A European project with an international team of partners

CSIC is the largest public research organization in Spain and the third largest in Europe. It collaborates with national and international universities, public RTD organizations, SMEs, companies and other institutions of a scientific/technological nature. CSIC has signed as of today, more than 600 research projects and it shows relevant experience in both participating and managing RTD projects, especially under 7th Framework Programme and the ongoing Horizon2020.

The National Centre for Biotechnology located in Madrid (CNB) is the biggest and most productive research centre of the CSIC. Its goal is to promote research in advanced Biotechnology and to act as a connection between basic research and industrial applications. The research group of Dr Daniel López will be responsible for the coordination of the project and the construction of synthetic lipid rafts in Bacillus subtilis.

The ICRC of St. Anne’s University Hospital in Brno (Czech Republic) is a new generation science and research center focused on finding new methods, technologies and medicaments for effective prevention, early diagnostics and individualized treatments.

The Loschmidt laboratories of the Faculty of Science conduct interdisciplinary research in the field of protein engineering. Their work focuses on understanding the structure-function relationships of proteins and improving their biotechnological application and will be responsible for the optimisation of the reactions of the three study cases.

Founded in 1737, the Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen (Germany) is a research university of international renown with strong focuses in research-led teaching. In 2003, the Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen became the first German university with a comprehensive range of disciplines to assume the legal status of a Foundation under Public Law. The University has since then enhanced its research profile, created new research entities, intensified cooperations and gathered outstanding academics and students.

The UGOE Microbiology Department (Dr Stülke and Dr Commichau ) will provide its expertise in gram negative bacteria and will be responsible for the generation of the first line of microbial chassis.

The Institut Pasteur is a private, state-approved non-profit foundation for biomedical research, which was established in 1887 by Louis Pasteur. The IP is at the forefront of infectious diseases research, as well as other fields like immunology, molecular biology, neurosciences, development biology, stem cells, genetics and genomics. The IP efforts also focus on transferring the scientific discoveries made in its research laboratories into clinical applications and innovative therapies. Also, the institute trains yearly hundreds of international students in its expertise areas namely: Mechanisms of living organisms, Biology of microorganisms and Epidemiology and Public Health

The “Genetics of Biofilms” laboratory led by Dr Jean-Marc Ghigo in the microbiology department will provide its expertise in biofilm genetics to construct synthetic lipid rafts in first line of E. coli. Additionally, given the training experience of the institution, IP will coordinate the dissemination activities.

The University of Groningen (Netherlands) has a rich academic tradition dating back to 1614 and is a full University in the top 100 of the international rankings. Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute (GBB)is a research institute at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. GBB has the ambition to perform research of the highest standard in the field of biomolecular sciences, studying microbial processes and cells. With strong roots in chemistry, biophysics, molecular biology, and genetics, GBB has become a well-recognised research institute in biomolecular science with a focus on genetic and metabolic processes and structure-function studies of the biomolecules involved.

The MolGen group headed by Dr Oscar Kuipers will be responsible for the transcriptomic approach to characterise the microbial chassis. The group is also involved in targeting antimicrobial production to lipid rafts, attempting to increase production levels, by engineering biosynthetic enzymes with Raft-related tags.

enGenes Biotech GmbH is a privately held, research & development organisation dedicated to providing a platform of patent-protected technology solutions for the efficient production of recombinant proteins in microbial expression systems (with special focus on Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis). enGenes Biotech follows a holistic approach that unifies latest know-how in molecular biology and bioprocess engineering and works along the biotech process chain from gene to product. The company, based in Vienna (Austria), was founded in February 2014 as a spin-off company of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). enGenes was founded by internationally recognized scientists in the field of microbial-based recombinant protein expression with an extensive track-record of scientific publications, patents and industry cooperation’s.

enGenes will provide its industrial experience in recombinant protein production to the optimisation and upscaling of protein production in the Rafts4Biotech study cases.

The University Medicine Greifswald (UMG), corporation under public law, comprises the Medical Faculty of the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald (Germany) and belongs to one of the oldest universities in the country,founded 1456. The UMG ranks among the best faculties in the country in medical education and medical care. Its long-lasting expertise in population-based approach (Community Medicine) has successfully been combined with advanced molecular techniques (Molecular Medicine and OMICs) in an integrated investigation and translation platform to delineate better and personalised preventive, diagnostic or therapeutic strategies. Currently, the research output from this pipeline is highest in the fields of “infection and inflammation”, “cardiovascular diseases” and “abdominal and metabolic diseases”.

The Laboratory for Functional Genomics headed by Dr Uwe Völker will provide its’ strong background in the field of physiological proteomics for the characterisation of microbial chassis.

The Swiss Federal Technical University Zurich (ETHZ) is the larger of two technical universities in Switzerland and consistently ranked in the international top 10 Universities. ETHZ is also the leading house of the Swiss systems biology initiative SystemsX.ch (www.systemsx.ethz.ch). Within ETHZ, the Institute of Molecular Systems Biology is devoted to interdisciplinary research on understanding how dynamically interacting molecular species lead to integrated responses at the level of biological networks and organismal phenotypes.

Dr Sauer’s lab works on the identification and quantification of the key regulation mechanisms that control cellular metabolism in microbes and will therefore be responsible for the metabolomic approach for the characterisation of the microbial chassis.

Naicons Srl is an SME dedicated to the discovery, characterisation and early development of antibiotics and other bioactive compounds. The company assets include a pipeline of preclinical and early clinical antibiotics, as well as a lead compound useful for the treatment of neuropathic pain. All these assets derived from Naicons’ technology platform, which consists of a large and diversified strain collection of about 45,000 actinomycetes. In addition to its internal R&D projects, the company provides specialised services related to its technology platform and to its knowhow in natural products. Given their experience and expertise, Naicons will provide the industrial vision for the Pharma SC.

Biosyntia is a synthetic biology and biocatalysis startup founded in 2012 from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).  Biosyntia applies evolutionary metabolic engineering for the development of microbial vitamin cell factories and its core competencies are within cloning and high-throughput screening of synthetic and natural gene libraries. Biosyntia focuses on the creation of genetically engineered microorganisms for cost-effective synthesis of natural vitamins and will be therefore the industrial partner responsible for providing the industrial vision for the Cosmetic SC.

Enantis is a Czech company founded in 2006 as spin-off from Masaryk University Brno. Since 2008, the company has its own laboratory space equipped with cutting edge instrumentation where research, service and production operations are being carried out. Enantis specialty is high integration of theoretical and experimental approaches by close collaboration of experts from the fields of biochemistry, molecular biology, microbiology, biophysical chemistry, bioinformatics and molecular modelling. As R&D Company specialised in protein engineering, Enantis offers consulting and development services for biotechnological, pharmaceutical, agricultural, and food industries and will be the partner responsible for providing the industrial vision for the Feed SC.

Scienseed is a science communication agency based in Madrid, Spain. The company specialises in the development of communication strategies to maximise the impact of science in the general public and other relevant sectors, using video, graphic design and animation, videogames, social media campaigns, public engagement and training activities. Since 2014 Scienseed has been collaborating with research institutions and innovative companies to make their science visible. The company is currently part of four large European consortia. Scienseed will be responsible for the communication actions of the project.