News

Prof. Dr. Florian Greten, spokesperson for the LOEWE Center Frankfurt Cancer Institute and Director of the Georg-Speyer-Haus, has been awarded a 2026 Proof of Concept Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). This award, which provides funding of up to €150,000, supports the further development of promising research findings toward practical application over a period of 18 months.

Through the project INFLAME-TME ("Inflaming the microenvironment of colorectal cancer to enable immunotherapy"), the research team is advancing a novel therapeutic approach designed to improve the efficacy of immunotherapies for the most common form of colorectal cancer. The project builds on insights gained from the ERC Advanced Grant "PLASTICAN" and investigates how tumors can be made visible to the immune system using an RNA-based approach.

Over the next 18 months, the scientific foundations of the approach will be further validated, and the groundwork laid for future clinical application. The award thus supports the translation of basic research into innovative medical applications.

Proof of Concept Grants are aimed exclusively at scientists who have already secured an ERC grant. Funding is not provided for new research projects, but rather for initiatives that allow existing research findings to be further developed with a view to application readiness, market potential, or future commercialization.

With six of the 31 Proof of Concept Grants awarded nationwide, Hesse ranks among the most successful federal states in the current funding round.