ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

"Ageing is the gradual and irreversible breakdown of living systems associated with the advancement of time, which leads to an increase in vulnerability and eventual mortality. Despite recent advances in ageing research, the intrinsic complexity of the ageing process has prevented a full understanding of this process, therefore, ageing remains a grand challenge in contemporary biology. In AGELESS, we will tackle this challenge by uncovering the molecular mechanisms of halted ageing in a unique model system, the bats. Bats are the longest-lived mammals relative to their body size, and defy the ‘rate-of-living’ theories as they use twice as much the energy as other species of considerable size, but live far longer. This suggests that bats have some underlying mechanisms that may explain their exceptional longevity. In AGELESS, we will identify the molecular mechanisms that enable mammals to achieve extraordinary longevity, using state-of-the-art comparative genomic methodologies focused on bats. We will identify, using population transcriptomics and telomere/mtDNA genomics, the molecular changes that occur in an ageing wild population of bats to uncover how bats ‘age’ so slowly compared with other mammals. In silico whole genome analyses, field based ageing transcriptomic data, mtDNA and telomeric studies will be integrated and analysed using a networks approach, to ascertain how these systems interact to halt ageing. For the first time, we will be able to utilize the diversity seen within nature to identify key molecular targets and regions that regulate and control ageing in mammals. AGELESS will provide a deeper understanding of the causal mechanisms of ageing, potentially uncovering the crucial molecular pathways that can be modified to halt, alleviate and perhaps even reverse this process in man."

1 499 768 €

Start date: 2013-01-01, End date: 2017-12-31

Collective electron motion can unfold on attosecond time scales in nanoplasmonic systems, as defined by the inverse spectral bandwidth of the plasmonic resonant region. Similarly, in dielectrics or semiconductors, the laser-driven collective motion of electrons can occur on this characteristic time scale. Until now, such collective electron dynamics has not been directly observed on its natural, attosecond timescale. In ATTOCO, the attosecond, sub-cycle dynamics of strong-field driven collective electron dynamics in clusters and nanoparticles will be explored. Moreover, we will explore field-dependent processes induced by strong laser fields in nanometer sized matter, such as the metallization of dielectrics, which has been recently proposed theoretically. In order to map the collective electron motion we will apply the attosecond nanoplasmonic streaking technique, which has been proposed and developed theoretically. In this approach, the temporal resolution is achieved by limiting the emission of high energetic, direct photoelectrons to a sub-cycle time window using attosecond XUV pulses phase-locked to a driving few-cycle near-infrared field. Kinetic energy spectra of the photoelectrons recorded for different delays between the excitation field and the ionizing XUV pulse will allow extracting the spatio-temporal electron dynamics. ATTOCO offers the capability to measure field-induced material changes in real-time and to gain novel insight into collective electron dynamics. In particular, we aim to learn from ATTOCO in detail, how the collective electron motion is established, how the collective motion is driven by the strong external field and over which pathways and timescale the collective motion decays. ATTOCO provides also a major step in the development of lightwave (nano-)electronics, which may push the frontiers of electronics from multi-gigahertz to petahertz frequencies. If successfully accomplished, this development will herald the potential scalability of electron-based information technologies to lightwave frequencies, surpassing the speed of current computation and communication technology by many orders of magnitude.

1 498 500 €

Start date: 2013-06-01, End date: 2018-05-31

"This multidisciplinary project comprising archaeology, history, geochemistry, and geology aims at the decipherment of the enigma of the origin of a material that emerged in the third millennium BCE and gave an entire cultural epoch its name, namely the alloy of copper and tin called bronze. While copper deposits are relatively widely distributed there are only very few tin deposits known in the Old World (Europe, the Mediterranean basin and southwest Asia). Since the late 19th century archaeologists have discussed the question of the provenance of tin for the production of the earliest bronzes without any definite answer. The enigma has even grown over the past decades, because it turned out that the earliest bronzes appear in a wide area stretching from the Aegean to the Persian Gulf that is geologically devoid of any tin deposits. There is tin in western and central Europe and there is also tin in central Asia. Thus, tin or bronze seems to have been traded over large distances but it is unknown in which direction. Now a new method has become available that offers the chance to trace ancient tin via tin isotope signatures. It was found that the isotope ratios of tin exhibit small but measurable variations in nature making different tin deposits identifiable so that bronze objects can in principle be related to specific ore deposits. It is proposed to apply for the first time this new technology to characterize all known tin deposits in the Old World and relate them to bronze and tin artefacts of the third and second millennia BCE. This groundbreaking interdisciplinary study will increase our understanding of Bronze Age metal trade beyond surmise and speculation with vast implications for the reconstruction of socio-economic relations within and between Bronze Age societies. The impact will be a major advance in our understanding of the earliest complex societies with craft specialization and the formation of cities and empires."

2 340 800 €

Start date: 2013-08-01, End date: 2018-07-31

The Holocene record of atmospheric CO2 and methane concentrations is an enigma. Concentrations of both gases increased from the beginning of the epoch 11,700 years ago to about 10,000 BP, then declined for several thousand years, but by 6000 BP, concentrations of both gases were steadily increasing again. This mid-late Holocene rise in greenhouse gases is unusual; similar patterns are not observed during previous interglacials. While various mechanisms have been proposed to explain these changes in Holocene CO2 and methane, there is one undisputed feature of this epoch that we know is different from the rest of Earth history: the existence of behaviorally modern humans. How humanity could have influenced the Holocene increase in CO2 and methane concentrations is the subject of the COEVOLVE project. In an interdisciplinary study that combines the social and natural sciences, we will reconstruct anthropogenic CO2 and methane emissions over the Holocene using a state-of-the-art model of terrestrial biogeochemistry and earth surface processes. The novelty of our approach is to develop a geodatabase of anthropogenic activities derived from historical and archaeological observations to drive our model, and to evaluate our simulations against a new, comprehensive global reconstruction of past land cover. COEVOLVE is organized around three activities: 1) synthesis of observations of past land cover change from paleoecological archives, 2) development of a spatial database of the spread of technology, industry, culture, and trade that influenced global land use and resource consumption patterns and 3) informed by parts 1 and 2, modeling of terrestrial biogeochemical cycles and land surface processes including deforestation, soil erosion, and fire. With a new perspective on preindustrial environmental impact, the COEVOLVE project will make a breakthrough in our understanding of the influence of humans on greenhouse gas concentrations and global climate during the Holocene.

1 500 000 €

Start date: 2013-05-01, End date: 2018-04-30