Project acronym 5HT-OPTOGENETICS
Project Optogenetic Analysis of Serotonin Function in the Mammalian Brain
Researcher (PI) Zachary Mainen
Host Institution (HI) FUNDACAO D. ANNA SOMMER CHAMPALIMAUD E DR. CARLOS MONTEZ CHAMPALIMAUD
Country Portugal
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), LS5, ERC-2009-AdG
Summary Serotonin (5-HT) is implicated in a wide spectrum of brain functions and disorders. However, its functions remain controversial and enigmatic. We suggest that past work on the 5-HT system have been significantly hampered by technical limitations in the selectivity and temporal resolution of the conventional pharmacological and electrophysiological methods that have been applied. We therefore propose to apply novel optogenetic methods that will allow us to overcome these limitations and thereby gain new insight into the biological functions of this important molecule. In preliminary studies, we have demonstrated that we can deliver exogenous proteins specifically to 5-HT neurons using viral vectors. Our objectives are to (1) record, (2) stimulate and (3) silence the activity of 5-HT neurons with high molecular selectivity and temporal precision by using genetically-encoded sensors, activators and inhibitors of neural function. These tools will allow us to monitor and control the 5-HT system in real-time in freely-behaving animals and thereby to establish causal links between information processing in 5-HT neurons and specific behaviors. In combination with quantitative behavioral assays, we will use this approach to define the role of 5-HT in sensory, motor and cognitive functions. The significance of the work is three-fold. First, we will establish a new arsenal of tools for probing the physiological and behavioral functions of 5-HT neurons. Second, we will make definitive tests of major hypotheses of 5-HT function. Third, we will have possible therapeutic applications. In this way, the proposed work has the potential for a major impact in research on the role of 5-HT in brain function and dysfunction.
Summary
Serotonin (5-HT) is implicated in a wide spectrum of brain functions and disorders. However, its functions remain controversial and enigmatic. We suggest that past work on the 5-HT system have been significantly hampered by technical limitations in the selectivity and temporal resolution of the conventional pharmacological and electrophysiological methods that have been applied. We therefore propose to apply novel optogenetic methods that will allow us to overcome these limitations and thereby gain new insight into the biological functions of this important molecule. In preliminary studies, we have demonstrated that we can deliver exogenous proteins specifically to 5-HT neurons using viral vectors. Our objectives are to (1) record, (2) stimulate and (3) silence the activity of 5-HT neurons with high molecular selectivity and temporal precision by using genetically-encoded sensors, activators and inhibitors of neural function. These tools will allow us to monitor and control the 5-HT system in real-time in freely-behaving animals and thereby to establish causal links between information processing in 5-HT neurons and specific behaviors. In combination with quantitative behavioral assays, we will use this approach to define the role of 5-HT in sensory, motor and cognitive functions. The significance of the work is three-fold. First, we will establish a new arsenal of tools for probing the physiological and behavioral functions of 5-HT neurons. Second, we will make definitive tests of major hypotheses of 5-HT function. Third, we will have possible therapeutic applications. In this way, the proposed work has the potential for a major impact in research on the role of 5-HT in brain function and dysfunction.
Max ERC Funding
2 318 636 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-07-01, End date: 2015-12-31
Project acronym 5HTCircuits
Project Modulation of cortical circuits and predictive neural coding by serotonin
Researcher (PI) Zachary Mainen
Host Institution (HI) FUNDACAO D. ANNA SOMMER CHAMPALIMAUD E DR. CARLOS MONTEZ CHAMPALIMAUD
Country Portugal
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), LS5, ERC-2014-ADG
Summary Serotonin (5-HT) is a central neuromodulator and a major target of therapeutic psychoactive drugs, but relatively little is known about how it modulates information processing in neural circuits. The theory of predictive coding postulates that the brain combines raw bottom-up sensory information with top-down information from internal models to make perceptual inferences about the world. We hypothesize, based on preliminary data and prior literature, that a role of 5-HT in this process is to report prediction errors and promote the suppression and weakening of erroneous internal models. We propose that it does this by inhibiting top-down relative to bottom-up cortical information flow. To test this hypothesis, we propose a set of experiments in mice performing olfactory perceptual tasks. Our specific aims are: (1) We will test whether 5-HT neurons encode sensory prediction errors. (2) We will test their causal role in using predictive cues to guide perceptual decisions. (3) We will characterize how 5-HT influences the encoding of sensory information by neuronal populations in the olfactory cortex and identify the underlying circuitry. (4) Finally, we will map the effects of 5-HT across the whole brain and use this information to target further causal manipulations to specific 5-HT projections. We accomplish these aims using state-of-the-art optogenetic, electrophysiological and imaging techniques (including 9.4T small-animal functional magnetic resonance imaging) as well as psychophysical tasks amenable to quantitative analysis and computational theory. Together, these experiments will tackle multiple facets of an important general computational question, bringing to bear an array of cutting-edge technologies to address with unprecedented mechanistic detail how 5-HT impacts neural coding and perceptual decision-making.
