ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is caused by alterations in genes that regulate tissue growth and the risk of developing CRC is influenced by a combination of environmental and genetic factors. Although CRC is often preventable by removing precursor lesions, screening efforts have been hampered by low participation rates and by performance limitations of the screening tools themselves. Detection of blood in faeces is currently the most common screening tool, while stool DNA testing of molecular markers has emerged as a biologically rational and user-friendly strategy for the non-invasive detection of CRC and critical precursor lesions. This advance has significantly increased performance in detecting CRC, but still more than half of the precancerous lesions cannot be detected. The stool DNA test performance for detecting precancerous lesions is expected to be improved substantively by including a completely new type of biomarker, those formed earlier than genetic mutations in the process of carcinogenesis. Such biomarkers are DNA adducts; DNA molecules bound to chemicals. If not repaired, these DNA adducts generate mutations. Herein, we propose to expand an ERC-funded research result into a kit for measuring CRC-initiating DNA adducts in a stool sample. This kit will enable personalized feedback that quantitatively integrates environmental and genetic factors in colon-cancer associated DNA damage. We have filed a patent application for the chemical basis of the technology and have partnered with an ETH spin-off for the scientific development of our existing proof of principle assay to a prototype kit. In parallel to the scientific work, during the Proof of Concept phase, we will address a phase of the overall commercialization plan that involves licensing the technology to a business partner in the life sciences sector.

150 000 €

Start date: 2015-12-01, End date: 2017-05-31

The aim of BLOBREC is to develop a blood-based test for the diagnosis of breast cancer. The test is based on results from gene expression analyses in a hospital based nested case-control study in the Norwegian Women and Cancer postgenome cohort study. The controls are healthy population controls from the same cohort. The innovative potential of a gene expression test is the independency from other test for breast cancer like imaging technologies (mammograms, ultrasound, MR) and pathological diagnosis. As such it could be used by itself or in combination with these other technologies. The idea has been considered by the International Search Authorities to be novel and inventive and thus, considered to be patentable. Further analyses should be run to improve the predictive values of the test together with an external validation. The scenarios of use will be discussed. Based on this work comprehensive documentation should be available for commercial partners. Through collaboration with a technology transfer institution the potential approaches to commercial companies should be explored before any negociations. The idea could have important social and clinical implications through improved diagnosis of breast cancer given the increasing incidence of this disease in many countries worldwide.

143 933 €

Start date: 2015-05-01, End date: 2016-04-30

The ERC starting grant CellControl awarded to the Principal Investigator Yaakov Benenson funds research directed toward rational design and construction of gene circuits and networks for programmable control of cell physiology. One of the potential applications of this research is in the development of next-generation anticancer treatments that incorporate recently acquired knowledge on the complexity of cancer-related regulatory pathways, tumor development and differentiation, and the rise of cancer clones resistant to standard therapies. These new treatments are necessarily more complex than small molecule drugs, yet they are within reach of latest tools developed in gene therapy and they hold the promise of much higher efficacy and lower toxicity as well as robustness to the emergence of resistant clones. Thus our approach could be of great potential for treating metastatic and primary malignant tumors. We have already shown an engineered circuit that selectively detects and eliminates specific cancer cells in vitro. Powered by additional developments in the framework of the ERC starting grant, we have designed an even safer and more selective circuit that can serve as a starting point for pre-clinical and eventually clinical testing. In this proposal we describe proof-of-concept experiments that will show feasibility of our approach in a mouse model. Successful demonstration will pave the way to large-scale translational R&D financed by private investors, and eventually to the deployment of these new therapies in the clinic.

149 499 €

Start date: 2013-07-01, End date: 2014-12-31

Patient/individual specific cells, including induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells will be crucial in defining tomorrow’s medicine owing to their uses in drug discovery, immunotherapy or cell therapy. These clinical applications require the utmost accurate and reliable identity and purity testing, however, the majority of cells stored worldwide fall short of a sufficient level of characterisation. This project aims at validatating and commercializing an innovative method of diagnostic and quality control for human cells. It is based on our unprecedented ability to measure the expression of millions of uncharted RNA biomarkers called TEs, genetic units that contribute over 50% of the genome but that have been completely disregarded until very recently, mainly due to the challenge imposed by their complex analysis. Our new methodology provides a high-density barcode of cellular identity, opening the door for individual-specific cells to broad applications in biotechnology and medicine alike.

