The project, titled “Decoding an Ancient RNA Social Network,” was proposed by Amy Buck (United Kingdom), Ruth Ley (Germany), Stefanie Kaiser (Germany), and Juan Pablo Tosar, head of the LGF and a researcher at the Faculty of Sciences. Its goal is to understand how RNAs released by intestinal bacteria and parasites are recognized by mammalian immune system cells located in the gut mucosa, as well as the role of the enzymes that regulate these processes.
The project builds on previous work by the LGF and the institute’s Laboratory of Immunoregulation and Inflammation (Castellano et al., Cell Genomics, 2025), and brings together specialists in intestinal parasites (Buck), microbiota (Ley), and RNA mass spectrometry (Kaiser).
In this edition, the program funded 28 proposals for a period of three years. This marks the first time a Uruguayan laboratory has received direct funding from this international program supporting frontier basic science, established in 1989.
The Human Frontier Science Program is an international non-profit organization that funds basic science projects with disruptive potential, driven by interdisciplinary teams from different countries. The review committee highlighted the innovative nature of the proposal and its multidisciplinary approach to addressing an emerging area in biology and medicine.
