Project acronym AGELESS
Project Comparative genomics / ‘wildlife’ transcriptomics uncovers the mechanisms of halted ageing in mammals
Researcher (PI) Emma Teeling
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, DUBLIN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS2, ERC-2012-StG_20111109
Summary "Ageing is the gradual and irreversible breakdown of living systems associated with the advancement of time, which leads to an increase in vulnerability and eventual mortality. Despite recent advances in ageing research, the intrinsic complexity of the ageing process has prevented a full understanding of this process, therefore, ageing remains a grand challenge in contemporary biology. In AGELESS, we will tackle this challenge by uncovering the molecular mechanisms of halted ageing in a unique model system, the bats. Bats are the longest-lived mammals relative to their body size, and defy the ‘rate-of-living’ theories as they use twice as much the energy as other species of considerable size, but live far longer. This suggests that bats have some underlying mechanisms that may explain their exceptional longevity. In AGELESS, we will identify the molecular mechanisms that enable mammals to achieve extraordinary longevity, using state-of-the-art comparative genomic methodologies focused on bats. We will identify, using population transcriptomics and telomere/mtDNA genomics, the molecular changes that occur in an ageing wild population of bats to uncover how bats ‘age’ so slowly compared with other mammals. In silico whole genome analyses, field based ageing transcriptomic data, mtDNA and telomeric studies will be integrated and analysed using a networks approach, to ascertain how these systems interact to halt ageing. For the first time, we will be able to utilize the diversity seen within nature to identify key molecular targets and regions that regulate and control ageing in mammals. AGELESS will provide a deeper understanding of the causal mechanisms of ageing, potentially uncovering the crucial molecular pathways that can be modified to halt, alleviate and perhaps even reverse this process in man."
Summary
"Ageing is the gradual and irreversible breakdown of living systems associated with the advancement of time, which leads to an increase in vulnerability and eventual mortality. Despite recent advances in ageing research, the intrinsic complexity of the ageing process has prevented a full understanding of this process, therefore, ageing remains a grand challenge in contemporary biology. In AGELESS, we will tackle this challenge by uncovering the molecular mechanisms of halted ageing in a unique model system, the bats. Bats are the longest-lived mammals relative to their body size, and defy the ‘rate-of-living’ theories as they use twice as much the energy as other species of considerable size, but live far longer. This suggests that bats have some underlying mechanisms that may explain their exceptional longevity. In AGELESS, we will identify the molecular mechanisms that enable mammals to achieve extraordinary longevity, using state-of-the-art comparative genomic methodologies focused on bats. We will identify, using population transcriptomics and telomere/mtDNA genomics, the molecular changes that occur in an ageing wild population of bats to uncover how bats ‘age’ so slowly compared with other mammals. In silico whole genome analyses, field based ageing transcriptomic data, mtDNA and telomeric studies will be integrated and analysed using a networks approach, to ascertain how these systems interact to halt ageing. For the first time, we will be able to utilize the diversity seen within nature to identify key molecular targets and regions that regulate and control ageing in mammals. AGELESS will provide a deeper understanding of the causal mechanisms of ageing, potentially uncovering the crucial molecular pathways that can be modified to halt, alleviate and perhaps even reverse this process in man."
Max ERC Funding
1 499 768 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-01-01, End date: 2017-12-31
Project acronym CosNeD
Project Radio wave propagation in heterogeneous media: implications on the electronics of Cosmic Neutrino Detectors
Researcher (PI) Alina Mihaela BADESCU
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITATEA POLITEHNICA DIN BUCURESTI
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE7, ERC-2016-STG
Summary Detection of cosmic neutrinos can answer very important questions related to some extremely energetic yet unexplained astrophysical sources such as: compact binary stars, accreting black holes, supernovae etc., key elements in understanding the evolution and fate of the Universe. Moreover, these particles carry the highest
energies per particle known to man, impossible to achieve in any present or foreseen man made accelerator devices thus their detection can test and probe extreme high energy physics.
One of the newest techniques for measuring high energy cosmic neutrinos regards their radio detection in natural salt mines. A first and essential step is to determine experimentally the radio wave attenuation length in salt mines, and this will represent the main goal of this project. The results shall be used to estimate the implications on the construction of the detector. The outcome of this project may rejuvenate the radio detection in salt technique and be a compelling case for Romanian involvement. The same measurements can be used: to validate and improve previous work on theoretical simulation models of propagation in heterogeneous media –a regime not very well understood (which represents another goal of the project), and to study the behavior of classical antennas in non-conventional media (the third major goal).
