Project acronym 15CBOOKTRADE
Project The 15th-century Book Trade: An Evidence-based Assessment and Visualization of the Distribution, Sale, and Reception of Books in the Renaissance
Researcher (PI) Cristina Dondi
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH6, ERC-2013-CoG
Summary The idea that underpins this project is to use the material evidence from thousands of surviving 15th-c. books, as well as unique documentary evidence — the unpublished ledger of a Venetian bookseller in the 1480s which records the sale of 25,000 printed books with their prices — to address four fundamental questions relating to the introduction of printing in the West which have so far eluded scholarship, partly because of lack of evidence, partly because of the lack of effective tools to deal with existing evidence. The book trade differs from other trades operating in the medieval and early modern periods in that the goods traded survive in considerable numbers. Not only do they survive, but many of them bear stratified evidence of their history in the form of marks of ownership, prices, manuscript annotations, binding and decoration styles. A British Academy pilot project conceived by the PI produced a now internationally-used database which gathers together this kind of evidence for thousands of surviving 15th-c. printed books. For the first time, this makes it possible to track the circulation of books, their trade routes and later collecting, across Europe and the USA, and throughout the centuries. The objectives of this project are to examine (1) the distribution and trade-routes, national and international, of 15th-c. printed books, along with the identity of the buyers and users (private, institutional, religious, lay, female, male, and by profession) and their reading practices; (2) the books' contemporary market value; (3) the transmission and dissemination of the texts they contain, their survival and their loss (rebalancing potentially skewed scholarship); and (4) the circulation and re-use of the illustrations they contain. Finally, the project will experiment with the application of scientific visualization techniques to represent, geographically and chronologically, the movement of 15th-c. printed books and of the texts they contain.
Summary
The idea that underpins this project is to use the material evidence from thousands of surviving 15th-c. books, as well as unique documentary evidence — the unpublished ledger of a Venetian bookseller in the 1480s which records the sale of 25,000 printed books with their prices — to address four fundamental questions relating to the introduction of printing in the West which have so far eluded scholarship, partly because of lack of evidence, partly because of the lack of effective tools to deal with existing evidence. The book trade differs from other trades operating in the medieval and early modern periods in that the goods traded survive in considerable numbers. Not only do they survive, but many of them bear stratified evidence of their history in the form of marks of ownership, prices, manuscript annotations, binding and decoration styles. A British Academy pilot project conceived by the PI produced a now internationally-used database which gathers together this kind of evidence for thousands of surviving 15th-c. printed books. For the first time, this makes it possible to track the circulation of books, their trade routes and later collecting, across Europe and the USA, and throughout the centuries. The objectives of this project are to examine (1) the distribution and trade-routes, national and international, of 15th-c. printed books, along with the identity of the buyers and users (private, institutional, religious, lay, female, male, and by profession) and their reading practices; (2) the books' contemporary market value; (3) the transmission and dissemination of the texts they contain, their survival and their loss (rebalancing potentially skewed scholarship); and (4) the circulation and re-use of the illustrations they contain. Finally, the project will experiment with the application of scientific visualization techniques to represent, geographically and chronologically, the movement of 15th-c. printed books and of the texts they contain.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 172 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-04-01, End date: 2019-03-31
Project acronym ADaPt
Project Adaptation, Dispersals and Phenotype: understanding the roles of climate,
natural selection and energetics in shaping global hunter-gatherer adaptability
Researcher (PI) Jay Stock
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH6, ERC-2013-CoG
Summary Relative to other species, humans are characterised by considerable biological diversity despite genetic homogeneity. This diversity is reflected in skeletal variation, but we lack sufficient understanding of the underlying mechanisms to adequately interpret the archaeological record. The proposed research will address problems in our current understanding of the origins of human variation in the past by: 1) documenting and interpreting the pattern of global hunter-gatherer variation relative to genetic phylogenies and climatic variation; 2) testing the relationship between environmental and skeletal variation among genetically related hunter-gatherers from different environments; 3) examining the adaptability of living humans to different environments, through the study of energetic expenditure and life history trade-offs associated with locomotion; and 4) investigating the relationship between muscle and skeletal variation associated with locomotion in diverse environments. This will be achieved by linking: a) detailed study of the global pattern of hunter-gatherer variation in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene with; b) ground-breaking experimental research which tests the relationship between energetic stress, muscle function, and bone variation in living humans. The first component tests the correspondence between skeletal variation and both genetic and climatic history, to infer mechanisms driving variation. The second component integrates this skeletal variation with experimental studies of living humans to, for the first time, directly test adaptive implications of skeletal variation observed in the past. ADaPt will provide the first links between prehistoric hunter-gatherer variation and the evolutionary parameters of life history and energetics that may have shaped our success as a species. It will lead to breakthroughs necessary to interpret variation in the archaeological record, relative to human dispersals and adaptation in the past.