Summary
Serotonin (5-HT) is a central neuromodulator and a major target of therapeutic psychoactive drugs, but relatively little is known about how it modulates information processing in neural circuits. The theory of predictive coding postulates that the brain combines raw bottom-up sensory information with top-down information from internal models to make perceptual inferences about the world. We hypothesize, based on preliminary data and prior literature, that a role of 5-HT in this process is to report prediction errors and promote the suppression and weakening of erroneous internal models. We propose that it does this by inhibiting top-down relative to bottom-up cortical information flow. To test this hypothesis, we propose a set of experiments in mice performing olfactory perceptual tasks. Our specific aims are: (1) We will test whether 5-HT neurons encode sensory prediction errors. (2) We will test their causal role in using predictive cues to guide perceptual decisions. (3) We will characterize how 5-HT influences the encoding of sensory information by neuronal populations in the olfactory cortex and identify the underlying circuitry. (4) Finally, we will map the effects of 5-HT across the whole brain and use this information to target further causal manipulations to specific 5-HT projections. We accomplish these aims using state-of-the-art optogenetic, electrophysiological and imaging techniques (including 9.4T small-animal functional magnetic resonance imaging) as well as psychophysical tasks amenable to quantitative analysis and computational theory. Together, these experiments will tackle multiple facets of an important general computational question, bringing to bear an array of cutting-edge technologies to address with unprecedented mechanistic detail how 5-HT impacts neural coding and perceptual decision-making.
Max ERC Funding
2 486 074 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-01-01, End date: 2020-12-31
Project acronym AMBH
Project Ancient Music Beyond Hellenisation
Researcher (PI) Stefan HAGEL
Host Institution (HI) OESTERREICHISCHE AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN
Country Austria
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH5, ERC-2017-ADG
Summary From medieval times, Arabic as well as European music was analysed in terms that were inherited from Classical Antiquity and had thus developed in a very different music culture. In spite of recent breakthroughs in the understanding of the latter, whose technicalities we access not only through texts and iconography, but also through instrument finds and surviving notated melodies, its relation to music traditions known from later periods and different places is almost uncharted territory.
The present project explores relations between Hellenic/Hellenistic music as pervaded the theatres and concert halls throughout and beyond the Roman empire, Near Eastern traditions – from the diatonic system emerging from cuneiform sources to the flourishing musical world of the caliphates – and, as far as possible, African musical life south of Egypt as well – a region that maintained close ties both with the Hellenised culture of its northern neighbours and with the Arabian Peninsula.
On the one hand, this demands collaboration between Classical Philology and Arabic Studies, extending methods recently developed within music archaeological research related to the Classical Mediterranean. Arabic writings need to be examined in close reading, using recent insights into the interplay between ancient music theory and practice, in order to segregate the influence of Greek thinking from ideas and facts that must relate to contemporaneous ‘Arabic’ music-making. In this way we hope better to define the relation of this tradition to the ‘Classical world’, potentially breaking free of Orientalising bias informing modern views. On the other hand, the study and reconstruction, virtual and material, of wind instruments of Hellenistic pedigree but found outside the confinements of the Hellenistic ‘heartlands’ may provide evidence of ‘foreign’ tonality employed in those regions – specifically the royal city of Meroë in modern Sudan and the Oxus Temple in modern Tajikistan.
