Project acronym AFRIVAL
Project African river basins: catchment-scale carbon fluxes and transformations
Researcher (PI) Steven Bouillon
Host Institution (HI) KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE10, ERC-2009-StG
Summary This proposal wishes to fundamentally improve our understanding of the role of tropical freshwater ecosystems in carbon (C) cycling on the catchment scale. It uses an unprecedented combination of state-of-the-art proxies such as stable isotope, 14C and biomarker signatures to characterize organic matter, radiogenic isotope signatures to determine particle residence times, as well as field measurements of relevant biogeochemical processes. We focus on tropical systems since there is a striking lack of data on such systems, even though riverine C transport is thought to be disproportionately high in tropical areas. Furthermore, the presence of landscape-scale contrasts in vegetation (in particular, C3 vs. C4 plants) are an important asset in the use of stable isotopes as natural tracers of C cycling processes on this scale. Freshwater ecosystems are an important component in the global C cycle, and the primary link between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Recent estimates indicate that ~2 Pg C y-1 (Pg=Petagram) enter freshwater systems, i.e., about twice the estimated global terrestrial C sink. More than half of this is thought to be remineralized before it reaches the coastal zone, and for the Amazon basin this has even been suggested to be ~90% of the lateral C inputs. The question how general these patterns are is a matter of debate, and assessing the mechanisms determining the degree of processing versus transport of organic carbon in lakes and river systems is critical to further constrain their role in the global C cycle. This proposal provides an interdisciplinary approach to describe and quantify catchment-scale C transport and cycling in tropical river basins. Besides conceptual and methodological advances, and a significant expansion of our dataset on C processes in such systems, new data gathered in this project are likely to provide exciting and novel hypotheses on the functioning of freshwater systems and their linkage to the terrestrial C budget.
Summary
This proposal wishes to fundamentally improve our understanding of the role of tropical freshwater ecosystems in carbon (C) cycling on the catchment scale. It uses an unprecedented combination of state-of-the-art proxies such as stable isotope, 14C and biomarker signatures to characterize organic matter, radiogenic isotope signatures to determine particle residence times, as well as field measurements of relevant biogeochemical processes. We focus on tropical systems since there is a striking lack of data on such systems, even though riverine C transport is thought to be disproportionately high in tropical areas. Furthermore, the presence of landscape-scale contrasts in vegetation (in particular, C3 vs. C4 plants) are an important asset in the use of stable isotopes as natural tracers of C cycling processes on this scale. Freshwater ecosystems are an important component in the global C cycle, and the primary link between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Recent estimates indicate that ~2 Pg C y-1 (Pg=Petagram) enter freshwater systems, i.e., about twice the estimated global terrestrial C sink. More than half of this is thought to be remineralized before it reaches the coastal zone, and for the Amazon basin this has even been suggested to be ~90% of the lateral C inputs. The question how general these patterns are is a matter of debate, and assessing the mechanisms determining the degree of processing versus transport of organic carbon in lakes and river systems is critical to further constrain their role in the global C cycle. This proposal provides an interdisciplinary approach to describe and quantify catchment-scale C transport and cycling in tropical river basins. Besides conceptual and methodological advances, and a significant expansion of our dataset on C processes in such systems, new data gathered in this project are likely to provide exciting and novel hypotheses on the functioning of freshwater systems and their linkage to the terrestrial C budget.
Max ERC Funding
1 745 262 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-10-01, End date: 2014-09-30
Project acronym HI-ONE
Project Hybrid Inorganic-Organic NanoElectronics
Researcher (PI) Wilfred Gerard Van Der Wiel
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT TWENTE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE3, ERC-2009-StG
Summary This project aims at combining inorganic and organic materials in hybrid nanoelectronic structures for addressing a set of key problems in solid-state physics: (1) the magnetic ordering of 2D spin systems and their interaction with conduction electrons, (2) the coherent transport properties of organic molecules, and (3) reliable electronic characterization of single nanostructures. For all objectives we will integrate top-down and bottom-up (self-assembly) techniques, benefitting from strong collaborations with leading chemistry groups. For Objective 1, we will apply self-assembled monolayers of organic paramagnetic molecules on various substrates. This geometry offers great tunability for the nature, density and ordering of spins, and for their interaction with underlying electrons. We will study (many-body) phenomena that lie at the very heart of solid-state physics: the Kondo effect, RKKY interaction, spin glasses and the 2D Ising/Heisenberg model, addressing open questions concerning the extension of the Kondo cloud, RKKY-Kondo competition, and the relevance for high-Tc superconductivity. For Objective 2, molecular monolayers are inserted in an electron interferometer, allowing a systematic study of molecular charge coherence. We will study how coherence depends on the molecule s characteristics, such as length and chemical composition. For Objective 3 we will attach single nanostructures (quantum dots) by an innovative self-assembly method to highly-conductive, selectively metallized DNA molecules, bridging the gap between nano and micro. A crucial advantage compared to conventional (top-down) nanocontacting schemes is the high control and reproducibility afforded by sequence-specificity of DNA hybridization, enabling a wide range of fascinating experiments.
