Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PhasAGE (Excellence Hub on Phase Transitions in Aging and Age-Related Disorders)
Période du rapport: 2021-01-01 au 2022-03-31
PhasAGE goal is to establish IBMC as an excellence hub in research and training on biomolecular phase transitions in age-related diseases, achieved through a joint training programme and exchange of best practices across disciplines, coupled with Think-Tanks to outline future R&I priorities on this topic. PhasAGE activities are structured around the Specific Scientific and Technological Objectives listed below:
-Enhance the impact and quality of research and training at IBMC on analysis of protein phase separation and aggregation in age-related human pathologies;
-Create a European excellence hub on phase transitions at IBMC and raise the research and teaching profile of all partners´ staff (especially ESRs);
-Develop and implement novel tools and technologies at IBMC, UAB, VIB and UniPD;
-Increase the competitive edge of IBMC and enlarge networks at the national and international level;
-Contribute towards responsible communication of science and enhance scientific literacy.
Training of young researchers on biomolecular phase separation is a fundamental ambition of the PhasAGE consortium. Therefore, PhasAGE organized the training school 1 ”Computational Methods to Study Protein Phase Separation” a hands-on online course that provided participants with the knowledge of biomolecular phase separation and the expertise to use bioinformatic tools to study protein aggregation and phase separation (https://phasage.eu/training-school-1/). A portfolio with lectures and protocols, specifically developed for this training school was prepared and is publicly available in Zenodo (https://zenodo.org/communities/phasage). Part of the resources collected in this portfolio, are being conveyed in lectures for Ph.D MSc. and BSc. students from the host institution and from the University of Porto. The interest in the PhasAGE research topics at IBMC is high and resulted in the inclusion of 6 new PIs in the PhasAGE team of the coordinating institute.
To enhance the professional skills of early stage researchers, PhasAGE created a support programme including workshops focused on career development skills and alternative career opportunities (https://phasage.eu/career-development/). PhasAGE is also contributing to improve the R&I management expertise of the host institution staff through ongoing training, mentoring and benchmarking actions with consortium partners. Project outreach involved several activities with local high schools, and dissemination occurs through the project website and Twitter account.
The PhasAGE project has stimulated scientific collaboration among the partners, which resulted in several peer-reviewed publications (Nucleic Acids Res (doi: 10.1093/nar/gkab108) and Front Mol Biosci (doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2022.882160)).
The scientific and societal impact of PhasAGE was partly limited by the difficulties to organize the planned staff-exchanges and on-site activities in 2021/2022. In-person meetings are critical to reach the public, engage the patients’ associations, and promote new scientific collaborations. However, shifting the PhasAGE scientific meetings and seminars to the virtual mode allowed the inclusion of top-level speakers, and enhanced the number of participants, not only from different European countries but also from overseas. Virtual meetings were an unforeseen opportunity to foster the visibility of the PhasAGE project, IBMC, the partner institutions, and all its researchers. We anticipate that this visibility is long lasting, and will enhance the participation of early career researchers as well as scientists from academia and industry in future PhasAGE events.
We expect that the in-person events and staff exchanges planned for 2022/2033, will boost the scientific outcomes of the PhasAGE project and contribute to the implementation of optimized procedures to study phase separation, which will increase the competitive edge of IBMC and consortium members. In the long-term this knowledge will be critical to explore all opportunities to deter age-related diseases linked with aberrant phase separation, ultimately leading to improved health and well-being of European citizens.
PhasAGE outreach activities targeting the lay public and high-school students were extremely successful in enhancing awareness about the relevance of structure and disorder for protein function and disease. Teaching materials generated in the scope of these activities, easily transferable and adaptable to different audiences, will contribute to enhance the knowledge about the molecular mechanism underlying human disorders.
The PhasAGE project is raising the profile of Research and Innovation staff at IBMC through the organization of benchmarking activities with consortium members. A complementary mentorship program to exchange R&I expertise, is increasing the visibility of the PhasAGE institutions.