Summary
Relative to other species, humans are characterised by considerable biological diversity despite genetic homogeneity. This diversity is reflected in skeletal variation, but we lack sufficient understanding of the underlying mechanisms to adequately interpret the archaeological record. The proposed research will address problems in our current understanding of the origins of human variation in the past by: 1) documenting and interpreting the pattern of global hunter-gatherer variation relative to genetic phylogenies and climatic variation; 2) testing the relationship between environmental and skeletal variation among genetically related hunter-gatherers from different environments; 3) examining the adaptability of living humans to different environments, through the study of energetic expenditure and life history trade-offs associated with locomotion; and 4) investigating the relationship between muscle and skeletal variation associated with locomotion in diverse environments. This will be achieved by linking: a) detailed study of the global pattern of hunter-gatherer variation in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene with; b) ground-breaking experimental research which tests the relationship between energetic stress, muscle function, and bone variation in living humans. The first component tests the correspondence between skeletal variation and both genetic and climatic history, to infer mechanisms driving variation. The second component integrates this skeletal variation with experimental studies of living humans to, for the first time, directly test adaptive implications of skeletal variation observed in the past. ADaPt will provide the first links between prehistoric hunter-gatherer variation and the evolutionary parameters of life history and energetics that may have shaped our success as a species. It will lead to breakthroughs necessary to interpret variation in the archaeological record, relative to human dispersals and adaptation in the past.
Max ERC Funding
1 911 485 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-07-01, End date: 2019-06-30
Project acronym ESTYMA
Project Excited state quantum dynamics in molecular aggregates: a unified description from biology to devices
Researcher (PI) Alessandro Troisi
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE4, ERC-2013-CoG
Summary The coherent dynamics of excitons in systems of biological interest and in organic materials can now be studied with advanced experimental techniques, including two dimensional electronic spectroscopy, with time resolution of few femtoseconds. The theory of open quantum systems, that should support the interpretation of these new experiments, has been developed in different contexts over the past 60 years but seems now very inadequate for the problems of current interest. First of all, the systems under investigation are extremely complex and the most common approach, based on the development of phenomenological models, is often not very informative. Many different models yield results in agreement with the experiments and there is no systematic way to derive these models or to select the best model among many. Secondly, the quantum dynamics of excitons is so fast that one cannot assume that the dynamics of environment is much faster than the dynamics of the system, an assumption crucial for most theories. A remedy to the current limitation is proposed here through the following research objectives.
(1) A general and automatic protocol will be developed to generate simple treatable models of the system from an accurate atomistic description of the same system based on computational chemistry methods.
(2) A professionally-written software will be developed to study the quantum dynamics of model Hamiltonians for excitons in molecular aggregates. This software will incorporate different methodologies and will be designed to be usable also by non-specialists in the theory of quantum open systems (e.g. spectroscopists, computational chemists).
(3) A broad number of problems will be studied with this methodology including (i) exciton dynamics in light harvesting complexes and artificial proteins and (ii) exciton dynamics in molecular aggregates of relevance for organic electronics devices.
