Other organisations recorded by Europe PMCTechnische Universität BerlinThese are researcher affiliations; the award is counted once under the primary recipient above.
Funding£9.6M
PeriodDec 2023 — Nov 2030
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
Cells are hiding in plain sight. The Hidden Cell Discovery Research Platform brings together biologists, engineers, and data scientists to systematically uncover the biological blind spots that standard methods miss—uncharacterised proteins, invisible nano-scale structures, and rare cellular events that happen too quickly or too unpredictably to catch. This matters because current research tends to cluster around well-studied topics, leaving vast stretches of the proteome unexplored and fundamental biological processes unobserved. These gaps block progress on understanding everything from how bacteria become drug-resistant to the molecular roots of genetic diseases that have no known cause. If the platform succeeds, it will deliver tools and insights that make the invisible visible. That could accelerate the discovery of new drug targets, reveal how pathogens evolve resistance, and provide the structural data needed to design next-generation molecular tools. Much of this work is fundamental science—it will not produce a treatment or a diagnostic tomorrow. But similar investments in foundational cell biology have, in the past, unlocked entire fields, from CRISPR gene editing to mRNA vaccines. This platform aims to create the same kind of catalytic knowledge.
View original technical description
Biological research is in an era of prolific data generation. This provides unprecedented opportunities for deep insights into cells, from infectious single-celled bacteria to the multitude of human cell types. However, technical limitations and investigative bias have left numerous “blind spots”. Functions of numerous proteins remain unknown, cellular sub-structures are unseen at nano-scale and rare cellular events go unnoticed. These knowledge gaps – the Hidden Cell – arise from the absence of appropriate technology and/or because well-studied topics attract further research, and are major barriers to progress, The proposed Hidden Cell Discovery Research Platform (HCDRP) will overcome these barriers. Scientists and Technologists from diverse disciplines will work together to develop innovative approaches that render currently intractable and/or neglected areas accessible. Three integrated HCDRP pipelines will: - Discover key components hidden amongst uncharacterised proteomes - Bridge biological structure between atomic and cellular scales - Capture pivotal biological events that are rare, short-lived or stochastic HCDRP is designed to address current challenges of biomedicine and revolutionise approaches to solving biological questions in the scientific community. It will deliver insights that stimulate mechanistic research in overlooked and unexpected areas, including uncharacterised genetic diseases, the emergence of microbial drug resistance and new generation tool development.
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