The results to be obtained would be immediately relevant in determination of the key parameters that describe a cosmic neutrino detector, its performances and limitations. The events detected by such a telescope will allow identification of individual sources indicating a step forward in “neutrino astronomy”. The extensive propagation and antenna behavior studies in heterogeneous media will be in the direct interest for the scientific community and have a prompt impact in telecommunications theory and industry.
Summary
Detection of cosmic neutrinos can answer very important questions related to some extremely energetic yet unexplained astrophysical sources such as: compact binary stars, accreting black holes, supernovae etc., key elements in understanding the evolution and fate of the Universe. Moreover, these particles carry the highest
energies per particle known to man, impossible to achieve in any present or foreseen man made accelerator devices thus their detection can test and probe extreme high energy physics.
One of the newest techniques for measuring high energy cosmic neutrinos regards their radio detection in natural salt mines. A first and essential step is to determine experimentally the radio wave attenuation length in salt mines, and this will represent the main goal of this project. The results shall be used to estimate the implications on the construction of the detector. The outcome of this project may rejuvenate the radio detection in salt technique and be a compelling case for Romanian involvement. The same measurements can be used: to validate and improve previous work on theoretical simulation models of propagation in heterogeneous media –a regime not very well understood (which represents another goal of the project), and to study the behavior of classical antennas in non-conventional media (the third major goal).
The results to be obtained would be immediately relevant in determination of the key parameters that describe a cosmic neutrino detector, its performances and limitations. The events detected by such a telescope will allow identification of individual sources indicating a step forward in “neutrino astronomy”. The extensive propagation and antenna behavior studies in heterogeneous media will be in the direct interest for the scientific community and have a prompt impact in telecommunications theory and industry.
Max ERC Funding
185 925 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-11-01, End date: 2018-10-31
Project acronym DANCER
Project DAtacommunications based on NanophotoniC Resonators
Researcher (PI) John William Whelan-Curtin
Host Institution (HI) CORK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE7, ERC-2013-StG
Summary A key challenge for the 21st century is, therefore to provide billions of people with the means to access, move and manipulate, what has become, huge volumes of information. The environmental and economic implications becoming serious, making energy efficient data communications key to the operation of today’s society.
In this project, the Principal Investigator will develop a new framework for optical interconnects and provide a common platform that spans Fibre-to-the-home to chip-to-chip links, even as far as global on-chip interconnects. The project is based on the efficient coupling of the Photonic Crystal resonators with the outside world. These provide the ultimate confinement of light in both space and time allowing orders of magnitude improvements in performance relative to the state of the art, yet in a simpler simple system- the innovator’s dream. New versions of the key components of optical links- light sources, modulators and photo-detectors- will be realised in this new framework providing a new paradigm for energy efficient communication.
Summary
A key challenge for the 21st century is, therefore to provide billions of people with the means to access, move and manipulate, what has become, huge volumes of information. The environmental and economic implications becoming serious, making energy efficient data communications key to the operation of today’s society.
In this project, the Principal Investigator will develop a new framework for optical interconnects and provide a common platform that spans Fibre-to-the-home to chip-to-chip links, even as far as global on-chip interconnects. The project is based on the efficient coupling of the Photonic Crystal resonators with the outside world. These provide the ultimate confinement of light in both space and time allowing orders of magnitude improvements in performance relative to the state of the art, yet in a simpler simple system- the innovator’s dream. New versions of the key components of optical links- light sources, modulators and photo-detectors- will be realised in this new framework providing a new paradigm for energy efficient communication.
Max ERC Funding
1 495 450 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-12-01, End date: 2019-05-31
Project acronym MFMF
Project Market Frictions in Mathematical Finance
Researcher (PI) Paolo Guasoni
Host Institution (HI) DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITY
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE1, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary For the past twenty years, Mathematical Finance has grown from the perfect fit between martingale methods and models of frictionless markets. But in last two years, the limits of this theory have become painfully clear, with the widespread failure of the valuation and risk control systems in the financial industry.
This proposal lays the groundwork for a new generation of models, which include nonlinear frictions such as transaction costs and liquidity as essential elements, not as extra features. This endeavor entails developing new notions of nonlinear stochastic integrals, and requires a theory that looks beyond the established setting of semimartingales. To become useful, this theory will need tools to solve related optimization problems, either explicitly, or with asymptotic methods. Convex duality and control theory will help develop such tools, together with partial differential equations techniques.
