Objective
The interdisciplinary project addresses research issues on the borderline between bioorganic chemistry, biochemistry, and medical sciences. It focuses on an important class of proteins, the integrins, employing organic synthesis of novel conformationally constrained amino acids, incorporation of such building blocks into peptides, as well as structural and functional characterization using methods of protein biochemistry, cell culture, NMR spectroscopy, and biophysical analysis. Integrins are heterodimeric cell surface glycoprotein receptors, involved in cellcell and cellmatrix adhesion.
The interaction of integrins with ligands is the molecular basis of physiological or pathological processes, such as platelet aggregation, tumour cell adhesion, wound healing, internalisation of pathogenic bacteria or leukocyte adhesion. Small molecules that interfere with this interaction can efficiently influence the cell-cell and cell-matrix interaction imparted by the integrin, being of potential interest in the therapy o f cancer and inflammatory diseases. The amino acid sequence RGD (arginine-glycine-aspartic acid), which is present on many of the natural ligands, is essential for the interaction between integrins and their corresponding ligands. Synthetic peptides containing the RGD sequence have emerged as promising starting point for the identification, synthesis and development of selective integrin ligands.
The incorporation of novel modified and conformationally constrained amino acids can greatly affect the secondary structure of the peptide, in such way that the synthetic ligands prefer to adopt a particular conformation. Consequently, these amino acids serve as useful tools in the de novo design of biologically active peptides, since the spatial orientation of the pharmacophoric groups, which are critical to the molecular recognition process and the ligand receptor interaction, can be defined by the incorporation of such residues in strategic positions.
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 health sciences inflammatory diseases
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
- natural sciences physical sciences optics spectroscopy absorption spectroscopy
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
- natural sciences chemical sciences organic chemistry amines
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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.
FP6-2005-MOBILITY-5
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
BIELEFELD
Germany
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.