Dr Grzegorz Grabe, assistant professor at the Department of Structural Biology of the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology UG and MUG, has received the prestigious FIRST TEAM FENG grant awarded by the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) as part of the European Union-funded programme European Funds for a Modern Economy (FENG) 2021-2027.

The project ‘Innovative application of bacterial toxins in the intensification of protein production’ focuses on the novel reprogramming of bacterial toxins to increase the efficiency of the overproduction of proteins that are crucial in biotechnological processes. The researchers' goal is to support the development of sustainable and economically competitive bioproduction technologies.

The project will be carried out in collaboration with prof. Charlotte Michaux from the University of Rennes in France (foreign scientific partner), who is a specialist in bacterial transcriptome research, and the Polish company Acteryon (domestic economic partner), which specialises in protein production optimisation and technology scaling.

The amount of funding obtained is PLN 3,987,800.00. The project will last four years.

Technologies for the future

The FIRST TEAM programme enables young, ambitious scientists to set up their own research team and conduct innovative research with implementation potential in Poland. This activity is carried out as part of the EU programme European Funds for a Modern Economy (FENG), which aims to support the development of science and technology of great importance for the economy of the future. The project requires cooperation with at least one foreign scientific partner and one domestic economic partner. The maximum amount of funding for a single project is PLN 4 million.