The proposed research aims at (i) understanding the natural setting of frictions models from well-posedness principles, (ii) developing a consistent integration theory, and (iii) investigating implications for optimization problems. These steps are central to nurture a new class of financial models, which can eventually remedy the pitfalls of the current ones.
Summary
For the past twenty years, Mathematical Finance has grown from the perfect fit between martingale methods and models of frictionless markets. But in last two years, the limits of this theory have become painfully clear, with the widespread failure of the valuation and risk control systems in the financial industry.
This proposal lays the groundwork for a new generation of models, which include nonlinear frictions such as transaction costs and liquidity as essential elements, not as extra features. This endeavor entails developing new notions of nonlinear stochastic integrals, and requires a theory that looks beyond the established setting of semimartingales. To become useful, this theory will need tools to solve related optimization problems, either explicitly, or with asymptotic methods. Convex duality and control theory will help develop such tools, together with partial differential equations techniques.
The proposed research aims at (i) understanding the natural setting of frictions models from well-posedness principles, (ii) developing a consistent integration theory, and (iii) investigating implications for optimization problems. These steps are central to nurture a new class of financial models, which can eventually remedy the pitfalls of the current ones.
Max ERC Funding
1 100 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2017-12-31
Project acronym TDRFSP
Project Time-Domain RF and Analog Signal Processing
Researcher (PI) Robert Staszewski
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, DUBLIN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE7, ERC-2012-StG_20111012
Summary "One of the most important developments in the communication microelectronics in the last decade was the invention and popularization of “Digital RF”. It transforms the radio frequency (RF) analog functionality of a wireless transceiver into digitally-intensive implementations that operate in time-domain. They are best realized in mainstream nanometer-scale CMOS technologies and easily integrated with digital processors. As a result, RF transceivers based on this new approach now enjoy significant benefits. Consequently, the RF transceivers based on this architecture are now the majority of the 1.5 billion mobile handsets produced annually.
The invention and development of “Digital RF” was pioneered in the last decade by this applicant at Texas Instruments in Dallas, Texas, USA. Despite having published over 130 scientific papers, that industrial research focus has been mainly limited to the highest volume segment of the wireless communications market: low-cost GSM/EDGE cellular phones and Bluetooth radios. Unfortunately, that low-cost low-data-rate market segment has already reached the saturation. The fastest growing segments of the wireless communications are now: high-data-rate “smart phones”, ultra-low-power wireless sensor network devices, antenna-array and millimeter-wave transceivers, where the original “Digital RF” approach could not be readily exploited.
The goal of this proposal is to revisit and exploit the fundamental theory of the time-domain operation of RF and analog circuits. This way the broad area of the wireless communications, as well as analog and mixed-signal electronics in general, can be transformed for the ready realization in the advanced CMOS technology. This is expected to revolutionize the entire research field to even a larger extent than the “Digital RF” breakthrough in low-cost low-data-rate radios pioneered by this applicant in the last decade."
Summary
"One of the most important developments in the communication microelectronics in the last decade was the invention and popularization of “Digital RF”. It transforms the radio frequency (RF) analog functionality of a wireless transceiver into digitally-intensive implementations that operate in time-domain. They are best realized in mainstream nanometer-scale CMOS technologies and easily integrated with digital processors. As a result, RF transceivers based on this new approach now enjoy significant benefits. Consequently, the RF transceivers based on this architecture are now the majority of the 1.5 billion mobile handsets produced annually.
The invention and development of “Digital RF” was pioneered in the last decade by this applicant at Texas Instruments in Dallas, Texas, USA. Despite having published over 130 scientific papers, that industrial research focus has been mainly limited to the highest volume segment of the wireless communications market: low-cost GSM/EDGE cellular phones and Bluetooth radios. Unfortunately, that low-cost low-data-rate market segment has already reached the saturation. The fastest growing segments of the wireless communications are now: high-data-rate “smart phones”, ultra-low-power wireless sensor network devices, antenna-array and millimeter-wave transceivers, where the original “Digital RF” approach could not be readily exploited.
The goal of this proposal is to revisit and exploit the fundamental theory of the time-domain operation of RF and analog circuits. This way the broad area of the wireless communications, as well as analog and mixed-signal electronics in general, can be transformed for the ready realization in the advanced CMOS technology. This is expected to revolutionize the entire research field to even a larger extent than the “Digital RF” breakthrough in low-cost low-data-rate radios pioneered by this applicant in the last decade."
Max ERC Funding
1 497 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-09-01, End date: 2017-08-31