149 875 €

Start date: 2017-07-01, End date: 2018-12-31

Chemotherapy, often given in conjunction with other therapies is infamous for its off target associated side effects. Recent studies have shown that drugs combinations can act synergistically at certain ratios and are more effective and less toxic than single drug therapies. Despite promising in vitro results, combination drug therapy for Oncology has not been successfully translated to the clinic due to lack of efficient delivery systems that can maintain the desired synergistic drug concentrations in the body as each drug has a different pharmacokinetics and toxicity profile. The objective of this project is to develop a universal platform for simultaneous delivery of multiple drugs to specific cells in vivo using a protein cage that was developed in our laboratory for encapsulation of diverse cargoes.

150 000 €

Start date: 2017-11-01, End date: 2019-04-30

Adhesives that debond-on-demand through application of an external stimulus are highly relevant for manufacturing (semiconductor, automotive, aerospace, construction, packaging, sportswear), healthcare applications (wound dressing, transdermal patches), and numerous other domains, and they can significantly contribute to the sustainable use of materials (repairing, reworking, recycling). In all cases, there is a technological need for effective and environmentally benign solutions that provide secure adhesion during use, while also permitting for a simple and clean separation of bonded parts “on command” without the need for additional complex process steps. The proposed project aims to develop new debond-on-demand adhesives based on the combination of low-molecular weight functional polymers and light-responsive degradable cross-linking agents. The new materials are expected to combine optimal adhesive properties for a wide range of substrates with a new mechanism that enables straightforward and efficient, ultraviolet light-induced debonding at ambient temperature. The debonding mechanism involves two different effects that are combined in a synergistic manner: the controlled degradation of the cross-linker transforms polymer networks into low-molecular weight polymers, and the simultaneous release of nitrogen gas “propels” the bonded parts away from each other. The degraded polymer residues can be easily removed and clean debonded components are furnished. The overarching goals of the proposed project are to bridge the gap between scientific discovery and implementation by (i) providing a better understanding for the mechanism at play; (ii) demonstrating the effect in a variety of adhesive platforms based on polymers that are employed in current adhesive technologies; and (iii) providing technology demonstrators for pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes and cold-cured two-component adhesives with debond-on-demand properties.

149 250 €

Start date: 2016-06-01, End date: 2017-05-31

The emergence of networked cyber-physical systems, in which sensor/actuator networks are integrated with software algorithms, facilitates the development of advanced Building Management Systems (BMS) aimed at enhancing energy efficiency in buildings, which accounts for 40% of the energy consumption in the EU. When a fault arises in some of the components, or an unexpected event occurs in the building, this may lead to a serious degradation in performance or, even worse, to situations that would endanger people’s lives. Studies estimate that 20% of the energy consumed in commercial buildings for heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting and water heating can be attributed to various faults. Therefore, there is a market need for an intelligent building automation diagnostic system which integrates with existing BMS to facilitate continuous and effective monitoring of the buildings. The objective of the proposed proof of concept is to develop the Domognostics platform, a novel solution for monitoring building automation systems, detecting and diagnosing any component faults and/or unexpected events, and providing remedial reconfiguration actions, aiming at improving operational efficiency. Domognostics will interoperate with existing BMS to extend their capabilities, and will integrate directly with heterogeneous sensor types, such as IoT devices, mobile sensors, wearables, etc., to increase redundancy of the available information and measurements. The Domognostics platform will utilise intelligent fault diagnosis algorithms with machine learning capabilities to boost its capacity to learn from experience, and semantically enhanced reasoning to facilitate the flexibility of adding new sensors or replacing faulty components, as needed. The theoretical foundations of these techniques were developed as part of the ERC Advanced Grant project Fault-Adaptive, which started in April 2012, and is currently being carried out at the University of Cyprus.