Summary
This project aims at combining inorganic and organic materials in hybrid nanoelectronic structures for addressing a set of key problems in solid-state physics: (1) the magnetic ordering of 2D spin systems and their interaction with conduction electrons, (2) the coherent transport properties of organic molecules, and (3) reliable electronic characterization of single nanostructures. For all objectives we will integrate top-down and bottom-up (self-assembly) techniques, benefitting from strong collaborations with leading chemistry groups. For Objective 1, we will apply self-assembled monolayers of organic paramagnetic molecules on various substrates. This geometry offers great tunability for the nature, density and ordering of spins, and for their interaction with underlying electrons. We will study (many-body) phenomena that lie at the very heart of solid-state physics: the Kondo effect, RKKY interaction, spin glasses and the 2D Ising/Heisenberg model, addressing open questions concerning the extension of the Kondo cloud, RKKY-Kondo competition, and the relevance for high-Tc superconductivity. For Objective 2, molecular monolayers are inserted in an electron interferometer, allowing a systematic study of molecular charge coherence. We will study how coherence depends on the molecule s characteristics, such as length and chemical composition. For Objective 3 we will attach single nanostructures (quantum dots) by an innovative self-assembly method to highly-conductive, selectively metallized DNA molecules, bridging the gap between nano and micro. A crucial advantage compared to conventional (top-down) nanocontacting schemes is the high control and reproducibility afforded by sequence-specificity of DNA hybridization, enabling a wide range of fascinating experiments.
Max ERC Funding
1 750 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-12-01, End date: 2014-11-30
Project acronym ITOP
Project Integrated Theory and Observations of the Pleistocene
Researcher (PI) Michel Crucifix
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE10, ERC-2009-StG
Summary There are essentially two approaches to climate modelling. Over the past decades, efforts to understand climate dynamics have been dominated by computationally-intensive modelling aiming to include all possible processes, essentially by integrating the equations for the relevant physics. This is the bottom-up approach. However, even the largest models include many approximations and the cumulative effect of these approximations make it impossible to predict the evolution of climate over several tens of thousands of years. For this reason a more phenomenological approach is also useful. It consists in identifying coherent spatio-temporal structures in the climate time-series in order to understand how they interact. Theoretically, the two approaches focus on different levels of information and they should be complementary. In practice, they are generally perceived to be in philosophical opposition and there is no unifying methodological framework. Our ambition is to provide this methodological framework with a focus on climate dynamics at the scale of the Pleistocene (last 2 million years). We pursue a triple objective (1) the framework must be rigorous but flexible enough to test competing theories of ice ages (2) it must avoid circular reasonings associated with ``tuning'' (3) it must provide a credible basis to unify our knowledge of climate dynamics and provide a state-of-the-art ``prediction horizon''. To this end we propose a methodology spanning different but complementary disciplines: physical climatology, empirical palaeoclimatology, dynamical system analysis and applied Bayesian statistics. It is intended to have a wide applicability in climate science where there is an interest in using reduced-order representations of the climate system.
Summary
There are essentially two approaches to climate modelling. Over the past decades, efforts to understand climate dynamics have been dominated by computationally-intensive modelling aiming to include all possible processes, essentially by integrating the equations for the relevant physics. This is the bottom-up approach. However, even the largest models include many approximations and the cumulative effect of these approximations make it impossible to predict the evolution of climate over several tens of thousands of years. For this reason a more phenomenological approach is also useful. It consists in identifying coherent spatio-temporal structures in the climate time-series in order to understand how they interact. Theoretically, the two approaches focus on different levels of information and they should be complementary. In practice, they are generally perceived to be in philosophical opposition and there is no unifying methodological framework. Our ambition is to provide this methodological framework with a focus on climate dynamics at the scale of the Pleistocene (last 2 million years). We pursue a triple objective (1) the framework must be rigorous but flexible enough to test competing theories of ice ages (2) it must avoid circular reasonings associated with ``tuning'' (3) it must provide a credible basis to unify our knowledge of climate dynamics and provide a state-of-the-art ``prediction horizon''. To this end we propose a methodology spanning different but complementary disciplines: physical climatology, empirical palaeoclimatology, dynamical system analysis and applied Bayesian statistics. It is intended to have a wide applicability in climate science where there is an interest in using reduced-order representations of the climate system.
