Project title: HUNPROTEXC: Protein Science and its application National Programme
Project website: HunProtExc – Introduction – Med in Prot (elte.hu)
Project identification No: 2018-1.2.1-NKP-2018-00005
Funding Agency: National Research, Development and Innovation Fund
Category: Competitive and Excellence cooperation
Programme denomination: 2018-1.2.1-NKP
Sub-programme: “E” sub-programme- Protein Science and its applications National Programme
Project duration: 2019. 03. 01 – 2023. 02. 28
Project type: consortium
Project partners: Eötvös Lóránd University ELTE (consortium leader), Budapest University of Technology and Economics, TTK Research Centre for Natural Sciences (Hungarian Academy of Sciences)
Project summary:
The HUNgarian Integrated PROTein Science Program, Centre of EXCellence (in short: HunProtExc) is a unique and new initiative in Hungary with the following aims:
1) Interconnection of different expertise and research fields within protein science, network initialization and support.
2) Adapting the notion of competitive research collaboration, its support and the dissemination of results.
3) Synergy of research fields of protein science to further scientific excellence by facilitating collaborative research of well-renowned scientists on topics concerning medicinal biology, environmental protection / technology and state-of-the-art instrumentation (Synergy Modules).
4) Providing opportunities for young researchers (Start-up Modules),
5) Initiating formation of critical scientific mass on the shared Buda-campus of the 3 participating institutions.
6) Establishing of a protein science knowledge centre (Integrated Protein Facility, IPF), where besides basic and advanced research and development, service of recombinant protein production will be available.
The research topics covered by this program comprises cutting edge research exploring cancer, allergy, stroke (complement system), diabetes, Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases, the Frank-Ter Haar syndrome, non-aging (germline and tumour) cell-lines, proteomics, and enzymatic remediation (environmental protection), etc. all could lead to important discoveries. Training of young talents, as one of the key goals of our scientific excellence, will get greater emphasis through improvement of MSc and PhD programs, the support of a medicinal-biotechnology specialization, the establishment of new protein science research courses at our Universities both in Hungarian and in English
The leaders of this project are connected by years of scientific partnership and successful research collaboration (https://medinprot.chem.elte.hu/hunprotexc), Professors András Perczel (a chemist), Beáta G. Vértessy (a biochemist), László Buday (a medical doctor & molecular biologist) and László Nyitray (a biologist) are ready to face new challenges at a high level of excellence.
A KMBCS research group is involved in the research on the development of ecological remediation technologies utilising efficient microbial inoculants.
The aim of the research is to enhance the efficiency of biodegradation-based methods for remediation of hydrocarbon contaminated soils using microorganisms and enzymes with specific degradation activity. In the first phase of the research, we assessed the biodegradation potential and the microbiological activity in different soils contaminated with not readily biodegradable hydrocarbons (e.g. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH); we established a microbiological methodology supporting the characterization of the environmental risk of these contaminated sites and planning of biodegradation-based bioremediation technologies. The potential PAH-degrading enzymes for experimental purposes were selected based on the analysis of contaminated soil samples and the scientific literature.
