CIC bioGUNE leads a European project of training of researchers

programme funded by the European Commission

-the Basque Research Centre coordinates UPStream, a training programme of excellence for young scientists investigating the biochemical process of ubiquitination

-project, with 3.3 million euros, 12 young scientists studying biological processes related to diseases such as cancer or neurodegenerative diseases will be training

Bilbao, March 2012.- the training of new generations of scientists of the highest level is a priority for the European Uniona goal for which the European Commission financed the Initial Training Network (ITN), prestigious training programs of excellence for young researchers in the Marie Curie programme, which star the major scientific advances of the future.

Center Research cooperative CIC bioGUNE has been selected to lead one of them, the project UPStream, endowed with EUR 3.3 million, and focused on the specific training of 12 young scientists in the biochemical process of ubiquitination and other related processes. The project, which will have a duration of 48 months, officially began last November and the student hired by CIC bioGUNE already has integrated the team in January of this year.

Doctoral students will be recruited for three years in one of the 15 institutions that participate in the Consortium, including public research centres as the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique French or the University of Frankfurt, and companies such as GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceuticals.

During this time recruited students will be carried out his research in each of the centers participating in the Consortium, but may also participate in courses and visit laboratories of other centers participating in the project. After completing a period of 36 months, young researchers will be trained to present his doctoral thesis.

Visits of young scientists to other centres of research participants in UPStream, in addition to the laboratory where he carried out his research, is one of the key points of the project. The aim is to encourage the transfer of knowledge between centers through the students.

Ubiquitin-dependent protein degradation

UPStream, coordinated by the researchers of CIC bioGUNE Manuel S. Rodriguez and Rosa neighborhood, is focused on a critical and complex field of modern biology: understanding of the regulation of the posttranslational modifications and the degradation of proteins dependent of ubiquitin (UPS) system(, ubiquitin proteasome system) and its potential use for the development of drugs.

The chemistry of ubiquitination process, as well as by similar to ubiquitin protein modification, consists of the Union of ubiquitin and Sumo, Nedd8, to a target protein and is an efficient way of labeling proteins that may be degraded by the proteasome (the complex cell responsible for the destruction) or change its interaction with other proteins According to the needs of the cell.

These processes regulate the function or stability of proteins and therefore are at the heart of many of the biological processes of medical interest, such as cancer, aging or neurodegenerative diseases.

According to Rosa Barrio, project coordinator, the UPStream project is included in the Marie Curie programme and the consortium brings together some of the best laboratories in the world studying the posttranslational modifications. It is very important that CIC bioGUNE participates in the consortium with these great laboratories and even more so to lead the project. This creates ties to other institutions and European laboratories. It must be borne in mind that the number of projects of this kind are granted is very limited and that institutions and laboratories involved have international recognition ”.