ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

"X-ray crystallography yields atomic-resolution 3D images of the whole spectrum of molecules ranging from small inorganic clusters to large protein complexes constituting the macromolecular machinery of life. Life is not static, and many of the most important reactions in chemistry and biology are light induced and occur on ultrafast timescales. These have been studied with high time resolution primarily by ultrafast laser spectroscopy, but they reduce the vast complexity of the process to a few reaction coordinates. Here we develop attosecond serial crystallography and spectroscopy, to give a full description of ultrafast processes atomically resolved in real space and on the electronic energy landscape, from co-measurement of X-ray and optical spectra, and X-ray diffraction. This technique will revolutionize our understanding of structure and function at the atomic and molecular level and thereby unravel fundamental processes in chemistry and biology. We apply a fully coherent attosecond X-ray source based on coherent inverse Compton scattering off a free-electron crystal, developed in this project, to outrun radiation damage effects due to the necessary high X-ray irradiance required to acquire diffraction signals [A. Cho, ""Breakthrough of the year"", Science 388, 1530 (2012)]. Our synergistic project will optimize the entire instrumentation towards fundamental measurements of the mechanism of light absorption and excitation energy transfer. The multidisciplinary team optimizes X-ray pulse parameters, in tandem with sample delivery, crystal size, and advanced X-ray detectors. We will apply our new capabilities to one of the most important problems in structural biology, which is to elucidate the dynamics of light reactions, electron transfer and protein structure in photosynthesis. Also, the attosecond source can provide a coherent seed and will help to overcome peak flux limitations of X-ray FELs by introducing chirped pulse amplification to FEL technology."

13 884 200 €

Start date: 2014-08-01, End date: 2020-07-31

Our goal is to uncover the learning algorithms that subserve biological intelligence and to discover how they are implemented in the brain. We take for granted that biological intelligence results from neural information processing, that neural information processing is based on the transmission of action potentials through synapses, and that learning is realized through synaptic plasticity. We are inspired by two key observations: Firstly, we know that biological learning unfolds in ways different from mainstream machine learning that relies on learning from large labeled datasets. Second, we discovered that the engagement of the brain during play can result in unexpected and profound cognitive benefits. This proposal describes an untravelled route to the learning algorithms of the brain that runs through the no-man’s-land between synaptic physiology, systems neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, theoretical neuroscience and machine learning. Our approach focuses on the self-teaching abilities of the mammalian brain and covers and connects four major topics: (1) the objective functions that govern synaptic plasticity, (2) the teaching signals through which learning is steered, (3) behavioral mechanisms of self-teaching, in particular play behaviors, (4) the brain states that engage self-teaching behaviors, in particular the brain state of play. The BrainPlay grant will study self-teaching abilities from synapses to brains, from computational theory to action video games. As gaming has been shown to be highly beneficial for human brain function, we are intrigued by how little we know about what is going on in playing brains and how the brain state of play shapes learning. Engaging the latest theoretical and technological breakthroughs, BrainPlay will reach far beyond mainstream neuroscience and embrace and elucidate playfulness and self-teaching as important components of the brain's learning algorithms.

9 781 250 €

Start date: 2019-08-01, End date: 2025-07-31

The Internet has evolved from a mere communication network used by tens of millions of users two decades ago, to a global multimedia platform for communication, social networking, entertainment, education, trade and political activism used by more than two billion users. This transformation has brought tremendous benefits to society, but has also created entirely new threats to privacy, safety, law enforcement, freedom of information and freedom of speech. In today’s Internet, principals are amorphous, identities can be fluid, users participate and exchange information as peers, and data is processed on global third-party platforms. Existing models and techniques for security and privacy, which assume trusted infrastructure and well-defined policies, principals and roles, fail to fully address this challenge. The imPACT project addresses the challenge of providing privacy, accountability, compliance and trust (PACT) in tomorrow’s Internet, using a cross-disciplinary and synergistic approach to understanding and mastering the different roles, interactions and relationships of users and their joint effect on the four PACT properties. The focus is on principles and methodologies that are relevant to the needs of individual Internet users, have a strong potential to lead to practical solutions and address the fundamental long-term needs of the future Internet. We take on this challenge with a team of researchers from relevant subdisciplines within computer science, and with input from outside experts in law, social sciences, economics and business. The team of PIs consists of international leaders in privacy and security, experimental distributed systems, formal methods, program analysis and verification, and database systems. By teaming up and committing ourselves to this joint research, we are in a unique position to meet the grand challenge of unifying the PACT properties and laying a new foundation for their holistic treatment.

9 257 000 €

Start date: 2015-02-01, End date: 2021-01-31

An essential consequence of multi-cellularity is the need for intercellular and tissue wide communication. As seen with animals, higher plants coordinate metabolic and developmental processes via signals transferred to different body parts. Plants use a dual vascular system consisting of phloem and xylem for long-distance transfer of metabolites and signalling molecules. In contrast to circular systems in animals, transport in flowering plants occurs in the phloem via the cytoplasm of connected cells devoid of nuclei. In addition to small molecules, a remarkably large number of so-called mobile micro RNAs (miRNAs), messenger RNAs (mRNAs), and phloem RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) were identified in the phloem and in chimeric plants. Mobile RNAs and RBPs move through plasmodesmata into and through the phloem to distinct tissues. Thus, mobile RNAs represent an additional class of signalling molecules, raising important questions in the field of intercellular signalling. This project combines the expertise of three research groups in the fields of cell biology/macromolecular transport, mathematical modelling/bioinformatics and phloem function/protein biochemistry. It addresses the questions: How are mobile miRNAs and mRNAs selected for transport? Is this process specific and regulated by RBPs and motifs? What determines their destination? And importantly, how are these signals processed in the destination cells? To address these questions, we will develop predictive models, using novel single cell transcriptomics pipelines to establish cell-type specific RNA transport and motifs (WP1), and studying the structure, affinity, and functions of phloem RBPs to gain insights in the RNA delivery mechanism (WP2). We will combine the advantages of the agronomically important plant oilseed rape to identify phloem RNAs and RBPs with the well-established A. thaliana model that allows us to identify and test cell-specific transported RNA signals and RBPs in a time-efficient manner.

6 134 102 €

Start date: 2019-04-01, End date: 2025-03-31