Project Description
From DISCOvery to products: A next generation pipeline for thesustainable generation of high-value plant products
(2014-2018)
THEME [KBBE.2013.3.1-01] FP7-KBBE-2013 – Collaborative Project targeted to a special group (such as SMEs)
DISCO is an academic/industry alliance, consisting of pan-European and non-european partners with complementary multidisciplinary expertise. The project represents a timely opportunity to translate innovation into commercial practice.
The overall aim and concept of DISCO is a generic pipeline from discovery to industrial valorisation, using the very latest enabling technologies, to deliver sustainable biosources of plant derived products.
A key feature of the DISCO project is its potential to utilise and build on existing and previous EU investments, rapidly and efficiency transferring the tools and strategies developed to new plant derived target molecules.
The bioactives and high-value compounds targeted in DISCO are carotenoids, other terpenoids and tropane alkaloids. These targets all desperately require the development of new sustainable biosources and “greener” production chemistries.
Aims and objectives:
- To exploit existing and evolving biodiversity in Solanaceae and Iridaceae species, to perform bioprospecting with state of the art metabolomic approaches for the targeted molecules of interest.
- To utilise proprietary high-throughput bioassays to assess the bioactivities of extracts and enriched compounds derived from the biodiversity collections accessed.
- To apply the latest transcriptomics and network biology approaches to elucidate new biosynthetic and regulatory pathway components and their alleles involved in the formation of the DISCO targeted bioactives/high-value phytochemicals.
- To develop and incorporate enabling technologies into discovery, application and translational pipelines.
- To generate new biosources of high value carotenoids, terpenoids and tropane alkaloids by metabolic engineering and molecular breeding approaches.
- Develop down-stream processes and integrative biorefining strategies for co-product and biomass utilisation that reduce environmental impact.
- Demonstrate production feasibility and product effectiveness beyond the present state of the art.
- Perform cost benefit and economic analysis of the processes to generate business models and marketability strategies for the translation of DISCO prototypes into commercial practice.
- Complement previous EU funded programmes in the area and act as an intersectorial training vehicle for industry and academia to enhance the competence base of the European workforce.
The developments generated in DISCO will have real-life impacts reducing environmental impact, provide new material to benefit human activities and stimulate economic development.
Project Institutional coordinator: Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham Hill, UK
Coordinator: Prof.dr. Paul FRASER
Centre for Systems and Synthetic Biology (CSSB)
Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London, Egham Hill, UK
Partners:
Max Planck Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Wissenschaften E.V. DE
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, IL
Agenzia Nationale per le Nuove Tecnologie, L’Energia e lo Sviluppo Economico Sostenibile, Rome, IT
Fundacion Fraunhofer Chile Research, CH
The James Hutton Institute, UK
Technische Universitaet Dortmund, DE
The Agricultural Res. Org. of Israel – The Volcani Centre
BIODIATECH-Proplanta SRL Cluj-Napoca, RO
Fermented Product Partner (FPP), SRL, Liege, BE
European Research and Project Office GmbH, DE
Israeli Biotechnology Research Ltd (IBR), IL
SB Drug Discovery Ltd, UK
IGA Technology Services Ltd, UK
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH, DE
Project management: 11 Work-packages with divided responsibilities among partners
OUR RESULTS:
First report (2014/2015), see Proplanta report 2014.pdf
Second report (2015/2016), see Proplanta report 2015.pdf
Third Report 2016 / Raport Etapa 3/2016
Fourth Report 2017 / Raport Etapa 4/2017
Dissemination data at:
http://disco-fp7.eu/newsevents/article/the-disco-consortium-on-the-move/
Publications of the consortium at:
http://disco-fp7.eu/publications/
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