Objective
-As humankind sets out to move towards a sustainable future, the production of organic commodity and speciality chemicals, drugs and other small molecules of interest will gradually incorporate more biochemical processes. Some of these products may be obtained directly from engineered organisms, while others may be generated ex vivo – either through purely enzymatic processes or by interfacing biological chemistry with organic synthesis. Harnessing the efficiency, selectivity and diversity of enzymatic reactions found in nature is key to reaching the goal of a fully-fledged biobased economy.
Some enzymes can carry out demanding reactions that have little or no equivalent in synthetic chemistry. In particular, the ability of certain enzymes to selectively act on unactivated carbon centers has attracted much attention as they can be used to functionalize typically intractable positions with high precision.
A particular group of bacteria – Cyanobacteria – tend to incorporate saturated fatty acid-derived moieties into their natural products. In many such structures, we find modifications and decorations that can only be explained by the action of regio- and stereoselective enzymes, many acting on unactivated carbon centers. It is this richness of alkyl-chain modifying biocatalysts that we aim to reveal with this proposal. We will use several unusual structural motifs from acyl moieties in cyanobacterial natural products as starting points for enzyme discovery. These will include C-H bond activating enzymes as well as those acting on C-C bonds. We will bring to light an arsenal of biocatalysts that can be used to selectively functionalize or modify a variety of alkyl chain positions that would otherwise be inaccessible to conventional chemical synthesis.
GreasedLightning blends discovery and hypothesis-driven research at the chemistry/biosynthesis interface, drawing on the PI’s experience on the (bio)chemistry of lipidic cyanobacterial metabolites.
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 biochemistry
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology bacteriology
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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.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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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-2022-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.
4450 208 MATOSINHOS
Portugal
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.