The ECFexpress project: „An orthogonal, organism-independent expression platform based on extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma factors“
The work group is a partner in the new consortium project ECFexpress. Following successful participation in the joint call for tender launched within the ERASynBio funding programme, a joint initiative of the European Union and the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the joint project was awarded funding totalling ca. 2 million Euros in summer 2015.
The ERASynBio programme is part of the seventh Framework Programme for research and technological development of the European Union and is an initiative of international funding agencies working together to promote the robust development of Synthetic Biology and to structure and coordinate national efforts and funding programs.
The ECFexpress project: „An orthogonal, organism-independent expression platform based on extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma factors“ unites scientist from Germany, the United Kingdom, Austria and the USA, including the SYNMIKRO work groups of Prof. Dr. Anke Becker and Dr. Georg Fritz from Marburg and Prof. Dr. Alexander Goesmann from Giessen University within the research alliance between both universities.
The SYNMIKRO-Team will receive funding of approx. 800,000 Euros from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for a period of three years.
The engineering concept of orthogonality requires individual functional units to be combinable to form complex systems of modular design without causing unforeseen side effects. Given the high degree of cross-linking in biological systems the implementation of orthogonality remains one of the greatest challenges of Synthetic Biology. ECFexpress aims to establish modular switches for orthogonal expression programmes in bacteria (e.g. for novel biosynthesis pathways).
