IMBA Group Leader Nicolas Rivron has been awarded a Proof of Concept Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for his project to translate his pioneering human blastoid technology toward applications in reproductive health.
Blastoids are stem cell-derived in vitro models of early human development that recapitulate key features of the human embryo, offering an ethical and scalable research system without the use of embryos. With the support of the ERC’s prestigious Proof of Concept scheme, Rivron and postdoc Emiel van Genderen will further develop a blastoid-based platform to model post-implantation stages and to screen naturally occurring molecules that could improve early developmental success — addressing a major challenge in fertility and assisted reproductive technologies.
“This Proof of Concept funding will allow us to take the next crucial step in developing blastoid technology toward real-world applications,” says Nicolas Rivron. “We aim to build a platform that can help uncover new biological insights and, ultimately, benefit reproductive health.”
The ERC Proof of Concept Grant supports researchers who have already secured an ERC frontier research award to explore the commercial, clinical, or societal potential of ideas arising from excellent basic research. This award marks an important step toward translating fundamental discoveries in early human development at IMBA into research tools and applications that could benefit reproductive medicine and beyond.