Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

New Molecular and Cell-based Approaches to assess Food Astringency and Bitterness

Objective

Taste properties are vital to humans: they impact human survival, nutrition, health and well-being. The problem of unpleasant taste properties, namely bitter- or astringent-tasting compounds is emerging in many diverse research fields. Beyond the obvious interest in food science, nutrition, and in the improvement/selection of crops, also human taste disorders and drug discovery domains could also benefit from research on astringency and bitterness. Crossing the boundaries among different fields, BeTASTy goes beyond the current state-of-the-art of food-oriented researches to respond to the prominent challenges on astringency and bitterness. This proposal will provide an in-depth mechanistic and functional understanding into the MAIN PHYSICAL-CHEMICAL EVENTS triggering the physiological and neural perception of astringency by an innovative approach considering the main oral key pieces namely salivary proteins, epithelia and emphasizing the role of mechanoreceptors on that sensation. BeTASTy will also unveil how, for some compounds, astringency and bitterness CAN GO TOGETHER by an innovative all-in-one model. Additionally, the individual features that account for sensory differences will be deepened by a pioneering approach based on human organoids and electroencephalography. The final goal, will be the creation of cutting-edge CELL-FREE BIOSENSORS based on the identified orally active mechano- and bitter taste receptors to assess astringency and bitterness respectively, and by overcoming the main drawbacks of the existing (cell-based) ones. Endowed with a truly differentiated and disruptive character, this groundbreaking project will engage food chemistry, biochemistry, neuroscience, sensory analysis and biotechnology fields of research to outdo the state-of-the-art. Only an ambitious and multidisciplinary proposal will yield scientific breakthroughs on the BIOCHEMICAL-NEURAL-PERCEPTUAL TRIAD EVENTS of these taste properties which will eventually enable to tailor them

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.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

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.

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.

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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.

(opens in new window) ERC-2021-STG

See all projects funded under this call

Host institution

REQUIMTE REDE DE QUIMICA E DE TECNOLOGIA ASSOCIACAO
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.

€ 1 499 791,00
Address
PRACA CORONEL PACHECO 15 6 ANDAR
4050-453 PORTO
Portugal

See on map

Region
Continente Norte Área Metropolitana do Porto
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.

€ 1 499 791,00

Beneficiaries (1)

My booklet 0 0