ERC Stories

Based at the Institute of Chemistry in the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Ján Tkáč’s research combines glycomics – the study of sugars in organisms – with biochip sensors based on nanoparticles and nanotubes. The complexity of sugar molecules, he says, has so far held back the development of glycomics, but today it is one of the fastest developing scientific fields. “This is vital research as there is growing evidence of the importance of glycans in many aspects of cell physiology and pathology,” explains Dr Tkáč. “Here at the Institute we were very pleased with the ERC award because, after welcome EU investment for infrastructure, this five-year grant for ground-breaking research gives us the long-term stability we need to develop our team of young researchers and achieve real excellence in glycomics”. Dr Tkáč currently employs four PhD students and one post-doc in his research team with the support of his ERC grant.

Biochips for early warning

In the ELENA project, Ján Tkáč’s team is developing innovative biochips that can detect changes in ‘glycosylation’, of glycans attached to a protein or other organic molecules, and which can indicate diseases such as cancer. A typical ELENA biochip starts with a gold-plated glass substrate. Nanoparticles are then deposited on to the gold surface, followed by a layer of lectin (a glycan recognising protein). Finally, a layer of glycoprotein is deposited over the lectin after incubation with a sample. Interactions between the lectin and glycoprotein layers can then be detected by changes in the electrical resistivity of the biochip assembly. “The importance of the nanoparticles is their size,” explains Dr Tkáč, “they are small enough for us to study interactions at the cellular and molecular level and offer greatly improved detection limits.”

“Indeed, ELENA’s first nano-biochips are proving more sensitive by factors ranging from 1 million to a billion compared to state-of-the-art fluorescent biochips. We can catch diseases earlier on, with the possibility of treating them more effectively in the future,” he says. “And high sensitivity means the biochips can be small, which opens possibilities for in vivo measurements – with the prospect of putting the biochip into the patient. This technology offers much in the fight against diseases that disguise themselves well, such as various forms of cancers – making it difficult for our body’s cells to detect and combat it.”

As well as faster, more sensitive detection, ELENA also aims for nano-biochips that are more accurate. Current laboratory methods use ‘labels’ to help detect interactions – such as fluorescent dyes. But such ‘labels’ can influence the local environment and the properties of protein and glycan molecules – leading to false results in some cases. “By tracking interactions by measuring changes in electrical resistivity, our technology is ‘label free’. So we can preserve a much more natural way of interaction, closer to that in the organism, which will make our measurements and diagnoses not only faster and more sensitive but more accurate,” explains Dr Tkáč.

As regards the research environment in Slovakia, it is getting better due to presence of world class infrastructure, he says, and he believes that this, in combination with ERC grants, can reduce the brain-drain and attract highly-qualified people to do science in Slovakia.

More information:

Project´s website

Researcher's website 

Host Institution 

Project abstract on CORDIS

“One of the reasons the Bay of Bengal is very interesting is that it is one of the regions that is most vulnerable to climate change,” explains Dr Amrith. “It is low-lying, with geographical features that contribute to its vulnerability, and communities there have always lived close to water.”

“I have worked on this part of the world for most of my academic career,” he continues. “My research to date shows a complex relationship between migration and environmental change, so the question is: how have coastal communities experienced this in the past and how might they be affected by crises arising from future environmental and climate change?”

International scale, local voices

The scale of the question is huge: 500 million people live on this coastal rim – and one in four people in the world live in the countries bordering the Bay of Bengal. Dr Amrith’s ‘Coastal Frontiers’ project is investigating via classical historical research – archives of South Asian government records and personal papers – combined with a more anthropological approach – oral history interviews in communities along the coast.

“People who make their living from the sea – such as fishing communities and dock workers – are well-placed to talk about environmental change,” says Dr Amrith, “as are migrants and migrant communities, such as the small coastal towns along the southern Indian coast. Older people have memories of migrations, floods and disasters, and how climate has changed, but I am also interested in what is passed down to young people. What is the nature of this communal memory?”

Postdoctoral research associate, Dr Debojyoti Das, will assist with this community-based anthropological research. With Dr Amrith working in Tamil and Malay, and Dr Das working in Bengali, the two researchers have complementary language, academic and regional expertise.

“With just two team members, this is an unusual ERC project,” says Dr Amrith, “but it is exploratory and unpredictable – I don’t think I could have done it without the ERC.”

New questions

“After the first 18 months, we’ve found that the archives are much more scattered than we expected,” he says. “But we’re getting an idea of where to look further. For example, the London National Maritime Museum has been researched intensively by British naval historians, but it also holds records on the Bay of Bengal, such as changes in weather conditions and river traffic on the Ayeyarwady River in Burma.”

