University of Southampton part of European training programme exploring the potential role of the ‘dark proteome’ in new treatments

The University of Southampton is part of a new European training programme focused on the ‘dark proteome’ – a group of proteins whose existence was only recently discovered.

These proteins regulate processes in (cancer) cells and may play an important role in the development of new treatments, such as immunotherapy.

As part of the ORFeus programme, fifteen PhD candidates will work in fifteen research groups across different European countries, specialising in this emerging field.

In addition to their research, the PhD candidates will follow a joint training programme. They will receive both professional and scientific training and undertake internships with participating companies. As a result, promising discoveries can be translated more quickly into clinical applications.

Previous research has shown that the dark proteome offers opportunities for new treatments for various diseases.

Professor Owen Rackham , Professor of AI for the Life Sciences at the University of Southampton, said: “ORFeus is important because it brings attention to a part of biology that has been largely missed. The dark proteome may contain new regulators of disease, new markers of cell state, and new opportunities to understand how cells function in health and disease.

“Realising this potential will require researchers trained across omics, computational biology and disease biology, so that we can extract more value from existing data and turn new biological insight into future therapeutic opportunities.”

The ORFeus programme will start in October with the recruitment of students and will last for four years. It is coordinated by the Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology in The Netherlands and consists of 26 international partners - including cancer institutes, universities, businesses and research partners.

ORFeus is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, grant agreement no. 101309891.