Max ERC Funding
1 047 600 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-09-01, End date: 2014-08-31
Project acronym NANOFORBIO
Project Nanostructures for biology
Researcher (PI) Cornelis Dekker
Host Institution (HI) TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE3, ERC-2009-AdG
Summary I propose to employ our advanced capabilities for nanofabrication to explore new biology at the single-molecule and single-cell level. I choose to specifically address two directions of intense scientific interest: (i) With my team I will develop and exploit solid-state nanopores for the study of real-time translocation of individual biomolecules. In the past few years, my group has attained a leading position in this field and we want to apply our advanced knowledge to push the technology and use it to resolve some pressing questions in cell biology and biotechnology. Specifically, we will explore screening of DNA-protein complexes at the single-molecule level, and we will build biomimetic nanopores to address the physical mechanism of selection and controlled molecular transport of the nuclear pore complex. (ii) We will use nanofabrication to create well-defined landscapes for bacteria. This will allow biophysical studies of the interaction between bacteria and their habitat with an unprecedented control of the spatial structure and habitat parameters. I strongly believe that this approach constitutes a major new tool to experimentally address a number of fundamental issues in the ecology and evolution of bacteria for the first time in a controlled environment. Additionally, it opens up a way to explore the biophysics of bacteria in confined space, where we will study a new bacterial phenotype in nanofabricated slits which we recently discovered. While this research is primarily driven by the quest for understanding physical mechanisms in biology, it can also be expected to have profound impact on applications in antibiotics, gene therapy, and DNA sequencing.
Summary
I propose to employ our advanced capabilities for nanofabrication to explore new biology at the single-molecule and single-cell level. I choose to specifically address two directions of intense scientific interest: (i) With my team I will develop and exploit solid-state nanopores for the study of real-time translocation of individual biomolecules. In the past few years, my group has attained a leading position in this field and we want to apply our advanced knowledge to push the technology and use it to resolve some pressing questions in cell biology and biotechnology. Specifically, we will explore screening of DNA-protein complexes at the single-molecule level, and we will build biomimetic nanopores to address the physical mechanism of selection and controlled molecular transport of the nuclear pore complex. (ii) We will use nanofabrication to create well-defined landscapes for bacteria. This will allow biophysical studies of the interaction between bacteria and their habitat with an unprecedented control of the spatial structure and habitat parameters. I strongly believe that this approach constitutes a major new tool to experimentally address a number of fundamental issues in the ecology and evolution of bacteria for the first time in a controlled environment. Additionally, it opens up a way to explore the biophysics of bacteria in confined space, where we will study a new bacterial phenotype in nanofabricated slits which we recently discovered. While this research is primarily driven by the quest for understanding physical mechanisms in biology, it can also be expected to have profound impact on applications in antibiotics, gene therapy, and DNA sequencing.
Max ERC Funding
2 499 091 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-03-01, End date: 2015-02-28
Project acronym NARESCO
Project Novel paradigms for massively parallel nanophotonic information processing
Researcher (PI) Peter Bienstman
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT GENT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE7, ERC-2009-StG
Summary In this project we will develop nanophotonic reservoir computing as a novel paradigm for massively parallel information processing. Reservoir computing is a recently proposed methodology from the field of machine learning and neural networks which has been used successfully in several pattern classification problems, like speech and image recognition. However, it has so far mainly been used in a software implementation which limits its speed and power efficiency. Photonics could provide an excellent platform for such a hardware implementation, because of the presence of unique non-linear dynamics in photonics components due to the interplay of photons and electrons, and because light also has a phase in addition to an amplitude, which provides for an important additional degree of freedom as opposed to a purely electronic hardware implementation. Our aim is to bring together a multidisciplinary team of specialists in photonics and machine learning to make this vision of massively parallel information processing using nanophotonics a reality. We will achieve these aims by constructing a set of prototypes of ever increasing complexity which will be able to tackle ever more complex tasks. There is clear potential for these techniques to perform information processing that is beyond the limit of today's conventional computing processing power: high-throughput massively parallel classification problems, like e.g. processing radar data for road safety, or real time analysis of the data streams generated by the Large Hadron Collider.
