Objective
Mercury (Hg) pollution is a major environmental problem. Due to its extreme toxicity, Hg has recently been included in the top ten chemicals of major public health concern by the World Health Organization. Once released in the environment, it can be transformed, principally by aquatic microorganisms, into methylmercury. Methylmercury’s hazardous effects are biomagnified through food webs, resulting in negative health effects. However, Hg metabolic pathways in biota remain poorly understood. Therefore understanding these complex processes is crucial to elucidate potential (eco)toxic effects as well as factors governing Hg biogeochemical cycling. Hg binding with proteins has been evoked as a cause for toxicity and the role of selenium (Se) as antagonist for Hg toxicity is acknowledged but thus far not well understood.
SeMER is an ambitious and multidisciplinary research project with a main objective to revolutionize the understanding of Hg metabolic pathways in living organisms in the context of (antagonist) interactions with Se. The project is based on the development of novel analytical approaches that combine speciation and natural isotopic fractionation in a unique pattern. Speciation provides valuable information about reactivity and potential toxicity of metabolites. Furthermore, the natural abundance isotopic signatures add a dynamic dimension, comprising the life history of target elements, pollution sources, and reaction tracking. The resulting (bio)molecular and isotopic signatures will provide valuable insights of Hg in biota and potential detoxification mechanisms. Developed methodologies will be assessed in both freshwater and marine ecosystems in order to characterize important differences in Hg:Se interactions across contrasting habitat types. SeMER concept will revolutionize the sources and tracing of Hg and its metabolites, that could be extended to other metals and push back frontiers in life and environmental sciences related to 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: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistrytransition metals
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteins
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesenvironmental sciencespollution
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiology
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Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsHost institution
75794 Paris
France