SYLICA – Synergies of Life and Material Sciences to Create a New Future
| Project Number / Acronym | SYLICA |
| Funding scheme | 7th Framework Programme – Capacities |
| Call identifier | FP7-REGPOT-2011-1 |
| Start Date / Duration | 1st October 2011 / 42 months |
| Project Cost | EU funding 4.41 / 3.93 million € |
| Project Coordinator |
Masaryk University, Prof. Jaroslav Koča jaroslav.koca@ceitec.muni.cz |
| Project Manager |
Dr. Zlatuše Novotná zlatuse.novotna@ceitec.muni.cz |
ABSTRACT
The project SYLICA – Synergies of Life and Material Sciences to Create a New Future concentrates on unlocking and developing research potential of CEITEC Central European Institute of Technology located in Brno, Czech Republic. The SYLICA project applicant is Masaryk University, the main beneficiary of CEITEC, and the second largest Czech university. CEITEC concentrates the best teams in life sciences and advanced materials research, including interdisciplinary interactions with a promising scientific potential. It is both interdisciplinary and international scope, which create the major added value of SYLICA, and which also need further endeavour based on an international evaluation.
SYLICA creates important synergies with the EU Structural Funds; CEITEC receives a large investment worth 208 mil EUR from the main instrument of the EU Cohesion Policy – ERDF Structural Fund into the state-of-the-art infrastructure with national and international significance. By combining ERDF and FP7, the EU added value is created, and a strict complementary approach is followed. SYLICA principally concentrates on the missing expertise for the new core facilities of CEITEC. Through a series of workshops, seminars, postdoctoral and expert inter-ships and visits, and reintegration of experienced nationals, the project will strengthen our research potential on one hand in methodologies and techniques needed for the infrastructure, and on the other hand in the interdisciplinary research fields including studies of novel biomaterials and composites with enhanced biological and mechanical properties.
SYLICA will foster strategic partnerships with prestigious EU research institutions and attract external users of the infrastructure and research results including industry. It will contribute to the vision of CEITEC as a flourishing research centre well-networked and integrated in the ERA, training a new generation of researchers, and delivering research results of top level European quality and significance.
CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND
The concept of capacity building of SYLICA is to integrate CEITEC fully in the European Research Area by strengthening international strategic partnership and contribute to new networks created at EU level. With the SYLICA project, we want to enhance scientific visibility and attract excellent scientists from abroad. We also intend to promote the centre and its core facilities in order to attract users including international industry.
We want to use the infrastructure as a tool for creating a long-term partnership with both research centres and companies develop in-house expertise for operation and management of core facilities and acquire scientific methods and techniques connected with new instrumentation, which is rather unique in the Central and Eastern Europe.
PROJECT GOALS
SYLICA aims to contribute to the development of research topics of a strong interdisciplinary character, which requires a unique combination across well established research fields and research teams. This already existing quality connecting research in life sciences and material sciences in one centre, which represents a rather rare approach worldwide, is expected to develop into an important scientific direction in CEITEC. The unique interdisciplinary links between “living and non-living” shall create a key added value for CEITEC at the European level.
The scientific goals of SYLICA have been designed as the following four interdisciplinary Research Topics:
- Cell-surface interactions
The topic covers seven sub-topics that make use of approaches and instrumentation accustomed in micro- and nanotechnologies which offer new possibilities in a study of living cells, both in vitro and in vivo. Even if the cell is a complex system, characterization of its mechanical properties, attachment to surfaces, preferential growth and other events in vitro could provide an important and interesting view into the cell behaviour in vivo.
Fig.: Example of nanowell plates for development of a platform for parallel single-cell cultivation in liquid environment – living cell microarray.
- Biosensing
Development of biosensors and advanced bioassays is motivated by the demand for highly selective, sensitive, low-cost and easy-to-operate analytical tools for molecular biology, medical diagnostics, forensic medicine, environmental monitoring etc. Research in biosensing covers nine sub-topics that will involve scientists across the life and material scientific groups of CEITEC.
Fig.: Magnetic separation for bioanalysis (proteins, nucleic acids, cells, viral agent) which will be used for the application of magnetic nanoparticles for biological research.
- Materials for tissue engineering
Development of advanced, hierarchical biomaterials based on combination of synthetic polymers and function specific chemically modified biopolymers or inorganic nanoparticles is motivated by the fast advance of tissue engineering envisioned for curing defects in tissues generated from the mesenchym, i.e., cartilage and bone.
