Description du projet
Révolutionner les tests de diagnostic
Au cours des processus d’analyse et de découverte de nouveaux agents pathogènes résistants et de maladies infectieuses, les tests de diagnostic sont essentiels pour parvenir à des conclusions efficaces. Malheureusement, les techniques de diagnostic actuelles utilisent soit la culture, soit la PCR, ce qui entraîne de graves inconvénients et pose souvent des problèmes pour caractériser les nouveaux agents pathogènes dans le délai imparti de trois heures. Le projet MARA, financé par l’UE, vise à résoudre ce problème en développant et en introduisant une découverte révolutionnaire basée sur trois nouvelles technologies, qui permettront également de produire un ensemble d’outils moléculaires basés sur l’ADN pour caractériser les agents pathogènes. Pour ce faire, il utilisera la technologie de détection autonome des acides nucléiques, qui ne nécessite pas d’équipement sophistiqué, une nouvelle avancée dans le mimétisme des protéines et la création d’enzymes et, enfin, un robot moléculaire capable d’identifier et de détruire les cellules.
Objectif
Diagnostic tests are essential to provide a targeted treatment of infectious diseases and to contain the further spread of multidrug resistant pathogens. Current methods are based either on cultivation or on PCR and have significant limitations concerning the clinical requirements to characterise pathogens including their resistance mechanisms within 3 hours. In MARA, we will develop and combine three radically novel technologies that will lead to substantial breakthroughs in science, medicine and industry and, as proof-of principle, use them to create a DNA-based molecular toolkit characterising pathogens.
First, the detection of pathogen-associated antigens will be performed by Autonomous Detection Nucleic Acids (AUDENA) that are independent of any laboratory instruments and sophisticated processing. The realisation of the AUDENA concept will lead to an autonomous, stable, simple and very economic novel sensor class applicable for any water-soluble substances. The second revolutionary technology in MARA employs a novel approach in protein mimicry and creation of artificial enzymes, which represents a breakthrough in several disciplines, such as biotechnology, biomedical manufacturing and the energy sector. The third breakthrough in this project represents the development of a Molecular Robot (MORO) that can specifically identify target cells and destroy them. In MARA, the MORO will be used for the lysis of bacterial cells to release intracellular antibiotic resistance associated antigens, but the long-term vision anticipates an application as antibiotic replacement for infectious diseases and a therapeutic agent for cancer treatment, which would represent one of the most important breakthroughs in medicine in the recent years.
To meet the highly ambitious objectives pointed out in this proposal, MARA is driven by a complementary, multidisciplinary team of leading experts, with a young, high-profile scientist in the lead.
Champ scientifique
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsDNA
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesinfectious diseases
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacydrug resistancemultidrug resistance
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacydrug resistanceantibiotic resistance
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsenzymes
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinateur
1210 Wien
Autriche