Horizon Europe: Extracción y purificación de orgánulos estables y funcionales como NAM

Most drug discovery processes today rely on whole-cell or cell-free assays, which fail to capture the complexity of intracellular biology. Organelles such as lysosomes, mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) are small compartments located inside the cells and are central to cell function. A dysfunctioning organelle can trigger lysosomal storage disorders, rare diseases, neurodegeneration, metabolic diseases, immunology, cancer and others. Yet, these organelles remain largely inaccessible to standard screening platforms. This gap results in poor target validation, low assay reproducibility, and high attrition rates in early drug discovery. Company has developed a patented microfluidic process to isolate functional organelles at scale, stable for months, in preparations fully compatible with high-throughput screening (HTS) platforms. Our products, LYSO-Prep™ and MITO-Prep™, enable pharmaceutical and biotech companies to run drug discovery assays directly on isolated organelles, delivering improved biological relevance, precision and reproducibility. This shifts drug discovery from a cell-based vision to an organelle-based new paradigm. The proposed project aims to expand the scope and impact of organelle-based research across four dimensions. First, extending organelle extraction capabilities across lysosomes, mitochondria and the ER to new and underexplored cell types, including primary cells, iPSC-derived models, tissue-specific models and patient tissues. Second, developing and validating organelle-based assays spanning the full drug discovery value chain — from target pharmacology to safety assessment. Isolated organelles offer a uniquely direct and relevant system to evaluate how compounds interact with specific intracellular compartments: assessing lysosomal membrane permeabilisation, mitochondrial toxicity, or ER stress responses at the organelle level, earlier and with greater precision than current cell-based methods allow. This opens a new field of intracellular toxicology with direct implications for preclinical safety profiling and attrition reduction. Third, generating large-scale organelle-resolved molecular datasets — including proteomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics — on isolated organelle fractions derived from disease-relevant models. This organelle-level omics layer will provide unprecedented resolution into compartment-specific biology, enabling the identification of new drug targets and mechanistic biomarkers inaccessible through whole-cell approaches. Fourth, establishing organelle extraction directly from patient-derived tissues, creating a translational bridge between preclinical models and human disease. Organelle preparations from biopsies or surgical specimens will be profiled to identify disease-associated signatures, with direct applications in biomarker discovery and, longer term, in companion diagnostics or patient stratification tools. The enterprise will contribute its core expertise in organelle membrane physiology, extraction technology and scale-up capabilities across all partner activities, ensuring high-quality, functional organelle preparations at the throughput required by each workpackage. The consortium could bring together: academic laboratories with expertise in cell or organelle biology; industrial partners from the pharmaceutical or biotech sector, contributing compound libraries or assay development expertise; omics and bioinformatics specialists to generate and interpret organelle-resolved molecular datasets; clinical or public partners with access to patient tissues and expertise in translational biomarker research; toxicology specialists from academic institutions or CROs. Other profiles relevant to the project scope are welcome. Target programmes: Horizon Europe, Eurostars, EIC Pathfinder. Expected project start: Q4 2026. Call deadlines vary by programme and will be confirmed upon expression of interest. Typical project duration: 2-3 years.

Company addresses a fundamental bottleneck in drug discovery: the inability to access intact, functional organelles at industrial throughput. Conventional approaches fall short in two ways. Chemical extraction kits yield low-purity preparations and damage organelle membranes, compromising the native state of membrane proteins. Manual extraction techniques are highly operator-dependent, with a high failure rate and a yield of approximately one organelle per half-day, making scale-up practically impossible. Enterprise's patented microfluidic process overcomes these limitations with measurable advantages: extraction of millions of organelles per hour, preparations of over 90% purity (validated on lysosomes), and a yield approximating one organelle per cell. The result is a ready-to-use, storable preparation that preserves full membrane protein integrity in its native state, enabling superior assay reproducibility and biological relevance. Critically, company is a pioneer in isolating functional endoplasmic reticulum. These performances translate into an estimated 60% reduction in time and cost compared to existing approaches. Functional integrity and reproducibility have been independently validated by two electrophysiology partners, Nanion and Sophion, with three application reports supporting these findings. The technology is protected by three patents and underpinned by scientific publications from co-founders.

Company is seeking partners whose expertise complements its core capabilities in organelle extraction, membrane physiology and scale-up, and who can contribute to one or more of the project's research dimensions. Academic laboratories are sought for their expertise in cell or organelle biology, particularly those working with primary cells, iPSC-derived models, tissue-specific cell lines or patient-derived specimens. Their role would be to provide access to new cell types, support biological validation of organelle preparations, contribute to functional characterisation workflows, and where relevant, facilitate access to clinical samples in collaboration with anatomopathology or biobank infrastructure. Industrial partners from the pharmaceutical or biotech sector are sought for their expertise in drug discovery, assay development or compound screening. Their role would be to benchmark organelle-based pharmacology and toxicology assays against existing platforms, contribute compound libraries or active pipelines, and validate the applicability of company's preparations within real drug discovery and preclinical safety contexts. Toxicology specialists, from academic institutions or CROs, are sought for their expertise in in vitro toxicology, safety pharmacology or regulatory sciences. Their role would be to co-develop organelle-based toxicology assays — including mitochondrial liability, lysosomal disruption or ER stress profiling — define biologically meaningful readouts, and assess regulatory applicability. Omics and bioinformatics specialists are sought to generate, process and interpret large-scale organelle-resolved molecular datasets. Their role would be to apply proteomics, metabolomics or lipidomics workflows to isolated organelle fractions and contribute to biomarker identification pipelines. Clinical and anatomopathology partners with access to patient tissues and translational research expertise are sought to support organelle extraction from biopsies or surgical specimens, and to co-develop disease-associated molecular signatures with diagnostic or patient stratification potential.

Framework program
Horizon Europe
Call title and identifier
Horizon Europe Health cluster, 2027
Submission and evaluation scheme
Anticipated project budget
500k€ - 15M€
Coordinator required
No
Deadline for EoI
31 Dec 2026
Deadline of the call
30 Apr 2027
Project duration in weeks
156
Web link to the call