Summary
The coherent dynamics of excitons in systems of biological interest and in organic materials can now be studied with advanced experimental techniques, including two dimensional electronic spectroscopy, with time resolution of few femtoseconds. The theory of open quantum systems, that should support the interpretation of these new experiments, has been developed in different contexts over the past 60 years but seems now very inadequate for the problems of current interest. First of all, the systems under investigation are extremely complex and the most common approach, based on the development of phenomenological models, is often not very informative. Many different models yield results in agreement with the experiments and there is no systematic way to derive these models or to select the best model among many. Secondly, the quantum dynamics of excitons is so fast that one cannot assume that the dynamics of environment is much faster than the dynamics of the system, an assumption crucial for most theories. A remedy to the current limitation is proposed here through the following research objectives.
(1) A general and automatic protocol will be developed to generate simple treatable models of the system from an accurate atomistic description of the same system based on computational chemistry methods.
(2) A professionally-written software will be developed to study the quantum dynamics of model Hamiltonians for excitons in molecular aggregates. This software will incorporate different methodologies and will be designed to be usable also by non-specialists in the theory of quantum open systems (e.g. spectroscopists, computational chemists).
(3) A broad number of problems will be studied with this methodology including (i) exciton dynamics in light harvesting complexes and artificial proteins and (ii) exciton dynamics in molecular aggregates of relevance for organic electronics devices.
Max ERC Funding
1 512 873 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-04-01, End date: 2019-03-31
Project acronym EXONMR
Project "Exploiting 17O NMR Spectroscopy: Atomic-Scale Structure, Disorder and Dynamics in Solids"
Researcher (PI) Sharon Elizabeth Marie Ashbrook
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY COURT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE4, ERC-2013-CoG
Summary "The fundamental importance of oxide-based systems in technology, energy materials, geochemistry and catalysis, and the presence of oxygen in many biomaterials, should have resulted in oxygen nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy emerging as a vital tool for materials characterization. NMR offers an element-specific, atomic-scale probe of the local environment, providing a potentially powerful probe of local structure, disorder and dynamics in solids. However, despite the almost ubiquitous presence of oxygen in inorganic solids, oxygen NMR studies have been relatively scarce in comparison to other nuclei, owing primarily to the low natural abundance of the NMR-active isotope, 17O (0.037%). Hence, isotopic enrichment is necessary, often at considerable cost and effort. Furthermore, the presence of anisotropic quadrupolar broadening (and the need for complex high-resolution experiments) has also limited the development and application of 17O NMR to date. Here, we propose to develop an internationally-leading research programme to exploit the largely untapped potential of 17O spectroscopy. This wide-ranging programme will involve (i) the exploration of novel synthetic approaches for cost-efficient isotopic enrichment, (ii) the development of new solid-state NMR methodology, specific for 17O, (iii) the application of state-of-the-art first-principles calculations of 17O NMR parameters and (iv) the application of these methods to three different areas of investigation: high-pressure silicate minerals, microporous materials and ceramics for waste encapsulation. The ultimate long-term aim is to change the way in which solid-state chemists characterise materials; so that solid-state NMR (and 17O NMR in particular) is viewed as a necessary and important step in the refinement of a detailed structural model."
Summary
"The fundamental importance of oxide-based systems in technology, energy materials, geochemistry and catalysis, and the presence of oxygen in many biomaterials, should have resulted in oxygen nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy emerging as a vital tool for materials characterization. NMR offers an element-specific, atomic-scale probe of the local environment, providing a potentially powerful probe of local structure, disorder and dynamics in solids. However, despite the almost ubiquitous presence of oxygen in inorganic solids, oxygen NMR studies have been relatively scarce in comparison to other nuclei, owing primarily to the low natural abundance of the NMR-active isotope, 17O (0.037%). Hence, isotopic enrichment is necessary, often at considerable cost and effort. Furthermore, the presence of anisotropic quadrupolar broadening (and the need for complex high-resolution experiments) has also limited the development and application of 17O NMR to date. Here, we propose to develop an internationally-leading research programme to exploit the largely untapped potential of 17O spectroscopy. This wide-ranging programme will involve (i) the exploration of novel synthetic approaches for cost-efficient isotopic enrichment, (ii) the development of new solid-state NMR methodology, specific for 17O, (iii) the application of state-of-the-art first-principles calculations of 17O NMR parameters and (iv) the application of these methods to three different areas of investigation: high-pressure silicate minerals, microporous materials and ceramics for waste encapsulation. The ultimate long-term aim is to change the way in which solid-state chemists characterise materials; so that solid-state NMR (and 17O NMR in particular) is viewed as a necessary and important step in the refinement of a detailed structural model."
