Grants

EU co-funded 2019-2023

We aim to produce high yields of novel HBV/HCV antigens with superior immunogenic properties in plants and mammalian cells, based on innovative molecular design and establish in premiere an advanced biotechnological platform for production of best vaccine candidates antigens in algae.

EU co-funded 2019-2022

Starting 01.06.2019, the Institute of Biochemistry of the Romanian Academy is implementing the EMBED project, funded by UEFISCDI (contract 103, from 01.06.2019), through the ERA-NET COFUND-NEURON III grant call. The project aims to assess the shared molecular links between pre- and post-natal, metabolic and psychosocial stress, and the risks of depression later in life, and its duration will be 36 months.

EU co-funded 2016-2021

Starting 02.09.2016, the Institute of Biochemistry of the Romanian Academy is implementing the project “Multi-omics prediction system for prioritization of gerontological interventions”, co-funded through European Fund for Regional Development, in accordance with the funding contract signed by the Ministry of National Education and Scientific Research. The total funding for the project is 8.524.757,50 lei, of which 8.502.557,50 lei represent non-reimbursable funding. The project’s duration is 48 months.

EU co-funded 2014-2017

Hepatitis B (HBV) and C viruses (HCV) are important human pathogens resulting in more than 500 million people being currently carriers. Sadly, Romania has the highest prevalence of HBV/HCV infections among the EU countries (up to 7% of the population). Chronically infected patients of HBV and HCV are at high risk to develop severe liver diseases, such as fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

EU co-funded 2014

HCV is a major cause of chronic hepatitis worldwide. A better understanding of the HCV life cycle is needed to develop new treatments against this virus. A peculiarity of HCV is the crucial role played by both structural and non-structural proteins in the assembly process. Indeed, practically all HCV proteins have been shown to be involved in the virion assembly process. The present project aims to characterize the spatial and temporal relationship between all the viral proteins during viral assembly.

EU co-funded 2014

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an important human pathogen that infects the liver and establishes chronic infection in the majority of cases, leading to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma over the course of many years. Despite recent progress, details of the HCV life cycle are still missing, with the HCV assembly process being particularly poorly understood.

EU co-funded 2010-2013

Programul Postdoctoral "Biotehnologii Celulare si Moleculare cu Aplicatii in Medicina", se adreseaza tinerilor cu diploma de doctor in biologie, chimie, fizica, medicina si informatica - interesati de burse de cercetare Post Doctorala la standarde europene.

EU co-funded 2010-2012

Scopul PROCERA este de a dezvolta infrastructura IBAR pentru cresterea capacitatii de cercetare-dezvoltare C-D in domeniul biochimiei si biologiei moleculare pe plan national, precum si a competitivitatii cercetarii stiintifice romanesti la nivel european.

EU co-funded 2010

Începând cu data de 16.06.2010, Institutul de Biochimie beneficiază de asistenţă financiară nerambursabilă pentru implementarea proiectului “Întărirea capacităţii administrative”, în baza contractului de finanţare nr. 167/16.06.2010 semnat cu Organismul Intermediar ANCS Bucureşti.

EU co-funded 2007 - 2011 Grant agreement ID: 35830

Project Funded under: Human resources and Mobility in the specific programme for research, technological development and demonstration "Structuring the European Research Area" under the Sixth Framework Programme 2002-2006. PTPNET was a Training Network for young scientists in the field of protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) research.

International 2022-2024 Bilateral projects

The project is agreed as a joint collaboration among IBAR, ATOMKI and UD, the latter being a cost free participant. There are two main directions envisaged by the proposed project: - receptors mapping and therapy, using an affibody against HER2 receptors, combined with an adequate radioisotope. In this respect, the specific objectives are: a) expression and purification of affibodies; b) establishing labelling procedures; c) ex vivo and/or in vivo testing of optimal compounds.

International 2022 - 2023 Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program/ FFC_3-0119.

Affibody molecules are highly promising therapeutic candidates due to their advantageous features like: small size, efficient delivery, straightforward engineering towards improved formats, site-directed conjugation of payloads, possibility of GMP production by chemical synthesis or inexpensive bacterial production leading to low product costs.

International 2019-2022 https://acad.ro/relExterne/pag_relExt.htm

The project is agreed as a bilateral collaboration between IBAR and ATOMKI, and the University of Debrecen and IFIN-HH participate in this project voluntarily.

International 2002 -2004 / 2004 - 2008 SCHE 545_7 / 5421388: The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is the most important independent research funding organisation in Germany. It supports both scientific and humanistic studies and aims to promote top-level research in various disciplines at universities and research institutions. The main focus is on funding projects proposed by the scientific community, with an emphasis on knowledge-driven research.

