EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FOR HOSTING MARIE S. CURIE FELLOWS IN SPANISH INSTITUTIONS (CALL MSCA IF 2015)

Transcription

1 1. Interested institution: Universidad Complutense de Madrid Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular I GRUPO DE ALÉRGENOS Facultad de Química, Avda. Complutense s/n, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain 2. Brief Description of the Institution 1. Introduction Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) is one of the largest Universities in Spain and all around Europe. With a tradition beyond 5 centuries, UCM has become a very important institution in terms of higher education and research activities. UCM is home of research groups which are in the cutting edge of research in many areas. UCM technological scientific infrastructure (with an annual budget almost reaching 600M ), together with the quality of its researchers (more than 6000), has established some of its laboratories among the best all around Europe. 2. Research and Education The UCM is a broad-scoped university in which almost every field of knowledge is envisaged. From the 2012 research annual report (the last consolidated figures), there has been a total income of almost 40M for research activities: 6% of this income has been obtained through EU funded programs and 21% through R&D service contracts with the private sector. The research at UCM is developed through its 21 faculties, 5 university schools, 9 associated centres, 40 university research institutes, 8 schools for professional specialization, 4 university hospitals, and 17 research assistance centers. Due to its broad-scoped nature UCM is able to offer 170 official degrees of which 65 correspond to bachelor degrees and 105 to master degrees. For these degrees UCM counts on more than students distributed among the faculties, university schools and associated centers. Both students and researchers benefit from a vast collection of volumes in the UCM library (more than 2,7 million of volumes), as well periodic publications exceeding The historic collection of at the UCM s library reaches volumes and there are substantial historic and artistic funds all over the 12 museums and the 11 art, entomological, paleontological, etc. collections. More detailed information on R&D and Higher Education activities of the UCM can be found on and

2 3. UCM: Campus of International Excellence UCM is located in the Campus de Moncloa at Ciudad Universitaria of Madrid. This location is a large space devoted to Science and Higher Education. With over 10,000 researchers and 10% of the national scientific production of Spain the Campus de Moncloa, which houses two universities and several research centers is a unique environment, fostering synergies in higher education, research, innovation and social and cultural projection. This uniqueness has favoured the awarding of the Campus of International Excellence label to the institutions joining this Campus de Moncloa. The UCM through the Campus of International Excellence is committed to specialization in five thematic clusters to achieve scientific and teaching excellence: Global Change and New Energies, Materials for the Future, Agri-Food Industry and Health, Innovative Medicine and Heritage. The distinctive strengths of each cluster will converge to create unique configurations marked by their innovative and interdisciplinary character, highly competitive at the European level, and producing significant progress in knowledge transfer. More information on the Moncloa Campus of Excellence can be found in 4. UCM: support to researchers in mobility programs The UCM provides advice to foreign researchers moving to the institution to develop R&D projects on how to process residence permits, visas or other related documents through the personnel department of its Fundación General ( On the other hand, by means of the Oficina de Alojamiento and the Casa del Estudiante (Centro Internacional de Visitantes y Acogida, CIVA), the UCM provides to the visiting researchers the possibility to get accommodation though different options like residences or apartments. Regarding the aspects related to the management of international Fellowships and Grants, the UCM, through the European Office for R&D ( provides advice and support throughout the preparation process of the Contracts and Agreements and the following management of the projects. A smooth financial management of the grants will be guaranteed by the Economic Management Unit of the FGUCM which deals at the time of submitting this EOI with more than 100 active international grants. 3. Please tick the areas of research (as established in Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions) Chemistry (CHE) Environmental Sciences and Geology (ENV) Social Sciences and Humanities (SOC) Life Sciences (LIF) Economic Sciences (ECO) Mathematics (MAT) Information Science and Engineering (ENG) Physics (PHY) 4. Research / Project Description

