Project description
Synthetic antibodies to detect harmful toxins in food samples
Toxins produced by microbes can lead to foodborne illnesses, underscoring the importance of prioritising food safety. Food processing and preparation techniques are unable to completely eliminate these toxins, which are often imperceptible in routine analyses. Toxins such as beauvericin (BEA), enniatin B (ENN B), and cereulide (CER) can contaminate food. Detecting and eliminating them is crucial. The production of antibodies against CER, BEA, or ENN B through traditional animal immunisation methods is unfeasible, thus hindering cost-effective and dependable detection system for these toxins in food products. However, the EU-funded SynAb4Toxin project aims to use synthetic antibodies (SynAbs) to develop technologies capable of detecting and isolating these toxins in complex food samples.
Objective
Food safety plays a critical role in society. When it comes to avoiding food poisoning, most of the attention goes to preventing microbial growth in food products. However, the cause of intoxication is the presence of toxins produced by these microorganisms. Yet, standard industrial or household food processing and preparation techniques effective at removing the producing microorganisms fail to remove the actual toxins. As a result, these toxins, which typically are not detected in routine microbial food analysis, are consumed daily by the general population.
Beauvericin (BEA) and enniatin B (ENN B) are mycotoxins produced on crops that can easily end up in the final food or feed products. Other examples include cereulide (CER), which is produced by bacteria and has a high prevalence in ready-to-eat foods. Multiple consequences and even fatalities have been reported due to the consumption of food contaminated with BEA/ENN or CER and as such, the detection and sequestration of these toxins is of utmost importance, both in public health and economic terms, as well as from a broader stakeholder perspective.
Despite numerous attempts worldwide, the current state of the art does not allow the production of antibodies against CER, BEA or ENN B via classical animal immunization. This hampers the creation of a fast, robust, inexpensive and on-field (kit-based) detection system for these toxins in food commodities. In the current project, I intend to use artificial synthetic antibodies (SynAbs) that bind to these toxins (ionophoric cyclic depsipeptides) to produce valuable technologies for detecting and isolating these toxins in complex food samples.
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
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology immunisation
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
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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.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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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) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01
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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.
9000 Gent
Belgium
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.