Project acronym 321
Project from Cubic To Linear complexity in computational electromagnetics
Researcher (PI) Francesco Paolo ANDRIULLI
Host Institution (HI) POLITECNICO DI TORINO
Country Italy
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE7, ERC-2016-COG
Summary Computational Electromagnetics (CEM) is the scientific field at the origin of all new modeling and simulation tools required by the constantly arising design challenges of emerging and future technologies in applied electromagnetics. As in many other technological fields, however, the trend in all emerging technologies in electromagnetic engineering is going towards miniaturized, higher density and multi-scale scenarios. Computationally speaking this translates in the steep increase of the number of degrees of freedom. Given that the design cost (the cost of a multi-right-hand side problem dominated by matrix inversion) can scale as badly as cubically with these degrees of freedom, this fact, as pointed out by many, will sensibly compromise the practical impact of CEM on future and emerging technologies.
For this reason, the CEM scientific community has been looking for years for a FFT-like paradigm shift: a dynamic fast direct solver providing a design cost that would scale only linearly with the degrees of freedom. Such a fast solver is considered today a Holy Grail of the discipline.
The Grand Challenge of 321 will be to tackle this Holy Grail in Computational Electromagnetics by investigating a dynamic Fast Direct Solver for Maxwell Problems that would run in a linear-instead-of-cubic complexity for an arbitrary number and configuration of degrees of freedom.
The failure of all previous attempts will be overcome by a game-changing transformation of the CEM classical problem that will leverage on a recent breakthrough of the PI. Starting from this, the project will investigate an entire new paradigm for impacting algorithms to achieve this grand challenge.
The impact of the FFT’s quadratic-to-linear paradigm shift shows how computational complexity reductions can be groundbreaking on applications. The cubic-to-linear paradigm shift, which the 321 project will aim for, will have such a rupturing impact on electromagnetic science and technology.
Summary
Computational Electromagnetics (CEM) is the scientific field at the origin of all new modeling and simulation tools required by the constantly arising design challenges of emerging and future technologies in applied electromagnetics. As in many other technological fields, however, the trend in all emerging technologies in electromagnetic engineering is going towards miniaturized, higher density and multi-scale scenarios. Computationally speaking this translates in the steep increase of the number of degrees of freedom. Given that the design cost (the cost of a multi-right-hand side problem dominated by matrix inversion) can scale as badly as cubically with these degrees of freedom, this fact, as pointed out by many, will sensibly compromise the practical impact of CEM on future and emerging technologies.
For this reason, the CEM scientific community has been looking for years for a FFT-like paradigm shift: a dynamic fast direct solver providing a design cost that would scale only linearly with the degrees of freedom. Such a fast solver is considered today a Holy Grail of the discipline.
The Grand Challenge of 321 will be to tackle this Holy Grail in Computational Electromagnetics by investigating a dynamic Fast Direct Solver for Maxwell Problems that would run in a linear-instead-of-cubic complexity for an arbitrary number and configuration of degrees of freedom.
The failure of all previous attempts will be overcome by a game-changing transformation of the CEM classical problem that will leverage on a recent breakthrough of the PI. Starting from this, the project will investigate an entire new paradigm for impacting algorithms to achieve this grand challenge.
The impact of the FFT’s quadratic-to-linear paradigm shift shows how computational complexity reductions can be groundbreaking on applications. The cubic-to-linear paradigm shift, which the 321 project will aim for, will have such a rupturing impact on electromagnetic science and technology.
