Descrizione del progetto
Il sequenziamento degli anticorpi offre nuove opportunità nel campo della ricerca medica
Il repertorio di anticorpi nel sistema immunitario umano adattativo si è evoluto per affrontare il gran numero di agenti patogeni, ossia batteri e virus, nonché minacce esogene, come ad esempio le tossine. Comprendere quali anticorpi vengono prodotti in risposta a un particolare patogeno può aprire la strada a terapie più efficienti e personalizzate. Per affrontare questo problema, il progetto TopSpec, finanziato dall’UE, ha sviluppato una piattaforma migliorata basata sulla spettrometria di massa per il sequenziamento degli anticorpi. Oltre a un sistema di acquisizione dati ad alte prestazioni e a un software di elaborazione e analisi dei dati, TopSpec migliorerà in modo netto le opportunità nell’ambito della ricerca medica e dello sviluppo di farmaci, approfondendo così la nostra conoscenza del sistema immunitario.
Obiettivo
One of the major challenges of modern medicine is to understand how the human organism defends itself against invasions and diseases. The biggest mystery is the human immune system, and understanding this ultimately requires knowledge of the sequence repertoire of human antibodies and their respective antigens. The purpose of the TopSpec project is to be the first in the world to solve this challenge, opening up opportunities in medical research and drug development that are today only dreamt about. We will create a breakthrough technology that will revolutionize academic, clinical and industrial proteomics and dramatically advance the development of new generation antibody- and protein-based therapeutics. Antibodies represent the most sophisticated line of natural defense against disease. Knowing exactly which antibodies are produced in response to a particular disease enables us not only to better understand the cause of the disease but also to provide new-generation cures in the form of personalized therapeutic antibodies. The limiting factor for this to truly be achieved is to find a way to analyze and sequence large molecules in the gas phase, and this represents a formidable challenge. The TopSpec project will develop ground-breaking TOP-down tandem mass SPECtrometry (MS/MS) approaches based on novel radical gas-phase ion-electron and ion-atom reactions, and implement them on a unique, hyphenated, ultrahigh-resolution MS platform. Another “killer innovation” is the ability to greatly simplify MS/MS spectra of large molecules by adding another dimension of separation – collisional cross-sections of fragment ions using two parallel approaches. TopSpec will be the first project to implement de-convolution of massively overlapping isotopic clusters, solving one of the greatest challenges in top-down MS of large molecules.
Campo scientifico
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesnuclear physicsnuclear fission
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftware
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsproteomics
- natural scienceschemical sciencesanalytical chemistrymass spectrometry
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdata sciencedata processing
Programma(i)
Invito a presentare proposte
Vedi altri progetti per questo bandoBando secondario
H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2019-2020-01
Meccanismo di finanziamento
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinatore
17177 Stockholm
Svezia