIs) using a fully integrated, automated and user-friendly platform for physicians’ offices, schools, elderly care units, community settings, etc. Oral diseases (periodontitis, caries) will be detected via multiplexed, quantitative analysis of salivary markers (bacterial DNA and host response proteins) for early prevention and personalized monitoring. RTIs (e.g., tonsillitis, pharyngitis, rhinitis, sinusitis) will be diagnosed by means of DNA/RNA differentiation so as to identify their bacterial vs viral nature. Together with antibiotic resistance screening on the same platform, a more efficient treatment management is expected at the point-of-care. High impact is expected on socioeconomic level too, as the healthcare system is expected to benefit from: less crowded hospitals (patients find equally efficient chair-side diagnosis); less budget spent on excessive antibiotics and progressed-stage disease treatments; less insurance costs for oral diseases, which are largely age-related. At the heart of DIAGORAS lies a centrifugal microfluidic platform (LabDisk and associated reader) integrating all components and assays for a fully-automated analysis: interface of the collection tube with the disposable disc; on-disc sample preparation (nucleic acid extraction and purification with pre-stored buffers); amplification & detection (rapid PCR); protein isolation and detection (bead-based multiplexed immunoassays); microarray-based antibiotic screening. Low-cost disposable fabrication (microthermoforming of polymer foils) will render the platform batch-producible and affordable to end users. The entire setup will be validated at clinical settings and compared with gold standards (e.g., tissue extraction and culture methods). The modular nature of the platform, the non-invasive sampling, the rapid and multiplexed molecular-based detection, and the sample-to-answer analysis are DIAGORAS innovative features.

More than 55 million people worldwide suffer from dementia. Alzheimer disease (AD) is the main cause of this fatal disorder, without any effective disease modifying therapy. Early diagnosis and lifestyle modifications can significantly reduce the costs of care and treatment. There is no conceptual plan implementing modern diagnostic methods in the clinical practice in Czechia and Slovakia. The interaction between universities and private sector developing molecular diagnostic tools is fragmented and lacking. Limited number of talented students are invested in applied AD-focused research. The aim of ADDIT-CE is to interlink two ecosystems in Brno and Bratislava region, embracing the full quadruple helix of innovation driving actors: excellent scientific teams from Masaryk University and Slovak Academy of Sciences, collaborating with top biotech companies: Geneton, BioVendor, and MultiplexDX. Societal actors will be represented by organisations such as Slovak and Czech Alzheimer Societies, Memory Center and Czech Brain Aging Study. The regional government will be involved via Ministry of Health Slovak Republic, and South Moravian Innovation Centre. The joined ecosystems will unite R&I activities focusing on new diagnostic methods and their applications and further interlink academia and business spheres by creating a pilot industrial PhD programme. ADDIT-CE will generate a joint cross-border strategy covering basic and applied research activities aiming on accelerating the development of new tools for preclinical AD diagnostics and lifestyle/pharmacological intervention monitoring. New cutting-edge technologies will be transferred into clinical practise. Results of ADDIT-CE will be used to develop the Slovak National Plan to Combat Dementia, to enrich the Czech National Plan for AD, and will be widely disseminated to end users and society. ADDIT-CE will join forces of the involved ecosystems to revolutionise diagnostic approaches in both countries.