Max ERC Funding
2 000 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-09-01, End date: 2023-08-31
Project acronym A-FRO
Project Actively Frozen - contextual modulation of freezing and its neuronal basis
Researcher (PI) Marta de Aragao Pacheco Moita
Host Institution (HI) FUNDACAO D. ANNA SOMMER CHAMPALIMAUD E DR. CARLOS MONTEZ CHAMPALIMAUD
Country Portugal
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS5, ERC-2018-COG
Summary When faced with a threat, an animal must decide whether to freeze, reducing its chances of being noticed, or to flee to the safety of a refuge. Animals from fish to primates choose between these two alternatives when confronted by an attacking predator, a choice that largely depends on the context in which the threat occurs. Recent work has made strides identifying the pre-motor circuits, and their inputs, which control freezing behavior in rodents, but how contextual information is integrated to guide this choice is still far from understood. We recently found that fruit flies in response to visual looming stimuli, simulating a large object on collision course, make rapid freeze/flee choices that depend on the social and spatial environment, and the fly’s internal state. Further, identification of looming detector neurons was recently reported and we identified the descending command neurons, DNp09, responsible for freezing in the fly. Knowing the sensory input and descending output for looming-evoked freezing, two environmental factors that modulate its expression, and using a genetically tractable system affording the use of large sample sizes, places us in an unique position to understand how a information about a threat is integrated with cues from the environment to guide the choice of whether to freeze (our goal). To assess how social information impinges on the circuit for freezing, we will examine the sensory inputs and neuromodulators that mediate this process, mapping their connections to DNp09 neurons (Aim 1). We ask whether learning is required for the spatial modulation of freezing, which cues flies are using to discriminate different places and which brain circuits mediate this process (Aim 2). Finally, we will study how activity of DNp09 neurons drives freezing (Aim 3). This project will provide a comprehensive understanding of the mechanism of freezing and its modulation by the environment, from single neurons to behaviour.
Summary
When faced with a threat, an animal must decide whether to freeze, reducing its chances of being noticed, or to flee to the safety of a refuge. Animals from fish to primates choose between these two alternatives when confronted by an attacking predator, a choice that largely depends on the context in which the threat occurs. Recent work has made strides identifying the pre-motor circuits, and their inputs, which control freezing behavior in rodents, but how contextual information is integrated to guide this choice is still far from understood. We recently found that fruit flies in response to visual looming stimuli, simulating a large object on collision course, make rapid freeze/flee choices that depend on the social and spatial environment, and the fly’s internal state. Further, identification of looming detector neurons was recently reported and we identified the descending command neurons, DNp09, responsible for freezing in the fly. Knowing the sensory input and descending output for looming-evoked freezing, two environmental factors that modulate its expression, and using a genetically tractable system affording the use of large sample sizes, places us in an unique position to understand how a information about a threat is integrated with cues from the environment to guide the choice of whether to freeze (our goal). To assess how social information impinges on the circuit for freezing, we will examine the sensory inputs and neuromodulators that mediate this process, mapping their connections to DNp09 neurons (Aim 1). We ask whether learning is required for the spatial modulation of freezing, which cues flies are using to discriminate different places and which brain circuits mediate this process (Aim 2). Finally, we will study how activity of DNp09 neurons drives freezing (Aim 3). This project will provide a comprehensive understanding of the mechanism of freezing and its modulation by the environment, from single neurons to behaviour.
Max ERC Funding
1 969 750 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-02-01, End date: 2024-01-31
Project acronym AMI
Project Animals Make identities. The Social Bioarchaeology of Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic Cemeteries in North-East Europe
Researcher (PI) Kristiina MANNERMAA
Host Institution (HI) HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Country Finland
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH6, ERC-2019-COG
Summary AMI aims to provide a novel interpretation of social links between humans and animals in hunter-gatherer cemeteries in North-East Europe, c. 9000–7500 years ago. AMI brings together cutting-edge developments in bioarchaeological science and the latest understanding of how people’s identities form in order to study the relationships between humans and animals. Grave materials and human remains will be studied from the viewpoint of process rather than as isolated objects, and will be interpreted through their histories.
The main objectives are
1) Synthesize the animal related bioarchaeological materials in mortuary contexts in North-East Europe,
2) Conduct a systematic multimethodological analysis of the animal-derived artefacts and to study them as actors in human social identity construction,
3) Reconstruct the individual life histories of humans, animals, and animal-derived artefacts in the cemeteries, and
4) Produce models for the reconstruction of social identities based on the data from the bioanalyses, literature, and GIS.
Various contextual, qualitative and quantitative biodata from animals and humans will be analysed and compared. Correlations and differences will be explored. Intra-site spatial analyses and data already published on cemeteries will contribute significantly to the research. Ethnographic information about recent hunter-gatherers from circumpolar regions gathered from literature will support the interpretation of the results from these analyses.
