Project acronym CancerADAPT
Project Targeting the adaptive capacity of prostate cancer through the manipulation of transcriptional and metabolic traits
Researcher (PI) Arkaitz CARRACEDO PEREZ
Host Institution (HI) ASOCIACION CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION COOPERATIVA EN BIOCIENCIAS
Country Spain
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS4, ERC-2018-COG
Summary The composition and molecular features of tumours vary during the course of the disease, and the selection pressure imposed by the environment is a central component in this process. Evolutionary principles have been exploited to explain the genomic aberrations in cancer. However, the phenotypic changes underlying disease progression remain poorly understood. In the past years, I have contributed to identify and characterise the therapeutic implications underlying metabolic alterations that are intrinsic to primary tumours or metastasis. In CancerADAPT I postulate that cancer cells rely on adaptive transcriptional & metabolic mechanisms [converging on a Metabolic Phenotype] in order to rapidly succeed in their establishment in new microenvironments along disease progression. I aim to predict the molecular cues that govern the adaptive properties in prostate cancer (PCa), one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in men and an important source of cancer-related deaths. I will exploit single cell RNASeq, spatial transcriptomics and multiregional OMICs in order to identify the transcriptional and metabolic diversity within tumours and along disease progression. I will complement experimental strategies with computational analyses that identify and classify the predicted adaptation strategies of PCa cells in response to variations in the tumour microenvironment. Metabolic phenotypes postulated to sustain PCa adaptability will be functionally and mechanistically deconstructed. We will identify therapeutic strategies emanating from these results through in silico methodologies and small molecule high-throughput screening, and evaluate their potential to hamper the adaptability of tumour cells in vitro and in vivo, in two specific aspects: metastasis and therapy response. CancerADAPT will generate fundamental understanding on how cancer cells adapt in our organism, in turn leading to therapeutic strategies that increase the efficacy of current treatments.
Summary
The composition and molecular features of tumours vary during the course of the disease, and the selection pressure imposed by the environment is a central component in this process. Evolutionary principles have been exploited to explain the genomic aberrations in cancer. However, the phenotypic changes underlying disease progression remain poorly understood. In the past years, I have contributed to identify and characterise the therapeutic implications underlying metabolic alterations that are intrinsic to primary tumours or metastasis. In CancerADAPT I postulate that cancer cells rely on adaptive transcriptional & metabolic mechanisms [converging on a Metabolic Phenotype] in order to rapidly succeed in their establishment in new microenvironments along disease progression. I aim to predict the molecular cues that govern the adaptive properties in prostate cancer (PCa), one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in men and an important source of cancer-related deaths. I will exploit single cell RNASeq, spatial transcriptomics and multiregional OMICs in order to identify the transcriptional and metabolic diversity within tumours and along disease progression. I will complement experimental strategies with computational analyses that identify and classify the predicted adaptation strategies of PCa cells in response to variations in the tumour microenvironment. Metabolic phenotypes postulated to sustain PCa adaptability will be functionally and mechanistically deconstructed. We will identify therapeutic strategies emanating from these results through in silico methodologies and small molecule high-throughput screening, and evaluate their potential to hamper the adaptability of tumour cells in vitro and in vivo, in two specific aspects: metastasis and therapy response. CancerADAPT will generate fundamental understanding on how cancer cells adapt in our organism, in turn leading to therapeutic strategies that increase the efficacy of current treatments.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 882 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-11-01, End date: 2024-10-31
Project acronym LArcHer
Project Breaking barriers between Science and Heritage approaches to Levantine Rock Art through Archaeology, Heritage Science and IT
Researcher (PI) Ines DOMINGO SANZ
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
Country Spain
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH6, ERC-2018-COG
Summary LArcHer project aims at pioneering a new and more comprehensive way of understanding one of Europe’s most extraordinary bodies of prehistoric art, awarded Unesco World Heritage status in 1998: Levantine rock art (LRA). The ground-breaking nature of the project relies on combining a multidisciplinary (Archaeology, Heritage Science and IT) and multiscale approach (from microanalysis to landscape perspectives) to gain a holistic view of this art. It also aims at closing existing gaps between science and heritage mainstreams, to better understand the values and threats affecting this tradition and bring about a change in the way we understand, care, use and manage this millenary legacy. LArcHer aims are: a) Use cross-disciplinary knowledge and methods to redefine LRA (i.e. new dating techniques to refine chronology, new analytical methods to understand the creative process); b) Use LRA as a proxy to raise new questions of global interest on the evolution of creative thinking and human cognition (i.e. the timing and driving forces behind the birth of anthropocentrism and visual narratives in the history of prehistoric art); c) Develop new research agendas to set off complementary goals between science and heritage and define best practices for open air rock art conservation and management.
