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Custom-made biosensors – Accelerating the transition to a bio-based economy

Objective

How will we meet the globally growing demand for pharmaceutically active compounds, nutrients and fine chemicals when crude oil resources are dwindling? For decades, biotechnologists have been engineering microorganisms to produce valuable compounds from sugar and biomass. However, a lack of knowledge regarding the host cell metabolism as well as long and laborious development times render this approach challenging to this day.
I want to establish a platform to engineer transcriptional biosensors for the intracellular detection of heterologous compounds in single cells. The application of these sensors in combination with flow cytometry and next-generation sequencing will enable high-throughput engineering of microorganisms at the single-cell level with unprecedented speed and simplicity.
In the field of biotechnology, this new technology will be a powerful tool for the (i) accelerated directed evolution of genes and pathways in vivo, (ii) functional integration of heterologous genes or whole synthetic pathways into the metabolism of microorganisms for the production of small valuable metabolites, (iii) genome engineering of industrially relevant microorganisms and (iv) adaptation of production strains to process conditions.
Furthermore, during CUSTOM-SENSE, biosensors will also prove to be a valuable tool to answer questions in basic science because they will help to elucidate the function of unknown genes and aid the discovery of novel and unexpected functional links in cellular metabolism.
I am in an exclusive position to pursue this goal of developing an engineering platform for custom-made biosensors due to the previous invention of biosensors at IBG-1. The starting grant would allow me to compete with Patrick D. Cirino (University of Houston, USA), who is working on a similar approach, and Christina D. Smolke (Stanford University/Caltech, USA), who is focusing on RNA devices for metabolite detection.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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.

ERC-STG - Starting Grant

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2014-STG

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Host institution

FORSCHUNGSZENTRUM JULICH GMBH
Net EU contribution

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.

€ 1 482 220,00
Address
WILHELM JOHNEN STRASSE
52428 Julich
Germany

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Region
Nordrhein-Westfalen Köln Düren
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost

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.

€ 1 482 220,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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