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With the Proof of Concept funding line, the ERC grants recipients of ERC frontier research funds (Starting, Consolidator, Advanced or Synergy grants) with 150.000 Euro to develop promising ideas with commercial or societal potential to the proof of concept stage. With this funding, Olaf Groß and his team in the Metabolism and Inflammation Group at the Institute of Neuropathology of the Medical Center - University of Freiburg will test whether a new class of immune activating drugs they discovered can boost the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies or vaccines against infectious diseases.
Groß studies a protein complex called the inflammasome within macrophages, specialized cells of the body's defense system that patrol tissues for signs of danger. When their inflammasome is activated, macrophages sound the alarm by releasing of potent factors called cytokines. These cytokines alert other cells in the body, initiating an inflammatory response that helps other immune cells attack cancer cells or infections, explains Groß. Within the context of his ERC Starting Grant, he and his team discovered a new class of small molecules that potently and specifically activate the inflammasome, acting like turbo boosters for the immune system.