Excellence Hub on Phase Transitions in Aging and Age-Related Disorders

Age-related diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative disorders have become a public concern in Europe today due to the ageing population. The field of molecular biology is very promising for shedding light on late-onset diseases with a focus on incapacitating, age-related conditions. Portugal’s Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular (IBMC/i3S) has attracted international attention for its work in this domain. However, its scientists need to increase their competitivity in systems biology, bioinformatics and advanced biophysics. The EU-funded PhasAGE project will organise practical courses at the IBMC/i3S to offer the available knowledge in the field of phase transitions in ageing and age-related disorders. A unique collaborative network will be established between the IBMC/i3S, the Universities of Padua and Barcelona and the Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie. Moreover, a European excellence hub will contribute to research and teaching quality.

COST ACTION CA21160 - Non-globular proteins in the era of machine learning (ML4NGP) aims to establish an interdisciplinary pan-European network to favour this interplay, fostering experimental frameworks designed to provide information to computational methods, and novel computational methods developed, trained and benchmarked with experimental data. ML4NGP will enhance the primary experimental data generation, promote integrative structural biology approaches, benchmark the state-of-the-art ML methods and improve the functional characterization of NGPs. The Action will support its scientific objectives through policies that sustain free knowledge exchange, inclusiveness and training of young researchers who will lead future innovations in this field.

The major goal of ELIXIR's IDP Community is to support the development of standards, tools and resources to accelerate the identification, analysis and functional characterisation of IDPs. Given their therapeutic relevance, IDR-mediated interactions are now seen as potential drug targets. A better understanding of their structure and function will help in developing new strategies to treat human diseases.

The project entitled "Optical and microfluidic tools to unravel the dynamics of bio-condensates" was funded by the VUB Spearhead programme in the Strategic Research Project (SRP) category.
Building on our prior experience with an SRP Growth funding project, we plan to combine state-of-the-art microfluidic approaches and optical detection for studying the phenomenon of biological condensation. We aim to develop novel chip designs for i) manipulating and visualizing sub- μ m particles, ii) creating special mixing regimes for studying equilibrium transient phenomena, and iii) observing nucleation phenomena on the surface or within droplets. These tools will help us to gain fundamental insight into the formation and evolution of liquid condensates and aggregates of proteins (e.g. TDP-43, hnRNP A2) related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at the single-particle level. The synergy arising from this multidisciplinary approach will have a broad impact on various application domains. Not only will it provide a better understanding of the phenomenon of phase separation creating membraneless organelles (MLOs) in biology, it will also result in the development of generic microfluidic tools that can be used in studying a broad range of chemical and biological problems. Further, given the biomedical relevance of the molecular transitions under study, the novel insight will also foster the development of novel therapeutic approaches for treating age-related disorders.
The consortium is made up of four VUB groups, of Prof. Wim De Malsche, Prof. Heidi Ottevaere, Prof. Dominique Maes and Prof. Peter Tompa.

Driving the functional characterization of intrinsically disordered proteins

IDPfun is an international consortium aiming to extend our knowledge on the functions of IDPs. Starting from available state of the art computational tools and databases, which have been mostly developed by IDPfun participants, it aims drive a new level of IDP characterization leverage the complementary expertise of 5 EU MS and 3 TC institutions in Argentina, the latter providing useful complementary expertises. IDPfun will create a collaborative environment for research on novel ways to detect and characterize different IDP phenomena in their evolutionary context. It will develop an ontology and classification facilitating the comprehension of IDP complexity and aims to understand IDP functional mechanisms. The gained knowledge will be translated into major international protein databases for the benefit of the wider scientific community. Periodic meetings and symposia will generate a continuous knowledge exchange to be disseminated by open training schools and conferences. IDPfun will foster particularly young researchers, through dedicated activities and by ensuring adherence to the highest quality, ethics and gender balance standards. It is expected that IDPfun will strengthen overseas collaborations, focusing and coordinating research, leading to the creation of a sustainable international IDP community, driving knowledge and infrastructure in bioinformatics.