Objective
While the ability to regenerate lost body parts or organs is legendary in invertebrates like echinoderms, chordates-and mammals in particular-have quite limited regenerative ability. The exceptions par excellence are salamanders, which can regenerate lens, limbs and tails. Unfortunately, vertebrate models of regeneration are costly to maintain, suffer from necessary ethical considerations, and are often plagued by duplicated genes, hindering functional analyses. The invertebrate cephalochordate amphioxus is the most basal chordate. It is characterised by a prototypical genome, ancestral chordate morphology, and lacks the whole-genome duplications characteristic of vertebrates. With sequencing of the genome, it is therefore an excellent model for evolution of developmental mechanisms from an invertebrate ancestor. Until now, there has been no convincing evidence of regeneration in a cephalochordate. However, the candidate’s preliminary data indicate that amphioxus can regenerate all structures of the tail, including neural tube, notochord and muscle. The purpose of the proposed research is to develop the European amphioxus, Branchiostoma lanceolatum, as a new regeneration model. The ojectives are: 1. To characterise proliferation and stem cells during regeneration; 2. To evaluate whether the signalling pathways responsible for vertebrate regeneration are conserved in amphioxus, specifically TGFb and Wnt; 3. To determine whether matrix metalloproteinases are implicated downstream of these pathways during tissue remodelling; 4. To develop electroporation or explant culture methodologies to knock down gene function; 5. To assess the level of conservation of regeneration mechanisms in deuterostomes by comparing with echinoderms. The workplan will include bio-informatics, in situ hybridisation, immunohistochemistry, confocal microscopy and pharmacological treatments. This research may have implications for regenerative and stem cell therapy and tissue engineering.
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.
- medical and health sciences medical biotechnology tissue engineering
- medical and health sciences medical biotechnology cells technologies stem cells
- natural sciences mathematics pure mathematics mathematical analysis functional analysis
- natural sciences physical sciences optics microscopy confocal microscopy
- natural sciences chemical sciences electrochemistry bioelectrochemistry electroporation
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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.
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.
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.
FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008
See other projects for this call
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.
Coordinator
08007 BARCELONA
Spain
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.