Four new doctoral networks are being launched

Through its Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), the European Union aims to establish a strong pool of European researchers and make Europe an even more attractive hub for science. Against this backdrop, it also supports the creation of international doctoral networks in which doctoral candidates receive structured training.

These doctoral networks bring together universities, research institutions, companies and stakeholders from other sectors across different countries. The joint research projects are designed to provide early-career researchers with high-quality training. The exchange of doctoral candidates between the participating institutions plays a major role in this.

Four researchers from the University of Würzburg have successfully contributed to applications for new MSCA doctoral networks (in alphabetical order):

• Dr Tom Beneke from the Biozentrum,
• Prof. Dr Isabel Feichtner from the Faculty of Law,
• Dr Hans Maric from the Rudolf Virchow Centre, and
• Prof. Dr Bettina Warscheid from the Institute of Biochemistry.

The EU is providing a total of around 18 million euros in funding for the four networks over a four-year period; of this, around 1.45 million euros is earmarked for supporting PhD students at JMU.

Biology: How parasites adapt

The new PACT doctoral network is researching neglected tropical diseases caused by parasites such as trypanosomes and leishmania . The latter are a particular focus of research in Würzburg: these pathogens are difficult to combat because they adapt within the body, hide in tissues and develop resistance to drugs. They can also enter a dormant state, thereby surviving treatment. The network’s aim is to gain a better understanding of these mechanisms in order to develop new diagnostic tools and more effective drugs, and to curb these diseases in the long term.

The‘Parasite Adaptive Skills and How to Counter Them’(PACT) network is based at the Biozentrum under the supervision of Dr Tom Beneke, who conducts research at the Chair of Zoology I - Cell and Developmental Biology.

The EU is funding the network with a total of 4.4 million euros; of this, around 290,000 euros will go to Würzburg.

Law: Europe’s Green Transition

The climate crisis, geopolitical instability and economic uncertainties present Europe with major challenges. The EU is therefore focusing on the ‘Green Deal’, a transformation affecting climate legislation, industrial policy and energy security. The new doctoral network “LPE-GREEN” is investigating how this agenda is reshaping the institutional foundations of the EU’s political economy in three interlinked areas: production, natural resources and finance. The participating researchers are analysing how legal frameworks shape markets, structure power relations and either facilitate or hinder socio-ecological transformations. They aim to train early-career researchers to develop solutions for a sustainable and socially just future in Europe.

The“Reconfiguring Europe: Law and Political Economy of the Green Transition”(LPE-GREEN) network is based at JMU under the supervision of Dr Isabel Feichtner, Professor of Public Law and International Economic Law at the Faculty of Law.

The EU is funding the network with a total of 4.6 million euros; of this, around 290,000 euros will go to Würzburg.

Biomedicine: Focus on highly flexible protein regions

A great many human proteins contain highly flexible sections that do not form a stable three-dimensional structure. These protein regions perform key regulatory functions within cells: they regulate signalling pathways and complex protein networks. If these processes go awry, this can trigger serious diseases, including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. Due to their high flexibility, such target regions offer only a few clearly defined points of attack for conventional drugs. This is where the new PhD network comes in: its aim is to use the oncogene β-catenin as a model to develop innovative tools and methods for specifically targeting highly flexible protein regions in drug development.

The PhD network“Flexible and disordered protein targets for therapeutic development: The oncogene β-catenin as a showcase” (FlexCAT) is based at Dr Hans Michael Maric’s group at the Rudolf Virchow Centre – Centre for Integrative and Translational Bioimaging.

The EU is funding the network with a total of 4.5 million euros; of this, around 580,000 euros will go to Würzburg.

Biochemistry: New strategies against viruses

Viruses have high mutation rates and are therefore highly adaptable – this can quickly lead to global disease outbreaks, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown. Against this backdrop, scientists are searching for novel antiviral therapies that target the host rather than the virus directly and are effective against a range of viruses. Promising targets include cell organelles such as peroxisomes, which play a key role in viral infection and the host’s immune response. However, progress in this field of research is hampered by a shortage of specialists with expertise in both virology and peroxisome and organelle biology. The new doctoral network VirION aims to bridge this gap.

The network‘Inter-organelle crosstalk in viral infections: identifying peroxisome-related targets for novel broad-spectrum antiviral strategies’(VirION) is based at the Biozentrum under Professor Dr Bettina Warscheid, Head of the Chair of Biochemistry II.

The EU is funding the network with a total of 4.5 million euros; of this, around 290,000 euros will go to Würzburg.