Project acronym D-TECT
Project Does dust triboelectrification affect our climate?
Researcher (PI) Vasileios AMOIRIDIS
Host Institution (HI) ETHNIKO ASTEROSKOPEIO ATHINON
Country Greece
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE10, ERC-2016-COG
Summary The recent IPCC report identifies mineral dust and the associated uncertainties in climate projections as key topics for future research. Dust size distribution in climate models controls the dust-radiation-cloud interactions and is a major contributor to these uncertainties. Observations show that the coarse mode of dust can be sustained during long-range transport, while current understanding fails in explaining why the lifetime of large airborne dust particles is longer than expected from gravitational settling theories. This discrepancy between observations and theory suggests that other processes counterbalance the effect of gravity along transport. D-TECT envisages filling this knowledge gap by studying the contribution of the triboelectrification (contact electrification) on particle removal processes. Our hypothesis is that triboelectric charging generates adequate electric fields to hold large dust particles up in the atmosphere. D-TECT aims to (i) parameterize the physical mechanisms responsible for dust triboelectrification; (ii) assess the impact of electrification on dust settling; (iii) quantify the climatic impacts of the process, particularly the effect on the dust size evolution during transport, on dry deposition and on CCN/IN reservoirs, and the effect of the electric field on particle orientation and on radiative transfer. The approach involves the development of a novel specialized high-power lidar system to detect and characterize aerosol particle orientation and a large-scale field experiment in the Mediterranean Basin using unprecedented ground-based remote sensing and airborne in-situ observation synergies. Considering aerosol-electricity interactions, the observations will be used to improve theoretical understanding and simulations of dust lifecycle. The project will provide new fundamental understanding, able to open new horizons for weather and climate science, including biogeochemistry, volcanic ash and extraterrestrial dust research.
Summary
The recent IPCC report identifies mineral dust and the associated uncertainties in climate projections as key topics for future research. Dust size distribution in climate models controls the dust-radiation-cloud interactions and is a major contributor to these uncertainties. Observations show that the coarse mode of dust can be sustained during long-range transport, while current understanding fails in explaining why the lifetime of large airborne dust particles is longer than expected from gravitational settling theories. This discrepancy between observations and theory suggests that other processes counterbalance the effect of gravity along transport. D-TECT envisages filling this knowledge gap by studying the contribution of the triboelectrification (contact electrification) on particle removal processes. Our hypothesis is that triboelectric charging generates adequate electric fields to hold large dust particles up in the atmosphere. D-TECT aims to (i) parameterize the physical mechanisms responsible for dust triboelectrification; (ii) assess the impact of electrification on dust settling; (iii) quantify the climatic impacts of the process, particularly the effect on the dust size evolution during transport, on dry deposition and on CCN/IN reservoirs, and the effect of the electric field on particle orientation and on radiative transfer. The approach involves the development of a novel specialized high-power lidar system to detect and characterize aerosol particle orientation and a large-scale field experiment in the Mediterranean Basin using unprecedented ground-based remote sensing and airborne in-situ observation synergies. Considering aerosol-electricity interactions, the observations will be used to improve theoretical understanding and simulations of dust lifecycle. The project will provide new fundamental understanding, able to open new horizons for weather and climate science, including biogeochemistry, volcanic ash and extraterrestrial dust research.
Max ERC Funding
1 968 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-09-01, End date: 2023-08-31
Project acronym DeFiNER
Project Nucleotide Excision Repair: Decoding its Functional Role in Mammals
Researcher (PI) Georgios Garinis
Host Institution (HI) IDRYMA TECHNOLOGIAS KAI EREVNAS
Country Greece
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS4, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary Genome maintenance, chromatin remodelling and transcription are tightly linked biological processes that are currently poorly understood and vastly unexplored. Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is a major DNA repair pathway that mammalian cells employ to maintain their genome intact and faithfully transmit it into their progeny. Besides cancer and aging, however, defects in NER give rise to developmental disorders whose clinical heterogeneity and varying severity can only insufficiently be explained by the DNA repair defect. Recent work reveals that NER factors play a role, in addition to DNA repair, in transcription and the three-dimensional organization of our genome. Indeed, NER factors are now known to function in the regulation of gene expression, the transcriptional reprogramming of pluripotent stem cells and the fine-tuning of growth hormones during mammalian development. In this regard, the non-random organization of our genome, chromatin and the process of transcription itself are expected to play paramount roles in how NER factors coordinate, prioritize and execute their distinct tasks during development and disease progression. At present, however, no solid evidence exists as to how NER is functionally involved in such complex processes, what are the NER-associated protein complexes and underlying gene networks or how NER factors operate within the complex chromatin architecture. This is primarily due to our difficulties in dissecting the diverse functional contributions of NER proteins in an intact organism. Here, we propose to use a unique series of knock-in, transgenic and NER progeroid mice to decode the functional role of NER in mammals, thus paving the way for understanding how genome maintenance pathways are connected to developmental defects and disease mechanisms in vivo.
