Funding for two CINBIO projects under the research consolidation grant scheme

Two researchers at CINBIO, a member of the CIGUS Network, an initiative launched by the regional government (Xunta de Galicia) that groups together centres of accredited scientific excellence, have received funding in the call for financial aid to drive research consolidation. 

Despite being open to any research area, this call targets in particular the consolidation of researchers working in strategic fields relating to artificial intelligence, microelectronics, and semiconductors (chips), areas for which additional funding has been allocated. Of the seven projects selected from the University of Vigo (UVigo), two are led by CINBIO researchers Miguel Arenas and Gustavo Bodelón.

With a budget of €169,072, Miguel Arenas Busto, principal investigator of the Computational Molecular Evolution Group at CINBIO, is coordinating a project to understand and predict the molecular evolutionary trajectories of SARS-CoV-2. More than four years following the onset of the pandemic, attention is now focused on understanding the future of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In this context, monitoring and understanding the real-time evolution of the virus offers the potential to predict its future molecular evolutionary trajectories. Progress in this area requires understanding and accounting for the mechanisms that generate the virus’s molecular diversity and fitness, and in this sense, the project focuses on the molecular evolution of SARS-CoV-2 at both the whole genome and gene levels, with a particular interest in proteins critical for the virus’s replication that are used to design current-day therapies.  

Gustavo Bodelón, a researcher in the Functional NanoBiomaterials Group at CINBIO, is heading the BIORAR Project for the Development of Whole-Cell and Cell-Free Biosensors Based on Raman Reporters, which has received funding totalling €199,919. Whole-cell biosensors (WCB) and cell-free biosensors (CFB) are genetically engineered tools designed to detect the presence of specific target analytes in the environment and report their presence by generating a measurable signal. Recent advances in synthetic biology have enabled the use of these biosensors, for example, in detecting biomarkers in preclinical models of gastrointestinal diseases, inflammation, and cancer. Despite their immense potential, these type of biosensors have key limitations that require radically new approaches, and it is in this context that the project led by Bodelón has emerged.

BIORAR proposes the implementation of genetically encoded Raman reporters (RAR) in both whole-cell and cell-free biosensors to significantly enhance their sensitivity, multiplexing capacity, and portability through the use of SERS spectroscopy. This interdisciplinary project, which combines synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and materials science, offers a groundbreaking solution for the development of highly advanced biosensors for clinical diagnostics and on-site environmental contaminant detection.