Project description
Building genomes, one strand at a time
As synthetic biology advances, building complete genomes from scratch is becoming increasingly valuable for medicine, biotechnology, and environmental solutions. Synthetic genomics takes this further by assembling whole genomes from small DNA fragments, but efficiency drops as fragment size grows. This is mainly a physical issue: longer DNA strands are less likely to find and bind to each other. Overcoming this challenge is key to scaling genome synthesis. The ERC-funded SynGene project tackles this by using nanofluidic channels to stretch DNA and expose its ends for hybridisation. By harnessing yeast recombination machinery and short DNA templates, SynGene offers a powerful new method for manipulating entire genomes more effectively.
Objective
Synthetic genomics is a rapidly growing branch of synthetic biology where the goal is to assemble a complete genome from small synthetic DNA fragments. The main obstacle is the later stages of assembly where fragments on the kilobasepair length scale are to be assembled, where the efficiency rapidly falls off with increasing fragment size. A large contribution to this bottleneck is purely physical, where the probability of DNA ends meeting decreases with increasing DNA size. My solution to this problem is to force DNA ends to meet using nanofluidic channels. In such channels DNA is stretched out to almost the complete contour length, exposing the ends for hybridization. As part of my ongoing ERC-CoG, I have demonstrated several principles that will make it possible to use nanofluidic devices for genome assembly. Long DNA can be entropically trapped in nanochannels to force DNA ends to meet to promote hybridization of complementary overhangs. The bacterial protein Ku stably anneals 4 bp complementary overhangs, making it possible to engineer which fragments that are annealed. Bacterial Ligase D then binds to Ku to ligate the DNA.
Within this PoC project I will take the next steps to bring this principle to a commercially feasible platform.
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 genetics DNA
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics genomes
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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)
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.
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-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept 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-2025-POC
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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.
412 96 Goteborg
Sweden
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.