European project promotes top-notch research in biochemistry and biophysics

TWIN2PIPSA, a new European project funded with €1.2 million, will support leading research and intensive training in the biochemistry and biophysics of protein folding, with implications and applications in biomedicine and biotechnology.

The project is directed by the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Lisbon in Portugal (Ciências ULisboa), in cooperation with the Universities of Copenhagen (Denmark), Tel Aviv (Israel), and Cambridge (United Kingdom).

Cláudio M. Gomes, Professor of Ciências ULisboa and researcher at the BioSystems & Integrative Sciences Institute (BioISI) is the project coordinator for “Twinning for Excellence in Biophysics of Protein Interactions and Self-Assembly” (TWIN2PIPSA), which began in October 2022.

Setting up this project, according to Cláudio Gomes and Patrcia Fasca, the two researchers who envisaged and encouraged the grant application, was a distinctive opportunity to leverage the research and competencies of a local cluster of scientists at Ciências ULisboa who do have different backgrounds but share a common interest in proteins and protein folding.

Even so, the development of much-needed biomedical and biotechnological applications, such as therapeutics for protein folding diseases and diagnostic tools for protein biomarkers or new protein-based biological adhesives, necessitates a new type of collaborative multidisciplinary approach as well as particular scientific and methodological competencies, which are now made available through collaboration with leading institutions.

To make connections and convert research into applications, TWIN2PIPSA will conduct a variety of cooperative events, including staff exchanges, advanced training programs, conferences, and workshops between academics and industry.

The expertise of partners in the valorization of information is crucial for this, and Ehud Gazit from Tel Aviv University emphasizes that the project will “contribute to the promotion of innovation and technology transfer at the University of Lisbon and Portugal at large”.

Twinning also comprises an exploratory research project based on two areas of study: one in biomedicine, focusing on protein aggregation in protein-folding diseases, and the other in biotechnology, focusing on protein-based bioadhesive materials.

This relationship, according to Michele Vendruscolo, partner at the University of Cambridge, “will enable a range of interdisciplinary activities to be initiated and strengthened at the University of Lisboa through sharing expertise and resources for the benefit of all”.

These activities have a strong impact in the training of young researchers and are an opportunity to expand our know-how, contributing to cutting-edge research in these scientific areas and to generate knowledge with societal impact, in an international and network perspective”.

Cláudio M. Gomes, Faculty of Sciences at the University of Lisbon

Collaborators are excited about this angle.

I look forward to helping train junior researchers to continue this effort in many years to come.”

Kresten Lindorff-Larsen, University of Copenhagen