Summary
Genome maintenance, chromatin remodelling and transcription are tightly linked biological processes that are currently poorly understood and vastly unexplored. Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is a major DNA repair pathway that mammalian cells employ to maintain their genome intact and faithfully transmit it into their progeny. Besides cancer and aging, however, defects in NER give rise to developmental disorders whose clinical heterogeneity and varying severity can only insufficiently be explained by the DNA repair defect. Recent work reveals that NER factors play a role, in addition to DNA repair, in transcription and the three-dimensional organization of our genome. Indeed, NER factors are now known to function in the regulation of gene expression, the transcriptional reprogramming of pluripotent stem cells and the fine-tuning of growth hormones during mammalian development. In this regard, the non-random organization of our genome, chromatin and the process of transcription itself are expected to play paramount roles in how NER factors coordinate, prioritize and execute their distinct tasks during development and disease progression. At present, however, no solid evidence exists as to how NER is functionally involved in such complex processes, what are the NER-associated protein complexes and underlying gene networks or how NER factors operate within the complex chromatin architecture. This is primarily due to our difficulties in dissecting the diverse functional contributions of NER proteins in an intact organism. Here, we propose to use a unique series of knock-in, transgenic and NER progeroid mice to decode the functional role of NER in mammals, thus paving the way for understanding how genome maintenance pathways are connected to developmental defects and disease mechanisms in vivo.
Max ERC Funding
1 995 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-01-01, End date: 2021-06-30
Project acronym HETEROPOLITICS
Project Refiguring the Common and the Political
Researcher (PI) Alexandros KIOUPKIOLIS
Host Institution (HI) ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS
Country Greece
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2016-COG
Summary Heteropolitics is a project in contemporary political theory which purports to contribute to the renewal of political thought on the ‘common’ (communities and the commons) and the political in tandem. The common implies a variable interaction between differences which communicate and collaborate in and through their differences, converging partially on practices and particular pursuits. The political pertains to processes through which plural communities manage themselves in ways which enable mutual challenges, deliberation, and creative agency.
Since the dawn of the 21st century, a growing interest in rethinking and reconfiguring community has spread among theorists, citizens and social movements (see e.g. Esposito 2013; Dardot & Laval 2014; Amin & Roberts 2008). This has been triggered by a complex tangle of social, economic and political conditions. Climate change, economic crises, globalization, increasing migration flows and the malaise of liberal democracies loom large among them.
These issues are essentially political. Rethinking and refiguring communities goes hand in hand thus with rethinking and reinventing politics. Hence ‘hetero-politics’, the quest for another politics, which can establish bonds of commonality across differences and can enable action in common without re-enacting the closures of ‘organic’ community or the violence of transformative politics in the past.
Heteropolitics will seek to break new ground by combining an extended re-elaboration of contemporary political theory with a more empirically grounded research into alternative and incipient practices of community building and self-governance in: education; the social economy; art; new modes of civic engagement by young people; new platforms of citizens’ participation in municipal politics; network communities, and other social fields (Relevant cases include Sardex, a community currency in Sardinia; Barcelona en Comú, a citizens’ platform governing the city of Barcelona, etc.)
Summary
Heteropolitics is a project in contemporary political theory which purports to contribute to the renewal of political thought on the ‘common’ (communities and the commons) and the political in tandem. The common implies a variable interaction between differences which communicate and collaborate in and through their differences, converging partially on practices and particular pursuits. The political pertains to processes through which plural communities manage themselves in ways which enable mutual challenges, deliberation, and creative agency.
Since the dawn of the 21st century, a growing interest in rethinking and reconfiguring community has spread among theorists, citizens and social movements (see e.g. Esposito 2013; Dardot & Laval 2014; Amin & Roberts 2008). This has been triggered by a complex tangle of social, economic and political conditions. Climate change, economic crises, globalization, increasing migration flows and the malaise of liberal democracies loom large among them.
