ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

Our first goal is to develop a new tool to determine brain activity with a high temporal (< 1 msec) and spatial (about 2 mm) resolution with the focus on motor control. High density EEG (up to 256 electrodes) will be used for EEG source localization. Advanced force-controlled robot manipulators will be used to impose continuous force perturbations to the joints. Advanced closed-loop system identification algorithms will identify the dynamic EEG response of multiple brain areas to the perturbation, leading to a functional interpretation of EEG. The propagation of the signal in time and 3D space through the cortex can be monitored: 4D-EEG. Preliminary experiments with EEG localization have shown that the continuous force perturbations resulted in a better signal-to-noise ratio and coherence than the current method using transient perturbations.. 4D-EEG will be a direct measure of the neural activity in the brain with an excellent temporal response and easy to use in combination with motor control tasks. The new 4D-EEG method is expected to provide a breakthrough in comparison to functional MRI (fMRI) when elucidating the meaning of cortical map plasticity in motor learning. Our second goal is to generate and validate new hypotheses about the longitudinal relationship between motor learning and cortical map plasticity by clinically using 4D-EEG in an intensive, repeated measurement design in patients suffering from a stroke. The application of 4D-EEG combined with haptic robots will allow us to discover how dynamics in cortical map plasticity are related with upper limb recovery after stroke in terms of neural repair and using behavioral compensation strategies while performing a meaningful motor tasks.. The non-invasive 4D-EEG technique combined with haptic robots will open the window about what and how patients (re)learn when showing motor recovery after stroke in order to allow us to develop more effective patient-tailored therapies in neuro-rehabilitation.

3 477 202 €

Start date: 2012-06-01, End date: 2017-05-31

Some of the most extreme tests of physical law come from its manifestations in the behaviour of black holes and neutron stars, and as such these objects should be used as fundamental physics labs. Due to advances in both theoretical work and observational techniques, I have a major opportunity now to significantly push this agenda forward and get better answers to questions like: How are black holes born? How can energy be extracted from black holes? What is the origin of magnetic fields and cosmic rays in jets and shocks? Is their primary energy stream hadronic or magnetic? I propose to do this by exploiting the advent of wide-field radio astronomy: extreme objects are very rare and usually transient, so not only must one survey large areas of sky, but also must one do this often. I propose to form and shape a group that will use the LOFAR wide-field radio telescope to hunt for these extreme transients and systematically collect enough well-documented examples of the behaviour of each type of transient. Furthermore, I propose to expand LOFAR with a true 24/7 all-sky monitor to catch and study even the rarest of events. Next, I will use my experience in gamma-ray burst followup to conduct a vigorous multi-wavelength programme of study of these objects, to constrain their physics from as many angles as possible. This will eventually include results from multi-messenger astrophysics, in which we use neutrinos, gravity waves, and other non-electromagnetic messengers as extra diagnostics of the physics of these sources. Finally, I will build on my experience in modelling accretion phenomena and relativistic explosions to develop a theoretical framework for these phenomena and constrain the resulting models with the rich data sets we obtain.

3 499 128 €

Start date: 2010-10-01, End date: 2016-09-30

Cell volume regulation is crucial for any living cell because changes in volume determine the metabolic activity through e.g. changes in ionic strength, pH, macromolecular crowding and membrane tension. These physical chemical parameters influence interaction rates and affinities of biomolecules, folding rates, and fold stabilities in vivo. Understanding of the underlying volume regulatory mechanisms has immediate application in biotechnology and health, yet these factors are generally ignored in systems analyses of cellular functions. My team has uncovered a number of mechanisms and insights of cell volume regulation. The next step forward is to elucidate how the components of a cell volume regulatory circuit work together and control the physicochemical conditions of the cell. I propose construction of a synthetic cell in which an osmoregulatory transporter and mechanosensitive channel form a minimal volume regulatory network. My group has developed the technology to reconstitute membrane proteins into lipid vesicles (synthetic cells). One of the challenges is to incorporate into the vesicles an efficient pathway for ATP production and maintain energy homeostasis while the load on the system varies. We aim to control the transmembrane flux of osmolytes, which requires elucidation of the molecular mechanism of gating of the osmoregulatory transporter. We will focus on the glycine betaine ABC importer, which is one of the most complex transporters known to date with ten distinct protein domains, transiently interacting with each other. The proposed synthetic metabolic circuit constitutes a fascinating out-of-equilibrium system, allowing us to understand cell volume regulatory mechanisms in a context and at a level of complexity minimally needed for life. Analysis of this circuit will address many outstanding questions and eventually allow us to design more sophisticated vesicular systems with applications, for example as compartmentalized reaction networks.

2 247 231 €

Start date: 2015-07-01, End date: 2020-06-30

"This proposal aims at strengthening the connections between more fundamentally oriented areas of mathematics like algebra, geometry, analysis, and topology, and the more applied oriented and more recently emerging disciplines of discrete mathematics, optimization, and algorithmics. The overall goal of the project is to obtain, with methods from fundamental mathematics, new effective tools to unravel the complexity of structures like graphs, networks, codes, knots, polynomials, and tensors, and to get a grip on such complex structures by new efficient characterizations, sharper bounds, and faster algorithms. In the last few years, there have been several new developments where methods from representation theory, invariant theory, algebraic geometry, measure theory, functional analysis, and topology found new applications in discrete mathematics and optimization, both theoretically and algorithmically. Among the typical application areas are networks, coding, routing, timetabling, statistical and quantum physics, and computer science. The project focuses in particular on: A. Understanding partition functions with invariant theory and algebraic geometry B. Graph limits, regularity, Hilbert spaces, and low rank approximation of polynomials C. Reducing complexity in optimization by exploiting symmetry with representation theory D. Reducing complexity in discrete optimization by homotopy and cohomology These research modules are interconnected by themes like symmetry, regularity, and complexity, and by common methods from algebra, analysis, geometry, and topology."

2 001 598 €

Start date: 2014-01-01, End date: 2018-12-31