The research material derives from almost 300 burials from eight sites in North-East Europe and includes, for example, unique materials from Russia that have not previously been available for modern multidisciplinary research. The project will make a significant contribution to our understanding of how humans living in the forests of North-East Europe adapted the animals they shared their environment with into their social and ideological realities and practices.
Summary
AMI aims to provide a novel interpretation of social links between humans and animals in hunter-gatherer cemeteries in North-East Europe, c. 9000–7500 years ago. AMI brings together cutting-edge developments in bioarchaeological science and the latest understanding of how people’s identities form in order to study the relationships between humans and animals. Grave materials and human remains will be studied from the viewpoint of process rather than as isolated objects, and will be interpreted through their histories.
The main objectives are
1) Synthesize the animal related bioarchaeological materials in mortuary contexts in North-East Europe,
2) Conduct a systematic multimethodological analysis of the animal-derived artefacts and to study them as actors in human social identity construction,
3) Reconstruct the individual life histories of humans, animals, and animal-derived artefacts in the cemeteries, and
4) Produce models for the reconstruction of social identities based on the data from the bioanalyses, literature, and GIS.
Various contextual, qualitative and quantitative biodata from animals and humans will be analysed and compared. Correlations and differences will be explored. Intra-site spatial analyses and data already published on cemeteries will contribute significantly to the research. Ethnographic information about recent hunter-gatherers from circumpolar regions gathered from literature will support the interpretation of the results from these analyses.
The research material derives from almost 300 burials from eight sites in North-East Europe and includes, for example, unique materials from Russia that have not previously been available for modern multidisciplinary research. The project will make a significant contribution to our understanding of how humans living in the forests of North-East Europe adapted the animals they shared their environment with into their social and ideological realities and practices.
Max ERC Funding
1 992 839 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-04-01, End date: 2025-03-31
Project acronym ArmEn
Project Armenia Entangled: Connectivity and Cultural Encounters in Medieval Eurasia
Researcher (PI) Zaroui POGOSSIAN
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI FIRENZE
Country Italy
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH6, ERC-2019-COG
Summary ArmEn seeks to establish a new framework for studying the southern Caucasus, eastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia (CAM) as a space of cultural entanglements between the 9th to 14th centuries. It argues that this region is key to understanding the history of medieval Eurasia but has so far been completely neglected by the burgeoning field of Global Middle Ages. The CAM was on the crossroads of expanding Eurasian empires and population movements, but was removed from major hubs of power. Poly-centrism; political, ethno-linguistic, and religious heterogeneity; frequently shifting hegemonic hierarchies were key aspects of its, nevertheless, inter-connected landscape. This fluidity and complexity left its mark on the cultural products – textual and material – created in the CAM. ArmEn aims to trace shared features in the multi-lingual textual and artistic production of CAM and correlate them to the circulation of ideas and concepts, as well as to real-life interactions, between multiple groups, identifying the locations and agents of entanglements. The large but under-utilised body of Armenian sources to be explored together with those in Arabic, Georgian, Greek, Persian, Syriac, and Turkish, will illuminate cultural entanglements between Muslim and Christian Arabs, Byzantines, Syriac Christians, Georgians, Caucasian Albanians, Turko-Muslim dynasties, Kurds, Iranians, Western Europeans, and Mongols, that inhabited, conquered, or passed through and produced cultural goods in CAM. Evidence from manuscript illuminations and numismatics will provide a material cultural dimension to the analysis. ArmEn will create a trans-cultural vision of the CAM, bridging area studies into a unifying framework, bringing together various disciplinary approaches (philology, literary criticism, religious studies, art history, numismatics, etc.), to build a narrative synthesis in which the dynamics of cross-cultural entanglements in the CAM emerge in their spatial and temporal dimensions.
