Project description
New foldamer catalysts with unprecedented activities
Foldamers are discrete chain molecules or oligomers that fold into conformationally ordered states in solution. The high stability of these ordered structures that resemble proteins and enzymes renders them suitable as catalysts. Despite their potential, their catalytic performance in water is poor. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the CF project will combine for the first time dynamic combinatorial chemistry and high-throughput screening methods to identify a catalytically active foldamer that can efficiently operate in aqueous solutions. The catalytic activity of the most promising foldamers will be tested by newly developed high-throughput analysis methods. X-ray crystallography will also be used to study their 3D structure.
Objective
Enzymes perform essential reactions that sustain life with un-matched specificity and selectivity. Foldamers provide an opportunity to mimic Nature’s best catalysts as they are conformationally ordered structures that resemble proteins or enzymes. However, costly and time-consuming synthetic efforts have yielded only a small set of foldamers that exhibit poor catalytic activity in water. Here, we propose to combine for the first time Dynamic Combinatorial Chemistry (expertise of the host) and high-throughput screening methods (expertise of the ER) to identify a catalytically active foldamer that operates fully in aqueous solutions. The catalytic foldamer will emerge, with little synthetic effort, from a Dynamic Combinatorial Library (DCL) which contains building blocks that display key catalytic centers. The emerging foldamers will be tested for catalytic activity (e.g. hydrazone formation, ester hydrolysis) using newly-developed UPLC/UV-vis/fluorescence high-throughput protocols. This will allow rapid screening across a large substrate scope and range of experimental conditions, leading to the identification of foldamers that exhibit weak catalytic function. The activity of these hit foldamers will be optimized by combining different building blocks with optimized structures. Screening will be done in an iterative fashion to quickly survey the possible foldamer structural landscape generated from a mixture of two (or more) building blocks. The resulting data will allow essential design rules to be formulated regarding the relationship between building block structure/library components and catalytic activity. The three-dimensional structure of the discovered catalytic foldamers will be confirmed by X-ray crystallography (expertise of the secondment host).
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 earth and related environmental sciences geology mineralogy crystallography
- natural sciences chemical sciences catalysis
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins enzymes
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
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.
-
H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme -
H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
See all projects funded under this programme
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.
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.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
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) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
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.
9712CP Groningen
Netherlands
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.