Max ERC Funding
1 902 188 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-04-01, End date: 2019-03-31
Project acronym HeteroIce
Project Towards a molecular-level understanding of heterogeneous ice nucleation
Researcher (PI) Angelos Michaelides
Host Institution (HI) University College London
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE4, ERC-2013-CoG
Summary Ice formation is one of the most common phase transitions on Earth. It is relevant to an enormous variety of phenomena such as weathering, cloud formation, airline safety, agriculture, and energy. However, despite having been studied since antiquity, our molecular level understanding of ice formation is largely incomplete. In particular, almost all ice formation in nature is aided by impurities or the surfaces of foreign materials, yet how surfaces act to facilitate ice formation (heterogeneous ice nucleation) is unclear. Given the ubiquity of ice nucleation, this is arguably one of the biggest unsolved problems in the physical sciences.
Experiment provides insight into crystal nucleation and growth, but most nucleation events happen too quickly and involve too few particles to be rationalised purely by experiment. As a result, computer simulations play an important role and I believe we are now on the verge of using simulation to bring about major breakthroughs in understanding ice formation. Specifically, in this project we aim to perform the first full-on attack on heterogeneous ice nucleation so as to elucidate how the physiochemical properties of materials control their ability to nucleate ice. We will focus on nucleation on solid inorganic substrates and our approach will be to couple systematic studies on model systems with in-depth explorations of more realistic (and experimentally realisable) surfaces. We will improve existing computer simulation methods and develop new ones for accurate large- scale simulations of phase transitions in complex heterogeneous environments. In so doing we will help to make simulations of ice nucleation more routine, enabling us to establish what makes a good ice nucleating agent. The results from this multi-disciplinary project will not only shed light on an important everyday process but may also help to improve climate models and develop improved cloud seeding materials, or inhibitor coatings for industrial purposes.
Summary
Ice formation is one of the most common phase transitions on Earth. It is relevant to an enormous variety of phenomena such as weathering, cloud formation, airline safety, agriculture, and energy. However, despite having been studied since antiquity, our molecular level understanding of ice formation is largely incomplete. In particular, almost all ice formation in nature is aided by impurities or the surfaces of foreign materials, yet how surfaces act to facilitate ice formation (heterogeneous ice nucleation) is unclear. Given the ubiquity of ice nucleation, this is arguably one of the biggest unsolved problems in the physical sciences.
Experiment provides insight into crystal nucleation and growth, but most nucleation events happen too quickly and involve too few particles to be rationalised purely by experiment. As a result, computer simulations play an important role and I believe we are now on the verge of using simulation to bring about major breakthroughs in understanding ice formation. Specifically, in this project we aim to perform the first full-on attack on heterogeneous ice nucleation so as to elucidate how the physiochemical properties of materials control their ability to nucleate ice. We will focus on nucleation on solid inorganic substrates and our approach will be to couple systematic studies on model systems with in-depth explorations of more realistic (and experimentally realisable) surfaces. We will improve existing computer simulation methods and develop new ones for accurate large- scale simulations of phase transitions in complex heterogeneous environments. In so doing we will help to make simulations of ice nucleation more routine, enabling us to establish what makes a good ice nucleating agent. The results from this multi-disciplinary project will not only shed light on an important everyday process but may also help to improve climate models and develop improved cloud seeding materials, or inhibitor coatings for industrial purposes.