Summary
From medieval times, Arabic as well as European music was analysed in terms that were inherited from Classical Antiquity and had thus developed in a very different music culture. In spite of recent breakthroughs in the understanding of the latter, whose technicalities we access not only through texts and iconography, but also through instrument finds and surviving notated melodies, its relation to music traditions known from later periods and different places is almost uncharted territory.
The present project explores relations between Hellenic/Hellenistic music as pervaded the theatres and concert halls throughout and beyond the Roman empire, Near Eastern traditions – from the diatonic system emerging from cuneiform sources to the flourishing musical world of the caliphates – and, as far as possible, African musical life south of Egypt as well – a region that maintained close ties both with the Hellenised culture of its northern neighbours and with the Arabian Peninsula.
On the one hand, this demands collaboration between Classical Philology and Arabic Studies, extending methods recently developed within music archaeological research related to the Classical Mediterranean. Arabic writings need to be examined in close reading, using recent insights into the interplay between ancient music theory and practice, in order to segregate the influence of Greek thinking from ideas and facts that must relate to contemporaneous ‘Arabic’ music-making. In this way we hope better to define the relation of this tradition to the ‘Classical world’, potentially breaking free of Orientalising bias informing modern views. On the other hand, the study and reconstruction, virtual and material, of wind instruments of Hellenistic pedigree but found outside the confinements of the Hellenistic ‘heartlands’ may provide evidence of ‘foreign’ tonality employed in those regions – specifically the royal city of Meroë in modern Sudan and the Oxus Temple in modern Tajikistan.
Max ERC Funding
775 959 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-09-01, End date: 2023-08-31
Project acronym AN-ICON
Project An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images
Researcher (PI) Andrea PINOTTI
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO
Country Italy
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH5, ERC-2018-ADG
Summary "Recent developments in image-making techniques have resulted in a drastic blurring of the threshold between the world of the image and the real world. Immersive and interactive virtual environments have enabled the production of pictures that elicit in the perceiver a strong feeling of being incorporated in a quasi-real world. In doing so such pictures conceal their mediateness (their being based on a material support), their referentiality (their pointing to an extra-iconic dimension), and their separateness (normally assured by framing devices), paradoxically challenging their status as images, as icons: they are veritable “an-icons”.
This kind of pictures undermines the mainstream paradigm of Western image theories, shared by major models such as the doctrine of mimesis, the phenomenological account of image-consciousness, the analytic theories of depiction, the semiotic and iconological methods. These approaches miss the key counter-properties regarding an-icons as ""environmental"" images: their immediateness, unframedness, and presentness. Subjects relating to an-icons are no longer visual observers of images; they are experiencers living in a quasi-real environment that allows multisensory affordances and embodied agencies.
AN-ICON aims to develop “an-iconology” as a new methodological approach able to address this challenging iconoscape. Such an approach needs to be articulated in a transdisciplinary and transmedial way: 1) HISTORY – a media-archaeological reconstruction will provide a taxonomy of the manifold an-iconic strategies (e.g. illusionistic painting, pre-cinematic dispositifs, 3D films, video games, head mounted displays); 2) THEORY – an experiential account (drawing on phenomenology, visual culture and media studies) will identify the an-iconic key concepts; 3) PRACTICES – a socio-cultural section will explore the multifaceted impact of an-iconic images, environments and technologies on contemporary professional domains as well as on everyday life.
"
Summary
"Recent developments in image-making techniques have resulted in a drastic blurring of the threshold between the world of the image and the real world. Immersive and interactive virtual environments have enabled the production of pictures that elicit in the perceiver a strong feeling of being incorporated in a quasi-real world. In doing so such pictures conceal their mediateness (their being based on a material support), their referentiality (their pointing to an extra-iconic dimension), and their separateness (normally assured by framing devices), paradoxically challenging their status as images, as icons: they are veritable “an-icons”.
This kind of pictures undermines the mainstream paradigm of Western image theories, shared by major models such as the doctrine of mimesis, the phenomenological account of image-consciousness, the analytic theories of depiction, the semiotic and iconological methods. These approaches miss the key counter-properties regarding an-icons as ""environmental"" images: their immediateness, unframedness, and presentness. Subjects relating to an-icons are no longer visual observers of images; they are experiencers living in a quasi-real environment that allows multisensory affordances and embodied agencies.
