ERC Consolidator Grant · 2024
UNalphabeting the Central Dogma of Life
This proposal aims to construct a bacterial strain LIFE-19 which relies solely on 19 amino acids to build all its proteins. While all living cells known to human beings produce proteins from the same 20 coded amino acids, the study of origins of life imply that earlier cells may have functioned with a smaller alphabet. This is thought-provoking in the present biological context, wherein each of the 20 serves a distinct and vital role. Although many scientists have engaged in theoretical exercises involving the reduction of this amino acid “alphabet”, the inherent biological intricacy and a lack of suitable tools have impeded experiments on an organismal level. This project seeks to mutate…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.