Environmental history – with its overlaps with social, economic and political history – is a growing field. Dr Amrith hopes to share some of his findings across such disciplines, and with climate, environmental and political scientists, via the project’s first conference and its blog.

“We are looking at the frontiers of ecological change, between empires and nations, rivers and seas, and between terrestrial and maritime law,” explains Dr Amrith, “as well as the risks to the communities, such as fishermen and migrants, who cross these frontiers.”

Environmental change is no respecter of such borders, and with so many great Asian rivers flowing into the Bay of Bengal, the high-level international politics of water are at stake.

“India, Bangladesh and China are all staking claims to water resources, so I was tempted to focus the research on conflict and crises,” he says. “But our experience so far is that the scope should be wider than this – some of the imperceptibly slow, ‘silent’ changes are probably the most interesting.”

"I want to ask: how does history as a discipline react to the phenomenon of climate change?” he concludes. “Do we have something to offer? And my answer is: yes!”

Project website 

Project blog

Project abstract on CORDIS

Fracture, a central problem of engineering

As a leading expert in statistical and theoretical physics from the National Research Council in Italy (CNR), Dr Zapperi is well placed to examine the dynamics of complex materials and the size effects in fracture and plasticity.

“I have always been fascinated by the way things break differently at different scales; this has been a central problem of engineering”, says Dr Zapperi. “The one atom-thick sheets of graphene that you use in laboratories and large pieces of architecture such as bridges.do not fail in the same way. Size effects are immensely complex phenomena and our goal is to understand how collective effects – i.e. the motion of atomic defects and cracks in materials– can impact their physical behaviour when the scale changes”.

An area where pragmatism is still king

There already exists a lot of empirical knowledge about fracture and plasticity. “Engineers for instance know well how to avoid that elevators fall, by making them much stronger than required. These issues are already part of their everyday work but a complete theory about fracture and plasticity of materials is not yet in sight”, notes Dr Zapperi.

In the ERC project, he plans to establish a universal law for failure statistics that could be applied to a large array of different materials, including metals, glass, crystalline materials, amorphous materials such as gels, etc.

Taking the example of water which boils under a certain quantity of heat that is proportional to its volume, Dr Zapperi explains that the theories of fracture and plasticity don’t follow the same proportionality principle. There is no simple way to estimate the load at which a large sample will break just by knowing the fracture load of a smaller sample. Referring to Leonardo da Vinci’s wires that are exhibited in the Milano Science Museum, he explains that on average, longer wires are more likely to possess weak parts and to fail at smaller loads. For instance a chain will break at its weakest link. To sum up, he says “the larger, the weaker - the smaller, the stronger”.

In contrast, the stress required to deform plastic materials (the so-called yield strength) does not depend very much on the size of the object. Micron-sized samples, however, are much stronger than bulk ones and are also less predictable in the way they deform.

By using a standard method called the “renormalization group” (RG), which allows the study of how the system behaves depending on its scale, the research team plans to better understand size effects in fracture and plasticity.

Dr Zapperi is convinced that his research is particularly relevant at times where we push devices to smaller and smaller scales. “Understanding size effects in micron-scale ductile materials like metals could be helpful to better control fluctuations in their deformation, which is important in manufacturing microelectronic components, for instance”.

Freedom of research

Regarding the ERC funding, Dr Zapperi comments: “A lot of our work deals with computational work. The ERC grant was a real career boost as it helped me to hire five team members and to buy a dedicated computer cluster to make our simulations, instead of using standard desktop computers which by definition are much slower.” In terms of collaboration, he concludes: “The ERC funding allows us to make cutting-edge research and for us to cooperate with peers in other countries like the US or Finland. I find it quite exceptional to benefit from such freedom without being obliged to squeeze my research by pre-set priorities”.

Statistical Materials Modeling Laboratory

Size Effects in Fracture and Plasticity

Audio interview of Stefano Zapperi (new)

Download the zip file

Listen to the interview on SoundCloud

"Most of the writing about new urban citizenship is based on the assumption that contact with 'others' necessarily translates into respect for difference. This needs to be nuanced: many everyday moments of contact between citizens may not actually represent encounters at all", explains Prof. Valentine.

With her team, she wants to identify what kind of encounters produce 'meaningful contact' that actually changes values and translates into a more general positive respect of others. To address this question, she focuses on 'micropublics', i.e. sites such as libraries and sport clubs, where people from diverse backgrounds are brought together and can learn new ways of relating to each other.

