ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

The current trend in biophotonics is to try and replicate the same ease and precision that our hands, eyes and ears offer at the macroscopic level, e.g. to hold, observe, squeeze and pull, rotate, cut and probe biological specimens in microfluidic environments. The bidding to get closer and closer to the object of interest has prompted the development of extremely advanced manipulation techniques at scales comparable to that of the wavelength of light. However, the fact that the optical beam can only access the microfluidic chip from the narrow aperture of a microscopic objective limits the versatility of the photonic function that can be realized. With this project, the applicant proposes to introduce a new biophotonic platform based on the all optical manipulation of flexible photonic metasurfaces. These artificial two-dimensional materials have virtually arbitrary photonic responses and have an intrinsic exceptional mechanical stability. This cross-disciplinary project, bridging photonics, material sciences and biology, will enable the adoption of the most modern and advanced photonic designs in microfluidic environments, with transformative benefits for microscopy and biophotonic applications at the interface of molecular and cell biology.

1 999 524 €

Start date: 2019-02-01, End date: 2024-01-31

Knowledge is an anthropological constant that is indissociable from the birth and interactions of human societies, but is at best a secondary concern for scholars of international relations and globalization. Contemporary global studies are thus unable to account for the co-constitution of knowledge and politics at a macro-scale, and remain especially blind to the historical patterns of epistemic development that operate at the level of the species as a whole and have shaped its global political history in specific, path-dependent ways up to now. ARTEFACT is the first project to pursue a knowledge-centered investigation of global politics. It is uniquely grounded in an anthropological approach that treats globalization and human knowledges beyond their modern manifestations, from the longue-durée perspective of our species’ social history. 'The global as artefact' is more than a metaphor. It reflects the premise that human collectives 'make' the political world not merely through ideas, language, or norms, but primordially through the material infrastructures, solutions, objects, practices, and skills they develop in response to evolving structural challenges. ARTEFACT takes agriculture as an exemplary and especially timely case-study to illuminate the entangled global histories of knowledge and politics, analyzing and comparing four increasingly inclusive 'global political systems' of the Ancient, Medieval, Modern, and Contemporary eras and their associated agrarian socio-epistemic revolutions. ARTEFACT ultimately aims to 1) develop an original theory of the global, 2) launch Global Knowledge Studies as a new cross-disciplinary domain of systematic empirical and theoretical study, and 3) push the respective boundaries of the anthropology of knowledge, global history, and international theory beyond the state-of-the-art and toward a holistic understanding that can illuminate how past trends of socio-epistemic evolution might shape future paths of global life.

1 428 165 €

Start date: 2017-09-01, End date: 2022-08-31

An expanded GGGGCC repeat in a non-coding region of the C9orf72 gene is the most common known cause of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The repeat RNA is transcribed and accumulates in neuronal RNA aggregates, implicating RNA toxicity as a key pathogenic mechanism. However, the pathways that lead to neurodegeneration are unknown. My lab has made pioneering contributions to the understanding of C9orf72 FTD/ALS, and reported the first structure of the repeat RNA, and the first description of both sense and antisense RNA aggregates in patient brain. We have now developed new disease models that allow, for the first time, the dissection of RNA toxicity both in vivo and in sophisticated neuronal culture models. We have also used our knowledge of the repeat structure to identify novel small molecules that show very strong binding to the repeats. We will utilise our innovative disease models in a multidisciplinary approach to fully dissect the cellular pathways underlying C9orf72 repeat RNA toxicity in vivo, on a genome-wide scale. Altered RNA metabolism has been implicated in a wide range of neurodegenerative diseases, indicating that our findings will provide profound new insight into fundamental mechanisms of neuronal maintenance and survival. This research programme will also deliver a step change in our understanding of C9orf72 FTD/ALS pathogenesis and provide essential insight for the identification of small molecules with genuine therapeutic potential. RNA-mediated mechanisms are now known to be a common theme in neurodegeneration, suggesting these findings will have broad significance.

