Source: European Union 2 Published on: 2026-06-08
World Brain Tumour Day is observed annually on 8 June to raise awareness of brain tumours, promote early diagnosis and provide support for patients and their families.
Projects funded under Horizon Europe are advancing health research to overcome barriers in brain cancer treatment, contributing to improving patients’ outcomes and their quality of life.
STRATUM: making brain tumour surgery safer, more precise and more efficient
Neurosurgery remains the primary treatment for brain tumours. However, it requires extreme precision to avoid damage to critical areas of the brain.
Among the challenges faced by neurosurgeons, there is the need for tools that can provide clear, real-time guidance and personalised diagnostics to help distinguish tumour tissue from healthy brain tissue. Moreover, the brain can slightly shift during surgery. Yet, no existing tools can dynamically monitor these movements, hindering precise navigation.
To address these challenges, STRATUM is developing an innovative 3D tool to help surgeons make faster, more informed and more accurate decisions during brain surgery. Concretely, the project aims to:
• Generate detailed 3D reconstructions of the brain surface, helping surgeons improve precision in real time;
Generate detailed 3D reconstructions of the brain surface, helping surgeons improve precision in real time;
• Provide neuronavigation based on augmented reality, incorporating real-time imaging data that can adjust to changes in the brain’s position during surgery;
Provide neuronavigation based on augmented reality, incorporating real-time imaging data that can adjust to changes in the brain’s position during surgery;
• Give continuous feedback on the patient’s condition and brain activity throughout the procedure.
Give continuous feedback on the patient’s condition and brain activity throughout the procedure.
All this information will be processed using AI algorithms. To be validated through a two-year clinical study, STRATUM’s prototype has the objective of making brain tumour surgery safer, more precise and more efficient.
NAP4DIVE: easing the access of medicines into the brain to treat tumours
The blood-brain barrier is a highly selective protective barrier that separates the brain from the bloodstream, acting as a filter to allow the access of essential substances such as oxygen, glucose and amino acids into the brain while blocking harmful agents including toxins, bacteria or viruses.
Even though the blood-brain barrier protects the brain from infections, it also makes treating brain diseases such as brain tumours more difficult, since many medicines can’t easily cross it. However, NAP4DIVE may soon contribute to changing that.
The project is working on the development of two innovative tools with the objective of delivering drugs to the brain through the blood-brain barrier:
• A computer simulator of nanoparticles’ design, modelling their structure through machine learning;
A computer simulator of nanoparticles’ design, modelling their structure through machine learning;
• A blood-brain barrier-on-chip, a device that mimics a human blood-brain barrier and replicates its functioning.
A blood-brain barrier-on-chip, a device that mimics a human blood-brain barrier and replicates its functioning.
First, the simulator will screen thousands of nanoparticles’ designs and suggest the best ones to be tested in the blood-brain barrier-on-chip, assessing their capability to deliver drugs across the blood-brain barrier. Then, the nanoparticles that succeed in this assessment will proceed to the large-scale manufacturing step.
NAP4DIVE’s innovative approach involves being ethically committed to reducing animal testing in drug development applied to the central nervous system by up to 95%.
Horizon Europe is the research and innovation programme of the EU for the period 2021-2027. The aims of Cluster 1 ‘Health’ include improving and protecting the health and well-being of citizens of all ages by generating new knowledge, developing innovative solutions and integrating where relevant a gender perspective to prevent, diagnose, monitor, treat and cure diseases. Horizon 2020 (H2020) was the EU’s multiannual funding programme between 2014 and 2020.
• Horizon Europe Cluster 1: Health