Objective In the production of fine chemicals the downstream processing may amount up to 75 % of the total manufacturing costs, particularly when the product is aimed at nutritional or therapeutic use which demands a maximum purity. Current downstream processing strategies can face limitations whenever existing purification and separation processes are based on physico-chemical principles and thus exhibit a far more limited selectivity for the target compounds than is known from interactions involving biomolecules. The latter, on the other hand, are less robust and often require specific operating conditions (typically close to ambient) and feed compositions, which often restricts their broad application. This proposal presents an innovative, interdisciplinary approach on designing selective and tuneable interfaces for sensors and separations to be employed in downstream processing techniques. By combining recent advances in biology/biochemistry and chemistry and applying them to chemical engineering principles, the approach goes beyond concepts currently known, involving primarily engineered nucleic acids (aptamers) and tuneable ionic liquids (IL) incorporated in an appropriate support structure. The aim of this proposal is to make use of the unique properties of both biomolecules and ionic liquids in order to create supported mixed-matrix interfaces which exhibit properties that bulk materials can hardly achieve. Another novelty of this proposal is the aim to develop these interfaces in a modular way, namely by joining individually optimised elements during interface design in order to yield the desired overall properties. This approach warrants a maximum of degrees of freedom in the overall interface design while keeping the basic interface architecture constant, and thus overcomes one of the limitations that many conventional separation/purification techniques encounter during optimisation of the bulk material. Fields of science natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesnucleic acidsengineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensorsengineering and technologychemical engineering Keywords downstream processing membrane technology separation science Programme(s) FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) Topic(s) ERC-SG-PE6 - ERC Starting Grant - Computer science and informatics Call for proposal ERC-2007-StG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant Host institution UNIVERSIDAD DEL PAIS VASCO/ EUSKAL HERRIKO UNIBERTSITATEA EU contribution € 1 397 997,06 Address BARRIO SARRIENA S N 48940 Leioa Spain See on map Region Noreste País Vasco Bizkaia Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Principal investigator Thomas Schäfer (Dr.) Administrative Contact Ione Isasa (Ms.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Beneficiaries (2) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all UNIVERSIDAD DEL PAIS VASCO/ EUSKAL HERRIKO UNIBERTSITATEA Spain EU contribution € 1 397 997,06 Address BARRIO SARRIENA S N 48940 Leioa See on map Region Noreste País Vasco Bizkaia Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Principal investigator Thomas Schäfer (Dr.) Administrative Contact Ione Isasa (Ms.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data UNIVERSITAT ROVIRA I VIRGILI Participation ended Spain EU contribution € 100 140,94 Address CARRER DE ESCORXADOR 43003 Tarragona See on map Region Este Cataluña Tarragona Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact María Belén Serrano Santos (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data