Project description
Advancing protein sequencing
Proteins determine a cell’s function and behaviour, yet most sequencing efforts have focused on DNA. Nanopore technology, a revolutionary tool capable of reading long stretches of DNA with high accuracy and throughput, currently remains limited to sequencing of short peptide fragments. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the NPSL project aims to overcome these challenges by developing a new method to link and synthesise proteins with their DNA codons. The goal is to engineer an extended nanopore capable of reading full-length proteins. Combined with machine learning, this approach will generate a powerful protein signal library, enabling true de novo protein sequencing and advancing proteomics.
Objective
Nanopore is a breakthrough genomic sequencing tool with long read length, high accuracy, and high throughput in reading DNA. However, it is the proteome that ultimately determines the cells phenotype, and tremendous efforts have been made to develop sequencing techniques for reading proteins in the past decade. First breakthroughs have been appearing for sequencing short peptides at the single-molecule level. Current strategies are however still far from sequencing full-length native proteins due to the low synthesis efficiencies in protein handling and the limited scanning length (can only read short peptides with ~25 amino acids). Here, I will first develop a novel method to synthesize a large variety of proteins that are connected to DNA with their own codon sequences, using just a few reactions with a puromycin linker labeled to a mRNA, and followed by in vitro translation, reverse transcription, and RNase cleavage. Furthermore, I propose a single-molecule protein nanopore engineering strategy that significantly extends the MspA nanopore lumen length to push the limit for protein reading length. With the proven abilities of a Hel308 DNA helicase, the engineered nanopore can read the entire DNA codons first, followed by the read of >100 amino acids of the protein. Upon recording large data sets, I will build a protein signal library with the related codon information for the training of a machine learning model, which serves as a tool for de novo protein sequencing. This work has great potential to push the limits of sequencing technology to reading the whole proteome.
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.
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins proteomics
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics DNA
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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.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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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.
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.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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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.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
2628 CN Delft
Netherlands
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.