AN-ICON aims to develop “an-iconology” as a new methodological approach able to address this challenging iconoscape. Such an approach needs to be articulated in a transdisciplinary and transmedial way: 1) HISTORY – a media-archaeological reconstruction will provide a taxonomy of the manifold an-iconic strategies (e.g. illusionistic painting, pre-cinematic dispositifs, 3D films, video games, head mounted displays); 2) THEORY – an experiential account (drawing on phenomenology, visual culture and media studies) will identify the an-iconic key concepts; 3) PRACTICES – a socio-cultural section will explore the multifaceted impact of an-iconic images, environments and technologies on contemporary professional domains as well as on everyday life.
"
Max ERC Funding
2 328 736 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-09-01, End date: 2024-08-31
Project acronym ANTEGEFI
Project Analytic Techniques for Geometric and Functional Inequalities
Researcher (PI) Nicola Fusco
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI FEDERICO II
Country Italy
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE1, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary Isoperimetric and Sobolev inequalities are the best known examples of geometric-functional inequalities. In recent years the PI and collaborators have obtained new and sharp quantitative versions of these and other important related inequalities. These results have been obtained by the combined use of classical symmetrization methods, new tools coming from mass transportation theory, deep geometric measure tools and ad hoc symmetrizations. The objective of this project is to further develop thes techniques in order to get: sharp quantitative versions of Faber-Krahn inequality, Gaussian isoperimetric inequality, Brunn-Minkowski inequality, Poincaré and Sobolev logarithm inequalities; sharp decay rates for the quantitative Sobolev inequalities and Polya-Szegö inequality.
Summary
Isoperimetric and Sobolev inequalities are the best known examples of geometric-functional inequalities. In recent years the PI and collaborators have obtained new and sharp quantitative versions of these and other important related inequalities. These results have been obtained by the combined use of classical symmetrization methods, new tools coming from mass transportation theory, deep geometric measure tools and ad hoc symmetrizations. The objective of this project is to further develop thes techniques in order to get: sharp quantitative versions of Faber-Krahn inequality, Gaussian isoperimetric inequality, Brunn-Minkowski inequality, Poincaré and Sobolev logarithm inequalities; sharp decay rates for the quantitative Sobolev inequalities and Polya-Szegö inequality.
Max ERC Funding
600 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-01-01, End date: 2013-12-31
Project acronym AQUAMS
Project Analysis of quantum many-body systems
Researcher (PI) Robert Seiringer
Host Institution (HI) INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AUSTRIA
Country Austria
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE1, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary The main focus of this project is the mathematical analysis of many-body quantum systems, in particular, interacting quantum gases at low temperature. The recent experimental advances in studying ultra-cold atomic gases have led to renewed interest in these systems. They display a rich variety of quantum phenomena, including, e.g., Bose–Einstein condensation and superfluidity, which makes them interesting both from a physical and a mathematical point of view.
The goal of this project is the development of new mathematical tools for dealing with complex problems in many-body quantum systems. New mathematical methods lead to different points of view and thus increase our understanding of physical systems. From the point of view of mathematical physics, there has been significant progress in the last few years in understanding the interesting phenomena occurring in quantum gases, and the goal of this project is to investigate some of the key issues that remain unsolved. Due to the complex nature of the problems, new mathematical ideas
and methods will have to be developed for this purpose. One of the main question addressed in this proposal is the validity of the Bogoliubov approximation for the excitation spectrum of many-body quantum systems. While its accuracy has been
successfully shown for the ground state energy of various models, its predictions concerning the excitation spectrum have so far only been verified in the Hartree limit, an extreme form of a mean-field limit where the interaction among the particles is very weak and ranges over the whole system. The central part of this project is concerned with the extension of these results to the case of short-range interactions. Apart from being mathematically much more challenging, the short-range case is the
one most relevant for the description of actual physical systems. Hence progress along these lines can be expected to yield valuable insight into the complex behavior of these many-body quantum systems.
Summary
The main focus of this project is the mathematical analysis of many-body quantum systems, in particular, interacting quantum gases at low temperature. The recent experimental advances in studying ultra-cold atomic gases have led to renewed interest in these systems. They display a rich variety of quantum phenomena, including, e.g., Bose–Einstein condensation and superfluidity, which makes them interesting both from a physical and a mathematical point of view.