Max ERC Funding
1 915 083 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-04-01, End date: 2019-03-31
Project acronym MASSLIP
Project Systems Medical Diagnostics by In-vivo Ambient Mass Spectrometric Profiling of Tissue Lipidome
Researcher (PI) Zoltan Takats
Host Institution (HI) IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE4, ERC-2013-CoG
Summary "The objective of the proposal is the development of ambient mass spectrometric methods for the characterisation of mucosal metabolome and lipidome. While recent advent of ambient MS provided new means for in-situ and imaging analyses and led to the development of real-time, in-vivo MS characterisation of tissues, there are no methods available for minimally invasive testing of mucosal surfaces including the associated microflora. Human mucosa-associated microbiome (with special emphasis on the gastrointestinal microbiota) has been recently demonstrated to play a key role in the pathogenesis of localised (cancer, chronic inflammatory disease) and systemic (hypertension, diabetes, obesity) conditions. While the microbiota interacts with the host mostly via production of a variety of metabolites, currently there is no method available for the in-situ metabolic profiling of mucosa. The envisioned methods will presumably fill this gap, by providing a technique for the diagnosis of a wide range of diseases ranging from acute infections through cancer to dysbiotic conditions of the microflora leading to chronic illnesses.
In the current proposal we put forward the development of different ambient ionisation setups utilising Jet Desorption Ionisation, Sonic Spray Ionisation and Rapid Evaporation Ionisation MS covering a broad range of invasiveness. We plan to combine the methods with standard endoscopic tools and develop the concept of ´chemically aware´ or intelligent endoscopic device capable of the unambiguous identification of pathological conditions of the mucosa. Since the metabolic profile-based identification approach requires large authentic datasets, we plan to create both histopathological and bacterial spectral databases with histological and 16SrRNA-based validation. The proposal also comprises the development of novel multivariate statistical analysis workflows and data fusion algorithms allowing rapid and accurate identification using multimodal MS datasets."
Summary
"The objective of the proposal is the development of ambient mass spectrometric methods for the characterisation of mucosal metabolome and lipidome. While recent advent of ambient MS provided new means for in-situ and imaging analyses and led to the development of real-time, in-vivo MS characterisation of tissues, there are no methods available for minimally invasive testing of mucosal surfaces including the associated microflora. Human mucosa-associated microbiome (with special emphasis on the gastrointestinal microbiota) has been recently demonstrated to play a key role in the pathogenesis of localised (cancer, chronic inflammatory disease) and systemic (hypertension, diabetes, obesity) conditions. While the microbiota interacts with the host mostly via production of a variety of metabolites, currently there is no method available for the in-situ metabolic profiling of mucosa. The envisioned methods will presumably fill this gap, by providing a technique for the diagnosis of a wide range of diseases ranging from acute infections through cancer to dysbiotic conditions of the microflora leading to chronic illnesses.
In the current proposal we put forward the development of different ambient ionisation setups utilising Jet Desorption Ionisation, Sonic Spray Ionisation and Rapid Evaporation Ionisation MS covering a broad range of invasiveness. We plan to combine the methods with standard endoscopic tools and develop the concept of ´chemically aware´ or intelligent endoscopic device capable of the unambiguous identification of pathological conditions of the mucosa. Since the metabolic profile-based identification approach requires large authentic datasets, we plan to create both histopathological and bacterial spectral databases with histological and 16SrRNA-based validation. The proposal also comprises the development of novel multivariate statistical analysis workflows and data fusion algorithms allowing rapid and accurate identification using multimodal MS datasets."
Max ERC Funding
1 997 663 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-06-01, End date: 2019-05-31
Project acronym NOMADICEMPIRES
Project Nomadic Empires: A World-Historical Perspective
Researcher (PI) Pekka Johannes Haemaelaeinen
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH6, ERC-2013-CoG
Summary This project provides a wide-ranging and inclusive reinterpretation of the history of equestrian nomadic empires from the fourth century BCE to the late nineteenth century CE. The project has four major objectives that are interrelated. First, it expands the scope of the research significantly by extending it beyond the better known Eurasian nomadic empires into the Americas, where new research has revealed—and may yet reveal—previously unidentified nomadic empires. The project also re-examines the 7th-century expansion of the Arab Bedouins as an expression of nomadic imperial formation. Second, the project seeks to untangle the study of nomadic empires from normative and mechanistic models by developing new conceptual avenues that allow us to examine nomadic empires on their own cultural terms. It re-examines the intersections among mobility, expansion, exploitation, incorporation and dominance by reorienting research toward a new set of heuristic avenues: the nodal spatial composition of nomadic regimes, the centrality of borderlands in imperial formation, and a notion of nomadic empires as kinetic empires that turned mobility into an imperial strategy. Third, the project breaks new methodological ground by showing how innovative and underused approaches—integration of environmental and imperial histories; blending of multiple analytical scales to reveal the socio-political complexity of nomadic societies; and a specific spatial reorientation in which developments are viewed holistically from nomadic domains outward—produce a broader and more nuanced understanding of the emergence, behaviour and historical influences of nomadic empires. Such approaches will uncover a range of different nomadic empires across the world over a vast time span. The fourth objective of the project is to represent and explain those empires as a multifaceted world-shaping phenomenon through process-oriented comparisons that focus on imperial dynamics rather than imperial types.