150 000 €

Start date: 2017-05-01, End date: 2018-10-31

E-DURA aims to assess the commercial viability of a new class of soft, multimodal neural implants called e-dura. Current technologies are rigid and present physical, electrochemical and biological mismatches that prevent prolonged periods of implantation. Our technology represents a significant improvement over state-of-art on all those criteria. Moreover, our extensive network of academics and industry professionals represents an advantage in commercializing e-dura, thereby addressing a market estimated to reach 11.8 billion Euro by 2020. Within E-DURA, we will prototype a device suitable for human implantation and build the business case around our innovation.

149 994 €

Start date: 2018-09-01, End date: 2020-02-29

As the worldwide photonics market is increasing and optical and electronic devices based on III-V semiconductors are gaining market segment, the production of III-V semiconductor wafers including GaN has increased in volume and sizes have increased from 2” to 6”. However, this is still short of the 8”-12” common in Silicon CMOS technology. Furthermore, the integration of III-Vs on silicon or on-insulator, has been a long-standing goal for the past 50 years, in order to combine electronic and photonic applications, and to allow photonic technologies to take advantage of the highly developed silicon CMOS technology, thereby opening up for vast new application opportunities. The aim of ENUF is for the first time to attempt to combine two different growth methods to achieve a low-cost integration of large-area III-V on insulator on a silicon platform, and to establish this as a replacement technology for existing III-V wafer production or to enable low-cost integration of optically active material as enabling technology for silicon photonic applications. The method can also be adapted to GaN on Si or on insulator for low-cost high-volume production of high power electronics and light emitting devices.

150 000 €

Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2020-06-30

This project aims at turning the novel approach to automated delineation of complex curvilinear structures we have developed under ERC funding into industrial-grade software that can be commercialized. Our primary goal will therefore be to transform our research software into user-friendly plugins with well-defined APIs that can be bundled with widely used commercial software platforms. In the neuroscience and biomedical areas, we have identified three such platforms and will explore potential licensing agreements with the companies selling them. In the field of aerial cartography, we have close links to an EPFL spin-off company that could help us break into this very different market. We will also investigate the feasibility of launching a new startup company to carry out any further development that might be required. To this end, we will conduct a market study to assess the size of the market and develop a business plan.

149 648 €

Start date: 2018-01-01, End date: 2019-06-30

It is unquestioned that early detection of cancer is a major factor contributing to therapy outcome. Unfortunately, only few tumour markers have been identified for early stage cancers to date, and the reliable detection of tumours before the manifestation of morphological changes still remains an unresolved problem in routine clinical diagnosis. A recent study came to the conclusion that shedding rates of currently available cancer biomarkers are a factor of 10-4 below the necessary sensitivity to reliably detect cancers during their first decade. In other studies, the reliability of currently existing biomarkers such as the PSA-marker for prostate cancer is questioned. The development of alternative early-stage tumour markers, in particular also for epithelial cancers, is therefore urgently necessary. FLOWERFIELDS is aimed to provide means and methods to detect such cancer cells before an aggressive tumour is formed. To that end, we plan to exploit the extracellular molecular code called “The Flower Code” (Fwe) that is expressed in very early stage cancer or precancerous cells. Fwe may be integrated into routine immuno- or PCR-assays for the detection of a variety of epithelial cancers. Applications may include early-stage diagnosis but also the evaluation of therapy outcome. The current project has two aims: (i) to develop improved ligands for ELISA diagnostic tests for Flower gene expression, (ii) to validate the concept clinically on human samples in both immuno- and PCR-based assays. The clinical validation of a biomarker candidate is a key success factor for being able to feed it into development stage of a commercial partner.

