Project Overview

URC-Hypoxia — Unlocking the Redox Code: Mapping the Molecular Mechanisms of Hypoxia Tolerance is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship project (Horizon Europe, grant 101210478) hosted at i3S, University of Porto, Portugal.

Hypoxia — inadequate oxygen availability — is a defining feature of many of the most burdensome human diseases, including stroke, ischemic heart disease, and cancer. Yet while humans are remarkably vulnerable to oxygen deprivation, some animal species survive complete anoxia for hours or days as part of their normal lives. How do organisms that share our basic cell biology achieve this resilience? Answering this question in molecular detail is the central aim of URC-Hypoxia.

The project builds on the Preparation for Oxidative Stress (POS) framework — the upregulation of antioxidant defenses in anticipation of oxidative challenge — to investigate how a brief surge in reactive oxygen species (ROS) at the onset of anoxia triggers downstream redox signaling that protects cells from damage. Using the anoxia-tolerant mealworm beetle Tenebrio molitor as the primary model, the project maps this response across three integrated work packages: (1) defining the time-windows of redox imbalance during anoxia using ROS probes and redox couple measurements; (2) profiling the transcriptome and proteome — including the in vivo oxidation status of cysteine residues — at those critical time-points; and (3) testing the role of selected molecular targets in mammalian neurons and glial cells to assess their potential relevance to hypoxia-related disease.