Microbiomes may have the potential to benefit the global food system, but tapping that potential requires coordinated research – which currently isn’t the case. The EU-funded MicrobiomeSupport project aims to change this by mapping the research landscape and highlighting the need to standardise data. In doing so, it is ensuring that microbiome research can support safe, healthy and sustainable food systems.
A better understanding of microbial communities could bring profound benefits to the agri-food sector. The EU-funded MASTER project has developed a wide range of microbiome products, foods, services and processes. These innovations are helping improve the quantity, quality, safety and sustainability of our food and farms.
Cell division is fundamental to life, but still not fully understood. By building one piece by piece, the EU-funded ACTOMYOSIN RING project found out more about the complex ring of proteins that guides the process. The research offers new avenues for treatments against hundreds of conditions, including heart disease.
Changes to the sugars attached to proteins have been linked with a range of human diseases, but the tools needed to detect this phenomenon have been lacking. The EU-funded GLYCOSURF project developed a new test that can detect these subtle alterations. The technique provides a robust and reliable way to provide early diagnoses.
The many microscopic organisms, or microbiome, that live in our gut play a big part in keeping us healthy, yet a breakdown in communication between them and the rest of the body can badly affect our health. The EU-funded META-BIOME project set out to understand the causes of this miscommunication. To understand this could allow for new treatments against many diseases, benefiting all citizens.
When COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the WHO, an EU funded research project immediately stepped up to the plate. BioExcel, one of Europe's leading centres for computational biomolecular research, gave priority access to its supercomputing facilities and cutting-edge software. This will help researchers and innovators across Europe in the fight against coronavirus.
EU-funded researchers have applied engineering know-how to understand what controls the mechanical strength of living cells. Their findings offer new insights into the spread of cancers as well as into diseases of the heart and nervous system.
EU-funded researchers have developed an ultrasensitive test to rapidly, accurately and cost-effectively diagnose disease, underpinned by innovative biosensing technology that could help combat the COVID-19 pandemic, HIV and cancer.
EU-funded researchers have employed quantum physics to develop an optical microscope that opens up the potential to view the tiniest of objects - including many viruses - directly for the first time.
Treatment guidance for prostate cancer patients is not optimal because current clinical tests do not clearly differentiate between slow-growing and aggressive forms. An EU-funded project is addressing this by studying the underlying molecular mechanisms of the disease to enable personalised and effective treatment.