3 Allergies are the 6 th leading cause of chronic disease. The incidence of the disease is in continuous growing, and nowadays affects about 30% of the population of developed countries. Thus, allergy is a major global public health problem. 1. The identification and characterization of antigens triggering allergic reactions and the improvement of diagnosis, treatment and prevention of these diseases are primary goals of our research. Our main goals have mainly been focused on the identification and characterization of allergens from pollens and plant food allergies to complete the protein panels of these sensitizing sources. Several allergenic sources will be studied in the first task: Olive pollen, the main cause of pollinosis in the Mediterranean area; Salsola pollen, emergent allergenic species with a great resistance to adverse soils and drought; mustard, a spice that provokes severe symptoms after ingestion; and other cross-reactive plant foods such as tomato, kiwi, almond, pistachio, nuts and sunflower. Particular emphasis will be placed on topics of great clinical relevance including the identification of speciessensitization markers, allergens involved in multiple sensitizations, specific allergens located in seeds, and the establishment of correlations between allergen sensitization and symptoms development. 2. The use of Phage Display and Protein Microarrays in order to move towards emerging concepts and methodologies for completion of allergograms of clinically relevant sources is other objective in our laboratory. The integration of omics technologies to get insights into the role of the epithelia cell barrier in allergy and the contribution of allergy inflammation to the development and/or progression of Alzheimer disease (AD) are the two other work packages of the proposal. 3. Airway epithelial barrier dysfunction is an important emerging concept for allergy since increasing evidences indicates that asthmatic patients present a disrupted airway epithelium together with the fact that aeroallergens among other particles impair barrier functions. Thus, we will study the role of epithelial barrier on the allergic response to aeroallergens and the implications of pulmonary surfactant, -the lipid-protein mixture lining the alveolar respiratory surface-, in allergy. The integration of omic technologies (proteomics and genomics) will allow us to get a network of interactions and aeroallergenmodulated proteins, where we expect to find new potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of the disease. 4. Several studies have suggested that allergy have a role in the neuropathology of AD, but the exact mechanisms are not obvious. Allergy seems to be associated with an induction of pro-inflammatory cytokines, higher IgG and IgE levels in the brain and phosphorylation of AD-related proteins. In addition, human proteins related to AD -such as Αβ- partially match with the sequence of common aero- and/or food-allergens. Thus, we will study the immunological cross-reactivity between pollen/food allergens and ADrelated proteins through high-throughput screening by Phage Display and Protein Microarrays. This work package might also get important information for an accurate diagnosis for both diseases, and perhaps for personalized diagnosis, therapy and patient monitoring.

4 Sirvent S, Palomares O, Vereda A, Villalba M, Cuesta-Herranz J. Rodríguez R. nsltp and profilin are allergens in mustard seeds: cloning, sequencing and recombinant production of Sin a 3 and Sin a 4 Clin Exp Allergy. 39(12): (2009). Barber D, de la Torre F, Lombardero M, Antépara I, Colas C, Dávila I, Tabar AI, Vidal C, Villalba M, Salcedo G, Rodríguez R. Component-resolved diagnosis of pollen allergy based on skin testing with profilin, polcalcin and lipid transfer protein pan-allergens. Clin Exp Allergy. 39(11): (2009). Salamanca G, Rodríguez R, Quiralte J, Moreno C, Pascual CY, Barber D, Villalba M. Pectin methylesterases of pollen tissue, a major allergen in olive tree. FEBS J. 277(13) (2010). Prado N, Cañamero M, Villalba M, Rodríguez R, Batanero E. Bystander suppression to unrelated allergen sensitization through intranasal administration of tolerogenic exosomes in mouse. Mol Immunol. 47(11-12): (2010). Cuesta-Herranz J, Barber D, Blanco C, Cistero-Bahíma A, Crespo JF, Fernández-Rivas M, Fernández- Sánchez J, Florido JF, Ibáñez MD, Rodríguez R, Salcedo G, Garcia BE, Lombardero M, Quiralte J, Rodriguez J, Sánchez-Monge R, Vereda A, Villalba M, Alonso Díaz de Durana MD, Basagaña M, Carrillo T, Fernández-Nieto M, Tabar AI. Differences among pollen-allergic patients with and without plant food allergy.int Arch Allergy Immunol 153(2): (2010). Tordesillas L,* Sirvent S,* Díaz-Perales A, Villalba M, Cuesta-Herranz J, Rodríguez R & Salcedo G. Plant lipid transfer protein allergens: no cross-reactivity between those from foods and olive and parietaria pollen Int Arch Allergy Immunol 156(3):291-6 (2011). Vereda A, Sirvent S, Villalba M, Rodríguez R, Cuesta-Herranz J, Palomares O. Improvement of mustard allergy diagnosis and management by linking clinical features and component-resolved approaches J. Allergy Clin Immunol 127(5): (2011). Sirvent S*, Tordesillas L*, Villalba M, Díaz-Perales A, Cuesta-Herranz J, Salcedo S & Rodríguez R. Pollen and plant food profilin allergens show equivalent IgE reactivity Ann Allergy Asthma Immuno. 106(5): (2011). Marazuela EG., Hajekb R, Villalba M, Barber D, Breiteneder H, Rodríguez R, Batanero E. A nonallergenic Ole e 1-like protein from birch pollen as a tool to design hypoallergenic vaccine candidates Mol Immunol 50:83-90 (2012) Mas S, Barderas R, Colas C, Quiralte J, Rodríguez R, Villalba M. The natural profilin from Russian thistle (Salsola kali) is a low IgE-binding isoform. Molecular and immunological characterization FEBS J. (2012) 279(23): FI 4.25 Palacín A, Rivas LA, Gómez-Casado C, Aguirre J, Tordesillas L, Bartra J, Blanco C, Carrillo T, Cuesta- Herranz J, Cumplido JA, Flores E, García-Alvarez M, García-Núñez I, Fernández F, Gamboa P, Muñoz R, Sánchez-Monge R, Torres M, Varela S, Villalba M, Vega F, Parro V, Blanca M, Salcedo G, Díaz- Perales A The involvement of thaumatin-like proteins in plant food cross-reactivity: A multicenter study using a specific protein microarray Plos ONE 7 (1): 1-11 (2012) FI 4.35 Abós-Gracia B, Gómez del Moral M, López-Relaño J, Viana-Huete V, Castro L, Villalba M and Martínez-Naves E. Olea europaea pollen lipids activate inkt cells by upregulating the CD1D expression on dendritic cells. J Allergy Clin Immunol 131, 1393-U221 (2013). FI Villalba M, Rodríguez R, Batanero E. The spectrum of olive pollen allergens. From structures to diagnosis and treatment. Methods 66(1):44-54 (2013). FI 3.64 Torres M, Alvarez-García E, Bartra J, Alcántara M, Palomares O, Villalba M, Rodríguez R. The allergenic structure of the thaumatin-like protein Ole e 13 is degraded by processing of raw olive fruits. J Investig Allergol Clin Immunol. 2014;24(3): Mas S, Garrido-Arandia M, Batanero E, Purohit A, Pauli G, Rodríguez R, Barderas R, Villalba M. Characterization of profilin and polcalcin panallergens from ash pollen. J Investig Allergol Clin Immunol.24(4): (2014). Mas S, Torres M, Garrido-Arandia M, Salamanca G, Castro L, Barral P, Purohit A, Pauli G, Rodríguez

