DIRECTION
Deciphering of Root and Rhizosphere microbiome to increase host fitness in the Fusarium oxysporum-plant interaction (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017-EF-CAR-7972)
Fungi have a devastating impact on human nutrition and health. Fungal pathogens provoke huge yield losses in crops, destroying around 23% of the agricultural production annually. A major proportion of this loss is caused by pathogenic root colonizing microbes that have evolved sophisticated strategies to outcompete the benign microbial competitors in the rhizosphere and to actively suppress the plant immune response.
The fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum (Fox) is a soilborne root infecting fungus that provokes vascular wilt disease in over a hundred different agricultural crops, and represents a serious threat world-wide. The current control methods for this pathogen depend upon extensive use of chemical pesticides, which are highly unsustainable in the food chain. Here we propose to use the Fox-tomato interaction as a model to molecularly dissect the role of the root (including endophytic) and rhizosphere microbiota in modulating vascular wilt disease.
We will use a barcoded pyrosequencing approach to taxonomically define the root and rhizosphere microbiome in tomato. Next, we will dissect the impact of the microbiome on fungal host sensing, using an established collection of isogenic signalling mutants of Fox available in the host lab. We will carry out in vivo Fox- bacterial interaction assays to generate a dataset for identification of bacterial communities exerting an antagonistic effect on pathogen colonization.
The project will thus produce new insights into the interplay between the root microbiome and pathogen colonization. The, generated knowledge platform will be used to reassemble a synthetic ‘SynCom’ microbiome that will be used to control Vascular Wilt, thereby advancing the development of sustainable agriculture.
General objectives
- Define the culturable microbiomes from healthy and infected tomato plants upon interaction with F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici and define tomato specific microbial differentials.
- To understand the effect of major identified bacterial root and rhizosphere phyla on F. oxysporum-tomato interaction in vitro and in vivo by using an isogenic Fox mutant collection from host lab.
- Generate a complete Core synthetic microbiome community to resist F. oxysporum in tomato and determine its modulation by standard soil parameters such as pH and fertilizer application.
Supervisor: Antonio C. Di Pietro e-mail: ge2dipia@uco.es
Investigador Principal: Mugdha Sabale e-mail: sabale.mugdha@gmail.com
BIOMASSTEP
Development and transfer to bioenergy companies of an innovative Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIR) technology for rapid and economic analysis of the quality of local biomass in the cross-border network (INTERREG-POCTEP 0022_BIOMASSTEP_5_E)
This project aims to promote the use of biodegradable biomass generated in the southern area of Andalusia and Portugal as bioenergy. To this end, this project will develop rapid and economic analysis models based on Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIR) technology, which will allow the quality of the biomass and its future use to be determined quickly. This means a saving in costs and time compared to conventional techniques of analysis of the biomass and will speed up the decision-making process.
General objectives
- Through the official characterization of local biomass, the optimization and development of a rapid, non-polluting and innovative analytical methodology, based on the application of NIR technology, for the prediction of quality parameters of this waste will be carried out.
- Technology transfer of the developed tool to enhance the innovative capacity of the activities of biomass companies, so that results of the research can be exploited commercially, and process added value (quality biomass) may be generated.
- To develop a cross-border network between research centers, universities, public administrations and companies to promote the use of quality biomass.
Role of the University of Cordoba
- Development of NIR chemometric models for the prediction of physicochemical parameters of local biomass quality.
- Transfer of NIR technology to SME in the bioenergy sector.
- Intellectual property protection/patent application.
- Coordination of the overall project.
Investigador Principal: Pilar Dorado Pérez
Correo electrónico de contacto: qf1dopem@uco.es
Página web del proyecto: www.biomasstep.eu
ALGARED+
RED transfronteriza para el desarrollo de productos innovadores con microALGAs (INTERREG-POCTEP 0055_ALGARED_PLUS_5_E)
This project aims to:
- Promote scientific excellence in the Andalusia-Algarve transboundary cooperation area in the field of Microalgae biotechnology, through the creation of a transnational network of Universities, centers of R+D+i , technologists centers and companies dedicated to research, production and exploration of microalgae biomass, enhancing its international competitiveness.
