Projet EVOdrops (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Doctoral Networks
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Natural evolution is a powerful process that has given rise to the functionally diverse set of proteins present in all living systems. Repetitive rounds of mutation, selection and amplification have optimised nature’s catalysts, the enzymes, to perform an enormous range of different reactions. However, natural evolution has driven the optimisation of enzymes subjected to living functions of microorganisms, according to ill-defined and fluctuating external conditions and is not suitable for industrial processes since it lacks of control of selection pressure. In EVOdrops, we will use directed evolution to overcome these limitations. It is a synthetic, man-made approach of evolution, aiming at improving living systems based on predefined needs, controlling the external selection pressure. While natural evolution took billions of years to optimise macromolecules, directed evolution – to be efficient in an industrial process – requires both the generation of genetic diversity and ultra-high throughput screening capabilities to recover the variants of interest. We will develop and optimise these tools using the ground-breaking potential of droplet-based microfluidics for high-throughput experimentation and the fine control of gene library construction. EVOdrops, a European training network, will bring together the leading research scientists, laboratories and industries in Europe with outstanding expertise in protein engineering and microfluidics and 13 early stage researchers. We will offer an extensive multi- and interdisciplinary training to ensure that they can solve these urgent and unmet challenges in biotechnology and biomedicine. We will use a multidisciplinary approach combining soft matter, microfluidics and chemical biology to design solutions for the selection of new enzymes of industrial and therapeutic interest. In the future, our approaches can be generalised to challenges involving high-throughput miniaturised biochemical or cell-based assays.

Mots clés : droplet microfluidics, directed evolution, microsystems, large libraries, protein engineering

Participants :
- Polish Academy of Sciences (Pologne) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 227478.6 €
- Technical University of Munich (Allemagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 252788.4 €
- École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris (France) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Harvard University (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 303172.56 €
- Drop-tech ltd (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, organization partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Sphere fluidics limited (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, organization partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Göttingen (Allemagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Vilnius University (Lituanie) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 223947.0 €
- Thermo Fisher Scientific (Lithuania) (Lituanie) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 223947.0 €
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Partner, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 527543.58 €
- Microfluidic ChipShop (Germany) (Allemagne) — Partner, organization partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Suisse) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 281276.64 €
- Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgique) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 256320.0 €
- BioMillenia (France) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 274802.04 €
- Université Paris Cité (France) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 274802.04 €
- Blacktrace (United Kingdom) (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, organization partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- BASF (Germany) (Allemagne) — Partner, organization partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Glasgow (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 606345.12 €