138 030 €

Start date: 2013-02-01, End date: 2014-01-31

In the past decade, social media have become one of the main sources of news for people around the world. Yet, it comes with the danger of exposure to intentionally false information. The extensive spread of fake news has recently become a centerpiece of controversy following the highly debated elections of President Donald Trump and the Brexit vote. It is alleged that the outcome of these votes resulted from the public opinion manipulation by a massive injection of fake news, possibly sponsored by hostile foreign governments, constituting perhaps one of the most serious and unprecedented threats to the modern democracies. The ambition of GoodNews is to build the technological capability for algorithmic fake news detection in social media using a novel paradigm. Instead of following the traditional approach of analyzing the news content, we will analyze the news spreading patterns in social networks. The algorithmic core of GoodNews is based on a novel class of geometric deep learning algorithms developed in the ERC project LEMAN (Learning on Manifolds and Graphs). Our research group was among the first in the world to propose, implement, and patent generalizations of popular convolutional neural network architectures to graph-structured data such as social networks, allowing to do deep learning on graphs. The ability to learn fake news spread patterns on social networks will provide the needed breakthrough in the task of automated fake news detection. GoodNews will convert the geometric deep learning technology into a commercial application of fake news detection in social media. The focus of the project will be three-fold: developing a demo system for fake news detection with real data from social media; verifying and solidifying our IP portfolio and its licensing terms; analyzing the market and coming up with a financeable business plan. We target establishing a company at the end of the project and attracting investment to develop a commercial-grade product.

150 000 €

Start date: 2018-09-01, End date: 2020-02-29

Efficient communication between integrated circuits within an electronic component is a major concern for designers of electronic systems. The 'Interconnect,' as it is called in the industry, is considered to be a major bottleneck in the design of high performance electronic systems, both in terms of speed, and in terms of its contribution to the total energy consumption of such systems. Be it on a mobile device, where data communication may take place between the processor and memory, or in a server farm where communication takes place between devices in different racks, such high speed interconnects can contribute up to 40% of the total energy consumption. Taking into account that data centers alone consume 200 billion kilowatt hours annually worldwide, any decrease in the energy consumption of the interconnect has a meaningful impact on the society at large. At the heart of today?s interconnects lies ?differential signaling,? a method for transmitting information between components in an electronic device. This method uses two wires to communicate one bit by putting a physical quantity (voltage or current) of opposite polarities on the two wires, and reading the information as the polarity of the difference. The method provides for excellent noise immunity, but because of the limits on the number of pins on a chip, it needs to transmit the data at double the speed. This typically leads to a higher energy consumption, especially at high speeds. In the course of our research within the ERC funded Advanced Grant 'ECCSciEng' we have discovered a completely new class of signaling methods which have better noise immunity, require far fewer wires, and consume far less energy than differential signaling. The method has the potential to drastically reduce the power consumption of electronic devices. The goal of this proposal is to explore this new class of signaling methods further, and build prototypes to convince to adopt them into their products.

150 000 €

Start date: 2012-03-01, End date: 2013-06-30

"Low power electronic devices are growing ever more omnipresent in the home and work environments. From digital music players, to cell phones, wireless keyboards, and hearing aids, the operation of all such devices requires available electrical power. Batteries are presently the dominant power source for these applications, however the fixed capacity requires periodic replacement or recharging. On the other hand, photovoltaic power sources continuously provide electrical power in lit environments. High power conversion efficiencies are key to enabling design flexibility by lowering the required surface coverage of devices. The tunable nature of dye sensitized solar cells (DSC) make them uniquely well fit to efficiently harvest indoor light. With this project we aim to demonstrate that DSCs are a competitive power source for the indoor environment. The unique ability to align the harvesting with the incident spectrum provides significant innovation potential for indoor DSCs. Demonstration of superior power conversion efficiency along with the requisite durability metrics will form a persuasive package to motivate additional investment. Drawing from concepts developed under the MESOLIGHT project (ERC grant 247404), the latest advancements in DSC designs will be employed to gain further advantages over competing technologies. Particularly, dye molecules and the corresponding electrolyte compounds designed and synthesized as part of MESOLIGHT task 1 will be utilized in the construction of DSCs for testing under indoor lighting conditions. These new cells are expected to demonstrate unprecedented power conversion efficiencies exceeding 20% under simulated indoor lighting. Beyond laboratory scale DSCs, we will further demonstrate enhanced indoor performance with an industrial DSC architecture based on flexible substrates."