1 985 699 €

Start date: 2015-10-01, End date: 2020-09-30

All forms of life adjust themselves to the daily rhythms of their environments using endogenous oscillators collectively referred to as circadian clocks. Peripheral and central body clocks exist, which both require extrinsic information (e.g. light or temperature changes) to keep in sync with the geophysical cycle (entrainment). In addition, intrinsic cues (e.g. activity levels) have been linked to clock entrainment. Recently, we could show that activation of proprioceptors is sufficient to entrain the central clock of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Proprioceptors are mechanosensors that monitor the positions, and relative movements, of an animal’s own body parts. The existence of proprioceptive entrainment pathways has significant implications; it implies that an animal’s ‘clock time’ is computed by integrating, and weighting, various external and internal conditions, suggesting the existence of external and internal time. Using Drosophila, I will investigate the relationship between mechanosensory and circadian systems in a dual, and bidirectional, approach. The project’s first aim is to dissect the neurobiological bases of proprioceptive clock entrainment (i) identifying the specific stimulus requirements for effective entrainment, (ii) determining its mechanosensory pathways and, in a combined computational and experimental strategy, (iii) quantifying the precise contributions of an animal’s activity to its sense of time. The project’s second aim, in turn, is to unravel the roles of the clock, and clock genes, for the function of mechanosensory systems. Previous studies have linked the clock to noise vulnerability in mammalian ears, and clock genes to regeneration in avian ears. Our own preliminary data reveal severe mechanosensory defects in flies mutant for core clock genes. I will use the Drosophila ear as a unifying model to analyse the specific roles of the clock, and clock genes, for the function of mechanotransducer systems.

1 899 549 €

Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

Recent years have seen renewed interest in the political economy of punishment, yet almost no attention has been given to the factors that translate socio-political arrangements into penal practices or the specific nature of imprisonment in different political-economic systems. Based on research in England & Wales and one Nordic nation, the project goals are to expose the dynamics of the penal state and the nature of penality in countries that are considered ‘exclusionary’ and ‘inclusionary’ respectively in their socio-economic and penal practices. These goals will be achieved through four comparative sub-projects: first, a study of penal policymaking and the ‘penal field’ (the players and processes that shape penal policy and practice); second, an exploration of the texture of imprisonment for women and sex offenders, groups presumed to experience inclusionary and exclusionary penal practices in distinctive ways; third, a study of how these prisoners experience entry into and exit from the system; fourth, a study of the ‘deep end’ imprisonment in both countries. A central aim is to interrogate widespread assumptions about the relative mildness/severity of penal practices in inclusionary and exclusionary nations. The research will employ an emerging framework that conceptualises the prison experience through notions of ‘depth’, ‘weight’, ‘tightness’ and ‘breadth’. It will foreground the roles of shame and guilt in shaping prisoners’ orientations, concepts that feature in theories of offending and reintegration, but are absent from the sociology of imprisonment. Through the concept of ‘penal consciousness’, the project will also explore the interaction between the punitive intentions of the state and prisoners’ perceptions of the purposes and legitimacy of their punishment. The research will be groundbreaking in several ways, reshaping the field of comparative penology, and linking macro issues of the penal state with the lived realities of the prison landings.

1 964 948 €

Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31

The profound trauma associated with rape and sexual violence in conflict has been extensively explored within existing scholarship. The fact that many survivors exhibit remarkable post-trauma resilience, however, remains critically under-investigated. CSRS will address this fundamental gap by undertaking a paradigm-shifting empirical study of the underlying conditions for resilience. It will then use this data to pioneer a new, survivor-centred model of transitional justice – the process of redressing the legacy of massive human rights abuses. Using the three comparative case studies of Bosnia-Hercegovina (BiH), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Colombia, and adopting a social-ecological approach that emphasizes the interactions between individuals and their environments, CSRS consists of two inter-linked parts. The first part will involve extensive fieldwork, using a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods, to generate a rich cross-cultural dataset that identifies and explains the key micro, meso and macro factors that foster resilience in survivors of war rape and sexual violence. The second part of CSRS will use this dataset to build an innovative, bottom-up model of transitional justice that prioritizes the long-term needs of survivors, reflecting the project’s hypothesis that a positive correlation exists between fulfilment of needs and resilience. This model will be developed with the input of survivors in BiH, the DRC and Colombia and in consultation with transitional justice scholars and practitioners. CSRS aims to transform transitional justice theory and practice. The project outputs will therefore include both academic publications and policy reports to communicate the model to the governments of the case study countries, the United Nations and a wider international audience with the overall aim of making empowerment and resilience part of a new transitional justice agenda.

