Can you describe your research?
"ImmunhOss is built on the hypothesis that our bone marrow tightly regulates inflammation and immunosuppression. Now, what cells are involved, how they organise, and if they can have a dual role remains a mystery. Here we will develop advanced models of the human bone marrow to decipher its immunoregulatory properties. We plan to uncover the presence of immune niches, and whether those are implicated in immune cell regulation and immunotherapy outcomes. Ultimately, we will test if immune niches can be reprogrammed to increase therapy efficacy", says Paul Bourgine.
What will the funding be used for?
"The funds will primarily allow the recruitment of additional researchers. It will also cover experimental expenses including costly multi-omics and spatial analysis."
What does this grant mean to you?
"This is just incredible. It is likely the most competitive grant scheme, they are so many outstanding researchers out there and funding is limited; how can one be confident in obtaining such a grant? From our standpoint, it brings confidence in our research. As stem cell biologists and tissue engineers, we are stepping into a new terrifying territory: cancer therapy and immunology. It is exciting and the ERC will only bring visibility and credibility to our approaches."