The goal of this project is the development of new mathematical tools for dealing with complex problems in many-body quantum systems. New mathematical methods lead to different points of view and thus increase our understanding of physical systems. From the point of view of mathematical physics, there has been significant progress in the last few years in understanding the interesting phenomena occurring in quantum gases, and the goal of this project is to investigate some of the key issues that remain unsolved. Due to the complex nature of the problems, new mathematical ideas
and methods will have to be developed for this purpose. One of the main question addressed in this proposal is the validity of the Bogoliubov approximation for the excitation spectrum of many-body quantum systems. While its accuracy has been
successfully shown for the ground state energy of various models, its predictions concerning the excitation spectrum have so far only been verified in the Hartree limit, an extreme form of a mean-field limit where the interaction among the particles is very weak and ranges over the whole system. The central part of this project is concerned with the extension of these results to the case of short-range interactions. Apart from being mathematically much more challenging, the short-range case is the
one most relevant for the description of actual physical systems. Hence progress along these lines can be expected to yield valuable insight into the complex behavior of these many-body quantum systems.
Max ERC Funding
1 497 755 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-10-01, End date: 2022-03-31
Project acronym ARCHADAPT
Project The architecture of adaptation to novel environments
Researcher (PI) Christian Werner Schloetterer
Host Institution (HI) VETERINAERMEDIZINISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN
Country Austria
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), LS8, ERC-2011-ADG_20110310
Summary One of the central goals in evolutionary biology is to understand adaptation. Experimental evolution represents a highly promising approach to study adaptation. In this proposal, a freshly collected D. simulans population will be allowed to adapt to laboratory conditions under two different temperature regimes: hot (27°C) and cold (18°C). The trajectories of adaptation to these novel environments will be monitored on three levels: 1) genomic, 2) transcriptomic, 3) phenotypic. Allele frequency changes during the experiment will be measured by next generation sequencing of DNA pools (Pool-Seq) to identify targets of selection. RNA-Seq will be used to trace adaptation on the transcriptomic level during three developmental stages. Eight different phenotypes will be scored to measure the phenotypic consequences of adaptation. Combining the adaptive trajectories on these three levels will provide a picture of adaptation for a multicellular, outcrossing organism that is far more detailed than any previous results.
Furthermore, the proposal addresses the question of how adaptation on these three levels is reversible if the environment reverts to ancestral conditions. The third aspect of adaptation covered in the proposal is the question of repeatability of adaptation. Again, this question will be addressed on the three levels: genomic, transcriptomic and phenotypic. Using replicates with different degrees of genetic similarity, as well as closely related species, we will test how similar the adaptive response is.
This large-scale study will provide new insights into the importance of standing variation for the adaptation to novel environments. Hence, apart from providing significant evolutionary insights on the trajectories of adaptation, the results we will obtain will have important implications for conservation genetics and commercial breeding.
Summary
One of the central goals in evolutionary biology is to understand adaptation. Experimental evolution represents a highly promising approach to study adaptation. In this proposal, a freshly collected D. simulans population will be allowed to adapt to laboratory conditions under two different temperature regimes: hot (27°C) and cold (18°C). The trajectories of adaptation to these novel environments will be monitored on three levels: 1) genomic, 2) transcriptomic, 3) phenotypic. Allele frequency changes during the experiment will be measured by next generation sequencing of DNA pools (Pool-Seq) to identify targets of selection. RNA-Seq will be used to trace adaptation on the transcriptomic level during three developmental stages. Eight different phenotypes will be scored to measure the phenotypic consequences of adaptation. Combining the adaptive trajectories on these three levels will provide a picture of adaptation for a multicellular, outcrossing organism that is far more detailed than any previous results.
Furthermore, the proposal addresses the question of how adaptation on these three levels is reversible if the environment reverts to ancestral conditions. The third aspect of adaptation covered in the proposal is the question of repeatability of adaptation. Again, this question will be addressed on the three levels: genomic, transcriptomic and phenotypic. Using replicates with different degrees of genetic similarity, as well as closely related species, we will test how similar the adaptive response is.
This large-scale study will provide new insights into the importance of standing variation for the adaptation to novel environments. Hence, apart from providing significant evolutionary insights on the trajectories of adaptation, the results we will obtain will have important implications for conservation genetics and commercial breeding.