International 01.10.2005 - 30.09.2009 DEU/1119514: Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation promotes academic cooperation between foreign and German researchers at the highest level. Each year, the Foundation awards more than 700 research fellowships and awards to support researchers from abroad who come to Germany to work on a research project together with German researchers at a host institute. The research topic is chosen by the applicant.

National 2021–2023

This project aims to improve protein engineering for medical and food security applications by leveraging advanced in silico assistance. Our software, Robosample, combines robotics algorithms with Gibbs sampling to accurately recover biomolecular free energy surfaces. We will further integrate robotics and molecular simulation by introducing new non-equilibrium sampling methods and novel robotic joints.

National 2021-2023

This project aims to understand the molecular events associated with protein aggregation and how a Golgi located protein along with the UPR pathway modulate this process. Model proteins such as IL-1β and α-synuclein, previously shown to aggregate will be employed for these studies. Achieving the objectives of this project should facilitate the understanding of the signaling pathways and the sequence of events correlating the stress sensing machinery with cytoplasmic proteome instability.

National 2020-2022 TE

The overall goal of the current project is to understand the impact of tissue transglutaminase (TG2) targeting in the context of ovarian cancer (OC) tumor microenvironment (TME). Our aproach is aimed at testing the hypothesis that interventions in targeting TG2 in the OC TME will disrupt pro-tumorigenic signaling cross-talk within tumors.

National 2020-2022

The project aims to experimentally develop an integrated and automated solution for screening drugs and genetic interventions for neurodegenerative diseases, using the nematode C. elegans and ageing-related data.

National 2020-2022 PED

The principal goal of this project is the development of a new class of small molecule inhibitors (SMIs) targeting TG2-FN interaction, which is currently in the phase of lead optimization, translatable to clinical use for prevention of ovarian cancer dissemination, either alone or in combinations.

National 2020-2022

This project aims to develop a sensitive high-throughput screening platform by generating an endogenously tagged interleukin-1β reporter cell line by CRISPR-Cas9 technology, able to monitor stimulated IL-1β secretion with the purpose to identify new chemical compounds with anti-inflammatory activity that will be validated in primary macrophages and a mouse model for sepsis.

National 2020-2022 PN-III-P1-1.1-PD-2019-1278/PD183

This project aims to develop new strategies to improve the capacity of antigen presenting tumor cells to activate cytotoxic T cells and hamper immune escape mechanisms in cancer.

National 2020-2022

The project aims to analyze and compare the age-related transcriptomics signatures in variuos tisues, both in healthy and pathological individuals, in order to identify shared or unique aging signature that drive aging or age-related diseases.

National 2018-2021

This project aims to enhance our understanding of the complex biochemical processes involved in Alzheimer's disease and overcome existing limitations in amyloid research by developing an analytical system capable of detecting amyloid concentration during the aggregation stage and advancing drug development in this field.

National 2018-2020

By developing new methods which leverage high-speed robotics algorithms, we undertake the effort to enhance free energy prediction for biomolecular processes. Our focus includes integrating these advancements into existing APIs and applying them to key areas of molecular biosciences such as plant-pathogen interaction, drug design, and immunotherapy.

National 2018-2020 PN-III-RU-TE-2016

Considering the molecular features of the secretory autophagy, on one hand and the enhanced HBV production by degradation-independent autophagy, on the other hand, we hypothesized that HBV employs this peculiar form of autophagy for its own egress. We further proposed that the M protein plays a pivotal role in tilting the equilibrium between viral degradation and secretion towards the latter, due to the presence of the preS2 domain glycan.

National 2017-2019

Bone loss represents one of the most important health problems experienced by Space travelling astronauts. Microgravity produces deterioration of the skeleton due to lack of mechanical loading thus affecting both muscle and bones. Tendons stiffness decreases, muscle fibres atrophies and attenuates their metabolic capacity, whileprogressive cartilage loss occurs.

National 2017-2019

Musculoskeletal disorders affect 1 in 7 people and fractures alone affect 1 in 50 people annually while 10% of bone injuries fail to heal. Our present proposal aims to test for the first time the potential of fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2), to be administered as a stimulatory drug to enhance bone regeneration.

National 2017-2019

This project aims to address a number of structural aspects related to key elements of the plant immune system and its pathogen interactors using a combined approach intricating experimental and computational steps. To this end we intend to build on our previous results in the field and further develop experimental, bioinformatics and molecular modeling methods appropriate for solving the specific problems implied by this proposal.

National 2017-2018 PN-III-P2-2.1-PED-2016

Lactoferrin (Lf), an immunomodulatory glycoprotein was shown to interfere with the life-cycles of many viruses. Our group has rationally designed and characterized the anti-HBV activity of an Lf-derived peptide containing one of the cationic clusters. This project proved the concept that the development of non-toxic, small Lf-derived molecule(s) with a broad-spectrum anti-viral activity may constitute a valuable, cheaper alternative to the current standard of care.