Summary
ArmEn seeks to establish a new framework for studying the southern Caucasus, eastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia (CAM) as a space of cultural entanglements between the 9th to 14th centuries. It argues that this region is key to understanding the history of medieval Eurasia but has so far been completely neglected by the burgeoning field of Global Middle Ages. The CAM was on the crossroads of expanding Eurasian empires and population movements, but was removed from major hubs of power. Poly-centrism; political, ethno-linguistic, and religious heterogeneity; frequently shifting hegemonic hierarchies were key aspects of its, nevertheless, inter-connected landscape. This fluidity and complexity left its mark on the cultural products – textual and material – created in the CAM. ArmEn aims to trace shared features in the multi-lingual textual and artistic production of CAM and correlate them to the circulation of ideas and concepts, as well as to real-life interactions, between multiple groups, identifying the locations and agents of entanglements. The large but under-utilised body of Armenian sources to be explored together with those in Arabic, Georgian, Greek, Persian, Syriac, and Turkish, will illuminate cultural entanglements between Muslim and Christian Arabs, Byzantines, Syriac Christians, Georgians, Caucasian Albanians, Turko-Muslim dynasties, Kurds, Iranians, Western Europeans, and Mongols, that inhabited, conquered, or passed through and produced cultural goods in CAM. Evidence from manuscript illuminations and numismatics will provide a material cultural dimension to the analysis. ArmEn will create a trans-cultural vision of the CAM, bridging area studies into a unifying framework, bringing together various disciplinary approaches (philology, literary criticism, religious studies, art history, numismatics, etc.), to build a narrative synthesis in which the dynamics of cross-cultural entanglements in the CAM emerge in their spatial and temporal dimensions.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 994 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-10-01, End date: 2025-09-30
Project acronym BabyRhythm
Project Tuned to the Rhythm: How Prenatally and Postnatally Heard Speech Prosody Lays the Foundations for Language Learning
Researcher (PI) Judit Gervain
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA
Country Italy
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2017-COG
Summary The role of experience in language acquisition has been the focus of heated theoretical debates, between proponents of nativist views according to whom experience plays a minimal role and advocates of empiricist positions holding that experience, be it linguistic, social or other, is sufficient to account for language acquisition. Despite more than a half century of dedicated research efforts, the problem is not solved.
The present project brings a novel perspective to this debate, combining hitherto unconnected research in language acquisition with recent advances in the neurophysiology of hearing and speech processing. Specifically, it claims that prenatal experience with speech, which mainly consists of prosody due to the filtering effects of the womb, is what shapes the speech perception system, laying the foundations of subsequent language learning. Prosody is thus the cue that links genetically endowed predispositions present in the initial state with language experience. The proposal links the behavioral and neural levels, arguing that the hierarchy of the neural oscillations corresponds to a unique developmental chronology in human infants’ experience with speech and language.
The project uses state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques, EEG & NIRS, with monolingual full term newborns, as well as full-term bilingual, preterm and deaf newborns to investigate the link between prenatal experience and subsequent language acquisition. It proposes to follow the developmental trajectories of these four populations from birth to 6 and 9 months of age.
Summary
The role of experience in language acquisition has been the focus of heated theoretical debates, between proponents of nativist views according to whom experience plays a minimal role and advocates of empiricist positions holding that experience, be it linguistic, social or other, is sufficient to account for language acquisition. Despite more than a half century of dedicated research efforts, the problem is not solved.
The present project brings a novel perspective to this debate, combining hitherto unconnected research in language acquisition with recent advances in the neurophysiology of hearing and speech processing. Specifically, it claims that prenatal experience with speech, which mainly consists of prosody due to the filtering effects of the womb, is what shapes the speech perception system, laying the foundations of subsequent language learning. Prosody is thus the cue that links genetically endowed predispositions present in the initial state with language experience. The proposal links the behavioral and neural levels, arguing that the hierarchy of the neural oscillations corresponds to a unique developmental chronology in human infants’ experience with speech and language.
The project uses state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques, EEG & NIRS, with monolingual full term newborns, as well as full-term bilingual, preterm and deaf newborns to investigate the link between prenatal experience and subsequent language acquisition. It proposes to follow the developmental trajectories of these four populations from birth to 6 and 9 months of age.