5 R, Batanero E, Barderas R, Villalba M. Ash pollen immunoproteomics: identification, immunological characterization and sequencing of six new allergens. J Allergy Clin Immunol. Jan 10 (2014). doi: /j.jaci FI Castro L, Mas S, Barderas R, Colás C, García-Sellés J, Barber D, Rodríguez R, Villalba M. Sal k 5, a Member of the Widespread Ole e 1-Like Protein Family, Is a New Allergen of Russian Thistle (Salsola kali) Pollen. Int Arch Allergy Immunol. 163(2): (2014). doi: / FI 2.25 Prado N, Alché JD, Casado-Vela J, Mas S, Villalba M, Rodríguez R, Batanero E. Nanovesicles secreted during pollen germination and pollen tube growth: A possible role in fertilization. Molecular Plant 7(3):573-7 (2014). Doi: /mp/sst153 Sirvent S, Cantó B, Cuesta-Herranz J, Gómez F, Blanca N, Canto G, Blanca M, Rodríguez R, Villalba M, Palomares O. Unexpected allergenic 11S globulin (Act d 12) and 2S albumin (Act d 13) from kiwi sedes as novel masked relevant components in kiwifruit allergy. J Allergy Clin Immunol 133(6): e4 (2014). Sirvent S, Cantó B, Gómez F, Blanca N, Cuesta-Herranz J, Canto G, Blanca M, Rodríguez R, Villalba M, Palomares O. Detailed characterization of Act d 12 and Act d 13 from kiwi seeds: implication in IgE cross-reactivity with peanut and tree nuts. Allergy Jul 14. doi: /all Villalba M, Barderas R,Mas S, Colás C, Batanero E, Rodríguez R. Amaranthaceae Pollens: Review of an Emerging Allergy in the Mediterranean área. J Investig Allergol Clin Immunol. 24(6): (2014). Barber D, Díaz-Perales A, Villalba M, Chivato T. Challenges for Allergy Diagnosis in Regions with Complex Pollen Exposures. Curr Allergy Asthma Rep 15:496 (2015). 5. Who can apply? At the deadline for the submission of proposals (10/09/2015), researchers (*): shall be in possession of a doctoral degree or have at least four years of full-time equivalent research experience. must not have resided or carried out their main activities in the country of Spain for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the abovementioned deadline. 6. Contact person Mª Teresa Villalba Díaz Full professor of Biochemistry Tel: mvillalb@quim.ucm.es 7. Applications: documents to be submitted and deadlines Brief Curriculum vitae and three reference letters from three different scientists who know the applicant. Deadline. June 30 th 2015.

6 Please note that: Deadline of the next call for proposals for Marie Sklodowska Curie Individual Fellowships is September, 10 th Oficina Europea is only responsible for the display of the expressions of interests received by the institutions; further contact and information requests will take place directly between the host institutions and the interested researchers. (*) Further details on the Call and additional eligibility criteria can be found at the Participants Portal