The Universities of Giessen and Marburg Lung Center (UGMLC) and its ILH Adjunct Faculty member Prof. Dr. Soni Savai Pullamsetti celebrate a major success in translational lung research: Prof. Pullamsetti has been awarded an ERC Proof of Concept Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) to further develop her innovative gene therapy platform TBX4-PRECIS towards clinical application.
Prof. Dr. Soni Savai Pullamsetti is Professor of Epigenetics of Pulmonary Vascular Disease at Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU), scientific coordinator for pulmonary hypertension at the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), and member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. As a member of the ILH Adjunct Faculty, she contributes her outstanding expertise in pulmonary vascular biology and translational lung research to the ILH network.
Chronic respiratory diseases remain among the leading global health challenges, while effective treatment options are still limited. Gene therapies offer enormous potential, but a major challenge remains: current approaches often distribute genetic therapeutics throughout the entire body instead of specifically targeting diseased lung tissue, which may lead to unwanted side effects.
Together with her team, Prof. Pullamsetti has developed an innovative platform technology that enables the targeted delivery of genetic therapeutics to the lung. The technology TBX4-PRECIS was developed within the framework of her ERC Consolidator Grant and is now being supported by an ERC Proof of Concept Grant. This highly competitive funding scheme supports researchers in advancing promising research results towards application, innovation, and commercialization.
The core of TBX4-PRECIS is a novel system that functions like a biological address code. It enables therapeutic genes to be activated specifically in lung tissue while minimizing their activity in other organs. Initial ex vivo and in vivo studies have already demonstrated the high precision of the approach. During the next phase of the project, the technology will undergo comprehensive validation to demonstrate its efficacy, safety, and potential for future clinical translation.
“With the ERC Proof of Concept Grant, we can now take the results of our ERC-funded basic research one important step further towards clinical application and commercialization,” says Prof. Pullamsetti. “Our vision is to establish a platform technology that enables a new generation of targeted gene therapies for chronic lung diseases.”
With support from TransMIT Gesellschaft für Technologietransfer mbH, the research team is developing a commercialization strategy for TBX4-PRECIS. This includes the potential licensing of the technology to industry partners as well as preparing the foundation for a possible spin-off company to further develop the platform.
The ERC Proof of Concept Grant provides €150,000 in funding and is exclusively available to researchers who already hold an ERC Starting, Consolidator, Advanced, or Synergy Grant. The funding supports the exploration of the innovation potential and future application opportunities of ERC-funded research results beyond the academic environment.
Prof. Pullamsetti received an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2019, amounting to approximately two million euros, to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying pulmonary hypertension.
The successful funding of TBX4-PRECIS highlights the strength of translational lung research within the ILH network and demonstrates how innovative basic research can be transformed into approaches with potential clinical impact.
Prof. Dr. Soni Savai Pullamsetti
Justus Liebig University Giessen
Center for Infection and Genomics of the Lung (CIGL)
Phone: +49 641 99-36452
Email: soni.savai@innere.med.uni-giessen.de
Source:
🔹 ERC announcement: https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/news/proof-of-concept-grants-2026
🔹 JLU press release: https://www.uni-giessen.de/de/ueber-uns/pressestelle/pm/pm99-26ecrproofofconceptfuerprofpullamsetti