An important part of this research involves investigating interactions between synthetic and natural biomaterials and tissue cells during growth and differentiation, principles controlling immobilization and release of various biologically active proteins and drugs and the stability of these materials in the human body environment.
Fig,: CAD-AGM technology in dentistry and implantology.
- Methods for biomolecular, biointeraction and biomaterial studies
The methods cover seven sub-topics important for biomolecular and biointeraction studies which represent core tools of structural biology. At the same time, most of the relevant research techniques focused on imaging, structural aspects and chemical composition is also widely used for characterization of surfaces in material sciences including biomaterials.
In this way, a strong methodological link exists between structural biology and material science and both areas should profit from technical progress achieved in the individual fields. To realise this, the interdisciplinary gap existing historically between life and material sciences should be minimised within this topic.
Fig.: Topography of PE spherulites (CLSM with AFM mode)
Steering Committee for Research Strategy
The SYLICA Steering Committee involves 10 members, including the scientific management of CEITEC, representatives of the South Moravian Region, the South Moravian Centre for International Mobility, the South Moravian Innovation Centre, the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and several Professors from the partner institutions.
WORKPLAN AND IMPLEMENTATION
The SYLICA Work Plan covers all the activities available in the Research Potential programme, except for upgrading, development or acquisition of research equipment. The reason is the complementary funding from the ERDF into the CEITEC research infrastructure and equipment.
With this only exception the whole portfolio of measures is being employed:
- Return of experienced Czech scientists and experienced incoming post-docs;
- Different forms of exchange of know-how with foreign partners such as secondments of our researchers abroad, incoming experts and post-docs;
- Lectures, training courses, workshops focused on acquiring unique expertise;
- CEITEC scientific conferences with distinguished international speakers;
- Workshops with stakeholders including industry;
- Dissemination and promotional activities;
- Project management.
The Action Plan has a strong international character. The key aspect is involvement of renowned scientists and experts from abroad who will act as lecturers, speakers and tutors and who will take part in the SYLICA scientific mobility programme.
SYLICA STRATEGIC PARTNERS
For the SYLICA project twelve institutions have been nominated as strategic partners. These institutions include European universities and research institutes which perform research in the fields of life science and material science.
- CERM, University of Florence, Italy
- CERMAv-CNRS, Grenoble, France
- ELETTRA Sincrotrone Trieste
- EMBL Heidelberg, Germany
- ENMat (European Network of Materials Research Centres), Gent, Belgium
- ESFR Grenoble, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, France
- IMEC Belgium, Leuven, Belgium
- Imperial College London, UK
- Institut Néel, CNRS-UJF, Grenoble, France
- Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt a.M., Germany
- Max-Planck-Institut für biophysikalische Chemie, Göttingen, Germany
- Vienna University of Technology, Austria
PROJECT NEWS, EVENTS AND OUTCOMES
EVENTS
WHEN: 16.12.2014
WHERE: room 205, building A11, Masaryk University Campus in Bohunice, Kamenice 5, Brno
More information can be found HERE.
- SYLICA Lecture: Fluorescence polarization immunoassays for simple, high-throughput screening of small molecules
- SYLICA Workshop: Current State-of-Art to Study Biomolecular Interactions and Assemblies in Life Sciences
WHEN: 10.11.2014
WHERE: Mendel Museum, Augustinian Abbey, Mendlovo nám. 1a, Brno
More information can be found HERE.
- SYLICA Workshop on Physical Chemists and Electrochemists
WHEN: 16.10.2014
WHERE: Brno University of Technology, Technická 10, room N2.35
More information can be found HERE.
- SYLICA Workshop: SYLICA Workshop: Polymer service-life: Estimation, durability and controlled performance
WHEN: 22. 10. 2014, from 9:30
WHERE: University Campus Bohunice, building A35, Studentská street, room 211
More information can be found HERE.
- SYLICA Workshop: Biomaterials for tissue engineering
WHEN: 8. 9. 2014, from 9:30
WHERE: University Campus Bohunice, building A11, room 235, Kamenice street
More information can be found HERE.
- Twenty-first Symposium - „European Network on Research Careers”
WHEN: May 20, 2014, from 10:00 am
WHERE: KoWi, Rue du Trône 98, 1050 Brussels, 8th Floor
SYLICA project was presented at the 21st symposium of the European Network of Research Careers (ENRC) in Brussels held on20th May 2014.The aim of the presentation was to provide colleagues from renowned European research institutions and agencies and the European Commission with the information about the project activities related especially to the development of research capacity and research careers at CEITEC. At the symposium key players and stakeholders from the European Research Area were involved representing e.g. KoWi, EMBL, Research Councils UK, Deutshce Forschungsgemeinschaft, Science Europe, European University Association, Swiss National Science Foundation, Estonian Research Council, Academy of Finland, University College Dublin, Haus der Forschung in Vienna, Coventry University, European Research Council, European Commission and others.
