ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

The aim of CATALIGHT is to use sunlight as a source of energy in order to trigger chemical reactions by harvesting photons with plasmonic nanoparticles and channelling the energy into catalytic materials. Plasmonic-catalytic devices would allow efficient harvest, transport, and injection of solar energy into molecules. To achieve this, imaging the energy flow at the nanoscale will be crucial for establishing the true potential of plasmonics, both in the context of yielding fundamental knowledge about the light-into-chemical energy conversion processes, and for moving from active towards efficient reactive devices within nanoscale environments. CATALIGHT has roots in three underlying components, making this project an interwoven effort to break new grounds in a crucial field for the further development of nanoscale energy manipulation: A) Super-resolution imaging of the energy-flow at the nanoscale – with a view to unravel the most efficient mechanisms to guide solar energy into catalytic materials using plasmonic structures as photon harvesters. B) Scaling-up this process through the fabrication of hierarchical photocatalytic colloids – using image-learning for the design of colloidal sources for energy manipulation. C) Light-into-chemical energy conversion – boosting efficiencies in environmental and industrial catalytic processes using tailored photocatalysts. The outcomes of this project will not only yield a substantial amount of fundamental knowledge in these crucial areas for the further development of the field, but also provide directly exploitable results for the applied sciences, particularly photocatalysis and fuel cells.

1 500 000 €

Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31

Macrophage differentiation programs are critical for the outcome of immunity against infection, chronic inflammatory diseases and cancer. How diverse inflammatory signals are translated to macrophage programs in the large range of human pathologies is largely unexplored. In the last years we focused on macrophage differentiation in granulomatous diseases. These affect millions worldwide, including young adults and children and tend to run a chronic course, with a high socioeconomic burden. Their common hallmark is the formation of granulomas, macrophage-driven structures of organized inflammation that replace healthy tissue. We revealed that macrophage precursors in granulomas experience a replication block and trigger the DNA Damage Response (DDR), a fundamental cellular process activated in response to genotoxic stress. This leads to the formation of multinucleated macrophages with tissue-remodelling signatures (Herrtwich, Cell 2016). Our work unravelled an intriguing link between genotoxic stress and granuloma-specific macrophage programs. The molecular pathways regulating DDR-driven macrophage differentiation and their role in chronic inflammatory pathologies remain however a black box. We hypothesize that the DDR promotes macrophage reprogramming to inflammation-maintaining modules. Such programs operate in granulomatous diseases and in chronic arthritis. Using state-of-the art genetic models, human tissues and an array of techniques crossing the fields of immunology, cell biology and cancer biology, our goal is to unravel the macrophage-specific response to genotoxic stress as an essential regulator of chronic inflammation-induced pathologies. The anticipated results will provide the scientific community with new knowledge on the role of genotoxic stress in immune dysregulation and will carry tremendous implications for the therapeutic targeting of macrophages in the context of chronic inflammatory diseases and cancer.

1 500 000 €

Start date: 2019-04-01, End date: 2024-03-31

Environmental and internal stimuli are constantly sensed by the body’s two large sensory units, the nervous system and the immune system. Integration of these sensory signals and translation into effector responses are essential for maintaining body homeostasis. While some of the intrinsic pathways of the immune or nervous system have been investigated, how the two sensory interfaces coordinate their responses remains elusive. We have recently investigated neuro-immune interaction at the mucosa of the intestine, which is densely innervated by the enteric nervous system (ENS). Our research has exposed a previously unrecognized pathway used by enteric neurons to shape type 2 immunity at mucosal barriers. Cholinergic enteric neurons produce the neuropeptide Neuromedin U (NMU) to elicit potent activation of type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) via Neuromedin U receptor 1, selectively expressed by ILC2s. Interestingly, NMU stimulated protective immunity against the parasite Nippostrongylus brasiliensis but also triggered allergic lung inflammation. Therefore, the NMU-NMUR1 axis provides an excellent opportunity to study how neurons and immune cells interact to regulate immune responses and maintain body homeostasis. We propose to generate and use elegant genetic tools, which will allow us to systematically investigate the consequences of neuro-immune crosstalk at mucosal surfaces in various disease models. These tools will enable us to selectively measure and interfere with neuronal and ILC2 gene expression and function, thereby leading to an unprecedented understanding of how the components of neuro-immune crosstalk contribute to parasite immunity or allergic disease development. Furthermore, we will progress into translational aspects of NMU-regulated immune activation for human immunology. Therefore, our research has the potential to develop basic concepts of mucosal immune regulation and such discoveries could also be harnessed for therapeutic intervention.

1 499 638 €

Start date: 2019-07-01, End date: 2024-06-30

"Inflammasomes are intracellular danger-sensing protein complexes that are important for host protection. They initiate inflammation by controlling the activity of the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β (IL-1β). Unlike most other cytokines, IL-1β is produced and retained in the cytoplasm in an inactive pro-form. Inflammasome-dependent maturation of proIL-1β is mediated by the common component of all inflammasomes, the protease caspase-1. Caspase-1 also controls the secretion of IL-1β, but the mechanism and route of secretion are unknown. We have recently demonstrated that the ability of caspase-1 to control IL-1β secretion is not dependent on its protease activity, but rather on a scaffold or adapter function of caspase-1. Furthermore, we and others could show that caspase-1 can control the secretion of non-substrates like IL-1α. These insights provide us with new and potentially revealing means to investigate the downstream effector functions of caspase-1, including the route and mechanism of IL-1 secretion. We will develop new tools to study the process of IL-1 secretion by microscopy and the novel mode-of-action of caspase-1 through the generation of transgenic models. Despite the important role of IL-1 in host defence against infection, dysregulated inflammasome activation and IL-1 production has a causal role in a number of acquired and hereditary auto-inflammatory conditions. These include particle-induced sterile inflammation (as is seen in gout and asbestosis), hereditary periodic fever syndromes, and metabolic diseases like diabetes and atherosclerosis. Currently, recombinant proteins that block the IL-1 receptor or deplete secreted IL-1 are used to treat IL-1-dependent diseases. These are costly treatments, and are also therapeutically cumbersome since they are not orally available. We hope that a better understanding of caspase-1-mediated secretion of IL-1 will unveil mechanisms that may serve as targets for future therapies for these diseases."

1 495 533 €

Start date: 2014-03-01, End date: 2019-02-28