Max ERC Funding
1 621 250 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-06-01, End date: 2023-05-31
Project acronym BHIVE
Project Bio-derived HIgh Value polymers through novel Enzyme function
Researcher (PI) Emma Rusi Master
Host Institution (HI) AALTO KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR
Country Finland
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS9, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary Recent advances in systems-level study of cells and organisms have revealed the enormous potential to live more sustainably through better use of biological processes. Plants sustainably synthesize the most abundant and diverse materials on Earth. By applying recent advances in life science technology, we can better harness renewable plant resources and bioconversion processes, to develop environmentally and politically sustainable human enterprise and lifestyles. At the same time, the global market for high-value biochemicals and bioplastics from forest and agricultural sources is rapidly increasing, which presents new opportunities for forest and agricultural sectors.
The overall aim of BHIVE is to illuminate uncharted regions of genome and metagenome sequences to discover entirely new protein families that can be used to sustainably synthesize novel, high-value biomaterials from renewable plant resources. The approach will include three parallel research thrusts: 1) strategic analysis of transcriptome and metagenome sequences to identify proteins with entirely unknown function relevant to biomass (lignocellulose) transformation, 2) mapping of uncharted regions within phylogenetic trees of poorly characterized enzyme families with recognized potential to modify the chemistry and biophysical properties of plant polysaccharides, and 3) the design and development of novel enzyme screens to directly address the increasing limitations of existing assays to uncover entirely new protein functions. BHIVE will be unique in its undivided focus on characterizing lignocellulose-active proteins encoded by the 30-40% of un-annotated sequence, or genomic “dark matter”, typical of nearly all genome sequences. In this way, BHIVE tackles a key constraint to fully realizing the societal and environmental benefits of the genomics era.
Summary
Recent advances in systems-level study of cells and organisms have revealed the enormous potential to live more sustainably through better use of biological processes. Plants sustainably synthesize the most abundant and diverse materials on Earth. By applying recent advances in life science technology, we can better harness renewable plant resources and bioconversion processes, to develop environmentally and politically sustainable human enterprise and lifestyles. At the same time, the global market for high-value biochemicals and bioplastics from forest and agricultural sources is rapidly increasing, which presents new opportunities for forest and agricultural sectors.
The overall aim of BHIVE is to illuminate uncharted regions of genome and metagenome sequences to discover entirely new protein families that can be used to sustainably synthesize novel, high-value biomaterials from renewable plant resources. The approach will include three parallel research thrusts: 1) strategic analysis of transcriptome and metagenome sequences to identify proteins with entirely unknown function relevant to biomass (lignocellulose) transformation, 2) mapping of uncharted regions within phylogenetic trees of poorly characterized enzyme families with recognized potential to modify the chemistry and biophysical properties of plant polysaccharides, and 3) the design and development of novel enzyme screens to directly address the increasing limitations of existing assays to uncover entirely new protein functions. BHIVE will be unique in its undivided focus on characterizing lignocellulose-active proteins encoded by the 30-40% of un-annotated sequence, or genomic “dark matter”, typical of nearly all genome sequences. In this way, BHIVE tackles a key constraint to fully realizing the societal and environmental benefits of the genomics era.
Max ERC Funding
1 977 781 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-12-31
Project acronym BioDisOrder
Project Order and Disorder at the Surface of Biological Membranes.
Researcher (PI) Alfonso DE SIMONE
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI FEDERICO II
Country Italy
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE4, ERC-2018-COG
Summary Heterogeneous biomolecular mechanisms at the surface of cellular membranes are often fundamental to generate function and dysfunction in living systems. These processes are governed by transient and dynamical macromolecular interactions that pose tremendous challenges to current analytical tools, as the majority of these methods perform best in the study of well-defined and poorly dynamical systems. This proposal aims at a radical innovation in the characterisation of complex processes that are dominated by structural order and disorder, including those occurring at the surface of biological membranes such as cellular signalling, the assembly of molecular machinery, or the regulation vesicular trafficking.