- Stimulate the mobility of researchers and technicians between R & D centers and companies on both sides of the border.
- Enhance the transfer of know-how generated to companies to the incipient sector of biotechnology of microalgae.
- Collect the needs of the business sector to promote projects.
General objectives
- Promote scientific excellence in the field of microalgae biotechnology in the cross-border area
- Promote joint cross-border investigation Universities / companies / technology centers in the area of microalgae
- Promote the transfer of know-how and the technology generated for the companies of the sector of the biotechnology demicroalgas of Andalusia and Algarve.
Role of the University of Cordoba
Understanding and optimizing the key metabolic pathways involved in the assimilation of nutrients, production of bioenergy and the synthesis of compounds of interest for microalgae and the development of new applications for aquaculture based on microalgae
Investigador Principal: Emilio Fernández Reyes
Correo electrónico de contacto:bb1feree@uco.es
Página web del proyecto: http://www.algared.com/
AQUACLEW
Advancing QUAlity of CLimate services for European Water (ERA-NET ERA4CS/PCIN-2017-072)
The current work to develop climate services indicates that the following crucial improvements are required to increase user adoption and satisfaction: (a) indicators and resolution of the indicators given by the service needs to address a wider range of user needs; (b) large-scale climate service data should be more reliable at the local decision scale and (c) guidance and visualization tools in the services should better reflect the wider range of user needs. In AQUACLEW, research addressing these improvements will be co-developed considering user inputs to further integrate users across the whole chain of climate service production. This means users are updated on the latest scientific knowledge; better understand potentials or limitations of the data and can influence (choose between) assumptions made in each step when producing the service output.
General Objectives
The overall goal of AQUACLEW is to use innovative research techniques and integrated co-development with users to advance the quality and usability of several climate services for several water related sectors.
Role of the University of Cordoba
Our university leads WP1 “User needs” and therefore it is in charge of developing advanced feed-back loops along the whole chain of information production, to better understand user needs. In addition, UCO participates actively in the others work packages. In WP2, UCO is involved in the different proposed experiment to improve data quality (i.e. climate and hydrological model selection, and application of expert elicitation techniques in the context of climate services); in WP3, UCO leads one of the study cases “Drought and Water resource allocation for tourism, agriculture, energy sectors”; and WP4 contributes in the definition of the key performance indictors to quaintly the success in the project.
Investigador Principal: María José Polo Gómez
Correo electrónico de contacto: mjpolo@uco.es
Página web del proyecto: http://aquaclew.eu/
HiPerNav
High Performance Soft-tissue Navigation (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016 -722068)
Primary liver cancer, which consists predominantly of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is the fifth most common cancer worldwide and the third most common cause of cancer mortality. A successful surgical resection of HCC requires complete removal of the tumour while sparing as much healthy tissue as possible. Due to technical and clinical difficulties relatively low percentage of patients are eligible for resection. There is an urgent need to increase the patient eligibility and improve the survival prognosis after liver interventions.
HiPerNav will train early stage researchers (biomedical engineers and medical doctors) to become international leading in key areas of expertise through a novel coordinated plan of individual research projects addressing specific bottlenecks in soft tissue navigation for improved treatment of liver cancer. The multidisciplinary dialogue and work between clinicians and biomedical engineers is crucial to address these bottlenecks. By providing researchers with knowledge and training within specific topics from minimally invasive treatment, biomedical engineering, research methodologies, innovation and entrepreneurship, the link between academic research and industry will be strengthened. This allows for easy transfer of promising results from the research projects to commercially exploitable solutions.
The global image guided surgery devices market is promising; it was valued at USD 2.76 billion in 2013 and is projected to expand 6.4% from 2014 to 2022 to reach USD 4.80 billion in 2022. The market for soft-tissue navigation is still in its infancy, mainly due to challenges in achieved accuracy for targeting deformable and moving organs.
By providing multi-disciplinary training, the researchers in this consortium of international leading research institutions, universities and industry will initiate true translational research from academic theoretical ideas to the clinical testing of prototype, developed solutions and tools.