These issues are essentially political. Rethinking and refiguring communities goes hand in hand thus with rethinking and reinventing politics. Hence ‘hetero-politics’, the quest for another politics, which can establish bonds of commonality across differences and can enable action in common without re-enacting the closures of ‘organic’ community or the violence of transformative politics in the past.
Heteropolitics will seek to break new ground by combining an extended re-elaboration of contemporary political theory with a more empirically grounded research into alternative and incipient practices of community building and self-governance in: education; the social economy; art; new modes of civic engagement by young people; new platforms of citizens’ participation in municipal politics; network communities, and other social fields (Relevant cases include Sardex, a community currency in Sardinia; Barcelona en Comú, a citizens’ platform governing the city of Barcelona, etc.)
Max ERC Funding
758 031 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-04-01, End date: 2020-12-31
Project acronym iMAC-FUN
Project Dissecting novel mechanisms of iron regulation during macrophage-fungal interplay
Researcher (PI) Georgios Chamilos
Host Institution (HI) IDRYMA TECHNOLOGIAS KAI EREVNAS
Country Greece
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS6, ERC-2019-COG
Summary Airborne filamentous fungi (molds) are major causes of respiratory diseases in an expanding population of patients with complex immune and metabolic defects. Invasive mold infections (IMI) are associated with substantial mortality and enormous economic impact. Understanding pathogenesis of IMI is an unmet need for design of better therapies. We have put forward a novel mechanism for the pathogenesis of IMI, according to which development of IMI requires two discrete mechanisms (a) phagosome maturation arrest via inhibition of LC3-associated phagocytosis (LAP), which allows intracellular persistence of fungal conidia (spores), and (b) alteration in iron homeostasis, resulting in invasive fungal growth and lysis of the macrophage. On the pathogen site, fungal melanin targets LAP and affects macrophage metal homeostasis. On the macrophage site, iron distribution in subcellular compartments of all eukaryotic cells is controlled by ferric reductases and divalent cation transporters, in a process that remains molecularly unexplored. During mold infection a group of ferric reductases represent the most prominently transcriptionally modulated iron regulatory genes in macrophages. Thus, iron regulation is the critical determinant of macrophage-fungal interplay and is the focus of this project. We will use molds as model pathogens to (i) dissect the role of selected ferric reductases in infection, (ii) identify novel iron transporters implicated in host defense (iii) and explore mechanisms of melanin interference with iron regulation in macrophages. To this end, we will employ a robust, unbiased, approach combining transcriptomics, metalloproteomics, in vivo RNAi screening in Drosophila model of IMI, and validation studies in transgenic mice and eventually in human patients ex vivo. Dissecting the function of novel iron regulators in the macrophage will have profound impact on iron biology and is likely to have direct therapeutic implications for the management of IMI.
Summary
Airborne filamentous fungi (molds) are major causes of respiratory diseases in an expanding population of patients with complex immune and metabolic defects. Invasive mold infections (IMI) are associated with substantial mortality and enormous economic impact. Understanding pathogenesis of IMI is an unmet need for design of better therapies. We have put forward a novel mechanism for the pathogenesis of IMI, according to which development of IMI requires two discrete mechanisms (a) phagosome maturation arrest via inhibition of LC3-associated phagocytosis (LAP), which allows intracellular persistence of fungal conidia (spores), and (b) alteration in iron homeostasis, resulting in invasive fungal growth and lysis of the macrophage. On the pathogen site, fungal melanin targets LAP and affects macrophage metal homeostasis. On the macrophage site, iron distribution in subcellular compartments of all eukaryotic cells is controlled by ferric reductases and divalent cation transporters, in a process that remains molecularly unexplored. During mold infection a group of ferric reductases represent the most prominently transcriptionally modulated iron regulatory genes in macrophages. Thus, iron regulation is the critical determinant of macrophage-fungal interplay and is the focus of this project. We will use molds as model pathogens to (i) dissect the role of selected ferric reductases in infection, (ii) identify novel iron transporters implicated in host defense (iii) and explore mechanisms of melanin interference with iron regulation in macrophages. To this end, we will employ a robust, unbiased, approach combining transcriptomics, metalloproteomics, in vivo RNAi screening in Drosophila model of IMI, and validation studies in transgenic mice and eventually in human patients ex vivo. Dissecting the function of novel iron regulators in the macrophage will have profound impact on iron biology and is likely to have direct therapeutic implications for the management of IMI.
