On Thursday, 18 February 2026, applicants for the collaborative seed project call presented their projects to a jury and the EnLife community. Discover the six projects supported by EnLife!
“Today is a test.” With these words, Pascal Hersen, one of EnLife’s coordinators, opened the afternoon of February 18th, 2026 — and it was indeed a test.
For this first edition of the EnLife collaborative seed projects call, applicants were invited to present their proposals before a jury and members of the EnLife community. The format combined a light application process with oral presentations and a collective discussion session involving both the jury and the audience. This approach enabled constructive exchanges and informed the final selection.
As a result, six projects were selected for funding, each awarded €150,000. In addition, one project received €10,000 to support a proof-of-concept experiment, with the aim of strengthening future funding applications.
From microfluidic systems to cell-fate dynamics, plant symbiosis and theoretical explorations of living systems, the funded projects reflect the diversity of topics and approaches supported within the EnLife program.
This project investigates how collective flows emerge from cell-cell interactions on asymmetric micro rails and how these flows can be exploited for cell sorting. In the subconfluent regime (intermediate density), the finite mean free path between encounters makes contact inhibition of locomotion, and in particular collision induced repolarization, a key control mechanism of collective migration. We recently observed a new mode of collective migration driven by asymmetric micro rails leading to robust transverse rectification. To understand this phenomenon, we will perform data driven inference to learn collision rules directly from low density experiments and build stochastic models that disentangle cell-cell and cell-substrate interactions. Coupling theory with experiments on microfabricated substrates, we will design sorting strategies where collective effects amplify subtle mechanical differences between cell types.
Collective cell migration of HBECs on a micro-patterned substrate with ratchet rails.
Migration is parallel to the rails at low density and perpendicular at intermediate density. Arrows: migration directions (representative subset); rails not to scale.
Programming Ligand–Receptor Signalling through DNA-Encoded Nano-Patterning
This project aims to understand how living cells create highly organized and reliable behaviors from small numbers of randomly moving molecules. The central idea is that important biological decisions may emerge from tiny, temporary assemblies of a few dozen molecules, described here as “life quanta.” These structures would exist at a scale too small for conventional light microscopy, yet large enough to trigger meaningful cellular events.
To investigate this concept, this project focuses on Ewing sarcoma, a pediatric cancer driven by an abnormal fusion protein called EWS-FLI1. By combining purified proteins with synthetic DNA sequences under controlled laboratory conditions, this project will recreate and observe how these molecular assemblies form. Advanced cryo-electron microscopy will then be used to visualize these nanoscale structures directly. This research could reveal new physical principles governing gene regulation, cellular organization, and diseases linked to abnormal molecular assemblies.
Reconstitution of “life quanta” in vitro. Purified EWS-FLI1 proteins are mixed with engineered DNA sequences containing GGAA repeats to promote the formation of transient nanoscale molecular assemblies (~100 nm). These collective structures may represent functional mesoscale biological events underlying gene regulation.
PatternScape — Programming in vivo Cell-Fate Dynamics through Predictive Models of Developmental Patterning
Researchers involved
Wolfgang Keil - coordinator
Institut Curie - IPGG Website
In mammals, fertilization requires fusion of a single sperm with an egg, as multiple fusions cause pathological polyspermy. The mechanisms governing fusion and the prevention of polyspermy remain poorly understood, hindering advances in infertility diagnosis and treatment amid rising global infertility. This knowledge gap stems from gamete specificities: eggs are enclosed in the perivitelline space (PVS), with the surrounding zona pellucida (ZP) limiting sperm access, while numerous, highly motile sperm contacting the ZP make the fertilizing sperm unpredictable and the fusion site spatially mobile. Thus, conventional in vitro insemination cannot track sperm entering the PVS or accurately image the spatiotemporal molecular events of fusion and polyspermy prevention. This project aims to overcome these challenges by developing microfluidic devices to precisely control sperm–egg interactions, enable detailed spatiotemporal imaging, analyze membrane dynamics during fusion, and investigate the molecular mechanisms and kinetics underlying the block to polyspermy.