Summary
This project provides a wide-ranging and inclusive reinterpretation of the history of equestrian nomadic empires from the fourth century BCE to the late nineteenth century CE. The project has four major objectives that are interrelated. First, it expands the scope of the research significantly by extending it beyond the better known Eurasian nomadic empires into the Americas, where new research has revealed—and may yet reveal—previously unidentified nomadic empires. The project also re-examines the 7th-century expansion of the Arab Bedouins as an expression of nomadic imperial formation. Second, the project seeks to untangle the study of nomadic empires from normative and mechanistic models by developing new conceptual avenues that allow us to examine nomadic empires on their own cultural terms. It re-examines the intersections among mobility, expansion, exploitation, incorporation and dominance by reorienting research toward a new set of heuristic avenues: the nodal spatial composition of nomadic regimes, the centrality of borderlands in imperial formation, and a notion of nomadic empires as kinetic empires that turned mobility into an imperial strategy. Third, the project breaks new methodological ground by showing how innovative and underused approaches—integration of environmental and imperial histories; blending of multiple analytical scales to reveal the socio-political complexity of nomadic societies; and a specific spatial reorientation in which developments are viewed holistically from nomadic domains outward—produce a broader and more nuanced understanding of the emergence, behaviour and historical influences of nomadic empires. Such approaches will uncover a range of different nomadic empires across the world over a vast time span. The fourth objective of the project is to represent and explain those empires as a multifaceted world-shaping phenomenon through process-oriented comparisons that focus on imperial dynamics rather than imperial types.
Max ERC Funding
1 998 584 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-04-01, End date: 2019-03-31
Project acronym O2SENSE
Project Oxygen Sensing with Multimodality Imaging Probes
Researcher (PI) Sofia Ioana Pascu
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF BATH
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE4, ERC-2013-CoG
Summary "This programme will employ physical sciences and biomedicine techniques to develop a revolutionary approach to early cancer diagnosis and post-treatment monitoring aiming to address shortcomings in our current technology in oxygen sensing and imaging of hypoxic prostate tumours.
This proposal represents a gearing process towards the biomedical implementation of metal complexes and functionalised nanoparticles as novel synthetic platform systems for personalised diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as cancer and which can also be extended to neurodegenerative disorders. The work programme is a meeting point for interdisciplinary science that goes well beyond state of the art. New chemical sensing devices will outstrip and supersede existing biopsy and imaging techniques used in diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as cancers.
The key advances of this programme will be:
(a) ‘smart’ all-in-one multimodal imaging probes, whose sensitivities to levels of oxygen in cells (pO2) will be tunable to respond to various levels of hypoxia in tumors as desired. Our ultra-sensitive probes will be effective at low O2 concentrations and respond to reduced levels of hypoxia and under anoxia. This will surpass the mainstay in cancer diagnosis and therapy and provide increased selectivity for a wider range of tumours.
(b) new probes suitable for interlocked Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Single Photon Emission Tomography (SPECT), and optical imaging methodologies Simultaneous in vitro and in vivo diagnostic information from radioimaging techniques (PET, SPECT) and optical imaging will provide in depth understanding of biological processes and lead to personalised medicine.
(c) new imaging tools for the first time will monitor the cellular biolocalisation of these probes by multiphoton optical imaging in nearIR regimes. These will drive the development of time-gated microscopy and multi-photon imaging with sensitivity for various levels of tumour hypoxia."