Max ERC Funding
2 000 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-09-01, End date: 2025-08-31
Project acronym MIX2FIX
Project Hybrid, organic-inorganic chalcogenide optoelectronics
Researcher (PI) Thomas STERGIOPOULOS
Host Institution (HI) ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS
Country Greece
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE8, ERC-2018-COG
Summary The new generation of optoelectronics seeks for emerging semiconductors which combine high performance with low cost. Lead halide organic-inorganic perovskites manifest as excellent optoelectronic materials for this purpose, but at the expense of robustness and environmental compatibility. This presents a major challenge which this research addresses directly. Viable alternatives have to be identified. To tackle this challenge, MIX2FIX proposes to develop a new class of solution-processable optoelectronic devices based on air-stable, non-toxic metal chalcogenides endowed with an organic part, which will facilitate solution-processing and potentially enrich the compounds with the spectacular properties of halide perovskites. To achieve this, the CoG project has set the following objectives: (i) designing and developing optoelectronically-active, organic-inorganic chalcogenide thin films that have never been explored before, by mimicking strategies from established perovskite technology, (ii) devising means to improve their optoelectronic quality so as to be comparable with the best single-crystal semiconductors and (iii) implementing optimized materials into boundary-pushing PV and LED devices. Addressing these objectives will enable the development of novel functional hybrids at the boundaries of perovskite and chalcogenide thin films. With this, optoelectronics with efficiency and stability, comparable or higher than those of lead halide perovskite or chalcopyrite devices, will be demonstrated. This project will therefore permit the transition for emerging optoelectronic materials from toxic lead halide perovskites to green hybrid chalcogenides. Consolidating this unproven but disruptive technology will secure sustainable future for other areas of interest beyond photovoltaics, displays and lighting such as in X-Rays detectors and phototransistors or even beyond optoelectronics, in systems such as batteries and supercapacitors.
Summary
The new generation of optoelectronics seeks for emerging semiconductors which combine high performance with low cost. Lead halide organic-inorganic perovskites manifest as excellent optoelectronic materials for this purpose, but at the expense of robustness and environmental compatibility. This presents a major challenge which this research addresses directly. Viable alternatives have to be identified. To tackle this challenge, MIX2FIX proposes to develop a new class of solution-processable optoelectronic devices based on air-stable, non-toxic metal chalcogenides endowed with an organic part, which will facilitate solution-processing and potentially enrich the compounds with the spectacular properties of halide perovskites. To achieve this, the CoG project has set the following objectives: (i) designing and developing optoelectronically-active, organic-inorganic chalcogenide thin films that have never been explored before, by mimicking strategies from established perovskite technology, (ii) devising means to improve their optoelectronic quality so as to be comparable with the best single-crystal semiconductors and (iii) implementing optimized materials into boundary-pushing PV and LED devices. Addressing these objectives will enable the development of novel functional hybrids at the boundaries of perovskite and chalcogenide thin films. With this, optoelectronics with efficiency and stability, comparable or higher than those of lead halide perovskite or chalcopyrite devices, will be demonstrated. This project will therefore permit the transition for emerging optoelectronic materials from toxic lead halide perovskites to green hybrid chalcogenides. Consolidating this unproven but disruptive technology will secure sustainable future for other areas of interest beyond photovoltaics, displays and lighting such as in X-Rays detectors and phototransistors or even beyond optoelectronics, in systems such as batteries and supercapacitors.
Max ERC Funding
2 731 250 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-09-01, End date: 2024-08-31
Project acronym Phosphoprocessors
Project Biological signal processing via multisite phosphorylation networks
Researcher (PI) Mart Loog
Host Institution (HI) TARTU ULIKOOL
Country Estonia
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS1, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary Multisite phosphorylation of proteins is a powerful signal processing mechanism playing crucial roles in cell division and differentiation as well as in disease. Our goal in this application is to elucidate the molecular basis of this important mechanism. We recently demonstrated a novel phenomenon of multisite phosphorylation in cell cycle regulation. We showed that cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)-dependent multisite phosphorylation of a crucial substrate is performed semiprocessively in the N-to-C terminal direction along the disordered protein. The process is controlled by key parameters including the distance between phosphorylation sites, the distribution of serines and threonines in sites, and the position of docking motifs. According to our model, linear patterns of phosphorylation networks along the disordered protein segments determine the net phosphorylation rate of the protein. This concept provides a new interpretation of CDK signal processing, and it can explain how the temporal order of cell cycle events is achieved. The goals of this study are: 1) We will seek proof of the model by rewiring the patterns of budding yeast Cdk1 multisite networks according to the rules we have identified, so to change the order of cell cycle events. Next, we will restore the order by alternative wiring of the same switches; 2) To apply the proposed model in the context of different kinases and complex substrate arrangements, we will study the Cdk1-dependent multisite phosphorylation of kinetochore components, to understand the phospho-regulation of kinetochore formation, microtubule attachment and error correction; 3) We will apply multisite phosphorylation to design circuits for synthetic biology. A toolbox of synthetic parts based on multisite phosphorylation would revolutionize the field since the fast time scales and wide combinatorial possibilities.
