Delta4 is proud to announce its participation in two significant EU Horizon research projects: PICKED (Personalized Medicine in Chronic Kidney Disease) and PROMOTE (Prostate Cancer Omics Mediated Intervention). Horizon Europe is the world’s largest research funding program, focusing on advancing health, biomedical research, data science, and AI/ML. With a total budget of nearly EUR 100 billion from 2021 to 2027, Horizon Europe aims to accelerate the development of innovative therapies with a higher probability of success.
As a TechBio company with SME status and a robust computational drug discovery and development pipeline, Delta4 is well-aligned with these goals, leveraging AI/ML to bring new therapies to market faster.
PICKED Consortium: Advancing Personalized Medicine in Chronic Kidney Disease
Background
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) affect over 850 million people worldwide, presenting a significant public health challenge. The PICKED consortium aims to address the urgent needs in CKD management, including:
- Early detection in at-risk patients
- Detection and prediction of CKD progression and complications
- Personalized treatment strategies to avoid overtreating patients or unnecessary treatment
Training professionals to identify these issues is critical to address these ambitious challenges. Constituting a network of 10 PhD students, six public laboratories, four research and development companies, and several associated partners, the PICKED consortium will work on different aspects of personalized medicine (PM) to significantly reduce the burden of CKD, encompassing:
- Early detection and progression
- Personalized drugs and dialysis treatment
- Socioeconomic impact of PM in CKD
Delta4’s Role in PICKED
Delta4, based in Vienna, plays a crucial role in the PICKED consortium by hosting a PhD student and contributing to the research and development efforts. At Delta4, we leverage our proprietary computational analytics platform, Hyper-C, to integrate big data and experimental screens, matching clinical indications with compound/drug effects. Our approach is designed to fast-track clinical testing and increase the probability of success in drug repositioning. Our recent publications on focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (Transl Res. 2023 259:28-34 ; Kidney Int Rep. 2023 9(2):478-481), a rare chronic kidney disease, demonstrate our commitment to advancing research in nephrology.
PROMOTE Consortium: Enhancing Prostate Cancer Management Through AI and Omics
Background
Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most common malignancy worldwide, affecting approximately 1.3 million men annually. The PROMOTE consortium aims to improve the clinical management of PCa by educating doctoral candidates (DCs) in omics and AI-mediated interventions to deliver:
- Novel non-invasive tools (based on biomarker and AI models) to guide intervention
- More efficient treatment options for advanced PCa (particularly metastatic) driven by molecular characterization of the disease phenotypes
PROMOTE brings together 13 leading centers from different disciplines, including three SMEs, four university hospitals with clinical laboratories, two research institutes, and 4 universities, all with a solid scientific background, as demonstrated by multiple publications. All in hopes of addressing the treatment paradox in PCa, where many patients are over-treated despite having slow-growing cancer, while others with advanced disease lack effective treatment options.
PROMOTE Research Builds Upon:
- Available biobanks and omics datasets within the PROMOTE consortium, including:
- 3000+ urinary proteomics
- 1100+ imaging datasets paired with biopsy and pathology data
- 350+ paired RNA and proteomics urinary profile
- 100+ tissue proteomics
- ~300 phospho-, proteo-genomic transcriptomics profiles from public repositories
- Established software and analytical protocols on omics and data integration, AI feature extraction and integration, systems biology, pathway enrichment, drug repurposing, and in-vitro testing.
- Infrastructure to support hosting and training of DCs
Delta4’s Role in PROMOTE
As a key partner in the PROMOTE consortium, Delta4 will host a PhD student and contribute to developing novel non-invasive tools and efficient treatment options for advanced PCa.
Our proprietary Hyper-C platform, combined with biomedical testing and clinical validation, enables us to match clinical indications with drug effects efficiently. Our focus on drug repositioning and the generation of IP for drug-disease combinations has resulted in a pipeline of clinically and economically attractive indications.
If You Are A PhD Student Interested in Participating
If you’re a PhD student willing to relocate to Vienna, the beginning of a rewarding career can start here.
Paul Perco, Delta4’s Computational Biology Lead, who will be in charge of supervising the two new PhD students, is also part of the management team of the EU-funded COST action PerMediK (Personalized Medicine in Chronic Kidney Disease: Improved Outcome Based on Big Data).
Delta4 is a proud member of PerMedik and has had the privilege of being a presenter at its events.
Looking Forward
Delta4’s involvement in the PICKED and PROMOTE projects underscores our commitment to advancing personalized medicine and improving clinical outcomes in nephrology and oncology. As a trusted partner in Horizon Europe research initiatives, we are dedicated to leveraging AI/ML and multi-omics data to accelerate the development of innovative therapies. We look forward to contributing to these important projects and driving progress in chronic kidney disease and prostate cancer management.
If you are looking for a partner, whether in your future research applications or in your internal development, contact us to support your data-driven analysis in the context of biomarker prioritization, drug target identification, or digital drug discovery and computational drug repositioning.
