Horizon Europe Health 2027 Partner: Protein Engineering, Cell-Free Biologicals, Microbiome–ECM and Exposome Research

The MatrixBiome Lab, led by Prof. Nikolaos Afratis at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Greece, is seeking collaboration with coordinators and multidisciplinary consortia preparing proposals for Horizon Europe Cluster Health 2027.

The laboratory combines expertise in protein engineering and biological therapeutics, extracellular matrix (ECM) biology, microbiome–host interactions, molecular biomarkers, cancer and inflammatory disease biology, and translational research. The group has experience in the development and functional validation of engineered therapeutic proteins, identification of disease-associated molecular targets and biomarkers, and investigation of ECM–microbiome interactions.

We are particularly interested in cooperation under the following topics:

HORIZON-HLTH-2027-01-IND-01 – Development of cell-free protein synthesis platforms for discovery and/or production of biologicals.
We are interested in contributing to the development and application of cell-free protein synthesis technologies for rapid production, screening and functional characterization of monoclonal antibodies, engineered proteins and other biologicals. Potential contributions include protein engineering, target selection and validation, development of disease-relevant assays, functional screening and biological validation of candidate molecules.

HORIZON-HLTH-2027-01-DISEASE-06 – Development of monoclonal antibodies to prevent and treat infections from Flaviviruses.
We are interested in collaborations involving antibody/protein engineering, molecular target validation, functional screening and characterization of candidate biological therapeutics, and development of innovative protein-based strategies.

HORIZON-HLTH-2027-01-ENVHLTH-02 – Integrating climate-related exposures into the human exposome and characterising its changes in response to climate change.
Our interest focuses on understanding how climate-related and environmental exposures influence the microbiome, host molecular responses, inflammation and ECM remodeling. We are particularly interested in multi-omics approaches for identifying molecular signatures and biomarkers connecting environmental exposures with biological responses and disease susceptibility.

MatrixBiome Lab is seeking complementary academic, clinical and industrial partners with expertise in cell-free synthetic biology, antibody discovery, virology, omics, bioinformatics/AI, exposomics, environmental health, microbiome research and preclinical/clinical validation.

We are open to participating as a consortium partner and to leading specific tasks or work packages related to protein engineering, functional validation, biomarker discovery, microbiome–ECM interactions and translational molecular biology.