Cecília Roque é distinguida com "ERC Proof of Concept Grant"

Cecília Roque, professor at DQ-FCT NOVA and principal researcher at UCIBIO, has been distinguished with a European Research Council (ERC) Proof of Concept grant with the project "ENSURE: Non-invasive follow-up of urinary tract cancers".

ERC Proof of Concept grants support projects aiming to explore the commercial or societal potential of the results obtained by researchers in the scope of their previous ERC grants.

ENSURE project will be funded with 150,000€ to validate the technological and business feasibility of an innovative method for the non-invasive follow-up of bladder cancer patients using the electronic nose technology developed within the ERC Starting Grant SCENT: Hybrid Gels for Rapid Microbial Detection, received by Cecília Roque in 2014. The project will approach both technical and business perspectives, in a synergy between Cecília Roque research team and the Italian company DayOne, complemented with the close contact with clinical collaborators and stakeholders.

Bladder cancer is the most common malignancy of the urinary tract with 573,000 new cases and 213,000 deaths in 2020 worldwide and affecting more men than women in a 4:1 ratio. It has the highest lifetime treatment costs per patient of all cancers, which is mainly attributed to the intensive follow-up procedures of patients after diagnostics and surgery. Follow-up is made recurring to extremely invasive and low-patient compliant tests. “ENSURE aims to provide a non-invasive, fast and low cost test to increase patient adherence to disease management”, concludes Cecília Roque.