ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANT 2018: PRO-TOOLKITS

PROPOSAL SUMMARY

The biological complexity of tumours and the large diversity of diagnostic biomarkers call for the development of innovative analytical tools that can detect multiple targets in a sensitive, specific and low-cost way and allow real-time monitoring of disease pathways and therapeutic effects. This project will address these needs by developing rationally designed programmable nucleic acid modules that respond to a wide range of molecular markers and environmental stimuli through innovative nature-inspired mechanisms and that can be orthogonally wired to provide cell-free point of care diagnostic kits and genetically encodable biosensors.

The project is split  into three major Objectives. These objectives present different degrees of complexity following a trajectory that goes from pure curiosity-driven (Objective 1) to more applied research (Objectives 2-3):

Objective 1 (O1): TRICKS: Recreate nature-inspired tricks using synthetic RNA.

Objective 2 (O2): MODULES: Create a library of programmable responsive nucleic acid modules.

Objective 3 (O3): TOOLS: Develop cell-free diagnostic kits and genetically encoded biosensors.
O1 will define the mechanisms and strategies that will be used to program and control the responsive RNA modules. This objective will require a strong know-how in supramolecular chemistry, synthetic biology, biochemistry and organic chemistry. O2 will use the characterized tricks to create a library of programmable nucleic acid-based responsive modules. Finally, in O3 the RNA-responsive modules will be assembled to develop novel biosensing platforms.