GLYCOVAX is a network for the education of promising young scientists who will learn how to rationally design a next generation of well-defined and innovative glycoconjugate vaccines to improve current preventive therapies and to tackle unmet medical needs. Glycoconjugate vaccines represent the key for success of vaccination in children. The covalent linkage to proteins renders carbohydrates able to evoke a T-cell memory response. Current vaccines are prepared from heterogeneous mixtures of sugars linked by unspecific methods to the carrier protein giving complex mixtures of products. Due to this intricate structure, it has not been possible to apply a medicinal chemistry approach in the development of glycoconjugate vaccines and to fully understand their mechanism of action. Combination of novel approaches for glycan synthesis and site-selective conjugation methods now gives access to conjugates defined in sugar component and attachment site, thus leading to robust structure-immunogenicity relationship. Advancements in structural biophysics can be applied to select the optimal glycan antigen. By combining the beneficiaries’ expertise in carbohydrate synthesis, bioconjugation, high throughput screening, structural glycobiology, vaccinology and immunology, together with the experience in project management, GLYCOVAX will create a multidisciplinary environment where 14 young researchers will contribute to develop a novel route towards improved, safer and better characterized glycoconjugate vaccines, and contemporarily acquire transferable skills which will lead them to become the new leaders of academic or industrial research. The network will involve 9 academic groups and 2 industrial partners as Beneficiaries, and one SME as Partner Organization. The profound interaction between academy and industry will aid the students to get new concepts and visions for translating their ideas from the bench to the manufacturing of the next generation of glycoconjugate vaccines.

PLIADES advances the SoA dataspaces reference architectures, towards a step change on the use of data as key enabler of technological advances in AI and Robotics. To this end, PLIADES researches into novel, AI-enabled tools to advance full data life cycles integration, both within and between data spaces. Sustainable data creation methods through data compression, filtering and normalization will be developed, to allow efficient and greener storage in a data-oriented future. Data privacy and sovereignty will be further ensured, through standards and decentralized protocols to protect data-producing organizations and citizens. Alongside, data sharing will be revolutionized through novel AI-based brokers and connectors using extended metadata, shaped through the project’s best practices and domain expert’s knowledge. On top of these, active data discovery services through cross domain AI connectors will allow creating linked data spaces, enabling interoperability between previously disconnected entities, while data quality assessment services will facilitate real time data evaluation. Extended synergies with EU initiatives will be established in order to contribute models, strategies and technologies for a Common European Data Space. Our outcomes will be evaluated in six use cases focusing on direct advancements in key AI and Robotics technologies for everyday use, oriented around multiple data spaces; mobility, healthcare, industrial, energy and green deal. Our use cases provide a challenging validation suite involving vast heterogeneous data creation, management and sharing while addressing full data lifecycles in multiple major domains. Through the developed ecosystem, CCAM and ADAS/AD car technologies will be enhanced, HRI for robot operators and healthcare patients will be reshaped, while further advanced, integrated data spaces will be deployed in the healthcare, manufacturing and green deal sectors aiming to reduce carbon footprints and shape a greener future.

The BioUPGRADE action unites functional genomics and material science advances, to galvanize the sustainable transformation of nature’s major structural polymers into a cascade of high volume and specialized bioproducts. Technology ready results (TRL 4-6) are anticipated, serving as an innovation launchpad that tackles climate change while revolutionizing the materials used in our daily lives. The action is differentiated by its: 1) emphasis on upgrading nature’s main biopolymers for use in performance advantaged products with emergent properties; 2) pursuit of cell-free, biocatalytic technologies that leverage the design principles and finesse encoded in surface-acting enzymes and non-catalytic proteins, which will permit fine-tuning of natural polymer structures for customized applications that can not be achieved through dominating thermochemical approaches; and 3) creation of novel, fully bio-based materials based on controlled assembly of tailored biopolymer components, guided by new capacity to probe biopolymers and resulting materials from nano to macro scales. BioUPGRADE will apply advances in computational biology to mine untapped information in escalating genomic and proteomic datasets; introduce a bio-customize framework that stretches well beyond current synthetic biology concepts; and establish a structure-function matrix for tailored biopolymers and new assemblies. Key project deliverables include: 1) application-driven functional screens critical to breakthroughs in bio-technologies for materials engineering, 2) an innovational, biocatalyst toolbox of surface-acting proteins designed for bio-based materials engineering, and 3) protocols for controlled assembly of tailored biopolymers into fully bio-based materials, from sustainable textiles to personal health products. BioUPGRADE is positioned for success because it mobilizes proven scientific and commercial expertise in establishing lasting bio-economies that reduce reliance on fossil resources.

The main objective of this project is to promote the use of peptides as potential therapeutic agents. We now know that ribosomal peptides, and specifically lasso peptides, which are biosynthesized by bacteria as agents of defense, show a compact and rigid structure, giving a high stability against physical, chemical and proteolytic degradation. The spectrum of biological activities of these peptides is very wide, acting as antibiotics and also as enzymatic inhibitors, such as the case of the HIV virus protease. Thus, they show a great potential as a therapeutic alternative to existing drugs. To achieve this goal, the project is divided into two distinct parts, to be performed in the two chosen sites, strategically combining the synthetic aspects (TSRI, San Diego) with the structural determination and their involvement in recognition molecular processes (CIB-CSIC, Madrid) . Firstly, synthetic efforts will be made to chemically synthesize the lasso microcin J25 (MccJ25). It will be an extraordinary example of how we, chemists, can use very complex chemoselective reactions, which are usually reserved for biosynthetic enzymes. During the second part of the project, the first structural studies of Lasso peptides-protein complexes will be accomplished using the synergy of combining NMR with computation methods. The selected research centers to achieve this project are: The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), being the project supervisor Prof. Phil Baran and Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas (CIB-CSIC), with Prof. Jesús Jiménez-Barbero. Both research groups and centers have a well-gained international prestige.