ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

I aim to develop an X-ray imaging technique capable of filming processes in 3D, with a temporal resolution several orders of magnitude faster than up-to-date 3D X-ray imaging techniques. The unique penetration power of X-rays allows us to study systems in their native environment. This property has led to the development of X-ray microtomography (µCT). µCT acquires 3D information, which determines the functionality and mechanical properties of nature, by rotating a sample with respect to the X-ray source. µCT is a crucial tool for several scientific disciplines such as physics, biology, and chemistry. Over the last decade, µCT has become a technique capable of not only recording 3D information but also filming dynamical processes. Several breakthroughs have made this possible: i) intense X-ray sources (synchrotron light sources), ii) efficient and fast X-ray detectors, and iii) fast 3D reconstruction algorithms. Despite all of these developments, the acquisition protocols remain unchanged, i.e., the sample is only rotated faster. This fast rotation introduces forces which may alter the studied dynamics and ultimately limit the achievable temporal resolution. My project is to establish an X-ray microscope that avoids the sample rotation, obtaining 3D information from a single X-ray flash by splitting it into nine-angularly resolved beams which illuminate the sample simultaneously. This approach, when implemented at intense X-ray sources such as synchrotron light sources and X-ray free-electron lasers, will allow the filming of natural processes with micrometer to nanometer resolution and resolve dynamics from microseconds to femtoseconds. To demonstrate its capabilities, I will study fundamental processes in cellulose fibers, a renewable biomaterial, which can replace fossil-based materials, such as plastics. This technique will open up the possibility to film dynamics in 3D to answer questions coming from industry and natural sciences at rates not accessible today.

1 999 213 €

Start date: 2021-03-01, End date: 2026-02-28

Gene therapy is one of the most innovative and fastest growing fields in the pharmaceutical industry. The first approved gene therapy utilized a recombinant AAV vector (rAAV), and dozens of additional rAAVs for gene therapy are presently in clinical trials. rAAV gene therapy drugs have been priced in the region of € 500’000 and above, which is partially a result of them being manufactured by highly complex processes combining multiple components, requiring 5-7 separate GMP production runs. We intend to introduce the first scalable, single-virus rAAV production platform to resolve this bottleneck. The resulting significant reduction of manufacturing complexity will both lower the price of future rAAV gene therapies, and also deliver additional, currently unaddressed or unaffordable rAAV treatments for genetic diseases into the clinic by providing scientists operating at the laboratory R&D stage with more user friendly and productive tools. The proposed project also develops for PoC purposes an rAAV gene therapy candidate to treat the devastating childhood congenital disease known as steroid resistant nephrotic syndrome SRNS.

150 000 €

Start date: 2021-02-01, End date: 2022-07-31

ACADEMIA proposes a pioneering study of a neglected corpus of manuscripts stemming from the practice of quodlibetal debates held at Faculties of Arts of European universities, flourishing from the 14th to the early 16th century. As prescribed by the university statutes, dozens of professors participated periodically in these unique collective works of the Middle Ages, which encompassed all the disciplines pursued at the university, from logic to medicine to theology. The PI hypothesises that the professors presented at the hitherto mostly ignored quodlibets their recent scientific innovations, which they then published in the first collective volumes of European academia. The PI thus proposes a novel theoretical framework for understanding the quodlibets: they stand at the origin of the modern concept of science as a collective intellectual enterprise, similar to modern conferences and the subsequent dissemination of results. This makes them and their written form critical for understanding European intellectual and scientific traditions, both past and present. ACADEMIA’s ambition is to establish the corpus of these debates as a new field of study through an extensive examination of manuscripts, thus filling a substantial gap, radically extending the fields of the history of universities and intellectual history, and reconstructing the roots of the modern practice of fostering collective science. A complex analysis of the corpus will bring about a substantial change in our understanding of medieval practices of the production and sharing of knowledge. Aiming to examine the quodlibets as a phenomenon successively interconnecting European intellectual space, ACADEMIA focuses on fourteen universities at which the PI has identified the tradition so far and on their mutual relations and development. ACADEMIA employs an interdisciplinary team and an innovative combination of approaches from history, codicology, palaeography, philology, hermeneutics and Digital Humanities.

1 260 485 €

Start date: 2021-07-01, End date: 2026-06-30

The vision of creating autonomous materials constituted of microscale motile units promises to disrupt a broad range of technologies but is still far beyond our reach. Inspired by nature, these materials are active, i.e. they convert available energy into functions, and adaptive, i.e. they respond to stimuli by reconfiguring via internal feedback and signalling schemes. In order to progress, we need to rethink the way in which we design, fabricate and control synthetic active units, aka active colloids or artificial microswimmers. I propose an innovative approach that combines colloidal synthesis, assembly and actuation with nanofabrication and the implementation of feedback to realize a new class of active colloids. Borrowing ideas from soft-robotic systems, we aim to realize and study “cyber-free” artificial microswimmers, which, in addition to on-board energy conversion, present internal degrees of freedom allowing for sensing, feedback and communication pathways ultimately to be regulated without external intervention. In particular, we will: 1) Numerically and experimentally implement feedback schemes to regulate single-particle motility and collective behaviour based on control theory. 2) Use a unique combination of capillary assembly and two-photon nanolithography to create shape-shifting active colloids that autonomously regulate their motility based on stimuli orthogonal to their propulsion schemes. 3) Create “transmitting” and “receiving” active colloids, sending and sensing chemical signals (pH changes), to regulate their motility. By introducing strong coupling between particles, and with stimuli beyond classical colloidal interactions, this proposal will enable a forward leap in the study of the emergent physics of active systems, as required to realize the vision of autonomous materials and microscale devices.

1 997 718 €

Start date: 2021-05-01, End date: 2026-04-30