Researchers from the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB) of the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH) were granted competitive funding of 3.782.583 Euros in total (1.221.547€ for IMBB-FORTH) for the proposal “Chromatin3D – Chromatin Dynamics in Development and Disease”.

“Chromatin3D” project is funded via the Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2014) within the European Framework Programme Horizon2020. Its main objective is training of early stage researchers during research activities. 1161proposals were evaluated for the specific 2014 call and 121 were funded with an overall success rate of about 10%. It is noteworthy that the proposal from IMBB-FORTH, which is coordinated by professor Charalampos G. Spilianakis, has scored 97.4% and ranked 3rd out of 121 proposal that were finally funded.

Chromatin3D programme is part of the general Life Sciences scheme and the participants include 7 research institutions and universities as well as 4 smallmedium enterprises from different European countries such as Greece, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, Israel, Belgium, Hungary, Denmark and the Netherlands. The Coordinating organization of the programme is IMBB-FORTH and aims in the training via research activities of 15 early stage researchers that will be recruited for the needs of the programme.

The main research objective of the programme aims in unraveling the molecular mechanisms responsible for the maintenance of the three-dimensional structure of the eukaryotic cell nucleus and the study of the modifications that take place during developmental and differentiation pathways. Despite the fact that for research purposes several model systems will be utilised, such as the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster, the mouse and human cell cultures, special focus will be given to human diseases such as oncogenesis, glaucoma and lymphomas.

Chromatin3D programme is anticipated to boost the research and training activities of IMBB-FORTH in a critical time period for the Greek research era. We hope that with the new work vacancies created within the programme we will fight unemployment and brain-drain of Greek research while at the same time we will provide high-quality training to young researchers. Overall we believe that Greek research will become more competitive within the European science web.

Info:
Prof. Charalampos G. Spilianakis
Affiliated Researcher IMBB-FORTH
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry (Dept. Biology, University of Crete)

Tel.: 2810391163
Email: spiliana@imbb.forth.gr

Website: http://www.imbb.forth.gr/en/research-en/development-gene-expression/item/85-charalampos-g-spilianakis
Programme’s website: www.Chromatin3D.gr