ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

Extreme astrophysical events such as relativistic flows, cataclysmic explosions and black hole accretion are one of the key areas for astrophysics in the 21st century. The extremes of physics experienced in these environments are beyond anything achievable in any laboratory on Earth, and provide a unique glimpse at the laws of physics operating in extraordinary regimes. All of these events are associated with transient radio emission, a tracer both of the acceleration of particles to relativistic energies, and coherent emitting regions with huge effective temperatures. By studying radio bursts from these phenomena we can pinpoint the sources of explosive events, understand the budget of kinetic feedback by explosive events in the ambient medium, and probe the physical state of the universe back to the epoch of reionisation, less than a billion years after the big bang. In seeking to push back the frontiers of extreme astrophysics, I will use a trio of revolutionary new radio telescopes, LOFAR, ASKAP and MeerKAT, pathfinders for the Square Kilometre Array, and all facilities in which I have a major role in the search for transients. I will build an infrastructure which transforms their combined operations for the discovery, classification and reporting of transient astrophysical events, over the whole sky, making them much more than the sum of their parts. This will include development of environments for the coordinated handling of extreme astrophysical events, in real time, via automated systems, as well as novel techniques for the detection of these events in a sea of noise. I will furthermore augment this program by buying in as a major partner to a rapid-response robotic optical telescope, and by cementing my relationship with an orbiting X-ray facility. This multiwavelength dimension will secure the astrophysical interpretation of our observational results and help to revolutionise high-energy astrophysics via a strong scientific exploitation program.

2 999 847 €

Start date: 2011-07-01, End date: 2017-06-30

In the last ten years there has been a surge of interest in non-modal analysis applied to canonical problems in fundamental fluid mechanics. Even in simple flows, the stability behaviour predicted by non-modal analysis can be completely different from and far more accurate than that predicted by conventional eigenvalue analysis. As well as being more accurate, the tools of non-modal analysis, such as Lagrangian optimization, are very versatile. Furthermore, the outputs, such as receptivity and sensitivity maps of a flow, provide powerful insight for engineers. They describe where a flow is most receptive to forcing or where the flow is most sensitive to modification. The application of non-modal analysis to canonical problems has set the scene for step changes in engineering practice in fluid mechanics and thermoacoustics. The technical objectives of this proposal are to apply non-modal analysis to high Reynolds number flows, reacting flows and thermoacoustic systems, to compare theoretical predictions with experimental measurements and to embed these techniques within an industrial design tool that has already been developed by the group. This research group s vision is that future generations of engineering CFD tools will contain modules that can perform non-modal analysis. The generalized approach proposed here, combined with challenging scientific and engineering examples that are backed up by experimental evidence, will make this possible and demonstrate it to a wider engineering community.

1 301 196 €

Start date: 2010-12-01, End date: 2016-06-30

This ERC-StG proposal, BIOMOF, outlines a dual strategy for the growth and processing of porous metal-organic framework (MOF) materials, inspired by the interfacial interactions that characterise highly controlled biomineralisation processes. The aim is to prepare MOF (bio)-composite materials of hierarchical structure and multi-modal functionality to address key societal challenges in healthcare, catalysis and energy. In order for MOFs to reach their full potential, a transformative approach to their growth, and in particular their processability, is required since the insoluble macroscopic micron-sized crystals resulting from conventional syntheses are unsuitable for many applications. The BIOMOF project defines chemically flexible routes to MOFs under mild conditions, where the added value with respect to wide-ranging experimental procedures for the growth and processing of crystalline controllably nanoscale MOF materials with tunable structure and functionality that display significant porosity for wide-ranging applications is extremely high. Theme 1 exploits protein vesicles and abundant biopolymer matrices for the confined growth of soluble nanoscale MOFs for high-end biomedical applications such as cell imaging and targeted drug delivery, whereas theme 2 focuses on the cost-effective preparation of hierarchically porous MOF composites over several length scales, of relevance to bulk industrial applications such as sustainable catalysis, separations and gas-storage. This diverse yet complementary range of applications arising simply from the way the MOF is processed, coupled with the versatile structural and physical properties of MOFs themselves indicates strongly that the BIOMOF concept is a powerful convergent new approach to applied materials chemistry.

1 492 970 €

Start date: 2010-11-01, End date: 2015-10-31

Targeted drug delivery across the blood brain barrier (BBB) to the central nervous system is a large challenge for the treatment of neurological disorders. This 4 year ERC program is aimed towards the evaluating the BBB penetration capacity and toxicological potential of novel carbon nanotube (CNT) carriers using an integrated multidisciplinary approach. State-of-art characterisation techniques developed by the PI will be applied and further developed to detect the interaction of carbon nanotubes with in vitro BBB model and neuronal cells. Specific aims: 1. Identify the mechanisms of translocation of CNT across the endothelial cells which comprise the BBB, as well as uptake by neuronal cells in vitro. 2. To investigate the effect of length, diameter and surface charge of CNTs on the BBB and neuronal cells penetration capacity in vitro. 3. To investigate the toxicological profile of CNT on the BBB and the various neuronal cell types (immortalised and primary neuronal cultures). 4. Develop protocols to assess whether the CNTs degrade inside the cell. The ERC Grant will consolidate the new Research Group in nanomaterials-cell interfaces, and allow them to perform stimulating investigator-initiated frontier research in nanotoxicology and nanomedicine. To this end, a multi-disciplinary laboratory will be realized within the framework of this 4-year the ERC Programme. This will permit the group around the PI, to expand activities, push limits, create new boundaries, and develop new protocols for studying nanoparticle-cell interactions in close collaboration with ICL s Department of medicine and chemistry. Within the proposed program there is an underlying ambition both to gain a fundamental understanding for which parameters of CNTs determine their penetration capacity through the BBB and also to assess their toxicological potential at the BBB two highlighted themes by the ERC.

1 229 998 €

Start date: 2011-02-01, End date: 2017-01-31