{"id":53532,"date":"2026-10-12T14:12:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T12:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/?page_id=53532"},"modified":"2026-10-13T18:54:42","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T16:54:42","slug":"multi-objective-peptide-exploration-on-demand","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/en\/science\/research-and-projects\/multi-objective-peptide-exploration-on-demand\/","title":{"rendered":"Multi-Objective Peptide Exploration on Demand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Project acronym: MOPED<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Grant number: IP-2026-4962<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Duration: 2026 &#8211; 2029<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Budget: 196.650,00 \u20ac<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"661\" src=\"https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/MOPED_graphical_abstract_en-1024x661.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/MOPED_graphical_abstract_en-1024x661.png 1024w, https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/MOPED_graphical_abstract_en-400x258.png 400w, https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/MOPED_graphical_abstract_en-768x496.png 768w, https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/MOPED_graphical_abstract_en-1536x992.png 1536w, https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/MOPED_graphical_abstract_en-2048x1323.png 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Abstract<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Peptides hold enormous potential for medicine and biotechnology, but discovering new functional sequences remains challenging due to the vast number of possibilities and competing design requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MOPED aims to make peptide discovery smarter, more efficient, and more sustainable<\/strong> by developing a modular AI-powered software platform for exploring and optimizing peptide sequences. Unlike conventional approaches, MOPED enables researchers to dynamically balance competing objectives, such as <strong>antimicrobial activity versus toxicity<\/strong> or <strong>self-assembly versus synthesizability<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By combining generative AI, explainable deep learning, transfer learning, and expert knowledge, MOPED will support the discovery of functional peptides that are both effective and experimentally feasible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The resulting open and reusable software framework will advance our understanding of peptide sequence\u2013function relationships, improve reproducibility, and support innovation in antimicrobial therapeutics, biomaterials, and biotechnology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Research group<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/osoba\/goran-mausa\/\">prof. Goran Mau\u0161a<\/a><sup>1<\/sup> \u2013 principal investigator<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/osoba\/daniela-kalafatovic\/\">assoc. prof. Daniela Kalafatovi\u0107<\/a><sup>1<\/sup><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>assist. prof. Toni Todorovski<sup>2<\/sup><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>assist. prof. Erik Otovi\u0107<sup>3<\/sup><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/research.chimica.unipd.it\/martadezotti\/\">assoc. prof. Marta De Zotti<\/a><sup>4<\/sup><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mabesoonelab.nl\/members\/mathijs-mabesoone.html\">group leader Mathijs Mabesoone<\/a><sup>5<\/sup><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>postdoc Marko Njirjak<sup>1<\/sup><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ena Dra\u017ei\u0107<sup>1<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>1<\/sup> Faculty of Engineering, University of Rijeka<br><sup>2<\/sup> Faculty of Biotechnology and Drug Development, University of Rijeka<br><sup>3<\/sup> Faculty of Engineering in Pula, Jurja Dobrile University of Pula<br><sup>4<\/sup> Department of chemical sciences, University of Padova<br><sup>5<\/sup> Physical Organic Chemistry department, Radboud University, Nijmegen<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Funding<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Funded by Croatian Science Foundation grant IP-2026-4962.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"377\" src=\"https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/hrzz_logo_en.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53561\" style=\"width:385px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/hrzz_logo_en.jpg 800w, https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/hrzz_logo_en-400x189.jpg 400w, https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/hrzz_logo_en-768x362.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conferences<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>K. Barjaktari\u0107, P. Paunovi\u0107, L. Le\u010di\u0107, E. Otovi\u0107, J. Calvario, A. S. Pina, Y. Kawaguchi, D. Kalafatovic, G. Mau\u0161a (2026) Data-driven Prediction of Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation, BPS 2026<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>K. Barjaktari\u0107, J. Calvario, A. S. Pina, Y. Kawaguchi, D. Kalafatovic, G. Mau\u0161a (2026) <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.17952\/38EPS.2026.P250\">Transfer Learning for Prediction of Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation<\/a>, EPS 2026<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Project acronym: MOPED Grant number: IP-2026-4962 Duration: 2026 &#8211; 2029 Budget: 196.650,00 \u20ac Abstract Peptides hold enormous potential for medicine and biotechnology, but discovering new functional sequences remains challenging due to the vast number of possibilities and competing design requirements. MOPED aims to make peptide discovery smarter, more efficient, and more sustainable by developing a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":0,"parent":22495,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-53532","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53532"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53640,"href":"https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53532\/revisions\/53640"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riteh.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}