I outline a programme to realise a vision where the combination of experiments and theory can delineate a new analytical platform to study complex biochemical mechanisms at a multiscale level, and to elucidate their role in physiological and pathological contexts. To achieve this ambitious goal, my research team will develop tools based on the combination of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and molecular simulations, which will enable probing the structure, dynamics, thermodynamics and kinetics of complex protein-protein and protein-membrane interactions occurring at the surface of cellular membranes. The ability to advance both the experimental and theoretical sides, and their combination, is fundamental to define the next generation of methods to achieve our transformative aims. We will provide evidence of the innovative nature of the proposed multiscale approach by addressing some of the great questions in neuroscience and elucidate the details of how functional and aberrant biological complexity is achieved via the fine tuning between structural order and disorder at the neuronal synapse.
Summary
Heterogeneous biomolecular mechanisms at the surface of cellular membranes are often fundamental to generate function and dysfunction in living systems. These processes are governed by transient and dynamical macromolecular interactions that pose tremendous challenges to current analytical tools, as the majority of these methods perform best in the study of well-defined and poorly dynamical systems. This proposal aims at a radical innovation in the characterisation of complex processes that are dominated by structural order and disorder, including those occurring at the surface of biological membranes such as cellular signalling, the assembly of molecular machinery, or the regulation vesicular trafficking.
I outline a programme to realise a vision where the combination of experiments and theory can delineate a new analytical platform to study complex biochemical mechanisms at a multiscale level, and to elucidate their role in physiological and pathological contexts. To achieve this ambitious goal, my research team will develop tools based on the combination of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and molecular simulations, which will enable probing the structure, dynamics, thermodynamics and kinetics of complex protein-protein and protein-membrane interactions occurring at the surface of cellular membranes. The ability to advance both the experimental and theoretical sides, and their combination, is fundamental to define the next generation of methods to achieve our transformative aims. We will provide evidence of the innovative nature of the proposed multiscale approach by addressing some of the great questions in neuroscience and elucidate the details of how functional and aberrant biological complexity is achieved via the fine tuning between structural order and disorder at the neuronal synapse.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 945 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-06-01, End date: 2024-05-31
Project acronym BIORECAR
Project Direct cell reprogramming therapy in myocardial regeneration through an engineered multifunctional platform integrating biochemical instructive cues
Researcher (PI) Valeria CHIONO
Host Institution (HI) POLITECNICO DI TORINO
Country Italy
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE8, ERC-2017-COG
Summary In BIORECAR I will develop a new breakthrough multifunctional biomaterial-based platform for myocardial regeneration after myocardial infarction, provided with biochemical cues able to enhance the direct reprogramming of human cardiac fibroblasts into functional cardiomyocytes.
My expertise in bioartificial materials and biomimetic scaffolds and the versatile chemistry of polyurethanes will be the key elements to achieve a significant knowledge and technological advancement in cell reprogramming therapy, opening the way to the future translation of the therapy into the clinics.
I will implement this advanced approach through the design of a novel 3D in vitro tissue-engineered model of human cardiac fibrotic tissue, as a tool for testing and validation, to maximise research efforts and reduce animal tests.
I will adapt novel nanomedicine approaches I have recently developed for drug release to design innovative cell-friendly and efficient polyurethane nanoparticles for targeted reprogramming of cardiac fibroblasts.
I will design an injectable bioartificial hydrogel based on a blend of a thermosensitive polyurethane and a natural component selected among a novel cell-secreted natural polymer mixture (“biomatrix”) recapitulating the complexity of cardiac extracellular matrix or one of its main protein constituents. Such multifunctional hydrogel will deliver in situ agents stimulating recruitment of cardiac fibroblasts together with the nanoparticles loaded with reprogramming therapeutics, and will provide biochemical signalling to stimulate efficient conversion of fibroblasts into mature cardiomyocytes.
First-in-field biomaterials-based innovations introduced by BIORECAR will enable more effective regeneration of functional myocardial tissue respect to state-of-the art approaches. BIORECAR innovation is multidisciplinary in nature and will be accelerated towards future clinical translation through my clinical, scientific and industrial collaborations.
Summary
In BIORECAR I will develop a new breakthrough multifunctional biomaterial-based platform for myocardial regeneration after myocardial infarction, provided with biochemical cues able to enhance the direct reprogramming of human cardiac fibroblasts into functional cardiomyocytes.