Summary
"This programme will employ physical sciences and biomedicine techniques to develop a revolutionary approach to early cancer diagnosis and post-treatment monitoring aiming to address shortcomings in our current technology in oxygen sensing and imaging of hypoxic prostate tumours.
This proposal represents a gearing process towards the biomedical implementation of metal complexes and functionalised nanoparticles as novel synthetic platform systems for personalised diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as cancer and which can also be extended to neurodegenerative disorders. The work programme is a meeting point for interdisciplinary science that goes well beyond state of the art. New chemical sensing devices will outstrip and supersede existing biopsy and imaging techniques used in diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as cancers.
The key advances of this programme will be:
(a) ‘smart’ all-in-one multimodal imaging probes, whose sensitivities to levels of oxygen in cells (pO2) will be tunable to respond to various levels of hypoxia in tumors as desired. Our ultra-sensitive probes will be effective at low O2 concentrations and respond to reduced levels of hypoxia and under anoxia. This will surpass the mainstay in cancer diagnosis and therapy and provide increased selectivity for a wider range of tumours.
(b) new probes suitable for interlocked Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Single Photon Emission Tomography (SPECT), and optical imaging methodologies Simultaneous in vitro and in vivo diagnostic information from radioimaging techniques (PET, SPECT) and optical imaging will provide in depth understanding of biological processes and lead to personalised medicine.
(c) new imaging tools for the first time will monitor the cellular biolocalisation of these probes by multiphoton optical imaging in nearIR regimes. These will drive the development of time-gated microscopy and multi-photon imaging with sensitivity for various levels of tumour hypoxia."
Max ERC Funding
1 886 876 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-09-01, End date: 2019-08-31
Project acronym PAST
Project Pre-Columbian Amazon-Scale Transformations
Researcher (PI) Jose Antonio Iriarte Mugica
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH6, ERC-2013-CoG
Summary "The protection of rainforests and the development of sustainable land-use practices in the humid tropics are of global significance because these forests represent a major reservoir of biodiversity and are of crucial importance for the regulation of Earth’s climate. A sound understanding of the historical role of humans in shaping Amazonian landscapes and to what extent Amazonian forests were resilient to historical disturbance is critical to make informed policy decisions about sustainable Amazonian futures. However, the nature and scale of pre-Columbian land use and its modern legacy on Amazonian landscapes are among the most debated topics in New World archaeology, palaeoecology and conservation. To resolve this debate, this project will investigate the influence of the late pre-Columbian (1000-1492 A.D.) land use on Amazonian landscapes, the impact of the 1492 Columbian Encounter (CE) and its modern legacy through the comparative study of pre-Columbian land uses in four different regions of Amazonia. It will apply, for the first time, an innovative interdisciplinary approach that integrates archaeology, ethnohistory, archaeobotany, paleoecology, soil science, landscape ecology and remote sensing (including the novel application of LIDAR survey) to the following study regions: (1) the Santarem Amazonian Dark Earth sites in the Lower Amazon, (2) the interfluvial areas of the Purus-Madeira Rivers in the Central Amazon, (3) the Acre geoglyphs of SW Amazonia and (4) the ring-ditches of the Baures forested areas of the Bolivian Amazon. The results of the project have broader implications not only for archaeology and geography but for conservation and sustainable Amazonian futures."
