Project description
Machine learning for novel toxic chemical structures discovery
Exposure studies constitute a crucial aspect of chemical research. Approximately half a million chemicals have been identified as relevant for such studies, with significant numbers of their transformation products co-existing in the environment. Regrettably, despite this extensive array, only a few of these chemical structures can be generated in silico, analytically assessed, and validated. Current databases and machine learning models rely on these existing chemical structures. The ERC-funded LearningStructurE project seeks to revolutionise this landscape by amalgamating machine learning with novel technologies to identify new toxic chemical structures. This initiative aims to streamline the discovery process for novel chemical structures, making it more accessible, frequent, and efficient.
Objective
Nearly half a million known chemicals have been deemed relevant for exposure studies and an even larger number of their transformation products are likely to co-occur in the environment. This mind-blowing number of possible chemical structures makes it impossible to in-silico generate all these structures, let alone synthesise and analytically confirm them, thereby limiting the discovery of novel chemicals. Today, the structural elucidation of chemicals detected with high resolution mass spectrometry relies on databases and machine learning models trained on the known chemical space. Both are fundamentally ill-suited for discovering novel chemical structures. As a result, only a few percent of the toxic activity of the environmental samples is explained by the currently known and monitored chemicals. It is crucial to access the novel chemical space to improve our understanding of the origin, fate, and impact of these chemicals.
The aim of LearningStructurE is to turn the discovery of novel chemical structures from serendipity to routine. As a steppingstone in this pursuit, I will combine the fundamental understanding of chromatography and high resolution mass spectrometry with machine learning to pinpoint novel toxic chemical structures based on their empirical analytical information. To significantly advance the predictive power of machine learning models for empirical analytical information, I will take advantage of the candidate structures as a sample specific training set for machine learning models. The improved predictive power will feed into in-silico structure generation, allowing to elucidate the structure directly from the empirical analytical information.
LearningStructurE will pave the way for exploration of the unknown chemical space detected from environmental samples, and thereby improve our understanding of the emissions, chemical processes transforming the emitted chemicals, and close the gap in measured and explained toxicity.
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.
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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)
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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
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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
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-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.
10691 Stockholm
Sweden
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