148 440 €

Start date: 2012-07-01, End date: 2013-06-30

We propose to develop an automated microfluidic platform for rapid analysis of the margins of frozen resections of tumors. It will allow cancer cells to be specifically distinguished from healthy cells during the time course of the surgical intervention itself via an immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining protocol completed in 5 minutes. The interest of such platform is that late-positivity, which is defined as the detection of cancer cells within the resection margin of the tumor by means of classical IHC after surgery, can be reduced or even avoided. Patients diagnosed with latepositive margins carry a high risk of cancer recurrence due to possible tumor cells left in the body. Intra-operative margin assessment of tumor resections is already done to evaluate the presence of such remaining cancer cells using different techniques. The most common one is microscopic morphological examination by applying hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining on cryo-sectioned surgical specimens, because it can be done easily in a matter of minutes. However, the major drawback of this method is the lack of cancer cell-specific staining: the interpretation relies only on morphology and small numbers of cancer cells infiltrating into healthy tissue are not easily recognizable. We therefore will develop a platform that can perform IHC together with H&E staining on cryo-sectioned samples within 5 minutes. Combining IHC that targets cancer cell-specific proteins with H&E staining will show unequivocally the presence of cancer cells and minimize those variations in the outcome of the analysis that originate from the pathologist’s personal interpretation. It will potentially decrease the recurrence rate, increase the success of post-operative treatment, and reduce unnecessary surgical rescissions.

150 000 €

Start date: 2015-06-01, End date: 2016-11-30

"This project aims at marketing a new laser based detector for identifying pollens in air, and further develop it for extending its application to the detection and identification of bacteria in air. Key markets are meteorological institutes for pollens and hospitals for bacteria identification, in order to address the problem of nosocomial infections. Business plans have been elaborated and even highlighted within the Mc Kinsey contest ""Venture 2012"", as one of the 20 finalists over 191 projects. Our bioaerosol detector also participated to the transatlantic campaign ""Planet Solar"" (www.planetsolar.org/deepwater) over the ocean for 6 months, and demonstrated its exceptional reliability and measurement quality. It also provided an extremely broad media coverage and thus worldwide visibility to our project."

148 901 €

Start date: 2014-06-01, End date: 2015-05-31

Phase contrast and scattering-based (dark-field) X-ray imaging can potentially revolutionize the radiological approach to medical imaging because they are intrinsically capable of detecting subtle differences in the electron density of a material and of measuring the effective integrated local small-angle scattering power generated by the microscopic density fluctuations in the specimen. Within the context of the ERC-Starting Grant PhaseX (310005) we deeply investigated and further developed gratings- based interferometry, a rapidly establishing phase sensitive technique. In particular, we generated seminal work towards the translation of phase contrast imaging into clinic with the world-wide first in-vitro phase-contrast mammographic investigation of whole breast mastectomies and the first reader study investigating potential clinical relevance of phase-contrast mammography. Grating fabrication is the main bottleneck so far preventing grating-based X-ray phase-contrast interferometry from being applied at high energies and large Field of View (FOV). With PhaseX, we addressed the fundamentals of grating fabrication in order to deliver high-quality diffraction gratings with high-aspect ratio. In particular, we explored unconventional fabrication techniques in order to go beyond the physical limits of the conventional approaches and we developed the idea of innovative technology at the basis of this ERC-PoC project (MAGIC). Among the tested wet etching techniques, Metal Assisted Chemical Etching (MACE) showed exceptional performances for fabrication of large area silicon gratings with high aspect ratio. The main idea of MAGIC is to use MACE for grating fabrication with characteristics that fulfil high energy and large FOV applications: we target the same quality with a competitive price in order to keep the ratio quality/cost in a favorable range with additional advantages of large FOV and possibility of serving a large market on a quicker way.

149 997 €

Start date: 2016-11-01, End date: 2018-04-30

Abdominal Aneurysm of the Aorta (AAA) is a degenerative disease of the last segment of the abdominal aorta, representing the 14th leading cause of death for the 60 to 85 year-old age group in US. An estimated 80 million people aged 60 years and older are at risk in Western Europe. To date the most commonly used clinical protocol for surgical acceptance is based on the estimate of AAA diameter. The report prepared for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality came to the conclusion that: the annual risk of rupture is 1% or lower for a diameter less than 5.5 cm; the 1-year risk of rupture increases with the aneurysm size; it may exceed 10% in the individuals with diameters above 6 cm. Assessment of AAA rupture risk has long been a topic of interest in clinical research setting. The ability to estimate patient specific probability of AAA rupture can lead to reduced health care costs, adequate and timely patient diagnostic and comfort. Math4AAArisk aims at the realization of a mathematical platform to support clinicians through the following steps: (A1) From medical imaging to sizing and morphological characterization of AAA, (A2) Preliminary risk evaluation, (A3) Computer simulation and enhanced risk assessment, (B1) Automatic surgery planner, (C1) Anonymous data base storage. The proposed mathematical platform yields quantitative physical indicators in real time at the sole request of inputting a few clinical measurements; it is patient adapted, as it integrates with patient’s radiological images, under full control of clinicians; it is aimed at improving the diagnostic analysis and possibly the surgical planning. We wish to establish the viability for a market exploitation of the math4AAArisk platform and identify possible later stage funding opportunities.