"The capacity to live with difference confronts all countries of the EU, but there are some distinctions to make", notes Prof. Valentine. She distinguishes two important categories: the countries which were former colonial powers (such as UK, the Netherlands, France and Spain) and post-communist states in Eastern Europe (such as Poland, Latvia and Czech Republic). For the former ones, the challenges of multiculturalism have been faced since the post-war period. In contrast, it is only since 1989 that the homogeneity of former communist states has been significantly unsettled by contact with 'others'.

From Leeds to Warsaw - From research to politics

Prof. Valentine's programme of research aims to collect empirical data in two cities which she believes are representative: Leeds (UK) and Warsaw (Poland). Her research team is using innovative tools to collect testimonials, such as audio-diaries – to capture informants' reflections on their everyday lived encounters with difference – and time-lines built on in-depth life history interviews.

Her approach includes spatial experimentation. "With the help of ergonomics experts, movements therapists and architects, we aim to identify the types of activity and characteristics of particular spaces where meaningful contact can be produced or facilitated", explains Prof. Valentine.

"I have opted for a multidisciplinary approach, combining expertise from different fields including geography, urban studies, planning and sociology", she adds. The outcomes of the project will also leave a legacy beyond academic research. "I already have a collaborative relationship with the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission and I also expect strong interest from Polish government bodies and NGOs who are developing equality legislation and support for minority groups for the first time following their accession to the EU ", says Prof. Valentine.

On her €2.1 million ERC Advanced grant, she adds: "The ERC funding has been hugely important in enabling me to develop an interdisciplinary team of researchers at different career stages to address the important societal challenge of how we might develop the capacity for difference. It has enabled to work with a range of non-academic stakeholders and communities in both the UK and Poland which I hope will help us to generate findings that make a difference from the local to the European scale."

Looking forward, she plans to organise a two-day international conference in May 2014 where her findings will be showcased to European academics and 'stakeholder' dissemination workshops. In parallel, public exhibitions will also be organised in London, Warsaw and Brussels over the course of the year.

Publications

• Valentine, G. and Sadgrove J (2012) Lived difference: the transmission of positive and negative attitudes towards others Environment and Planning A 44: 2049-2067.
• Piekut, A., Valentine, G, Rees, P and Kupiszewski, M. (2012) Multi dimensional diversity in two European cities: thinking beyond ethnicity Environment and Planning A 44(12):2988-3009 2012.
• Andersson, J., Sadgrove, J. and Valentine G. (2012) Consuming campus: geographies of encounter at a British university, Social & Cultural Geography 13(5):501-515.
• Valentine, G. (2013) Living with difference: Proximity and encounter in urban life. Geography 98 (1):4-9.
• Website

Follow @LIVEDIFFERENCE on Twitter

Massive efforts worldwide have been devoted to support research and the European Union has funded neuroscience research through several programmes. Since its creation in 2007, the European Research Council (ERC) has been supporting cutting-edge and innovative studies in neurosciences. More than 200 research projects have been funded for a total budget of over € 250 million. About 15% of the projects funded in life sciences have a strong neuroscience component. Many of these projects address research and public health challenges and explore emerging areas in neurosciences.

Questions addressed by some ERC projects deal for instance with memory and information coding in the brain, genesis and repair of the nervous system, empathy and emotion processes, cell and gene therapy for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, computation models for man-machine interaction or retinal degeneration and blindness.

Some ERC projects in Neuroscience

Unravelling the processes of knowledge acquisition

Knowledge has a central role in our society. To understand more about the acquisition of knowledge and the brain mechanisms underlying it, ERC Advanced grantee Professor Richard Morris (University of Edinburgh, UK) is determining the neurobiological basis of ‘schemas’ in collaboration with Professor Guillén Fernández (Radbound University, The Netherlands). Schemas are the cognitive frameworks that help to organise and interpret information around us. The researchers are conducting an interdisciplinary experimental analysis of the mechanisms of acquiring knowledge, with a focus on the rapid acquisition and assimilation of new information into existing neural schemas. The researchers test how this rapid learning depends upon two components; novelty and prior knowledge. The study integrates animal experimentation with studies on humans; combining methods ranging from optogenetics to cognitive testing. In the long-term, the project aims to contribute to newer, more effective learning strategies.

