We are delighted to inform you that the results of the ERC Advanced Grant 2017 call have now been released and that in the intense competition, the application of the well-established scientist Professor Roman Jerale, Head of the Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology at the National Institute of Chemistry, was selected for funding. The results were officially published today, 6th April. It is a great honour for us that the European Commission highlighted the MaCChines project out of a group of seven projects, presented upon the announcement of the results of the call. The scope of the success of the Slovenian researcher is best illustrated by the fact that the European Research Council (ERC) will only finance 12% of the project applications from exceptional researchers from more than 2167 applications for the implementation of own research projects in Europe; only 1% of the approved projects are from the new EU member states. The five-year project is called “MaCChines – Molecular machines based on coiled-coil protein origami”, and the researcher will receive 2.5 million euros. Prof. dr. Roman
Plant pathogenic microorganisms have a vast selection of effector molecules that are used for infecting and spreading throughout tissues. Researchers from two departments of the Institute of Chemistry, in cooperation with the Biotechnical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana, have determined a receptor on the plant cell surface and explained why certain microbe toxins are dicotyledon specific. Plant pathogenic organisms usually have a vast selection of molecules for infecting plants, allowing them to spread. A family of protein molecules named NLP (abbreviation for Nep1-like proteins) has been known to exist in bacteria, fungi and oomycetes for some time now. These proteins are involved in many diseases of plants that are important for humans, such as various types of vegetables, the cocoa tree, grapevine etc. The most common symptoms include rotting, rust, blackened crops, plant withering and seed dying, all quickly spreading through the crops. One of the most obvious plant reactions to the NLP proteins is the death of plant tissue. Cell death only occurs in dicotyledonous plants, such as potato, to
Scientific Works
Selected Scientific Works of the National Institute of Chemistry