Max ERC Funding
2 452 084 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-07-01, End date: 2018-06-30
Project acronym ARIPHYHIMO
Project Arithmetic and physics of Higgs moduli spaces
Researcher (PI) Tamas Hausel
Host Institution (HI) INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AUSTRIA
Country Austria
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE1, ERC-2012-ADG_20120216
Summary The proposal studies problems concerning the geometry and topology of moduli spaces of Higgs bundles on a Riemann surface motivated by parallel considerations in number theory and mathematical physics. In this way the proposal bridges various duality theories in string theory with the Langlands program in number theory.
The heart of the proposal is a circle of precise conjectures relating to the topology of the moduli space of Higgs bundles. The formulation and motivations of the conjectures make direct contact with the Langlands program in number theory, various duality conjectures in string theory, algebraic combinatorics, knot theory and low dimensional topology and representation theory of quivers, finite groups and algebras of Lie type and Cherednik algebras.
Summary
The proposal studies problems concerning the geometry and topology of moduli spaces of Higgs bundles on a Riemann surface motivated by parallel considerations in number theory and mathematical physics. In this way the proposal bridges various duality theories in string theory with the Langlands program in number theory.
The heart of the proposal is a circle of precise conjectures relating to the topology of the moduli space of Higgs bundles. The formulation and motivations of the conjectures make direct contact with the Langlands program in number theory, various duality conjectures in string theory, algebraic combinatorics, knot theory and low dimensional topology and representation theory of quivers, finite groups and algebras of Lie type and Cherednik algebras.
Max ERC Funding
1 304 945 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-04-01, End date: 2018-08-31
Project acronym ArsNova
Project European Ars Nova: Multilingual Poetry and Polyphonic Song in the Late Middle Ages
Researcher (PI) Maria Sofia LANNUTTI
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI FIRENZE
Country Italy
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH5, ERC-2017-ADG
Summary Dante Alighieri at the dawn of the 1300s, as well as Eustache Deschamps almost a century later, conceived poetry as music in itself. But what happens with poetry when it is involved in the complex architecture of polyphony? The aim of this project is to study for the first time the corpus of 14th- and early 15th-century poetry set to music by Ars Nova polyphonists (more than 1200 texts). This repertoire gathers different poetic and musical traditions, as shown by the multilingual anthologies copied during the last years of the Schism. The choice of this corpus is motivated by two primary goals: a) to offer a new interpretation of its meaning and function in the cultural and historical context, one that may be then applied to the rest of coeval European lyric poetry; b) to overcome current disciplinary divisions in order to generate a new methodological balance between the project’s two main fields of interest (Comparative Literature / Musicology). Most Ars Nova polyphonists were directly associated with religious institutions. In many texts, the language of courtly love expresses the values of caritas, the theological virtue that guides wise rulers and leads them to desire the common good. Thus, the poetic figure of the lover becomes a metaphor for the political man, and love poetry can be used as a device for diplomacy, as well as for personal and institutional propaganda. From this unprecedented point of view, the project will develop three research lines in response to the following questions: 1) How is the relationship between poetry and music, and how is the dialogue between the different poetic and musical traditions viewed in relation to each context of production? 2) To what extent does Ars Nova poetry take part in the ‘soft power’ strategies exercised by the entire European political class of the time? 3) Is there a connection between the multilingualism of the manuscript tradition and the perception of the Ars Nova as a European, intercultural repertoire?
Summary
Dante Alighieri at the dawn of the 1300s, as well as Eustache Deschamps almost a century later, conceived poetry as music in itself. But what happens with poetry when it is involved in the complex architecture of polyphony? The aim of this project is to study for the first time the corpus of 14th- and early 15th-century poetry set to music by Ars Nova polyphonists (more than 1200 texts). This repertoire gathers different poetic and musical traditions, as shown by the multilingual anthologies copied during the last years of the Schism. The choice of this corpus is motivated by two primary goals: a) to offer a new interpretation of its meaning and function in the cultural and historical context, one that may be then applied to the rest of coeval European lyric poetry; b) to overcome current disciplinary divisions in order to generate a new methodological balance between the project’s two main fields of interest (Comparative Literature / Musicology). Most Ars Nova polyphonists were directly associated with religious institutions. In many texts, the language of courtly love expresses the values of caritas, the theological virtue that guides wise rulers and leads them to desire the common good. Thus, the poetic figure of the lover becomes a metaphor for the political man, and love poetry can be used as a device for diplomacy, as well as for personal and institutional propaganda. From this unprecedented point of view, the project will develop three research lines in response to the following questions: 1) How is the relationship between poetry and music, and how is the dialogue between the different poetic and musical traditions viewed in relation to each context of production? 2) To what extent does Ars Nova poetry take part in the ‘soft power’ strategies exercised by the entire European political class of the time? 3) Is there a connection between the multilingualism of the manuscript tradition and the perception of the Ars Nova as a European, intercultural repertoire?