General objectives
The overall goal of HiPerNav is to successfully train and educate ESRs in the multidisciplinary field of image-guided interventions. The scientific and clinical goal is to develop a navigation platform for management of liver cancer and metastases treatment to improve the eligibility and prognosis for liver surgical procedures and ablation treatment. This platform should enable an integral management of surgical workflow in: preoperative surgical planning, intra-operative resection navigation and ablation monitoring and post operative quality control.
Role of the University of Cordoba
To provide detailed understanding of treatment planning and navigation workflow in order to verify which visualization interfaces enable the most intuitive and fail-safe data interpretation and decision making.
Serve as the foundation of the software and interface architectures.
Supervisor: Joaquín Olivares Bueno e-mail: el1olbuj@uco.es
CLARA
Climate forecast enabled knowledge services (H2020-SC5-2016-2017-730482)
Climate variability and change (CVC) embody sizeable economic, social and environmental risks in Europe and globally. Climate services (CSs) (Brasseur and Gallardo, 2016; Brooks, 2013; Lourenco et al., 2015) are essential for catalysing economic and societal transformations that not only reduce these risks and/or improve societal resilience, but also unlock Europe’s innovation potential, competitiveness and economic growth.
As a part of European efforts to catalyse the potential of climate services for more efficient natural resource management and improved disaster risk management and resilience, the CLARA project will boost innovation and uptake of climate services based on front line seasonal and decadal forecasts and climate projections. Building upon the advancements in climate modelling and science in the context of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), the CLARA project will illustrate genuine benefits and economic value of CSs in the face of climate variability and short-term climate change.
A portfolio of user co-designed and co-developed climate services will help to improve policy and decision makings in the five priority areas GFCS: disaster risk reduction, water resource management, agriculture and food (security), renewable energy sources, and public health. Carefully designed business and marketing strategies will promote their uptake, help to energise the European market with climate services, and foster the European innovation potential.
General objectives
The main objective of CLARA innovation action is to develop a set of leading‐edge climate services building upon the newly developed Copernicus Climate Change Services – near‐term forecasts and sectorial information systems (SIS) – and sustain their marketability and value
Role of the University of Cordoba
Set up, manage and assist the Multi‐User Forum that will enable service purveyors, public agencies and authorities, and other users of climate services to contribute to the design and implementation of project
Design and facilitate working with users to reveal their perceptions and requirements; co‐design, inform and review CLARA innovation; and stimulate collaboration and co‐production of services
Share knowledge produced within and outside the project so as to stimulate peer learning and partnership building within the consortium and beyond, and assist in the dissemination and exploitation of project results.
DEER
DEVELOPMENTAL EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENT ON REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
The multidisciplinary research teams in this consortium have played lead roles in establishing that fetal and childhood periods are vulnerable to environmental disruption leading to common reproductive disorders. This proposal will investigate:
Connections between normal/abnormal perinatal reproductive development and maturation of reproductive function at puberty and in adulthood;
Systemic gene-environment interactions underlying reproductive disorders taking account of genetic susceptibility, multiple exposures (e.g. mixtures of environmental chemicals) and their timing (perinatal, peripubertal, adult);
Connection between perinatal reproductive development and later obesity/metabolic disorders. To achieve this we will utilize large cohorts generated in previous EU projects and collect new data from these on reproductive maturation and adult function. Existing genomic and proteomics data, exposure data for >100 potentially toxic environmental chemicals, lifestyle, dietary and medical history information will be analyzed using integrative systems biology approaches to pinpoint critical (interacting) factors influencing development.
Role of the University of Cordoba
The university group is responsible for one of the work-packages of the project, aiming at deciphering the potential relationship between early exposures to hormonally active compounds and alterations of puberty and metabolism later in life. The UCO group will work in animal models to generate mechanistic knowledge of potential translational interest.
NOVIWAM
NOVEL INTEGRATED WATER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR SOUTHERN EUROPEAN REGIONS
NOVIWAM aims to promote multilevel and interregional co-operation in the field of water management tools and methods. By learning from the experiences of others and pooling the related know-how and technology, the partners want to increase their capacity to solve in the most eco-efficient and sustainable manner the compelling water management problems faced in the Euro-Mediterranean climate regions.
At the same time, the project would contribute to the objectives of the European Water Framework Directive: a good ecological and chemical status of all waters and water management at catchment or river basin scale.
