Mercurna Awarded Prestigious Eureka Eurostars Grant

The Eurostars program, part of the Eureka network, supports high‑impact, collaborative innovation led by R&D‑driven SMEs. Receiving this award underscores both the scientific strength of Mercurna’s approach and the consortium’s potential to deliver breakthroughs that reshape the future of mRNA therapy for kidney diseases.

1 October 2024

Mercurna is proud to announce that we have been awarded a highly competitive Eureka Eurostars grant of €900k to launch a new international R&D initiative, NANOMED‑KT. We will be working with Karolinska Institutet (SE),who bring proficiency in acute kidney injury and kidney transplantation. Together, we aim to develop a first-of-its-kind nanomedicine for prevention of delayed graft function (DGF), which manifests as acute kidney injury within the first week of kidney transplantation. DGF affects 20-60% of kidney transplant recipients, yet there are currently no approved drugs to prevent it. The project, which starts 1 October 2024 and will run for 3 years, addresses a significant unmet need for treatments that can improve graft survival rates and quality of life. 

Catalyze provided support to Mercurna during their development of the NANOMED-KT project proposal to Eurostars. We are proud of our successful collaboration towards bringing this project to life.

Dr. van Asbeck-van der Wijst explains the importance of their Eurostars funding:

“With the support of Eurostars, Mercurna can advance their research and development efforts, conduct essential preclinical studies, and move closer to clinical trials. The NANOMED-KT project aims to improve kidney transplant success rates and patient outcomes, aligning perfectly with our goal of creating innovative mRNA-based therapies.