Max ERC Funding
2 193 375 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31
Project acronym ATLAS
Project Bioengineered autonomous cell-biomaterials devices for generating humanised micro-tissues for regenerative medicine
Researcher (PI) Joao Felipe Colardelle da Luz Mano
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDADE DE AVEIRO
Country Portugal
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE8, ERC-2014-ADG
Summary New generations of devices for tissue engineering (TE) should rationalize better the physical and biochemical cues operating in tandem during native regeneration, in particular at the scale/organizational-level of the stem cell niche. The understanding and the deconstruction of these factors (e.g. multiple cell types exchanging both paracrine and direct signals, structural and chemical arrangement of the extra-cellular matrix, mechanical signals…) should be then incorporated into the design of truly biomimetic biomaterials. ATLAS proposes rather unique toolboxes combining smart biomaterials and cells for the ground-breaking advances of engineering fully time-self-regulated complex 2D and 3D devices, able to adjust the cascade of processes leading to faster high-quality new tissue formation with minimum pre-processing of cells. Versatile biomaterials based on marine-origin macromolecules will be used, namely in the supramolecular assembly of instructive multilayers as nanostratified building-blocks for engineer such structures. The backbone of these biopolymers will be equipped with a variety of (bio)chemical elements permitting: post-processing chemistry and micro-patterning, specific/non-specific cell attachment, and cell-controlled degradation. Aiming at being applied in bone TE, ATLAS will integrate cells from different units of tissue physiology, namely bone and hematopoietic basic elements and consider the interactions between the immune and skeletal systems. These ingredients will permit to architect innovative films with high-level dialogue control with cells, but in particular sophisticated quasi-closed 3D capsules able to compartmentalise such components in a “globe-like” organization, providing local and long-range order for in vitro microtissue development and function. Such hybrid devices could be used in more generalised front-edge applications, including as disease models for drug discovery or test new therapies in vitro.
Summary
New generations of devices for tissue engineering (TE) should rationalize better the physical and biochemical cues operating in tandem during native regeneration, in particular at the scale/organizational-level of the stem cell niche. The understanding and the deconstruction of these factors (e.g. multiple cell types exchanging both paracrine and direct signals, structural and chemical arrangement of the extra-cellular matrix, mechanical signals…) should be then incorporated into the design of truly biomimetic biomaterials. ATLAS proposes rather unique toolboxes combining smart biomaterials and cells for the ground-breaking advances of engineering fully time-self-regulated complex 2D and 3D devices, able to adjust the cascade of processes leading to faster high-quality new tissue formation with minimum pre-processing of cells. Versatile biomaterials based on marine-origin macromolecules will be used, namely in the supramolecular assembly of instructive multilayers as nanostratified building-blocks for engineer such structures. The backbone of these biopolymers will be equipped with a variety of (bio)chemical elements permitting: post-processing chemistry and micro-patterning, specific/non-specific cell attachment, and cell-controlled degradation. Aiming at being applied in bone TE, ATLAS will integrate cells from different units of tissue physiology, namely bone and hematopoietic basic elements and consider the interactions between the immune and skeletal systems. These ingredients will permit to architect innovative films with high-level dialogue control with cells, but in particular sophisticated quasi-closed 3D capsules able to compartmentalise such components in a “globe-like” organization, providing local and long-range order for in vitro microtissue development and function. Such hybrid devices could be used in more generalised front-edge applications, including as disease models for drug discovery or test new therapies in vitro.
Max ERC Funding
2 498 988 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-12-01, End date: 2021-10-31