The final goal of this initiative would be to exploit the actions associated with the project to potentiate the internationalization of the activities of the participants.
General objectives
To establish long-lasting links between clusters throughout the regions, and allow the triple-helix components to benefit from the scale economies deriving from this multilevel and interregional co-operation.
In addition, NOVIWAM will foster the expansion of a wider European research-driven network of clusters in the sector. Mentoring activities are strongly considered, as well as specific needs of clusters from a candidate country (Albania) and those with insularity problems (Cyprus) have been included.
Their underdeveloped water management strategies are expected to be strongly improved as a result of the transfer of experiences from Portugal, Spain and France.
Role of the University of Cordoba
To help achieving these objectives, the NOVIWAM project will develop a Joint Action Plan (JAP) for the participating regional clusters designed by establishing a communication process between the clusters and studying the specific needs, weaknesses and capacities (SWOT Analysis) of each one and in general, taking into account the specific characteristics of all of the agents involved: researchers, companies and regional authorities.
Additionally, the NOVIWAM project will establish a programme for the implementation of the JAP, trying to involve other regions into it, and the dissemination of the conclusions of the work at a regional and international level.
The NOVIWAM project would also establish a long-lasting relationship between the participating clusters, promoting mentoring and mutual learning activities as well as further co-operation activities beyond this project.
BASELINE
SELECTION AND IMPROVING OF FIT-FOR-PURPOSE SAMPLING PROCEDURES FOR SPECIFIC FOODS AND RISKS.
General Objectives
The overall objective of this project is to provide harmonized and validated sampling strategies, structured with International standards (e.g. ISO), to support the European policies for food safety and to be suitable for food producers, in order to collect comparative data to improve quantitative risk analysis of selected biological and chemical agents.
Role of the andalusian partner
Two members of our research group HIBRO will act as leaders of selected tasks within WP5 and WP6. In particular, the contribution will be focused on the evaluation and the proposal of POs and FSOs in vegetal products, and the development of mathematical prediction models for different microbial hazards. The results will be integrated with different sampling plans, which allows the identification of those conditions, which will reduce the risk.
Impact
The implementation and development of the new sampling schemes and analytical methods will provide new knowledge about the improvement of the food legislation and food safety in Europe, new data about emerging risks, comparative data for quantitative risk assessment, cost-effective, validated and harmonized alternate methods and sampling schemes applicable to food producers in all European countries , new or implemented models for early warning, including biological and chemical risks, identified in the food products under study as prediction variables.
META-GnRH
METABOLIC TARGETING OF GnRH NEURONS: MOLECULAR MECHANISMS AND NEUROPEPTIDE PATHWAYS.
The global aim of this project is to gain insight into the neuroendocrine and molecular mechanisms responsible for the metabolic regulation of puberty and fertility, and their eventual alteration in conditions of disturbed energy balance. To this end, a combination of in vivo and ex vivo approaches, using conventional and genetically-modified rodent models, will be implemented in order to evaluate (i) the effects of selected metabolic hormones (ghrelin) and metabolic neuropeptidergic pathways (NPY, AgRP, alpha-MSH) on GnRH neuronal activation, and (ii) to analyze the putative role of the sensor of intracellular energy status, mTOR, in mediating the actions of the above signals on GnRH neurons. It is anticipated that implementation of the project will expand greatly our knowledge of the physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the metabolic control of reproduction.
Role of the andalusian partner
The group UCO is the coordinator of this Project. The research fellow associated to this project will conduct part of his activities at the UCO group (during the return phase of his fellowship), where he will continue physiologic studies on the neuro-endocrine mechanisms for the metabolic control of GnRH secretion and, hence, of puberty onset and fertility.
Impact
This project will provide novel physiological knowledge on the mechanisms governing key reproductive phenomena, including puberty onset and reproduction, with special emphasis on elucidation of the basis for their metabolic modulation. Considering the increasing incidence of disturbances of puberty and fertility in the general population, it is expected that the results of this project will help to unveil part of the neuroendocrine and molecular mechanisms for such alterations. While this information will be generated using suitable animal models, our results are posed with potential translational interest, as to illustrate on the putative basis of human reproductive diseases.