ROMA (ITALPRESS) – A new molecular target to counter glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive and difficult to treat brain tumors, will be at the center of TEPOV – “Targeting the erythropoietin variant EV-3 to reprogram glioblastoma malignancy”, project selected by the European Research Council in the context of ERC Starting Grants 2026. The project, led by prof. Giovanni Marfia, will be hosted by the Milanese biotech Andremacon S.r.l., which will provide its research platform and the proprietary therapeutic candidate AND-C4, a monoclonal antibody designed to selectively recognize EV-3, a variant of erythropoietin associated with the aggressiveness of glioblastoma. According to preliminary data, EV-3 is particularly expressed in cancer stem cells and would be involved in processes such as proliferation, angiogenesis, immunosuppression, resistance to therapies and relapse. AND-C4 showed an affinity for EV-3 about 100 times higher than native erythropoietin and, in preclinical studies, highlighted the ability to reach the tumor, reduce its growth and prolong survival in experimental models. TEPOV will also develop GBO3D, a three-dimensional platform derived from patients that integrates organoids, microfluidics and lab-on-chip technologies to reproduce the tumor and its microenvironment, including brain tissue, blood-brain barrier, vascular compartment and immune system. The technology will then be evaluated in more complex models, with the aim of approaching experimentation to the situation observed in patients. “For years in glyoblastoma research we managed to cure experimental models very well, much less patients. TEPOV arises from the need to reduce this distance: before asking for a new therapy to work in man, we must test it in models that resemble much more to the disease we encounter in the patient”, explains Marfia. “Glyoblastoma is not simply a mass of cancer cells: it is an ecosystem. Within it, relatively small cell populations can act as a disease control center, contributing to the resistance to therapies, suppression of immune response and relapse. The great novelty is to selectively hit one of the signals through which this ecosystem is maintained, with the ambition not only to attack the tumor, but to reprogram and subvert its microenvironment from within turning off its aggressiveness,” he concludes. In the ERC Starting Grants 2026, 4,807 proposals were submitted, of which 421 were financed, with a success rate of 8.8% and a total investment of 705 million euros. Andremacon is the only SME in the ERC Starting Grant Project Host Institution funded in 2026, while TEPOV is the only Italian project selected in the LS7 – Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases panel. “Offering an ERC project of this level, making available our research platform and AND-C4, fills us with pride. It is a goal that comes a few months from another independent European recognition: the designation of orphan drug that the European Medicines Agency, EMA, has assigned to the same molecule for the treatment of glioblastoma. Two completely different evaluation paths, which strengthen each other and validate the scientific rationale of our project,” comments Giovanni Andrea Alotta, CEO of Andremacon. “A result that rewards an Italian history, born around a table by a group of people who have decided to put their skills in the service of a common cause: finally to give an answer to a disease that, today, does not have a cure. We know that the road between preclinical and patient research is still long, but the preclinical results collected so far give us confidence. We will continue to invest on this goal, ogmore strong and determined than ever,” concludes Alotta. Andremacon also obtained from EMA the Orphan Drug Designation for AND-C4 in the treatment of brain tumors, allowing the molecule to access the European path dedicated to the development of orphan drugs.(ITALPRESS)
– photos: Andremacon press office –
