Project description
Charting the first atlas of gut bacterial vesicles
Bacterial extracellular vesicles (BEVs) are microscopic structures released by diverse bacteria, carrying an array of bioactive substances. Despite their prevalence, BEVs from commensal gut bacteria remain understudied, leaving a significant gap in our understanding of their impact on human health. This oversight contrasts sharply with the extensive research conducted on pathogenic BEVs, which are known to play key roles in disease processes. In this context, the ERC-funded VESICULOME project will study the diversity of BEVs across various gut bacterial taxa and human populations to decipher their roles in bacterial interactions and host-microbiome dynamics. Ultimately, the project seeks to create the first comprehensive atlas of gut bacterial vesiculome, offering potential insights for biomedical applications.
Objective
Bacterial extracellular vesicles (BEVs) are small membrane vesicles secreted by a diverse range of bacteria that act as bioactive nanocarriers of a high diversity of proteins, lipids and nucleic acids. BEVs have mostly been studied in pathogenic bacterial models, owing to their causal role in pathogenicity. Compared to other microbial features, such as taxa, genes or metabolites, BEVs secreted by the large diversity of commensal bacterial species of the human gut microbiota have received little attention so far, leaving their influence upon gut microbial ecology and human health almost entirely unknown. We hypothesize that gut BEVs and their molecular cargos (i.e. the gut bacterial vesiculome) play critical roles in bacteria-bacteria and host-microbiome interactions, and in shaping phenotypes of host-microbiome systems. Our project will enable a comprehensive profiling of BEV molecular diversity across a large number of gut bacterial taxa, and a functional analysis of their impact on inter-species and inter-kingdom interactions. We intend to tackle these objectives through three aims: 1) characterize the origin, diversity and evolution of the human gut bacterial vesiculome; 2) investigate the role of BEVs in promoting horizontal gene transfers among bacterial species in the gut microbiome; and 3) investigate the role of BEVs on bacteria-bacteria and host-bacteria interactions. We will tackle each of these aims from three diversity perspectives: investigating multiple bacterial species, including geographically-distinct healthy human populations, and comparing healthy vs. disease. The project will expand our basic understanding of the evolution and function of bacterial vesiculation. It will also generate the first atlas of BEV profiles across gut bacterial taxa and host cohorts, providing key resources to mine for vesicular characteristics and functions that have translational potential for biomedicine.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology bacteriology
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules lipids
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
23562 Lübeck
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.