CLOSTNET

The genus Clostridium are a large and important group of bacteria, from both a medical and industrial perspective. Thus:

• C. difficile is now one of Europe’s most important causes of hospital infection.
• C. perfringens is causing devastation in the European poultry industry
• C. botulinum continues to fuel public concerns over its misuse by bioterrorists
• C. acetobutylicum offers hope in potential sustainable biofuel production
• C. sporogenes & C. novyi offer novel cures for treating cancer

As a consequence, there is an urgent need to better understand the basic biology of these important bacteria to counter the diseases they cause and exploit their potential benefits.

Using cutting edge technology and pulling together the expertise from Centres of Excellence across Europe, “CLOSTNET” aims to meet this need.  This four year, 5 million project is funded by the EU Marie Curie FP7 People Programme and involves academic and industrial partners from 7 European Member States. At the heart of the study is the revolutionary “ClosTron” technology developed by the University of Nottingham which allows systematic inactivation of genes to evaluate their function.  The programme includes 5 workshops and two open Clostridia conferences.

CLOSTNET represents a unique opportunity for a total of 22 young researchers of any nationality or country of residence to pursue a PhD based at one of these Centres of Excellence (2 students per centre).  Each PhD will be of 36 months and will involve up to 6 months secondment  to a partner laboratory.

Each of the 11 Partners has 2 fellows, ie., 22 in total.

Financed by the European Union Marie Curie Iinitial Training Networks
Acronym - CLOSTNET
Contract number (237942)

http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/index.htm