CLC bio part of a pan-European project to uncover the mechanisms that determine cell fate
European scientists met on Monday to kick off the 4DCellFate project, funded by the European Commission under the FP7 programme.
The 4DcellFate project will tackle the question of how the Polycomb Repressive Complex (PRC) and Nucleosome Remodelling and histone Deacetylase (NuRD) complexes function across the genome and time during differentiation, by applying technologies, such as structural biology, microscopy, proteomics, high-throughput sequencing, and computational modeling.
'Understanding how the PRC and NuRD complexes determine cell fate is a prerequisite for developing models for diseases, such as cancer, that can be used both for further research and for developing personalised medicine therapies,' said director of research and development at CLC bio, Dr Roald Forsberg.
ICREA research professor and group leader at the CRG in Barcelona, Luciano Di Croce, added: 'This network has brought together the optimal mix of expertise, laboratories, techniques, and resources to finally elucidate how the fate of a cell is decided and how to apply this knowledge to regenerative medicine.' Comprising eight academic institutions, three biotech companies and one pharmaceutical company, the 5-year EU-funded project aims to translate basic research findings into new research and medical solutions with a budget of almost 12 million Euros.
The partnering organisations involved in the project are the University of Cambridge (UK), Fundacio Privada Centre de Regulacio Genandograve;mica (Spain), Copenhagen University (Denmark), Universitair Medisch Centrum Utrecht (Netherlands), Universiteit Antwerpen (Belgium), European Molecular Biology Laboratory (Germany), Max Planck Gesellschaft zur Forderung der Wissenschaften e.V.
(Germany), Istituto Europeo di Oncologia SRL (Italy), Horizon Discovery Limited (UK), Cellartis AB (Sweden), Glaxo Smith Kline (UK), and CLC bio (Denmark).
