Project acronym CLEANH2
Project Chemical Engineering of Fused MetalloPorphyrins Thin Films for the Clean Production of Hydrogen
Researcher (PI) Nicolas BOSCHER
Host Institution (HI) LUXEMBOURG INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Country Luxembourg
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE8, ERC-2019-COG
Summary This project stands in the general context of the current worldwide energy and environmental crisis. It aims to engineer a new generation of conjugated microporous polymers based on fused metalloporphyrins for the low-cost, clean and efficient production of hydrogen from solar water splitting. The CLEANH2 concept relies on the gas phase reaction of metalloporphyrins to engineer new heterogeneous catalysts with remarkable hydrogen production yields. Metalloporphyrins, selected by Nature to fulfil the main catalytic phenomena allowing life, are attractive molecules for water splitting owing to their highly conjugated structure and central metal ion, which can readily interconvert between different oxidation states to accomplish oxidation and reduction reactions. For efficiency and sustainability considerations, it is highly desirable to employ metalloporphyrins in conductive assemblies for heterogeneous catalysis. Nevertheless, due to the lack of synthetic approach, the design and application of conjugated porphyrin assemblies is a largely unexplored topic in view of the plethora of available porphyrin patterns.
The central idea of CLEANH2 builds upon our recent advance in the gas phase synthesis and deposition of directly fused metalloporphyrins coatings. Progress in our approach is expected to open the way for the construction of powerful catalytic and photocatalytic materials. To achieve this, the key challenging goals of this project are: 1) the engineering of the microstructure and electronic structure of directly fused metalloporphyrins thin films; 2) the use of the full potential of directly fused metalloporphyrins thin films for the unmet, clean and high quantum yield overall water splitting for hydrogen production. The outcomes of CLEANH2 will be foundational for the engineering of directly fused metalloporphyrins systems and their implementation in advanced technological applications related to catalysis and solar energy.
Summary
This project stands in the general context of the current worldwide energy and environmental crisis. It aims to engineer a new generation of conjugated microporous polymers based on fused metalloporphyrins for the low-cost, clean and efficient production of hydrogen from solar water splitting. The CLEANH2 concept relies on the gas phase reaction of metalloporphyrins to engineer new heterogeneous catalysts with remarkable hydrogen production yields. Metalloporphyrins, selected by Nature to fulfil the main catalytic phenomena allowing life, are attractive molecules for water splitting owing to their highly conjugated structure and central metal ion, which can readily interconvert between different oxidation states to accomplish oxidation and reduction reactions. For efficiency and sustainability considerations, it is highly desirable to employ metalloporphyrins in conductive assemblies for heterogeneous catalysis. Nevertheless, due to the lack of synthetic approach, the design and application of conjugated porphyrin assemblies is a largely unexplored topic in view of the plethora of available porphyrin patterns.
The central idea of CLEANH2 builds upon our recent advance in the gas phase synthesis and deposition of directly fused metalloporphyrins coatings. Progress in our approach is expected to open the way for the construction of powerful catalytic and photocatalytic materials. To achieve this, the key challenging goals of this project are: 1) the engineering of the microstructure and electronic structure of directly fused metalloporphyrins thin films; 2) the use of the full potential of directly fused metalloporphyrins thin films for the unmet, clean and high quantum yield overall water splitting for hydrogen production. The outcomes of CLEANH2 will be foundational for the engineering of directly fused metalloporphyrins systems and their implementation in advanced technological applications related to catalysis and solar energy.
Max ERC Funding
1 900 711 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-05-01, End date: 2025-04-30
Project acronym ExpoBiome
Project Deciphering the impact of exposures from the gut microbiome-derived molecular complex in human health and disease
Researcher (PI) Paul WILMES
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE DU LUXEMBOURG
Country Luxembourg
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS2, ERC-2019-COG
Summary The human gut microbiome is a complex ecosystem, which contributes essential functions to human physiology. Changes to the microbiome are associated with several chronic diseases characterised by inflammation, including neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases. Microbiome-derived effector molecules comprising nucleic acids, (poly)peptides and metabolites are present at high levels in the gut but have so far eluded systematic study. This gap in knowledge is limiting mechanistic understanding of the microbiome’s functional impact on chronic diseases such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Here, I will for the first time integrate a combination of advanced high-resolution methodologies to comprehensively identify the constituents of this molecular complex and their impact on the human immune system. First, I will perform a quantitative, integrated multi-omic analysis on microbiome samples collected from healthy individuals and patients with newly diagnosed PD or RA. I will integrate and analyse the data using a newly developed knowledge base. Using contextualised prior knowledge (ExpoBiome Map) and machine learning methods, I will identify microbial molecules associated with condition-specific immunophenotypes. Second, I will validate and track the biomarker signature during a model clinical intervention (therapeutic fasting) to predict treatment outcomes. Third, microbes and molecules will be screened in personalised HuMiX gut-on-chip models to identify novel anti-inflammatory compounds. By providing mechanistic insights into the molecular basis of human-microbiome interactions, the project will generate essential new knowledge about causal relationships between the gut microbiome and the immune system in health and disease. By facilitating the elucidation of currently unknown microbiome-derived molecules, it will identify new genes, proteins, metabolites and host pathways for the development of future diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