Summary
In this project we will develop nanophotonic reservoir computing as a novel paradigm for massively parallel information processing. Reservoir computing is a recently proposed methodology from the field of machine learning and neural networks which has been used successfully in several pattern classification problems, like speech and image recognition. However, it has so far mainly been used in a software implementation which limits its speed and power efficiency. Photonics could provide an excellent platform for such a hardware implementation, because of the presence of unique non-linear dynamics in photonics components due to the interplay of photons and electrons, and because light also has a phase in addition to an amplitude, which provides for an important additional degree of freedom as opposed to a purely electronic hardware implementation. Our aim is to bring together a multidisciplinary team of specialists in photonics and machine learning to make this vision of massively parallel information processing using nanophotonics a reality. We will achieve these aims by constructing a set of prototypes of ever increasing complexity which will be able to tackle ever more complex tasks. There is clear potential for these techniques to perform information processing that is beyond the limit of today's conventional computing processing power: high-throughput massively parallel classification problems, like e.g. processing radar data for road safety, or real time analysis of the data streams generated by the Large Hadron Collider.
Max ERC Funding
1 260 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-01-01, End date: 2015-12-31
Project acronym UBIQUITIN BALANCE
Project The balance of ubiquitin conjugation and deconjugation
Researcher (PI) Titia Karen Sixma
Host Institution (HI) STICHTING HET NEDERLANDS KANKER INSTITUUT-ANTONI VAN LEEUWENHOEK ZIEKENHUIS
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), LS1, ERC-2009-AdG
Summary Ubiquitin conjugation is one of the most important signaling systems in the eukaryotic cell. Different types of mono- and polyubiquitin chains determine the fate of target proteins by redirecting them for degradation, relocalization or interaction with new partners. The type of ubiquitin modification on any target is determined by the interplay between the conjugating E2/E3 complexes on the one hand and deubiquitinating enzymes on the other. In practice, it is the balance between conjugating and deconjugating systems that determines the result of the various ubiquitination signals. For three different regulatory systems that are critical for correct genome maintenance, we are now in a position to study not just the individual process of conjugation or deconjugation in isolation, but rather, reconstitute the entire reaction on a defined physiological target. These three target systems, histone H2A, PCNA and P53, can be mono-ubiquitinated by a defined E3-ligase, poly-ubiquitinated by a second ligase and deconjugated by defined deubiquitinating enzymes in a reaction that is affected by known allosteric modulators. Our unique collection of tools to study these systems in vitro allows reconstitution of the full reaction, to trap intermediates, and to study their interaction from atomic detail to kinetic reactivity. Using X-ray crystallography of critical intermediates and kinetic analysis of individual reactions by FRET and surface plasmon resonance, we can address how the mono-, poly and deubiquitinating reactions affect each other. By answering mechanistic questions on the relative effect of the forward and backward reaction components and their modulators we will provide a solid basis for drug design studies that target these pathways against cancer development.
Summary
Ubiquitin conjugation is one of the most important signaling systems in the eukaryotic cell. Different types of mono- and polyubiquitin chains determine the fate of target proteins by redirecting them for degradation, relocalization or interaction with new partners. The type of ubiquitin modification on any target is determined by the interplay between the conjugating E2/E3 complexes on the one hand and deubiquitinating enzymes on the other. In practice, it is the balance between conjugating and deconjugating systems that determines the result of the various ubiquitination signals. For three different regulatory systems that are critical for correct genome maintenance, we are now in a position to study not just the individual process of conjugation or deconjugation in isolation, but rather, reconstitute the entire reaction on a defined physiological target. These three target systems, histone H2A, PCNA and P53, can be mono-ubiquitinated by a defined E3-ligase, poly-ubiquitinated by a second ligase and deconjugated by defined deubiquitinating enzymes in a reaction that is affected by known allosteric modulators. Our unique collection of tools to study these systems in vitro allows reconstitution of the full reaction, to trap intermediates, and to study their interaction from atomic detail to kinetic reactivity. Using X-ray crystallography of critical intermediates and kinetic analysis of individual reactions by FRET and surface plasmon resonance, we can address how the mono-, poly and deubiquitinating reactions affect each other. By answering mechanistic questions on the relative effect of the forward and backward reaction components and their modulators we will provide a solid basis for drug design studies that target these pathways against cancer development.
Max ERC Funding
2 299 720 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-02-01, End date: 2015-01-31