My expertise in bioartificial materials and biomimetic scaffolds and the versatile chemistry of polyurethanes will be the key elements to achieve a significant knowledge and technological advancement in cell reprogramming therapy, opening the way to the future translation of the therapy into the clinics.
I will implement this advanced approach through the design of a novel 3D in vitro tissue-engineered model of human cardiac fibrotic tissue, as a tool for testing and validation, to maximise research efforts and reduce animal tests.
I will adapt novel nanomedicine approaches I have recently developed for drug release to design innovative cell-friendly and efficient polyurethane nanoparticles for targeted reprogramming of cardiac fibroblasts.
I will design an injectable bioartificial hydrogel based on a blend of a thermosensitive polyurethane and a natural component selected among a novel cell-secreted natural polymer mixture (“biomatrix”) recapitulating the complexity of cardiac extracellular matrix or one of its main protein constituents. Such multifunctional hydrogel will deliver in situ agents stimulating recruitment of cardiac fibroblasts together with the nanoparticles loaded with reprogramming therapeutics, and will provide biochemical signalling to stimulate efficient conversion of fibroblasts into mature cardiomyocytes.
First-in-field biomaterials-based innovations introduced by BIORECAR will enable more effective regeneration of functional myocardial tissue respect to state-of-the art approaches. BIORECAR innovation is multidisciplinary in nature and will be accelerated towards future clinical translation through my clinical, scientific and industrial collaborations.
Max ERC Funding
2 000 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-07-01, End date: 2023-06-30
Project acronym BiT
Project How the Human Brain Masters Time
Researcher (PI) Domenica Bueti
Host Institution (HI) SCUOLA INTERNAZIONALE SUPERIORE DI STUDI AVANZATI DI TRIESTE
Country Italy
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2015-CoG
Summary If you suddenly hear your song on the radio and spontaneously decide to burst into dance in your living room, you need to precisely time your movements if you do not want to find yourself on your bookshelf. Most of what we do or perceive depends on how accurately we represent the temporal properties of the environment however we cannot see or touch time. As such, time in the millisecond range is both a fundamental and elusive dimension of everyday experiences. Despite the obvious importance of time to information processing and to behavior in general, little is known yet about how the human brain process time. Existing approaches to the study of the neural mechanisms of time mainly focus on the identification of brain regions involved in temporal computations (‘where’ time is processed in the brain), whereas most computational models vary in their biological plausibility and do not always make clear testable predictions. BiT is a groundbreaking research program designed to challenge current models of time perception and to offer a new perspective in the study of the neural basis of time. The groundbreaking nature of BiT derives from the novelty of the questions asked (‘when’ and ‘how’ time is processed in the brain) and from addressing them using complementary but distinct research approaches (from human neuroimaging to brain stimulation techniques, from the investigation of the whole brain to the focus on specific brain regions). By testing a new biologically plausible hypothesis of temporal representation (via duration tuning and ‘chronotopy’) and by scrutinizing the functional properties and, for the first time, the temporal hierarchies of ‘putative’ time regions, BiT will offer a multifaceted knowledge of how the human brain represents time. This new knowledge will challenge our understanding of brain organization and function that typically lacks of a time angle and will impact our understanding of how the brain uses time information for perception and action
Summary
If you suddenly hear your song on the radio and spontaneously decide to burst into dance in your living room, you need to precisely time your movements if you do not want to find yourself on your bookshelf. Most of what we do or perceive depends on how accurately we represent the temporal properties of the environment however we cannot see or touch time. As such, time in the millisecond range is both a fundamental and elusive dimension of everyday experiences. Despite the obvious importance of time to information processing and to behavior in general, little is known yet about how the human brain process time. Existing approaches to the study of the neural mechanisms of time mainly focus on the identification of brain regions involved in temporal computations (‘where’ time is processed in the brain), whereas most computational models vary in their biological plausibility and do not always make clear testable predictions. BiT is a groundbreaking research program designed to challenge current models of time perception and to offer