Descrizione del progetto
Formazione di dottorato per futuri paleoantropologi
Per gli scienziati che studiano la storia e il patrimonio antico, la paleoproteomica risulta essere la tecnologia più promettente per l’analisi delle serie di proteine provenienti da oggetti e tessuti molto più vecchi di 0,7 milioni di anni. Essa permette la ricostruzione di materiali attraverso molecole sopravvissute e l’identificazione di specie da frammenti di elementi morfologicamente non identificabili. Questo campo tuttavia necessita di specialisti altamente istruiti con un background interdisciplinare in chimica analitica, bioinformatica, paleontologia e archeologia. Il progetto PUSHH, finanziato dall’UE, offre una formazione di dottorato interdisciplinare e basata sulla ricerca per paleoantropologi, paleontologi e archeologi che diventeranno esperti leader futuri nell’analisi delle proteine antiche provenienti da materiali paleoantropologici, paleontologici e archeologici. Essi promuoveranno quindi attività di ricerca e sviluppo, formuleranno obiettivi, svilupperanno applicazioni e trasferiranno competenze relative alla ricerca.
Obiettivo
PUSHH will provide international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary doctoral training to prepare the next generation of palaeoanthropologists, palaeontologists and archaeologists to push knowledge on human biological and cultural evolution forward by using palaeoproteomics.
Ancient DNA (aDNA) sequencing revolutionised our knowledge on evolution, migration and admixture of archaic and anatomically modern humans. However, no aDNA older than 0.7 million years has been retrieved yet. Ancient proteins instead survive much longer than aDNA, enabling molecular-based phylogeny beyond the limits of aDNA degradation. They can also be recovered from cultural heritage objects, helping to understand how they were made. Presently though, there are very few specialists that have been trained to analyse ancient proteins, in stark contrast to the study of aDNA. The growing demand of information provided by palaeoproteomics will require highly qualified specialists with a multidisciplinary background in analytical chemistry, bioinformatics, palaeoanthropology, palaeontology and archaeology and PUSHH will build that competence.
The PUSHH network aims at:
(i) forming, through research-based training, the professional profiles behind tomorrow’s state-of-the-art analysis of ancient proteins from palaeoanthropological, palaeontological and archaeological materials,
(ii) consolidating existing constructive interaction across disciplines to focus different expertise and backgrounds into the common aim of advancing palaeoanthropology and archaeology,
(iii) stimulating the development of an application-oriented mindset for direct or indirect exploitation of PUSHH R&D activities, through the right set of specific research-related and transferable skills.
As a key PUSHH feature, the unique contribution provided by each participating institution will be integrated in a strong partnership to achieve valuable complementary research-specific and widely transferrable professional competence.
Campo scientifico
- natural scienceschemical sciencesanalytical chemistry
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiological morphologycomparative morphology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsDNA
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteins
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencespalaeontology
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-ITN - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (ITN)Coordinatore
1165 Kobenhavn
Danimarca