147 400 €

Start date: 2015-12-01, End date: 2016-11-30

Wear3D display technology project is an ERC-Advanced project and offers novel optical solutions for wearable (or head-mounted) displays to achieve very wide field-of-view and natural-looking 3D. The Wear3D technology has a lot of potential as the global consumer market for AR and VR are expected to reach more than US$30 billion and US$120 billion by 2022, respectively. Hardware devices will be more than 30% of the total market. Within the ERC-AdG, our team developed a novel head-worn system named CYCLOPS and transparent augmented reality screens named MIRAGE. CYCLOPS platform consists of a head-mounted projection display (HMPD), imaging and depth sensors. We filed 3 international PCT patent applications protecting the technology. The objective of this proposal is to exploit the commercial potential of the CYCLOPS platform and the MIRAGE AR screens. Proposed platform has key advantages compared to existing AR glasses as it does not obstruct the visual field of the user, does not cause any viewing discomfort, fully integrated (including mobile processor) and consume low-power. MIRAGE screens enable telepresence using AR headsets and a passive screen. Such a display integrated with imagers and sensors and AR screens is a breakthrough technology and offers a very promising AR solution especially for industrial and medical applications.

150 000 €

Start date: 2017-05-01, End date: 2018-10-31

Forecasting and monitoring key economic variables is one of the main activities of financial and government institutions, forecasting agencies, and investment companies. In the ERC-funded starting grant (ERC-2007-StG: Change-Point Tests) we developed novel models and tests for forecasting key economic indicators (such as economic activity, financial volatility and others) as well as evaluating the reliability of model predictions. In many cases our methods improve upon the current-state-of-art. The idea of this ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) grant is to use these novel models and tests to develop a software/toolbox that forecasts and monitors economic indicators. Most available forecasting software lack real-time monitoring and predictive breakdown tests which are important for reliable forecasts especially in periods of instability. Our forecasting and monitoring toolbox can improve the reliability of forecasts as follows: (1) using a novel family of models and high frequency information (2) monitoring forecasts in real-time (3) using new predictive tests of potential breakdowns. Such economic forecasts are at the heart of economic decision making made by governments, Central Banks, and firms that are potential users of our toolbox. In this ERC PoC we will initially work with a forecasting agency and a Central Bank, given contacts have already been established, in order to examine various aspects of the development of this toolbox such as: building a user-friendly software, developing a three-dimensional graphical representation of the monitoring and predictive breakdown tests, and generally making our new methods accessible to decision makers. The overall objective of this ERC PoC grant is to provide a software with innovative techniques that can improve economic forecasts and thereby economic decision making. Reliable economic forecasts can lead to prudent economic policy making and affect the growth, economic and social welfare of countries, firms and individuals.

150 000 €

Start date: 2015-10-01, End date: 2017-03-31

Scientific and medical evidence indicate that non-invasive prenatal testing, known as non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), is a safer alternative to invasive tests that might put the pregnancy at risk. Modern NIPT examine traces of fetal DNA in the maternal bloodstream to determine whether the fetus is at risk of chromosomal abnormalities such as, but not limited to, Down syndrome (trisomy 21), Patau syndrome (trisomy 13) and Edward’s syndrome (trisomy 18). In this ERC Proof of Concept Grant (mR-NIPD), we anticipate to correlate already discovered DNA biomarkers of the ERC NIPD (funded ERC) with biomarkers in mRNA transcripts. The method, directly related to the currently funded ERC, will use m6A-specific methylated mRNA immunoprecipitation combined with Next Generation Sequencing (MeRIP-Seq) on fetal and maternal mRNA samples. As a result, we aim to increase the number of fetal specific biomarkers and provide a novel, cost-effective non-invasive prenatal test that will be accessible to all pregnant women independent from social and economic status

