Objective
Telomeres are repetitive nucleotide sequences rich in guanine residues located at the termini of linear chromosomes of eukaryotic organisms. Telomeres function as capping agents to protect chromosomes both from shortening at each replication cycle and from fusing with other chromosome ends or rearranging. Maintenance of telomeres length is critical for genomic stability and cell viability. Telomeres are consumed during cell division but can be replenished by telomerase, a unique ribonucleoprotein enzyme that adds telomeric repeats onto chromosome ends to maintain telomere length. Telomerase uses an RNA template that is integral part of the enzyme and a specialized reverse transcriptase to processively synthesize the G-rich telomeric strand. The importance of the discovery of telomeres and telomerase was recognized by the Nobel Prize award in Physiology or Medicine in 2009.
Telomerase is not active in normal somatic cells, but is highly active in most cancers, and is thus of interest as a target for anticancer drugs. In addition, mutations in both the telomerase RNA and telomerase proteins are associated with some diseases. Human telomerase contains a 451 nt RNA along with a variety of proteins besides the reverse transcriptase. Only a few nucleotides of human telomerase RNA (hTR) are needed as a template to elongate telomeres, but the function the rest of the RNA is unknown. By investigating the structure of the hTR, we will try to shed light to this question.
The aims of the project presented for this fellowship are to determine by X-ray crystallography the three-dimensional structures of separate domains of hTR, the interaction between domains and, ultimately, the structure of the whole hTR alone and/or complexed with a reverse transcriptase protein. The knowledge of the precise three-dimensional structure of hTR and its interaction with telomerase reverse transcriptase is essential to understand its role in telomerase function and how it can be regulated.
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 clinical medicine oncology
- medical and health sciences basic medicine physiology
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics nucleotides
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics RNA
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics chromosomes
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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.
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-2013-IEF
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
WC1E 6BT LONDON
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.