Summary
Multisite phosphorylation of proteins is a powerful signal processing mechanism playing crucial roles in cell division and differentiation as well as in disease. Our goal in this application is to elucidate the molecular basis of this important mechanism. We recently demonstrated a novel phenomenon of multisite phosphorylation in cell cycle regulation. We showed that cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)-dependent multisite phosphorylation of a crucial substrate is performed semiprocessively in the N-to-C terminal direction along the disordered protein. The process is controlled by key parameters including the distance between phosphorylation sites, the distribution of serines and threonines in sites, and the position of docking motifs. According to our model, linear patterns of phosphorylation networks along the disordered protein segments determine the net phosphorylation rate of the protein. This concept provides a new interpretation of CDK signal processing, and it can explain how the temporal order of cell cycle events is achieved. The goals of this study are: 1) We will seek proof of the model by rewiring the patterns of budding yeast Cdk1 multisite networks according to the rules we have identified, so to change the order of cell cycle events. Next, we will restore the order by alternative wiring of the same switches; 2) To apply the proposed model in the context of different kinases and complex substrate arrangements, we will study the Cdk1-dependent multisite phosphorylation of kinetochore components, to understand the phospho-regulation of kinetochore formation, microtubule attachment and error correction; 3) We will apply multisite phosphorylation to design circuits for synthetic biology. A toolbox of synthetic parts based on multisite phosphorylation would revolutionize the field since the fast time scales and wide combinatorial possibilities.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 289 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-05-01, End date: 2020-10-31
Project acronym ProMiDis
Project A unified drug discovery platform for protein misfolding diseases
Researcher (PI) Georgios SKRETAS
Host Institution (HI) ETHNIKO IDRYMA EREVNON
Country Greece
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS9, ERC-2018-COG
Summary It is now widely recognized that a variety of major diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, systemic amyloidosis, cystic fibrosis, type 2 diabetes etc., are characterized by a common molecular origin: the misfolding of specific proteins. These disorders have been termed protein misfolding diseases (PMDs) and the vast majority of them remain incurable. Here, I propose the development of a unified approach for the discovery of potential therapeutics against PMDs. I will generate engineered bacterial cells that function as a broadly applicable discovery platform for compounds that rescue the misfolding of PMD-associated proteins (MisPs). These compounds will be selected from libraries of drug-like molecules biosynthesized in engineered bacteria using a technology that allows the facile production of billions of different test molecules. These libraries will then be screened in the same bacterial cells that produce them and the rare molecules that rescue MisP misfolding effectively will be selected using an ultrahigh-throughput genetic screen. The effect of the selected compounds on MisP folding will then be evaluated by biochemical and biophysical methods, while their ability to inhibit MisP-induced pathogenicity will be tested in appropriate mammalian cell assays and in established animal models of the associated PMD. The molecules that rescue the misfolding of the target MisPs and antagonize their associated pathogenicity both in vitro and in vivo, will become drug candidates against the corresponding diseases. This procedure will be applied for different MisPs to identify potential therapeutics for four major PMDs: Huntington’s disease, cardiotoxic light chain amyloidosis, dialysis-related amyloidosis and retinitis pigmentosa. Successful realization of ProMiDis will provide invaluable therapeutic leads against major diseases and a unified framework for anti-PMD drug discovery.
