ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections remain a major public health issue worldwide. Over 350 -400 million people are chronically infected by HBV, and about 1 million people die each year from the complications of this infection (cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma) with a consequent hefty economic impact on national health systems. This led the World Health Organization to recognise HBV infection as a key priority and adopt the global health sector strategy to eliminate viral hepatitis, with a target of reducing new infections by 90% and mortality by 65% by 2030. The risk of developing a chronic infection in healthy adults is due to a weaker, dysfunctional and narrowly focused CD8+ T cell response. Since the mechanisms underlying HBV persistence are not fully elucidated, current treatments (antiviral drugs and Interferon) aim to reduce the development of liver disease, while a definitive treatment for curing this infection is not yet available on the market. Within the ERC Consolidator Grant 725038 “FATE”, we recently characterized the mechanisms behind the ineffective CD8+ T cell response towards HBV, demonstrating the potential efficacy of interleukin-2 (IL-2) – a cytokine – to reactivate it, thus achieving antiviral activity. This discovery, jointly with our proprietary third-generation, self-inactivating lentiviral vectors (LVs) that allow selective hepatocellular expression of IL-2, pave the way to single-dose gene therapy-based approach, a potential functional cure against chronic hepatitis B. 2LIVEr project intends to optimize and further validate our novel therapeutic approach from both a technical and commercial standpoint, moving from TRL3 to TRL4, thus fastening the roadmap towards the market.

150 000 €

Start date: 2020-07-01, End date: 2021-12-31

Photonics, in recognition of its strategic significance and pervasiveness throughout many industrial sectors, has been identified as one of the Key Enabling Technologies for Europe. Photonics in combination with quantum information science has great potential to facilitate, transform and innovate future technologies for the better. The Proof of Concept (PoC) project intends to contribute to this by developing and testing a communication platform prototype, comprised of single photon detectors, which are efficiently coupled to single mode fibers using an innovative laser written device. This enables the integration of single photon detectors on innovative glass waveguides. These glass integrated photonic circuits offer excellent specifics for on-chip quantum optics implementations in terms of scattering losses, offering flexibility of the waveguide geometry and ensuring high coupling efficiency with optical fibers. The device developed and tested in the PoC, directly addresses a market need for an integrated and efficient on-chip communication systems. Current available systems have limitations involving high costs, complex production, and inefficient coupling of detectors to optical fibers. The proposed platform will offer 1.) a simplified production process, 2.) high optical fiber coupling efficiency 3.) improved performance levels, 4.) high cost efficiency, and 5.) compactness. Such systems can be applied in a wide range of communication and non-communication applications, such as free-space optical communication, quantum communication, quantum cryptography, DNA sequencing, single molecule detection and material analysis. Moreover, the future commercialisation of quantum computing is expected to create a vast demand for these communication systems. In addition to the technology PoC, the project carries out IPR strategy considerations through patenting actions, determines the market potential, seeks market feedback, and plans for post-PoC commercialisation paths.

150 000 €

Start date: 2016-02-01, End date: 2017-07-31

How does the inside of the proton look like? What generates its spin?
3DSPIN will deliver essential information to answer these questions at the frontier of subnuclear physics. At present, we have detailed maps of the distribution of quarks and gluons in the nucleon in 1D (as a function of their momentum in a single direction). We also know that quark spins account for only about 1/3 of the spin of the nucleon. 3DSPIN will lead the way into a new stage of nucleon mapping, explore the distribution of quarks in full 3D momentum space and obtain unprecedented information on orbital angular momentum. Goals 1. extract from experimental data the 3D distribution of quarks (in momentum space), as described by Transverse-Momentum Distributions (TMDs); 2. obtain from TMDs information on quark Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM). Methodology 3DSPIN will implement state-of-the-art fitting procedures to analyze relevant experimental data and extract quark TMDs, similarly to global fits of standard parton distribution functions. Information about quark angular momentum will be obtained through assumptions based on theoretical considerations. The next five years represent an ideal time window to accomplish our goals, thanks to the wealth of expected data from deep-inelastic scattering experiments (COMPASS, Jefferson Lab), hadronic colliders (Fermilab, BNL, LHC), and electron-positron colliders (BELLE, BABAR). The PI has a strong reputation in this field. The group will operate in partnership with the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics and in close interaction with leading experts and experimental collaborations worldwide. Impact Mapping the 3D structure of chemical compounds has revolutionized chemistry. Similarly, mapping the 3D structure of the nucleon will have a deep impact on our understanding of the fundamental constituents of matter. We will open new perspectives on the dynamics of quarks and gluons and sharpen our view of high-energy processes involving nucleons.

1 509 000 €

Start date: 2015-07-01, End date: 2020-12-31

Goal of the 4DPHOTON project is the development and construction of a photon imaging detector with unprecedented performance. The proposed device will be capable of detecting fluxes of single-photons up to one billion photons per second, over areas of several square centimetres, and will measure - for each photon - position and time simultaneously with resolutions better than ten microns and few tens of picoseconds, respectively. These figures of merit will open many important applications allowing significant advances in particle physics, life sciences or other emerging fields where excellent timing and position resolutions are simultaneously required. Our goal will be achieved thanks to the use of an application-specific integrated circuit in 65 nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology, that will deliver a timing resolution of few tens of picoseconds at the pixel level, over few hundred thousand individually-active pixel channels, allowing very high rates of photons to be detected, and the corresponding information digitized and transferred to a processing unit. As a result of the 4DPHOTON project we will remove the constraints that many light imaging applications have due to the lack of precise single-photon information on four dimensions (4D): the three spatial coordinates and time simultaneously. In particular, we will prove the performance of this detector in the field of particle physics, performing the reconstruction of Cherenkov photon rings with a timing resolution of ten picoseconds. With its excellent granularity, timing resolution, rate capability and compactness, this detector will represent a new paradigm for the realisation of future Ring Imaging Cherenkov detectors, capable of achieving high efficiency particle identification in environments with very high particle multiplicities, exploiting time-association of the photon hits.

1 975 000 €

Start date: 2019-12-01, End date: 2024-11-30