Summary
The human gut microbiome is a complex ecosystem, which contributes essential functions to human physiology. Changes to the microbiome are associated with several chronic diseases characterised by inflammation, including neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases. Microbiome-derived effector molecules comprising nucleic acids, (poly)peptides and metabolites are present at high levels in the gut but have so far eluded systematic study. This gap in knowledge is limiting mechanistic understanding of the microbiome’s functional impact on chronic diseases such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Here, I will for the first time integrate a combination of advanced high-resolution methodologies to comprehensively identify the constituents of this molecular complex and their impact on the human immune system. First, I will perform a quantitative, integrated multi-omic analysis on microbiome samples collected from healthy individuals and patients with newly diagnosed PD or RA. I will integrate and analyse the data using a newly developed knowledge base. Using contextualised prior knowledge (ExpoBiome Map) and machine learning methods, I will identify microbial molecules associated with condition-specific immunophenotypes. Second, I will validate and track the biomarker signature during a model clinical intervention (therapeutic fasting) to predict treatment outcomes. Third, microbes and molecules will be screened in personalised HuMiX gut-on-chip models to identify novel anti-inflammatory compounds. By providing mechanistic insights into the molecular basis of human-microbiome interactions, the project will generate essential new knowledge about causal relationships between the gut microbiome and the immune system in health and disease. By facilitating the elucidation of currently unknown microbiome-derived molecules, it will identify new genes, proteins, metabolites and host pathways for the development of future diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
Max ERC Funding
1 998 620 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-11-01, End date: 2025-10-31
Project acronym VALIDATE
Project Verifying Authenticity with Liquid crystal-Derived Anti Theft Encoding
Researcher (PI) Jan LAGERWALL
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE DU LUXEMBOURG
Country Luxembourg
Call Details Proof of Concept (PoC), ERC-2019-PoC
Summary Product counterfeiting, sometimes related to the theft of the original, has emerged as a significant economic issue, with the market value of pirated products equalling or exceeding the gross domestic product of some European countries. A 2016 report from OECD in cooperation with the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) found that in 2013 counterfeit products sold were worth €375 billion, totalling 2.5% of global trade. Counterfeit products range from high-end consumer luxury goods, to business-to-business products such as machines, chemicals, raw materials or spare parts, and to common consumer products such as toys, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and food. Some counterfeit products, in particular in the latter category but also, e.g., spare parts, are of low quality, thus creating additional health and safety threats. Valuable raw materials can be stolen at the site of production or in transit, sometimes being replaced by a copy that can be difficult to detect as such by the receiver, sometimes reappearing on the market with no means to detect them as stolen. VALIDATE aims to investigate the commercial feasibility of Cholesteric Spherical Reflectors (CSRs) coatings as high-security identification tags, within a work plan that aims to take our innovation from a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 4 to 6/7. This will serve as a key stepping stone towards full commercial exploitation of our CSRs as a game-changing material for authentication. The value proposition of VALIDATE is a physical identifier tag that is effectively unclonable as a result of the manufacturing process, naturally tamper-evident and hard to simulate due to the complexity of the generated patterns. VALIDATE’s end goal is to have a comprehensive description of the commercial feasibility of our technology and, if positive, what commercialization route has the best risk/benefit ratio.
Summary
Product counterfeiting, sometimes related to the theft of the original, has emerged as a significant economic issue, with the market value of pirated products equalling or exceeding the gross domestic product of some European countries. A 2016 report from OECD in cooperation with the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) found that in 2013 counterfeit products sold were worth €375 billion, totalling 2.5% of global trade. Counterfeit products range from high-end consumer luxury goods, to business-to-business products such as machines, chemicals, raw materials or spare parts, and to common consumer products such as toys, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and food. Some counterfeit products, in particular in the latter category but also, e.g., spare parts, are of low quality, thus creating additional health and safety threats. Valuable raw materials can be stolen at the site of production or in transit, sometimes being replaced by a copy that can be difficult to detect as such by the receiver, sometimes reappearing on the market with no means to detect them as stolen. VALIDATE aims to investigate the commercial feasibility of Cholesteric Spherical Reflectors (CSRs) coatings as high-security identification tags, within a work plan that aims to take our innovation from a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 4 to 6/7. This will serve as a key stepping stone towards full commercial exploitation of our CSRs as a game-changing material for authentication. The value proposition of VALIDATE is a physical identifier tag that is effectively unclonable as a result of the manufacturing process, naturally tamper-evident and hard to simulate due to the complexity of the generated patterns. VALIDATE’s end goal is to have a comprehensive description of the commercial feasibility of our technology and, if positive, what commercialization route has the best risk/benefit ratio.
Max ERC Funding
150 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-09-01, End date: 2021-06-30