Programme can be found HERE
- SYLICA Lecture: Prof. Dr. Kenneth S. Schweizer
Structure, Diffusion and Entanglement Phenomena in Polymer Nanocomposites
WHEN: May 20, 2014, from 9:30 am
WHERE: Meeting room, 4th floor, Faculty of Chemistry, Brno University of Technology, Purkyňova 118, Brno
More information HERE.
- SYLICA Lecture: Prof. Dr. Kenneth S. Schweizer
Slow Segmental Relaxation, Aging and Mechanical Response of Polymer Melts and Glasses
WHEN: May 19, 2014, from 9:30 am
WHERE: Meeting room, 4th floor, Faculty of Chemistry, Brno University of Technology, Purkyňova 118, Brno
More information HERE
- SYLICA Lecture: Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c. Peter Fratzl
Biological materials which sustain or generate mechanical forces
WHEN: March 12, 2014
WHERE: 4th floor, Faculty of Chemistry, Brno University of Technology, Purkyňova 118, Brno
More information HERE.
- SYLICA Lecture: Dr. Chris Holland
Biopolymer Combinatorial Rheology: Linking structure to function with silk
WHEN: March 11, 2014
WHERE: Faculty of Chemistry, 4th floor, Brno University of Technology, Purkyňova 118, Brno
More information HERE.
- SYLICA Lecture: Prof. Pietro Favia
Advanced plasma processes for Life Sciences
WHEN: March 10, 2014
WHERE: room FS1, building 06, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, Brno
More information HERE.
- SYLICA Lecture: Prof. Gerard J. Kleywegt
PDBe - Bringing Structure to Biology
WHEN: January 17, 2014
WHERE: seminar room A3/117. University Campus Bohunice, Brno
More information HERE.
- SYLICA Lecture: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Knoll
Biomolecular Diagnostics - Optical or by Electronics?
WHEN: December 4, 2013
WHERE: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology, Room P5, Technická 2, Brno
More information HERE.
- SYLICA Lectures: Mira Josowitz & Jiří Janata
Probing Hybridization with Label- and Marker-free Voltammetric DNA Detector Integrated multisensing electrochemical arrays
WHEN: November 28, 2013
WHERE: BFU, Brno-Královo Pole, Lecture hall
More information HERE
- SYLICA Lecture: Dr. Petr Svoboda
The real RNAi - a Tale of Naughty Mice
WHEN: November 21, 2013
WHERE: MU Campus, Brno-Bohunice, Building A11, Room A11/205
More information HERE.
- SYLICA Lecture: Assoc. Prof. Walter Rossmanith
Human mitochondrial RNase P and its multiple faces
WHEN: November 7, 2013
WHERE: MU Campus, Brno-Bohunice, Building A11, Room A11/205
More information HERE.
- 3rd Workshop on Non-linear deformation behavior of Polymer Nanocomposites
WHEN: September 9 - 11, 2013
WHERE: MU Campus, Brno-Bohunice, Building A11, Room 205
More information HERE.
- SYLICA Workshop on chemical modification and redox labeling of biopolymers for biosensing
WHEN: September 2 - 5, 2013
WHERE: Komenského náměstí 2, Brno
More information HERE.
- 15th Central and Eastern European NMR Symposium & Bruker Users’ Meeting
WHEN: September 2 – 5, 2013
WHERE: Seminar room A11/132, University campus Bohunice, Brno
More information HERE.
- SYLICA Lecture: Prof. Vijay K. Srivastava
Analysis of Effective Elastic Properties of Fibre Composites with the Variation of Fibre Shape
WHEN: July 8, 2013, 10:00
WHERE: meeting room Institute of Materials Chemistry, 4th Floor, Faculty of Chemistry, Brno University of Technology, Purkyňova 118, Brno
More information HERE.
- SYLICA Lecture: Prof. Arzum Erdem Gursan
Nanomaterial based electrochemical sensor platforms for biosensing application
WHEN: June 25, 2013, 10:00
WHERE: seminary room A11/235, University Campus Bohunice, Kamenice 5, Brno
More information HERE.
Solid-state nanopore sensing - a playground for interdisciplinary science and engineering
WHEN: June 6, 2013, 10:00
WHERE: seminary room A11/235, University Campus Bohunice
More information HERE.