National 2016-2019

Societatea contemporana se afla in mijlocul unei epidemii globale de diabet zaharat tip 2. Aceasta boala este caracterizata de concentratii patologic crescute de glucoza in sangele pacientilor datorita productiei, secretiei si utilizarii inadecvate a insulinei - hormonul principal care regleaza concentratia de glucoza serica. Ne propunem sa generam linii reporter stabile ce pot fi utilizate pentru cuantificarea insulinei secretate.

National 2013-2016 PN-II-RU-TE-2012

The objectives of this project aim to identify as many as possible cell proteins with a role in processing HBV envelpe proteins and to make a correlation between the HBV cccDNA which is the replicative form of the virus and the expression level of cellular proteins involved in the debradation of the HBV envelope proteins. The results will be confirmed in vivo using human hepatocytes explanted from the patiens chronically infected with HBV.

National 2013-2015

A considerable fraction of all newly synthesized secretory polypeptides fail to attain their native conformation due to mutations, transcriptional and translational errors, folding defects or endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress conditions.

National 2012-2015

A detailed knowledge of the mechanisms of antigen processing and presentation is essential to optimize cancer vaccination. known as Endoplasmic Reticulum Associated Degradation (ERAD). Non cytosolic misfolded proteins, synthesized at the endoplasmic reticulum are degraded to peptides by a complex machinery Cancer immunotherapy aims at harnessing the resources of the immune system to treat cancer.

National 2011 - 2016 PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0743

Proteins are essential players of all biological processes and they are involved in practically every function performed by a living cell.

National 2010-2012 PNII-RU-PD-2009-1

Degradation of the viral proteins in infected cells is a way to avoid their aberrant accumulation, on one hand, and generate viral peptides, which will be presented at cell surface by the major histocompatibility complex, raising an immune response, on the other hand. In the case of HBV infection, accumulation of mutant viral proteins within the endoplasmic reticulum can result in a particular phenotype, characterised by a ground glass appearance of hepatocytes.

National 2008 – 2010 PN-II-Pi-CD-Investitii - 2008 - CAPACITATI (no.194/9.09.2008)

One of the most powerful techniques in modern biomedical research is the determination of the three dimensional structure of proteins. This project proposes to establish a laboratory for 3D protein structure determination using X-ray diffraction experiments.

National 2008 – 2010 PNCDI-II-04-3452, (no:41-038/2007) - Program 4 - PARTNERSHIP IN THE AREAS OF PRIORITY

Protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) are fundamental regulatory enzymes that dephosphorylate phosphotyrosine residues and are essential components of intracellular signalling pathways in both normal and pathological conditions. There is experimental evidence that disruption of the phosphatase activity of many PTPases is involved in the pathogenesis of several congenital or acquired diseases, including diabetes, cancer, infections, autoimmune, neuronal and cardiovascular diseases.

National 2007 - 2010 PN-II-ID-PCE-2007-877 (no.210)

Proteins are the most important functional units of living matter: all cellular processes are governed by specific proteins possessing highly specialized functional roles. Understanding the intimate mechanisms of cell functions necessitates a detailed knowledge of the 3D-structure of proteins.

National 2006 - 2008 CNCSIS766 - no.11GR/25.04.2006

The project focuses on characterizing the branchio-oto-renal (BOR) syndrome, an autosomal dominant genetic disorder caused by mutations in the EYA gene. The goal is to enzymatically analyze the conserved C-terminal domain of the Eya3 protein and identify physiological substrates to better understand the molecular mechanisms involved in this syndrome.

National 2005-2008 Program CEEX; Modul 1, Tip proiect P-CD02-PT12-1248 (no.1/06.10.2005)

This project aims to develop a highly efficient enzyme for the conversion of xylose from cellulosic wastes into high-value biosynthetic intermediates. By optimising the catalytic efficiency of phosphoketolase and designing an enzymatic reactor, the project aims to provide a sustainable method of utilising lignocellulosic residues.

National 2004-2006 PNCDI-II-PED - Program VIASAN – Subprogramme 4: Genomics and Proteomics (no:353/2004)

Cancer causes 1.5 million deaths a year in Europe, accounting for a quarter of all deaths. The incidence of cancer is increasing, with 20 million new cases and 10 million deaths expected in the next 20 years. Approximately 90% of deaths are due to metastases rather than primary tumours. Genetic mutations and genomic instability allow tumour cells to invade and form metastases.

Sponsorship 2017-2018

The Systems Biology of Aging team is grateful for the "Microsoft Azure for Research" sponsorship awarded to our group. We have received cloud computing resources worth the equivalent of 20,000$ credits, and this has greatly helped us to speed up some of our research projects.

Sponsorship 2017-2018

The main idea of this project was that by inhibiting at least one of these two interactions of GluA2, the internalization of AMPAR will be reduced and therefore the synapse resistance will be increased, thus leading to improved cognitive functions.