Project description
Biomolecular condensates and coacervates for gene delivery in cells and plants
Biomolecular engineering is paving the way for new methods of gene delivery in mammalian cells and plants, thereby enhancing research potential in agriculture. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the BIOCOCOMER project aims to advance research, innovation, training, and international collaboration by developing new skills and products centred on designing and engineering biomolecular condensates and coacervates using peptides, proteins, polysaccharides, and nucleic acids. These biomolecular condensates and coacervates will serve as tools for gene delivery in mammalian cells and plants. The project will create a library of well-defined condensates and coacervates through computer-based design and experimental approaches, enabling gene transfection in cells and plants and supporting a wide range of biomedical and biotechnological applications.
Objective
BIOCOCOMER will pursue three general objectives, (Research&Innovation, Training, and International Collaboration) that will be achieved through the development of new skills and products and exchange of multidisciplinary and complementary knowledge and competences within the international Partners from Italy, Australia, Portugal, Spain, Cuba, Switzerland, Germany and South Korea.
Research and Innovation Objectives:
Objective 1 Engineering and Characterising biomolecular functional condensates and coacervates
Objective 2 Understanding the behavior of the bioactive coacervates in cellular environments
Objective 3 Application of coacervates in gene editing of recalcitrant plants
Towards innovative tools for gene delivery in organisms, BIOCOCOMER is focused on the design and engineering of innovative biomolecular condensates/coacervates using peptides, proteins, polysaccharide and nucleic acids, as innovative tools for gene delivery in mammalian cells and plants. Through a combination of computer-based theoretical design and experimental and characterization approaches BIOCOCOMER is expected to generate a library of well-defined condensates and coacervates by programmed co-assembly and phase separation of mixtures of biomacromolecules, i.e polysaccharide-protein, polysaccharide-polyphenols, peptide-peptide, nucleic acid-protein. The condensates and coacervates will be engineered to readily recruit RNA and DNA molecules during phase separation in aqueous solution and to be stimuli responsive to enable transfection of mammalian cells and plants.
Scientific Impact: BIOCOCOMER will ultimately result in significant scientific breakthroughs towards innovative universal transfection tools with widespread biomedical and biotechnological applications. We intend to explore the potential of the developed platforms with the long-term aim of boosting the translational pathway of research in medicine and agriculture.
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 sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsDNA
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteins
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculescarbohydrates
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculture
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsRNA
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Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-SE - HORIZON TMA MSCA Staff ExchangesCoordinator
00133 Roma
Italy