ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

In photovoltaics (PVs), a significant scientific and technological attention has been given to technologies that have the potential to boost the solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency and to power recently unpowerable devices and objects. The research of various solar cell concepts for diversified applications (building integrated PVs, powering mobile devices) has recently resulted in many innovations. However, designs and concepts of solar cells fulfilling stringent criteria of efficiency, stability, low prize, flexibility, transparency, tunable cell size, esthetics, are still lacking. Herein, the research focus is given to a new physical concept of a solar cell that explores extremely promising materials, yet unseen and unexplored in a joint device, whose combination may solve traditional solar cells drawbacks (carrier recombination, narrow light absorption). It features a high surface area interface (higher than any other known PVs concept) based on ordered anodic TiO2 nanotube arrays, homogenously infilled with nanolayers of high absorption coefficient crystalline chalcogenide or organic chromophores using different techniques, yet unexplored for this purpose. After addition of supporting constituents, a solid-state solar cell with an extremely large incident area for the solar light absorption and optimized electron pathways will be created. The CHROMTISOL solar cell concept bears a large potential to outperform existing thin film photovoltaic technologies and concepts due to unique combination of materials and their complementary properties. The project aims towards important scientific findings in highly interdisciplinary fields. Being extremely challenging and in the same time risky, it is based on feasible ideas and steps, that will result in exciting achievements. The principal investigator, Jan Macak, has an outstanding research profile in the field of self-organized anodic nanostructures and is an experienced researcher in the photovoltaic field

1 644 380 €

Start date: 2015-03-01, End date: 2020-02-29

The C-terminal domain (CTD) of the RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) largest subunit coordinates co-transcriptional processing and it is decorated by many processing factors throughout the transcription cycle. The composition of this supramolecular assembly is diverse and highly dynamic. Many of the factors associate with RNAPII weakly and transiently, and the association is dictated by different post-translational modification patterns and conformational changes of the CTD. To determine how these accessory factors assemble and exchange on the CTD of RNAPII has remained a major challenge. Here, we aim to unravel the structural and mechanistic bases for the dynamic assembly of RNAPII CTD with its processing factors. Using NMR, we will determine high-resolution structures of several protein factors bound to the CTD carrying specific modifications. This will enable to decode how CTD modification patterns stimulate or prevent binding of a given processing factor. We will also establish the structural and mechanistic bases of proline isomerisation in the CTD that control the timing of isomer-specific protein-protein interactions. Next, we will combine NMR and SAXS approaches to unravel how the overall CTD structure is remodelled by binding of multiple copies of processing factors and how these factors cross-talk with each other. Finally, we will elucidate a mechanistic basis for the exchange of processing factors on the CTD. Our study will answer the long-standing questions of how the overall CTD structure is modulated on binding to processing factors, and whether these factors cross-talk and compete with each other. The level of detail that we aim to achieve is currently not available for any transient molecular assemblies of such complexity. In this respect, the project will also provide knowledge and methodology for further studies of large and highly flexible molecular assemblies that still remain poorly understood.

1 844 604 €

Start date: 2015-08-01, End date: 2020-07-31

Daylength measuring devices such as the photoperiodic timer enable animals to anticipate and thus survive adverse seasons. This ability has contributed to the great success of insects living in temperate regions. Yet the basis of photoperiodic sensing remains elusive, because of the lack of suitable genetic models expressing photoperiod-dependent seasonal phenotypes. We have developed the linden bug, Pyrrhocoris apterus, into a genetically tractable model with a robust, photoperiod-dependent reproductive arrest (diapause). With the available tools, this insect has become ideal for deciphering the regulation of seasonality. The project has 3 clear and ambitious objectives: 1). Our goal is to define the molecular and anatomical bases of the photoperiodic timer. To achieve this, we propose to identify photoperiodic timer genes, genes regulating input to the timer, and early output markers, through an RNA interference screen(s). To define the molecular mechanism of the timer, we will employ genome editing to precisely alter properties of the key players. 2). Next, we will combine techniques of neuronal backfilling, in-vivo fluorescent reporters, and microsurgery to define the photoperiodic timer anatomically and to examine its spatial relationship to the circadian clock in the insect brain. 3). We will exploit the great natural geographic variability of photoperiodic timing in P. apterus to explore its genetic basis. Genetic variants correlating with phenotypic differences will be causally tested by genome editing within the original genetic backgrounds. Both the established and the innovative strategies provide a complementary approach to the first molecular characterization of the seasonal photoperiodic timer in insects. The proposed research aspires to explain mechanisms underlying the critical physiological adaptation to changing seasons. Deciphering mechanisms underpinning widespread adaptation might bring general implications for environment-friendly pest control.

2 000 000 €

Start date: 2017-04-01, End date: 2022-03-31

The vegetation of Central Europe has been directly influenced by humans for at least eight millennia; the original forests have been gradually transformed into today’s agricultural landscape. However, there is more to this landscape change than the simple disappearance of woodland. Forests have been brought under various management regimes, which profoundly altered their structure and species composition. The details of this process are little known for two main reasons. The greatest obstacle is the lack of cooperation among the disciplines dealing with the subject. The second major problem is the differences in spatio-temporal scaling and resolution used by the individual disciplines. Existing studies either concern smaller territories, or cover large areas (continental to global) with the help of modelling-based generalizations rather than primary data from the past. Using an extensive range of primary sources from history, historical geography, palaeoecology, archaeology and ecology, this interdisciplinary project aims to reconstruct the long-term (Neolithic to present) patterns of woodland cover, structure, composition and management in a larger study region (Moravia, the Czech Republic, ca. 27,000 km2) with the highest spatio-temporal resolution possible. Causes for the patterns observed will be analyzed in terms of qualitative and quantitative factors, both natural and human-driven, and the patterns in the tree layer will be related to those in the herb layer, which constitutes the most important part of plant biodiversity in Europe. This project will introduce woodland management as an equal driving force into long-term woodland dynamics, thus fostering a paradigm shift in ecology towards construing humans as an internal, constitutive element of ecosystems. By integrating sources and methods from the natural sciences and the humanities, the project will provide a more reliable basis for woodland management and conservation in Central Europe.

1 413 474 €

Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31