a new perspective in the study of the neural basis of time. The groundbreaking nature of BiT derives from the novelty of the questions asked (‘when’ and ‘how’ time is processed in the brain) and from addressing them using complementary but distinct research approaches (from human neuroimaging to brain stimulation techniques, from the investigation of the whole brain to the focus on specific brain regions). By testing a new biologically plausible hypothesis of temporal representation (via duration tuning and ‘chronotopy’) and by scrutinizing the functional properties and, for the first time, the temporal hierarchies of ‘putative’ time regions, BiT will offer a multifaceted knowledge of how the human brain represents time. This new knowledge will challenge our understanding of brain organization and function that typically lacks of a time angle and will impact our understanding of how the brain uses time information for perception and action
Max ERC Funding
1 670 830 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-10-01, End date: 2021-09-30
Project acronym BOOST
Project Biomimetic trick to re-balance Osteblast-Osteoclast loop in osteoporoSis treatment: a Topological and materials driven approach
Researcher (PI) Chiara Silvia Vitale Brovarone
Host Institution (HI) POLITECNICO DI TORINO
Country Italy
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE8, ERC-2015-CoG
Summary One out of 5 people in their fifties will experience a bone fracture due to osteoporosis (OP)-induced fragility in their lifetime. The OP socio-economic burden is dramatic and involves tens of millions of people in the EU, with a steadily increasing number due to population ageing. Current treatments entail drug-therapy coupled with a healthy lifestyle but OP fractures need mechanical fixation to rapidly achieve union: the contribution of biomaterial scientists in this field is still far from taking its expected leading role in cutting-edge research. Bone remodelling is a well-coordinated process of bone resorption by osteoclasts followed by the production of new bone by osteoblasts. This process occurs continuously throughout life in a coupling with a positive balance during growth and negative with ageing, which can result in OP. We believe that an architecture driven stimulation of the osteoclast/osteoblast coupling, with an avant-garde focus on osteoclasts activity, is the key to success in treating unbalanced bone remodelling. We aim to manufacture a scaffold that mimics healthy bone features which will establish a new microenvironment favoring a properly stimulated and active population of osteoclasts and osteoblasts, i.e. a well-balanced bone cooperation. After 5 years we will be able to prove the efficacy of this approach. A benchmark will be set up for OP fracture treatment and for the realization of smart bone substitutes that will be able to locally “trick” aged bone cells stimulating them to act as healthy ones. BOOST results will have an unprecedented impact on the scientific research community, opening a new approach to set up smart, biomimetic strategies to treat aged, unbalanced bone tissues and to reduce OP-associated disabilities and financial burdens.
Summary
One out of 5 people in their fifties will experience a bone fracture due to osteoporosis (OP)-induced fragility in their lifetime. The OP socio-economic burden is dramatic and involves tens of millions of people in the EU, with a steadily increasing number due to population ageing. Current treatments entail drug-therapy coupled with a healthy lifestyle but OP fractures need mechanical fixation to rapidly achieve union: the contribution of biomaterial scientists in this field is still far from taking its expected leading role in cutting-edge research. Bone remodelling is a well-coordinated process of bone resorption by osteoclasts followed by the production of new bone by osteoblasts. This process occurs continuously throughout life in a coupling with a positive balance during growth and negative with ageing, which can result in OP. We believe that an architecture driven stimulation of the osteoclast/osteoblast coupling, with an avant-garde focus on osteoclasts activity, is the key to success in treating unbalanced bone remodelling. We aim to manufacture a scaffold that mimics healthy bone features which will establish a new microenvironment favoring a properly stimulated and active population of osteoclasts and osteoblasts, i.e. a well-balanced bone cooperation. After 5 years we will be able to prove the efficacy of this approach. A benchmark will be set up for OP fracture treatment and for the realization of smart bone substitutes that will be able to locally “trick” aged bone cells stimulating them to act as healthy ones. BOOST results will have an unprecedented impact on the scientific research community, opening a new approach to set up smart, biomimetic strategies to treat aged, unbalanced bone tissues and to reduce OP-associated disabilities and financial burdens.
Max ERC Funding
1 977 500 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-05-01, End date: 2022-06-30