150 000 €

Start date: 2016-12-01, End date: 2018-05-31

The invention of super-resolution optical microscopy, commonly referred to as optical nanoscopy, has provided a glimpse of future impacts on cell-biology and health. Imagine the possibilities of scientific discoveries if every research and clinical lab is equipped with an optical nanoscope that is capable of imaging with resolution of sub-50 nm. Even though nanoscopy offers unprecedented opportunities, the widespread adoption of present nanoscopy is limited due to its present limitations, mainly system complexity and high ownership cost, next to technical limitations such as low throughput, slow-imaging speeds and lack of multi-modality. In the ERC PoC project, I will develop user-friendly photonic chip-based nanoscopy, to be used in a standard microscope, where sample is placed on top of a photonic chip capable of both holding and illuminating the sample, enabling to acquire super resolved images. Photonic-chips together with coupling unit can be retrofitted to any existing standard microscope converting it to high-resolution optical nanoscope.

150 000 €

Start date: 2018-04-01, End date: 2019-09-30

Neuromorphic computing has demonstrated high potential for creating computing systems with order-of-magnitude improvements in energy efficiency and robustness to noisy or unreliable sensory signals, such as those inherent in vision. However, a significant roadblock to realizing the full potential of this emerging brain-inspired technology is the current practical need to use inefficient and slow (high latency) legacy von Neumann architectures to convert the input data that needs to be processed, and supply it to the neuromorphic system for further processing. A promising solution to this problem is the recent availability of state-of-the-art neuromorphic sensors, which produce asynchronous event-based output in a form for neuromorphic processing. In parallel, we have developed state-of-the-art neuromorphic processors in the ERC NeuroP project, opening the path to creating fully neuromorphic combined sensing and processing systems. Here we will demonstrate the potential of this technology by building a proof of concept Neuromorphic Sensory Processor (NSP), which will directly interface the neuromorphic Dynamic Vision Sensor with one of the neuromorphic processor devices developed in the ERC NeuroP project. This will represent the first ever general-purpose, end-to-end, fully neuromorphic vision sensing and processing system available for general usage. In this project we will build a technology demonstrator and a detailed commercial business case for this technology, and demonstrate both its technological and commercial advantages. Possible applications for the technology include ultra-high performance and ultra-low power visual processing in ambient surveillance, driver assistance, mobile/wearable devices and robotics.

150 000 €

Start date: 2016-06-01, End date: 2017-11-30

Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability and represents a major health problem in the EU and the Western world. Despite available acute care treatment and rehabilitation therapies, more than half of the patients remain disabled and there is a large unmet medical need accordingly. Regeneration of interrupted nerve fiber tracts and plastic “hardware” changes in the adult mammalian central nervous system are extremely restricted, a phenomenon which represents a key reason for the low degree of recovery following CNS injuries including stroke. The molecular impediments that form the basis of this phenomenon are neurite growth inhibitory proteins expressed in central nervous system myelin, in particular the membrane protein Nogo-A which was discovered by our group. Importantly, antibodies directed against Nogo-A have been shown to induce axonal regeneration, enhance plastic circuit rearrangements and mediate significant improvements in functional recovery in rodent and non-human primate models of stroke and spinal cord injury. As recently shown in the ERC advanced grant supported the project ‘Nogorise’, almost full functional recovery was observed in rats with large strokes when anti-Nogo-A antibody treatment was followed by intensive rehabilitative training. As currently no therapy for human stroke patients beyond acute care and rehabilitation exists, there is a substantial market opportunity for the anti- Nogo-A therapy. The proposed activities within the present project aim at further establishing preclinical proof-of-concept for an anti-Nogo-A administration paradigm translatable to human stroke patients and development of human antibodies targeting Nogo-A. The expected data package will allow the critical transition from preclinical to clinical development and support the development of a comprehensive business strategy.

150 000 €

Start date: 2017-03-01, End date: 2018-08-31