ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

ENUBET has been designed to open a new window of opportunities in accelerator neutrino physics. The proposed project enables for the first time the measurement of the positrons produced in the decay tunnel of conventional neutrino beams: these particles signal uniquely the generation of an electron neutrino at source. Neutrino facilities enhanced by the ENUBET technique will have an unprecedented control of the neutrino flux. This will allow to reduce by one order of magnitude the uncertainties on neutrino cross sections: a leap that has been sought after since decades and that is needed to address the challenges of discovering matter-antimatter asymmetries in the leptonic sector. The apparatus is a highly specialized electromagnetic calorimeter with fast response, sustaining particle rates as high as 0.5 MHz/cm^2, having excellent electron/pion separation capabilities with a reduced number of read-out channels. ENUBET will boost technologies that have been envisaged for high energy colliders to address this new challenge. On the other hand it will operate in a substantially different configuration. The experiment will be performed at the CERN Neutrino Platform, a recently approved facility where innovative neutrino detectors will be developed exploiting dedicated hadron beam-lines from the SPS accelerator. In the first phase of the project, ENUBET will address the challenges of particle identification from extended sources, developing innovative optical readout systems and cost-effective solutions for radiation imaging. This approach is based on cutting-edge technologies for single photon sensitive devices. During the second phase, the detector will be assembled and characterized at CERN with particle beams. Finally, it will be operated in time coincidence with Liquid Argon neutrino detectors, achieving a major step towards the realization of the concept of tagging individual neutrinos both at production and interaction level, on an event-by-event basis.

2 000 000 €

Start date: 2016-06-01, End date: 2021-05-31

Humans have the capacity to change the biosphere from local to global scales while at the same time fundamentally depending on a functioning biosphere for their well-being. Moreover human societies are increasingly affected by global change and adapting to it in multiple ways. These interdependencies give rise to non-linear, cross-scale dynamics that pose significant challenges for analysis and governance of social-ecological systems (SES). In view of the need for societal transformations towards sustainability is the identification of mechanisms of change in SES an urgent and cutting-edge research frontier. This project aims to develop new methodologies and middle-range theories of the dynamics of SES. It will take the nature of SES as complex adaptive systems into account by developing a mechanism-based understanding of change in SES as it arises from micro-level interactions within complex networks of actors and ecosystems. Particular emphasis will be put on emergent and top-down cross-scale interactions. To this end we will develop dynamic multi-level models using agent-based and mathematical modeling approaches. Model development will be based on a typology of cross-scale interactions, theories from the natural and social sciences and empirical evidence from marine and terrestrial SES. We will combine stylized with empirically-based models and cross-case comparison to develop a typology of social-ecological configurations of the long-term persistence of SES and their capacity to change. Knowledge integration across disciplines and the development of integrative frameworks and approaches will be supported by procedures to bridge different ontological and epistemological foundations. The project will advance sustainability science by providing new methods for modeling multi-level SES and cross-scale interactions, and approaches to identify and include critical social-ecological interactions, particularly human adaptive responses, into models of SES.

1 969 599 €

Start date: 2017-02-01, End date: 2022-01-31

Recent discoveries clearly show that non-retroviral RNA viruses, despite not coding for reverse transcriptase and integrase, can transfer genetic material to their hosts, similarly to DNA viruses and retroviruses. The distribution of non-retroviral integrated RNA viruses (NIRVs) in host populations, mechanisms of NIRVs formation and effects on hosts are unclear. The main objective of this proposal is to uncover the complex biological interactions between non-retroviral RNA viruses and their hosts using the model system “Aedes albopictus and Flavivirus”. This system is ideal because Ae. albopictus is a known vector of non-retroviral RNA viruses, including several highly relevant for public health such as dengue viruses (Flaviviridae, Flavivirus) and NIRVs phylogenetically related to Flaviviruses have been identified in its genome. First, a population genomic approach will be used to interrogate the genome of Ae. albopictus from different geographic populations at their DNA and RNA levels. This approach will permit the systematic characterization of the distributions of NIRVs in natural host populations, the analyses of correlations between the presence of NIRVs and viral infections and the description of NIRVs genomic context, from which insights on mechanisms of NIRVs formation can be derived. Secondly, tissue-specificity of the NIRVs, their trans-generational stability and impact on mosquito biology will be analysed in a controlled laboratory environment. Somatic integrations could contribute to acquired immunity to their respective viruses or establishment of persistent viral infection. Germ-line integrations could have an evolutionary impact. If NIRVs affect Ae. albopictus vector competence or the genome of emerging viral populations, they could be manipulated for vector control purposes. Additionally, results on NIRV distribution in natural host populations and mechanisms of NIRVs formation will have implications in medicine because several non-retroviral RNA viruses are emerging as delivery systems for gene therapy applications.

1 686 875 €

Start date: 2016-05-01, End date: 2022-04-30

Transposable elements—universal components of genomes—pose a major threat to genome integrity due to their mutagenic character. In all eukaryotic lineages small RNA pathways act as defense systems to protect the host genome against the activity of transposons. The central pathway in animals is the gonad-specific PIWI interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway, one of the most elaborate but also least understood small RNA silencing systems. Here I propose to study the interplay between the piRNA pathway and chromatin biology in Drosophila with two aims: First, we will identify the factors and investigate the processes that underlie piRNA-guided silencing in the nucleus. Our objective is to understand how recruitment of an Argonaute protein to a nascent RNA mechanistically leads to the assembly of effector proteins that govern heterochromatin formation and transcriptional silencing. Second, we will study the biology of piRNA clusters, heterochromatic loci that encompass a library of transposon fragments and that act as the pathway’s memory system. Our goal is to uncover how a group of proteins—several of which are germline-specific variants of basic cellular factors—enable transcription within heterochromatin and control the downstream fate of the emerging non-coding RNAs. Our work centers on the piRNA pathway in Drosophila ovaries, undeniably the model system at the forefront of the field. By combining the strength of fly genetics with the power of genome-wide approaches we will uncover how heterochromatin on the one hand governs silencing and how the piRNA pathway on the other hand exploits it to facilitate the transcription of piRNA precursors. This will reveal fundamental insights into the co-evolution of transposons and host genomes. At the same time, by studying the piRNA pathway’s intersection with chromatin biology and transcription, we expect to reveal new insights into basic principles of gene expression.

1 999 530 €

Start date: 2016-07-01, End date: 2021-06-30