Microbiota medicine is the new frontier in human health. The human gastrointestinal tract is home to trillions of microbes. Under normal conditions, these microbial communities drive physiological and homeostatic functions in the host; when altered, they can lead to severe disorders. With an increasingly recognized role in health and disease, the gut microbiota offers promising therapeutic and diagnostic potential to tackle various pathologies (incl. metabolic, neurological, and cardiovascular disorders). Its full clinical potential remains largely unrealized though, mostly due to the lack of critical mass capable of integrating the multiple scientific and translational dimensions of microbiota medicine. Grounded on a team of 180leading researchers and entrepreneurs from across 12 countries and dispersed disciplines (biological big data analytics, systems and synthetic biology, experimental and translational medicine), MiCCrobioTAckle will train 12 Doctoral Candidates (DCs) with the much-needed cross-disciplinary and -sectoral expertise to advance microbiota medicine. As course-setting disease, the DCs will focus on cancer cachexia (CC). CC is an excellent model to study the host-microbiota axis in the context of metabolic diseases and represents the paradigm of a devastating condition in urgent need of new and more efficient means of clinical management. Along MiCCrobioTAckle, the 12 high-calibre DCs will foster new discoveries with impact on CC, while driving scientific and technological progress in microbiota medicine in its broadest scope. By training the next generation of researchers with out-of-the-box thinking and an entrepreneurial mindset in microbiota medicine, MiCCrobioTAckle will safeguard the EU leadership in this vanguard and imperative biotech/pharma segment, while paving the way for the development of novel gut microbiota insights and tools to tackle multiple diseases with foreseeable impact on the well-being of billions of citizens worldwide.

FOODGUARD aims to develop and demonstrate co-created solutions that will support innovations & advances based on microbiome, microbial activities & technology hubs to address food, health, economic and environmental challenges.The envisioned approach consists of a framework of toolsets & methodologies to provide sustainable solutions in food processing, packaging & across the food value chain to address food shelf-life increase & waste reduction in a holistic manner.The proposed solutions aim to (a) extend food shelf life with novel packaging/ biopreservation i.e. use of protective cultures/synthetic microbial consortia, recyclable films with natural antimicrobials or protective cultures;(b)monitor food quality/safety/shelf life with microbial indicators/molecular biomarkers used in smart packaging (TTIs, smart printed tags, no-invasive sensors)& (c) accurately predict food shelf life & improve traceability using predictive models, AI/ML, Internet of Things & tools like QR,NFR etc.; FOODGUARD toolbox components will be extensively evaluated in real life settings through four pilot demonstrations in 4 different countries with involvement of all relevant actors while covering diverse requirements and different food products. FOODGUARD outcomes target i) to minimize food loss and waste by shelf life extension and prediction,ii) to help the food industry to implement these preservation solutions as an alternative to chemical preservatives,iii)to deploy responsive policy for implementing these approaches as well as to engage consumers educated via tools/platforms, effectively improving awareness &trust in the food sector to(iv)increase traceability, providing real-time supply transparency that will improve the uptake of data-driven innovations in food systems, optimize resource efficiency (reducing food waste from farm to fork)(v)manage increased complexity in agri-food production & supply chain process, make it easier for consumers to adopt a healthy & safe food diet.

Although they do not convey the attribute epidemics, fungal infections are an increasingly significant medical problem. Humans contract fungal diseases that cause severe damage or kill at least as many people as tuberculosis or malaria. Among them, Aspergillus fumigatus is the most important airborne fungal mould that is responsible for diseases in immunocompetent as well as immunocompromised hosts with unacceptably high mortality rates in the latter cohort. The threat posed by A. fumigatus to hospital patients is attributable to a very poor understanding of the pathobiology of aspergillosis. Therefore, the major objective of this research programme will be to investigate the spore (conidium), which is the infectious morphotype. A special focus will be on the cell wall of the resting and germinating conidium since we have identified several molecules of the cell wall, which are essential either for fungal virulence by modulating the host immune system but also for resistance against external insults. Until today, however, there is no comprehensive biochemical and genetic analysis of conidia, which is urgently required to understand the early stages of A. fumigatus infection. To address this fundamental problem, we have defined three tasks: In task 1, the landscape of the cell wall components of the dormant conidium and their structural organization will be deciphered by proteome and polysacchridome analyses as well as structural studies. In task 2, the cell wall modifications and newly secreted proteins occurring during the early stages of germination will be identified. In task 3, the effect of cell wall-associated components from resting and germinating conidia on macrophages including the analysis of the phagolysosomal proteome will be deciphered and virulence of the respective mutants will be evaluated in a mouse infection model. The consortium is composed of the Aspergillus unit of the Institut Pasteur (head: J.-P. Latgé) and the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, University of Jena and the Department of Molecular and Applied Microbiology, Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology, Jena (head: A. Brakhage). Since many years, these partners have been having an intense and fruitful collaboration on the study of A. fumigatus and have complementary expertise in, e.g., biochemistry, glycobiology, proteomics, bioinformatics, genetics and infection biology, all technologies required to work to together to tackle the analysis of the decisive early steps in the infection of A. fumigatus. Our project addresses the important question which has not been answered yet: How can an airborne fungus become a human pathogen? Characterizing the infectious propagules in their dormant and early germinating stage is a key for the understanding of the establishment of the disease and the development of new antifungal prophylactic therapies. Results obtained during this project with A. fumigatus can be expected to be of great benefit for the whole scientific field of fungal pathogenicity.