Principal Investigator: Prof. Richard Morris
Host Institution: University of Edinburgh, UK
ERC Project: The neurobiology of schemas: knowledge acquisition and consolidation (NEUROSCHEMA)
ERC Call: Advanced Grant 2010
ERC Funding: € 3 million for five years
Researchers’ webpage

In search of how our brain feels

Humans have the capacity to slip into the skins of other people, to vicariously experience their actions and emotions. At the Royal Netherlands Academy for Arts and Sciences, ERC Starting grantee Professor Christian Keysers seeks to understand the processes of empathy within our neurons. His project consists of two complementary analyses. Along with his team, he will first examine how the network of regions involved in action observation in the brain - the “vicarious motor network” - integrate information. Challenging traditional models of action observation, the study will focus on directions of information flow between the vicarious motor nodes. The second analysis explores emotions; how neurons in brain regions associated with empathy respond to witnessing and experiencing emotions. This study will benefit life sciences, particularly genetics, and will inspire better therapies for psychiatric disorders of empathy such as autism. For robotics, it will concretise a biological example of how brains process and predict actions of others as well as read their feelings.
Illustration ©Dimitri_K

Principal Investigator: Prof. Christian Keysers
Host Institution: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)
ERC Project: Cracking the code and flow of empathy (VICARIOUSBRAIN)
ERC Call: Starting Grant 2012
ERC Funding: € 1.7 million for five years
Researcher’s webpage

Towards repair and regeneration of nerves after injury

Based at the University of Zurich (Switzerland), ERC Advanced grantee Professor Martin Schwab aims to better understand nerve-regeneration and functional recovery after injury to the body’s central nervous system (CNS). For these processes of repair, the inactivation of the membrane protein Nogo-A has been increasingly recognised. Along with his team, the researcher has found a member of a specific family of receptor proteins, to bind with high affinity Nogo-A, facilitating nerve fibre growth and plasticity. In particular, the group of Prof. Schwab plans to further understand the functional receptor complex that mediate Nogo-A signalling cascade and its regulatory role for synaptic plasticity and nerve fiber regeneration. The results will contribute to improve molecular and physiological understanding of Nogo-A, as well as strengthen the rationale for extending the indication of clinical anti-Nogo-A therapies from spinal cord injury to stroke.

Principal Investigator: Prof. Martin Schwab
Host Institution: University of Zurich, Switzerland
ERC Project: The Nogo-A receptor complex after CNS injury and its role in the developing and adult nervous system (NOGORISE)
ERC Call: Advanced Grant 2011
ERC Funding: € 2.5 million for five years
Researcher’s webpage

Cell therapy for treating blindness

Retinal degeneration, leading to the loss of photoreceptors, the light sensing cells of the retina required for vision, is a major cause of untreatable blindness. Seeking to develop stem cell therapy for such diseases, ERC Advanced grantee Professor Robin Ali conducts research at University College London (UK). He will determine whether embryonic stem (ES) cells can be used to repair degenerate retina and to model photoreceptor disorders. The project plans to establish new protocols for differentiating mouse and human ES cells into photoreceptors and to transplant these into degenerate retinas to test their ability to restore vision. The study also aims to use induced pluripotent stem cell technology to generate photoreceptors from patients with retinal disorders in order to study disease processes that might be corrected using drugs or other innovative technologies such as gene therapy.
Illustration © Robin Ali

Principal Investigator: Prof. Robin Ali
Host Institution: University College London, UK
ERC Project: Generation of stem cell derived photoreceptors for the treatment and modeling of retinal degeneration (STEMRD)
ERC Call: Advanced Grant 2012
ERC Funding: € 2.4 million for five years
Researcher’s webpage

Novel ways to address female health concerns

Addressing women’s health issues are of crucial importance. Based at the University of Milan (Italy), ERC Advanced grantee Professor Adriana Maggi examines the ways the liver uses information from hormones to integrate the metabolic, reproductive and hormonal status of women. She seeks to understand how the liver works in tandem with reproductive organs to regulate metabolism in response to reproductive needs and stages. The research proposes that the estrogen hormonal receptor ‘ER’ in the liver is a sensor of the body’s metabolic state; with consequences for female reproductive functions. To demonstrate this, the study will identify molecular pathways by which endocrine and nutritional inputs are recognised and integrated by the ER in the liver and discover the ways in which it aligns energy metabolism to meet requirements of the reproductive functions. The project will lead to better understanding female metabolic and reproductive disorders, particularly those related to menopause and ovarian malfunction, thereby resulting in the design of novel and more effective treatments.
Illustration © Adrianna Maggi

Principal Investigator: Prof. Adriana Maggi
Host Institution: University of Milan, Italy
ERC Project: Role of Liver Estrogen Receptor in female Energy Metabolism, Reproduction and Aging: What About Your Liver Sexual Functions? (WAYS)
ERC Call: Advanced Grant 2012
ERC Funding: € 1.4 million for five years
Researcher’s webpage