Summary
It is now widely recognized that a variety of major diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, systemic amyloidosis, cystic fibrosis, type 2 diabetes etc., are characterized by a common molecular origin: the misfolding of specific proteins. These disorders have been termed protein misfolding diseases (PMDs) and the vast majority of them remain incurable. Here, I propose the development of a unified approach for the discovery of potential therapeutics against PMDs. I will generate engineered bacterial cells that function as a broadly applicable discovery platform for compounds that rescue the misfolding of PMD-associated proteins (MisPs). These compounds will be selected from libraries of drug-like molecules biosynthesized in engineered bacteria using a technology that allows the facile production of billions of different test molecules. These libraries will then be screened in the same bacterial cells that produce them and the rare molecules that rescue MisP misfolding effectively will be selected using an ultrahigh-throughput genetic screen. The effect of the selected compounds on MisP folding will then be evaluated by biochemical and biophysical methods, while their ability to inhibit MisP-induced pathogenicity will be tested in appropriate mammalian cell assays and in established animal models of the associated PMD. The molecules that rescue the misfolding of the target MisPs and antagonize their associated pathogenicity both in vitro and in vivo, will become drug candidates against the corresponding diseases. This procedure will be applied for different MisPs to identify potential therapeutics for four major PMDs: Huntington’s disease, cardiotoxic light chain amyloidosis, dialysis-related amyloidosis and retinitis pigmentosa. Successful realization of ProMiDis will provide invaluable therapeutic leads against major diseases and a unified framework for anti-PMD drug discovery.
Max ERC Funding
1 972 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-03-01, End date: 2024-02-29
Project acronym PyroTRACH
Project Pyrogenic TRansformations Affecting Climate and Health
Researcher (PI) Athanasios NENES
Host Institution (HI) IDRYMA TECHNOLOGIAS KAI EREVNAS
Country Greece
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE10, ERC-2016-COG
Summary Biomass burning (BB) is a significant contributor to global atmospheric particulate matter, with strong impacts on climate, ecosystems and public health. Yet these impacts are highly uncertain, largely owing to our inability to track BB particulate matter and the evolution of their properties throughout most of its atmospheric lifetime. PyroTRACH will provide the necessary breakthroughs in our understanding of BB particles and their impacts by: i) deriving new markers of biomass burning with an atmospheric lifetime that exceeds the current limitation of about a day, ii) measuring highly uncertain but critically-important climate- and health- relevant properties of aerosols both from wildfire events that occur during summertime and from BB for heating purposes during wintertime in highly populated urban environments, iii) applying this new knowledge to quantify the contribution of biomass burning to aerosol in the Mediterranean region, and quantify its impacts on climate and public health. Novel state-of-the-art instrumentation, portable environmental chambers and well established measurement techniques will be applied in continuous measurements as well as intensive field campaigns to study the properties and evolution of BB particulates as they age in the atmosphere. Discovering new stable chemical markers that allow detection of BBOA many days after emission, while carefully and accurately following the climate and health-related properties of freshly emitted and aged BBOA, allows for an unprecedented understanding of the evolution and impacts of biomass burning aerosol and its impact on the Earth System and public health. Considering the increasing occurrence of wildfires, along with decreased emissions from fossil fuels means that accurately predicting the health and climate effects from biomass burning aerosol is one of the most important aspects of atmospheric aerosol that needs to be studied.
Summary
Biomass burning (BB) is a significant contributor to global atmospheric particulate matter, with strong impacts on climate, ecosystems and public health. Yet these impacts are highly uncertain, largely owing to our inability to track BB particulate matter and the evolution of their properties throughout most of its atmospheric lifetime. PyroTRACH will provide the necessary breakthroughs in our understanding of BB particles and their impacts by: i) deriving new markers of biomass burning with an atmospheric lifetime that exceeds the current limitation of about a day, ii) measuring highly uncertain but critically-important climate- and health- relevant properties of aerosols both from wildfire events that occur during summertime and from BB for heating purposes during wintertime in highly populated urban environments, iii) applying this new knowledge to quantify the contribution of biomass burning to aerosol in the Mediterranean region, and quantify its impacts on climate and public health. Novel state-of-the-art instrumentation, portable environmental chambers and well established measurement techniques will be applied in continuous measurements as well as intensive field campaigns to study the properties and evolution of BB particulates as they age in the atmosphere. Discovering new stable chemical markers that allow detection of BBOA many days after emission, while carefully and accurately following the climate and health-related properties of freshly emitted and aged BBOA, allows for an unprecedented understanding of the evolution and impacts of biomass burning aerosol and its impact on the Earth System and public health. Considering the increasing occurrence of wildfires, along with decreased emissions from fossil fuels means that accurately predicting the health and climate effects from biomass burning aerosol is one of the most important aspects of atmospheric aerosol that needs to be studied.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 832 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-06-01, End date: 2022-05-31
