Projet VIRTUOUS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Staff Exchanges
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

VIRTUOUS is a virtual tongue made by an integrated computational framework able to screen food for natural ligands targeting taste receptors. The proposed intelligent algorithm, by integrating drug discovery techniques, machine learning classifiers, algorithms for big data, cloud computing, and experimental data will predict the organoleptic profile of a specific food based on its chemical composition. The outcomes of this research will shed light on the mechanisms driving the information transfer from the chemistry level, where food molecular constituents bind taste receptors, toward a cascade of molecular, supramolecular and cellular events emerging as an elaborated sensation which strongly contribute to the food organoleptic profile. The joint exchange programme involves 9 participants from 4 countries: Italy, Greece, Spain, Switzerland. Participants are both from academic (4 beneficiaries) and non-academic (5 beneficiaries) sectors. The balance between academy and industry and the interdisciplinary nature of the Consortium will grant a unique stimulating environment for researchers involved in the projects. Relevance of the program is identified at European and worldwide level, both for academia and industry. The idea of conceiving a taste predictor to be applied on European food products will boost and widen European food market at global level. The VIRTUOUS tongue may be also thought has an “food computer aided design tool” for EU food technology. For example, based on taste prediction the VIRTUOUS platform may be used in the future to predict the results of a specific grape graft. The Virtuous tongue may be also combined with other technologies to enhance precision agriculture. The VIRTUOUS research also links taste receptors’ activation to the activity of nuclear receptors following the paradigm of the Mediterranean Diet: “good and healthy”. Finally, the project is related to neuroscience, by considering molecular mechanisms of brain elaboration in taste.

Mots clés : organoleptic profile, human homeostasis, mediterranian diet, molecular modelling, bioinformatics, molecular dynamics, taste, protein protein interactions

Participants :
- Polytechnic University of Turin (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 211600.0 €
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israël) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 23000.0 €
- Emmanouil orfanos kai sia ee (Grèce) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 41400.0 €
- Efiis sistemiki viologia monoprosopi ike (Grèce) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 96600.0 €
- Missing tech sagl (Suisse) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 133400.0 €
- Enginlife-engineering solutions (Italie) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 161000.0 €
- 7hc societa a responsabilita limitata (Italie) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 32200.0 €
- University of Granada (Espagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 101200.0 €
- A.p.a. san sebastian s. coop. and. (Espagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 50600.0 €
- University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (Suisse) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 156400.0 €
- Athena Research and Innovation Center In Information Communication & Knowledge Technologies (Grèce) — Partner, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 101200.0 €