Infectious zoonotic diseases that jump from animals to humans are on the rise, and the risk of a new pandemic is higher now than ever before. Future health models need to consider the close connection between human and animal health, and new technologies capable of continuously monitor places where the risk of pathogens transmission is higher (shared by animals and humans) are urgently needed to prevent the human, socio-political and economic cost from pandemics. Continuous monitoring and harmonized data collection of animal farms are required by the European Parliament. However, current methods are not suitable for an in-situ, continuous and automatic detection, so today only a limited number of specific pathogens are monitored. FLUFET will be the first automatized sensor able of continuously detecting a broad spectrum of viral targets, and with the unprecedent capability of detecting unknown viruses. This sensor will be based on graphene Field Effect Transistors (gFETs). FLUFET will detect infectious zoonotic threats before they spread to humans and create potential outbreaks, opening the door for a pandemic’s prevention continuum. It will bring the possibility to incorporate the long-distance external factors heavily affecting human health at worldwide level. FLUFET brings interesting opportunities for Health and pandemics experts and managers, Policymakers and regulatory/ standardization bodies, Animal farmers and their associations, Precision livestock farming solution providers, Investors and researchers in the multiple disciplines involved in the consortium. FLUFET requires an interdisciplinary consortium including partners from computational biophysics, graphene technology, nanotechnology, sensing, microfluidics, virology, surface engineering and sensor design and electronics.

Finding a CURE for 35 Million individuals living with HIV/AIDS is one of the great global health challenges of the 21st century. The major obstacle to HIV eradication is the persistence of latent HIV cellular reservoirs, where the integrated viral genome is transcriptionally silenced but replication-competent and can escape both Anti-Retroviral Therapy and Immune Responses. The development of novel strategies aimed at eliminating these reservoirs have become paramount in HIV research, if we want to achieve an HIV/AIDS CURE. To accelerate the State of the Art in HIV CURE research in Europe, our EU4HIVCURE consortium brings together an intersectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration between 3 Universities, 3 Hospitals, 1 International Research Organisation from 4 European countries and 1 University from Canada. Our aim is to dissect the intricate mechanisms controlling HIV-1 latency and identify new druggable targets to develop novel latency-reversing strategies and eradicate persistent viral reservoirs by forcing HIV-1 gene expression. To facilitate continuum for translation to the clinic, we have developed an operational framework, which maximises exchange of knowledge and expertise via secondements, networking and training activities.

Microbes live as members of a microbial consortium where they interact with neighboring organisms (including their host) via the secretion of signaling molecules and through other types of cell-cell interactions. The root microbiome is comparable to the ’gut microbiome’ of the plant, important for optimal root growth, nutrition and providing resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses. The major mechanisms of microbial plant-recruitment from the soil and formation of microbial communities are unknown. The practical exploitation of these mechanisms will lead to innovative solutions for a sustainable agriculture, in order to mitigate the upcoming challenge associated with climate change. Main members of the root microbiome are Proteobacteria, as they account for 50% of the bacterial population, and LUXOM project aims to generate critical insights on their assembly and cell-cell communication mechanisms via a well-defined and targeted approach. LuxR solos, which evolved from cell-cell signaling quorum sensing systems (QS), are very widespread and exclusively found in proteobacteria. They are a family of transcriptional regulators that respond to endogenous or exogenous (also of plant origin) signals. The LuxR solos will be studied by genomics, genetics, molecular biology, analytical and molecular chemistry, biochemistry, microbiome analysis and state-of -the-art mass spectrometry based technologies. The importance of bacterial LuxR solos in the plant (root)-microbiome network will be explored to unravel their influence on plant host physiology and microbial community dynamics. Understanding cell-cell signaling in the root microbiome will be used to design bacterial communities of interacting plant-beneficial strains that will serve as a probiotic for plants to enhance plant health and sustainable agricultural productivity. Thus, LUXOM will unravel the first major cell-cell signal players for plant (root)microbiome establishment.