Summary
"The protection of rainforests and the development of sustainable land-use practices in the humid tropics are of global significance because these forests represent a major reservoir of biodiversity and are of crucial importance for the regulation of Earth’s climate. A sound understanding of the historical role of humans in shaping Amazonian landscapes and to what extent Amazonian forests were resilient to historical disturbance is critical to make informed policy decisions about sustainable Amazonian futures. However, the nature and scale of pre-Columbian land use and its modern legacy on Amazonian landscapes are among the most debated topics in New World archaeology, palaeoecology and conservation. To resolve this debate, this project will investigate the influence of the late pre-Columbian (1000-1492 A.D.) land use on Amazonian landscapes, the impact of the 1492 Columbian Encounter (CE) and its modern legacy through the comparative study of pre-Columbian land uses in four different regions of Amazonia. It will apply, for the first time, an innovative interdisciplinary approach that integrates archaeology, ethnohistory, archaeobotany, paleoecology, soil science, landscape ecology and remote sensing (including the novel application of LIDAR survey) to the following study regions: (1) the Santarem Amazonian Dark Earth sites in the Lower Amazon, (2) the interfluvial areas of the Purus-Madeira Rivers in the Central Amazon, (3) the Acre geoglyphs of SW Amazonia and (4) the ring-ditches of the Baures forested areas of the Bolivian Amazon. The results of the project have broader implications not only for archaeology and geography but for conservation and sustainable Amazonian futures."
Max ERC Funding
1 723 005 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-07-01, End date: 2018-06-30
Project acronym Savings and Risks
Project Savings and Risks Over the Lifecycle: Theory and Evidence
Researcher (PI) Mariacristina De Nardi
Host Institution (HI) University College London
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH1, ERC-2013-CoG
Summary People save for many reasons, such as to finance their retirement, to leave bequests to others, to start and develop a business, and to self-insure against risks. When young, these risks include wage risk, unemployment risk, entrepreneurial risk, and divorce risk. When old, one risks living to a very old age and running out of assets, being hit by expensive medical needs, and losing one’s spouse. An important factor affecting people’s risk exposure, and hence saving behaviour, is the public insurance provided by governments. Risks and insurance influence key economic choices and affect people’s welfare, macroeconomic aggregates, and inequality.
The proposed research will develop and test models of individual and household saving to a) provide novel evidence on the determinants of saving at different ages; b) better quantify the interaction of saving with the insurance provided by the government and by one’s family; c) study how individual-level decisions affect macroeconomic conditions and the distribution of wealth; d) evaluate the effects of policy proposals and different institutions using quantitative model economies, calibrated to both the U.S. and European countries.
The proposed applications include studying (i) the effects of means-tested public health insurance and its reforms on single retirees. (ii) A structural model of couples’ savings and risks in old age. (iii) Couples’ savings and labour supply during their whole life cycle, including the working stage. (iv) The effects of credit shocks on the saving and hiring of small-business owners and the resulting aggregates. (v) Differences in wealth accumulation between the healthy and the unhealthy.
By better modeling and quantifying saving motives, risks, and publicly provided insurance, we can propose more efficient reforms. By applying our analysis to both the US and to European economies we can reach a better understanding of the effects of different institutions across countries.
Summary
People save for many reasons, such as to finance their retirement, to leave bequests to others, to start and develop a business, and to self-insure against risks. When young, these risks include wage risk, unemployment risk, entrepreneurial risk, and divorce risk. When old, one risks living to a very old age and running out of assets, being hit by expensive medical needs, and losing one’s spouse. An important factor affecting people’s risk exposure, and hence saving behaviour, is the public insurance provided by governments. Risks and insurance influence key economic choices and affect people’s welfare, macroeconomic aggregates, and inequality.
The proposed research will develop and test models of individual and household saving to a) provide novel evidence on the determinants of saving at different ages; b) better quantify the interaction of saving with the insurance provided by the government and by one’s family; c) study how individual-level decisions affect macroeconomic conditions and the distribution of wealth; d) evaluate the effects of policy proposals and different institutions using quantitative model economies, calibrated to both the U.S. and European countries.
The proposed applications include studying (i) the effects of means-tested public health insurance and its reforms on single retirees. (ii) A structural model of couples’ savings and risks in old age. (iii) Couples’ savings and labour supply during their whole life cycle, including the working stage. (iv) The effects of credit shocks on the saving and hiring of small-business owners and the resulting aggregates. (v) Differences in wealth accumulation between the healthy and the unhealthy.
By better modeling and quantifying saving motives, risks, and publicly provided insurance, we can propose more efficient reforms. By applying our analysis to both the US and to European economies we can reach a better understanding of the effects of different institutions across countries.
Max ERC Funding
1 216 477 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-03-01, End date: 2018-02-28