1 790 580 €

Start date: 2017-09-01, End date: 2022-08-31

DenCity offers a new approach for understanding density and its relationship to the city. Density is a defining feature of the city and urban life. Across the world, density is now at the centre of policy and planning agendas to build cities that are environmentally, economically, socially and politically ‘sustainable’. While there is a lively tradition of research on density in the city, we lack an understanding of the different ways in which high densities are lived and perceived by residents. Existing research provides rich resources for how we might define and represent density, how we might arrive at optimum numbers of people in a given area, and how capitalism builds or reduces densities within and between places globally. However, we lack an understanding of how high density – what I call intensity – is understood and experienced by different urban inhabitants, and the implications for how we understand the contemporary city. Developing a ‘density assemblage’ approach, I propose to examine the ways in which residents differently know and relate to intensity, including how it comes to matter, for good or ill. I do so by examining different cases of intensity in the Asian city, from travel and transport hubs, and slums to rooftops. While the 20th century witnessed a general global decrease of urban density in favour of urban sprawl, many Asian cities continue to densify. Asia is the densest and most urbanized part of the planet, and the trend is predicted to continue. I will examine some of the highest densities in the world, including in Hong Kong, Mumbai, Manila, Dhaka, and Tokyo. The different ways in which intensity becomes known and comes to matter for residents will be a vital challenge for understanding life in the urban 21st century, and for how we understand the city.

1 344 681 €

Start date: 2018-09-01, End date: 2022-08-31

MRI is indispensable in the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases. These are poorly understood while their prevalence and socio-economic burden continue to rise. Structural and functional MRI can provide biomarkers for early diagnosis and potential therapeutic intervention. My research vision is to develop novel MRI methods for structural and functional mapping of tissue magnetic susceptibility and electrical conductivity as these show great promise for neuroimaging in diseases such as Alzheimer’s (AD). Susceptibility mapping (SM), which I pioneered, is uniquely sensitive to tissue composition including iron content affected in AD while conductivity mapping (CM) probably reflects cellular disruption in AD. Resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI) reveals how AD affects brain networks without any tasks or stimulation equipment. However, each technique currently needs a separate time-consuming MRI scan. I will develop an integrated scan for simultaneous structural SM and CM, and rsfMRI functional connectivity characterisation. This efficient scan, ideal for AD patients, will reveal totally new resting-state networks based on electromagnetic properties: resting-state functional SM and resting-state functional CM for the first time. As changes in blood susceptibility underlie fMRI, rsfSM should measure functional connectivity more directly. This also makes it sensitive to physiological noise so I will develop noise removal methods building on fMRI techniques I established. Initial fSM studies have been at 7 Tesla but I will target the more widespread 3T field to maximise applicability. As a leader in both SM and rsfMRI physiological noise removal I have the ideal background to integrate SM and CM with fMRI and extend them for ground-breaking functional electromagnetic connectivity. This research will yield a rich set of novel, multimodal MRI contrasts to allow development of new combined structural and functional biomarkers for early diagnosis of AD and other diseases.

1 721 726 €

Start date: 2019-04-01, End date: 2024-03-31

This project examines how predicted economic growth is experienced by people in Mongolia with the advent of large-scale mining operations. Our project will generate new insight into two areas of concern for economic anthropology and beyond. First we will examine the way that the economy is unfolding in a distinct way in East Asia through different kinds of predictive narratives that come to have an effect on the way people act. Second we will explore how individual subjects also shape the economy in their everyday relations through various forms of exchange and the accumulation of wealth. This dual focus provides the basis for a nuanced and powerful critique of our understanding of the way in which economic realities are shaped through predictive narratives as well as formed, from the ground-up, by local actors who carve out new forms of subjectivity through such actions. Indeed it is our suggestion that these new subjects of the growing economy are distinctly different from the post-socialist selves described in previous literature on the region. Instead they are powerful and hopeful subjects who demand a different kind of engagement and entitlement. The form such engagement takes and the kind of economic realities produced out of such forms is the focus of our study.

1 658 373 €

Start date: 2014-09-01, End date: 2019-06-30