- SYLICA Lecture: Ing. Marek Prajer, PhD.
Compartmented Fibres: The Concept of Multiple Self-Healing in Advanced Fibre Composites
WHEN: May 20, 2013, 10:00
WHERE: Conference room ÚCHM FCH BUT, Purkynova 118, 4th fl oor
More information HERE.
- SYLICA Lecture: prof. Al Leen Koh
Probing Plasmon Resonances in Noble Metallic Nanostructures Using Monochromated Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy
WHEN: May 2, 2013
WHERE: Fakulta strojního inženýrství, posluchárna U4, budova A, Technická 2, VUT Brno
More information can be found HERE.
- SYLICA Lecture: Dr. Richard Bowater
From sequence to function: use of contemporary techniques to study DNA
WHEN: February 26 – 28, 2013
WHERE: University Campus Bohunice
- Cooperation with the Imperial College of London Negotiated by CEITEC
A delegation of CEITEC experts negotiated cooperation with counterparts at the Imperial College of London on 8 December 2011; they met Vice-Rector for International Affairs, Simon Buckle. The parties agreed on real-life cooperation among specific research groups of both institutions. Their cooperation is already successful on a smaller scale and should develop further in the future.
As an example of the results of this collaboration, students from both participating organizations’ doctoral programmes will have the opportunity to participate in exchange programmes. The representatives of CEITEC also met with the Director of the Centre for Plasmonics and Metamaterials at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, operating within the university, Stefan Maier, who recently became a member of the CEITEC Coordination Board.
- CEITEC and the Faculty of Chemistry of the BUT open their laboratories for students
The Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC) is presenting itself at the Open Day of the Faculty of Chemistry of the Brno University of Technology today, where there is the fourth year of a Chemistry Day being held today. Scientists from CEITEC will introduce their particular research activities and projects there and for the students of secondary schools and universities they will outline the possibilities of future employment in the centre of excellence. The institute is one of the options, where not only students within the fields of chemistry can start their promising career.
- SYLICA Lecture: Dr. Francois Strauss
Detection and measurement of HMGB1 protein concentration by high-affinity binding to DNA hemicatenanes
WHEN: 6th June, 2012 at 2:30 p.m.
WHERE: Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, common room, Královopolská 135, 612 00 Brno, CZ
- Final Conference SynBIOsis
WHEN: 29 May 2012
WHERE: Commitee of the Regions, Brussels
Scope of the conference was to present the process outlined during the project execution that has allowed to progressively create a solid cooperation between universities, research driven clusters and businesses. These good practices, already tested in the two involved regions and highly replicable in other European backgrounds, could likely contribute in optimizing the utilization of the European Structural Funds earmarked for research and innovation.
Programme and more information HERE.
- Seven Years of CZELO
WHEN: 30 May 2012
WHERE: Permanent Representation of the CR to the EU, Brussels
On the occasion of the celebration that took place on 30 May 2012 at the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the EU in Brussels under the title “Seven Years of CZELO – 7 presentations – 7 minutes each”, six Czech centres of excellence financially supported from the Operational Programme Research and Development for Innovation (OP VaVpI). CEITEC presented the SYLICA project demonstrating the synergies between Structural Funds and 7th Framework Programme.
The participation of CEITEC MU was supported by the 7th Framework Programme under the „Capacities“ specific programme.
- Conference “Czech Contribution to Sustainable Bioeconomy”
WHEN: 31 May 2012
WHERE: Permanent Representation of the CR to the EU, Brussels
The international conference was organized by the Czech Liaison Office for Research and Development (CZELO) and co-organised with the Technology Centre of AS CR and the Ministry of Agriculture CR. The event hosted over 60 participants.
The aim of this conference was to introduce the potential of Czech institutions in the area of agriculture, biotechnologies and bioeconomy and to promote Czech institutions as suitable partners for European collaboration. The participation of CEITEC MU was supported by the 7th Framework Programme under the „Capacities“ specific programme.
INTERNATIONAL SYLICA CONFERENCES
- 45th Heyrovský Discussion – Electrochemistry of Biopolymers and Bioactive Compounds
When: August 13 – 17, 2012
Where: Brno, Czech Republic
- CECE 2012 – 9th International Interdisciplinary Meeting on Bioanalysis
When: October 31 – November 2, 2012
Where: Brno, Czech Republic
- CEITEC International Conference - Cell Interaction with Surfaces
When: October 22 – 23, 2012
Where: Brno, Czech Republic
- SYLICA symposium: Evolutionary Genomics and Biomedicine
When: September 7, 2012
Where: Brno, Czech Republic
