It takes two (PRIN) to tango!

Our lab has been awarded two grants from the Italian Ministry for University and Research (MUR) as part of the "Progetti di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale" (PRIN) program.

As part of the PRIN 2022 PNRR call, our project entitled: "From stem cells to algae and back: circular biotechnology for cellular agriculture and biomass production" was ranked 4th overall in the LS9 scientific sector, and 1st among the "Under 40" category. This project is led by our lab and involves an exciting interdisciplinary collaboration with Alberta Pinnola's plant physiology group at the University of Pavia. The total budget is € 230,861. In this proposal we tackle a pivotal challenge towards the pursuit of a sustainable and circular-economy-based future: how can we provide food within planetary limits for an expanding population with a growing appetite for meat and fish? This is our first research grant in the cellular agricolture space, which we are super excited about.

As part of the PRIN 2022 call, our project entitled: "​Decoding and leveraging the molecular determinants of myogenic fate through integrative genomics and cell engineering" received a score of 83/100 in the LS2 scientific sector. The project is led by Davide Cacchiarelli's integrative genomics lab at TIGEM and involves the collaboration of our group as well as Annamaria Carissimo's bioinformatics team at CNR. The total budget is € 199,628. The overarching goal of this proposal is to first uncover and then exploit the gene regulatory networks behind cell fate conversion into muscle. The knowledge generated by this proposal will enable large scale, cost-effective generation of mature muscle cells for various applications.

These two grants support our emerging lines of research in cardiac regeneration and cellular agriculture. Both grants have a two year duration and will start in the Fall of 2023. We are looking for postdocs motivated to develop these exciting lines of research, so please spread the word and reach out if interested.