45 new COST (European Cooperation in Science & Technology) Actions have been announced on 21 April 2020 which will start in the late Summer and Autumn of 2020. Two projects with the participation of researchers from Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas have been funded within this call.
The COST Action LipidNET (Pan-European Network in Lipidomics and EpiLipidomics) proposal counts with the participation of Dr. Dolores Pérez Sala, together with 76 members from 29 countries. LipidNET aims to build and maintain a multidisciplinary Pan European network of researchers, clinicians and enterprises working in the field of lipidomics and epilipidomics to boost a hub of research excellence, advanced knowledge and technology transfer, to promote high level of training for young researches and facilitate clinical translation. Lipids represent a wide variety of molecules that play different biological roles such as energy resources, structural components or signaling molecules that regulate metabolic homeostasis. Most notably, lipids and oxidatively modified lipids have been found to be involved in regulating important mechanisms mediating tissue injury, inflammation, and related non-communicable diseases, which are responsible for near 70% of all deaths in developed countries. In this context, Lipidomics and Epilipidomics are the most promising strategies for the progress in the knowledge of lipids, aiming at biomarker discovery for the prevention, early diagnosis, monitoring, and evaluation of disease therapeutics.
On the other hand, Dr. Pilar S. Testillano leads the participation of CIB Margarita Salas in the COST Action EPI-CATCH (EPIgenetic mechanisms of Crop Adaptation To Climate cHange), which aims to investigate epigenetic mechanisms modulating plant adaptation to environmental stresses driven by climate change, like drought, salinity, extreme temperatures and pathogens. Plant epigenetics is a fascinating research field that studies the environmental effects on hereditary material not related to DNA sequence variation in plants. With 43 members from 22 countries, EPI-CATCH will bring together industrial developers, molecular geneticists, molecular biologists, plant biotechnologists, crop breeders, agronomists, plant pathologists, and bioinformaticians for networking on crop epigenomics and stress biology. The ultimate objective of this COST action is to develop and share new breaking knowledge to assist agricultural biotechnological industry in next-generation crop breeding activities based on epi-molecular markers and innovative technologies to enhance environmental sustainability of agriculture in a rapid climate change scenario.
More information
COST website: link
LipidNET COST Action website: link
EPI-CATCH COST Action website: link