SynSignal PI Luis Serrano (CRG) receives prestigious ERC Advanced Grant
July 08, 2015
In the first round of calls for ERC Advanced Grants under the 'excellent science' pillar of Horizon 2020, 190 scientists have been chosen to receive funding from the European Research Council. One of those prestigious grants will be awarded to SynSignal PI Luis Serrano (CRG) for his project titled “MYCOCHASSIS - Engineering of a minimal bacterial therapeutic chassis”. By combining bioinformatics, -omics, and biochemistry approaches with genome engineering tools, systems biology analyses, and computational whole-cell models, MYCOCHASSIS aims to: i) develop a whole cell-model based on organism-specific experimental data that will be validated experimentally and that can predict the impact of genome modifications; ii) implement genome engineering tools to delete non-essential pathogenic and virulent elements predicted by the whole-cell model to engineer a therapeutical chassis; iii) using the whole-cell model design and engineer genes and circuits to improve growth rate in a defined medium. iv) as a proof of concept introduce orthogonal gene circuits to secrete peptides and enzymes capable of dissolving in vitro biofilms made by lung pathogens. The duration of the project will be 5 years and it will be receiving a grant amount of €2.5 mio.