Spread across Mediterranean Iberia, LRA is the only European body of figurative art dominated by humans engaged in dynamic narratives of hunting, violence, warfare, dances and so forth. These scenes are unique to explore past social dynamics, human behaviour and cultural practices. As such, it is the only body of European rock art with potential to answer some of the new questions raised by LArcHer.
Key to LArcHer are the systematic recording and analysis of the art through 3D Digital technologies, management and data storage systems, GIS, physicochemical analysis of pigments and bedrock and comparative analysis with other major bodies of art with equivalent developments.
Summary
LArcHer project aims at pioneering a new and more comprehensive way of understanding one of Europe’s most extraordinary bodies of prehistoric art, awarded Unesco World Heritage status in 1998: Levantine rock art (LRA). The ground-breaking nature of the project relies on combining a multidisciplinary (Archaeology, Heritage Science and IT) and multiscale approach (from microanalysis to landscape perspectives) to gain a holistic view of this art. It also aims at closing existing gaps between science and heritage mainstreams, to better understand the values and threats affecting this tradition and bring about a change in the way we understand, care, use and manage this millenary legacy. LArcHer aims are: a) Use cross-disciplinary knowledge and methods to redefine LRA (i.e. new dating techniques to refine chronology, new analytical methods to understand the creative process); b) Use LRA as a proxy to raise new questions of global interest on the evolution of creative thinking and human cognition (i.e. the timing and driving forces behind the birth of anthropocentrism and visual narratives in the history of prehistoric art); c) Develop new research agendas to set off complementary goals between science and heritage and define best practices for open air rock art conservation and management.
Spread across Mediterranean Iberia, LRA is the only European body of figurative art dominated by humans engaged in dynamic narratives of hunting, violence, warfare, dances and so forth. These scenes are unique to explore past social dynamics, human behaviour and cultural practices. As such, it is the only body of European rock art with potential to answer some of the new questions raised by LArcHer.
Key to LArcHer are the systematic recording and analysis of the art through 3D Digital technologies, management and data storage systems, GIS, physicochemical analysis of pigments and bedrock and comparative analysis with other major bodies of art with equivalent developments.
Max ERC Funding
1 991 178 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-10-01, End date: 2024-09-30
Project acronym SUBSILIENCE
Project Subsistence and human resilience to sudden climatic events in Europe during MIS3
Researcher (PI) ANA B. MARIN-ARROYO
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD DE CANTABRIA
Country Spain
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH6, ERC-2018-COG
Summary Climate has long been proposed as a possible trigger-factor for the extinction of Neanderthals and the rapid colonization of Europe by Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH). Abrupt and acute oscillations of climate, as recorded from polar ice sheets, are particularly threatening as they can push ecosystems towards catastrophic outcomes. Under these conditions, the survival of a species critically depends on their adaptive skills. Understanding the exact role that these episodes could have had in the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition is then essential to unravel the real causes of Neanderthal demise and AMH success. To do this, SUBSILIENCE will identify the subsistence strategies adopted by both human species in response to those climatic changes at 20 key archaeological sites located across southern European peninsulas. By applying zooarchaeological and taphonomic analyses, the behavioural flexibility and resilience of each human species will be assessed. In addition, to enable effective testing, local terrestrial climatic and environmental conditions will be accurately reconstructed using stable isotopes from animals consumed, producing a unique, continuous and properly-dated general environmental framework, improving existing knowledge. Finally, to further explore the problem, an innovative procedure to estimate prey abundance, ecology and human behaviour, involving the estimation of the ecosystem carrying capacity, will be developed. This multidisciplinary and novel approach will provide, for the first time, accurate answers to questions concerning a) which particular subsistence patterns (if any) favoured AMH over Neanderthals while coping with the changing environment and b) the extent to which climatic oscillations affected Neanderthal extinction. In this, it will be of relevance to the study of Prehistory on a pan-European scale.
Summary
Climate has long been proposed as a possible trigger-factor for the extinction of Neanderthals and the rapid colonization of Europe by Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH). Abrupt and acute oscillations of climate, as recorded from polar ice sheets, are particularly threatening as they can push ecosystems towards catastrophic outcomes. Under these conditions, the survival of a species critically depends on their adaptive skills. Understanding the exact role that these episodes could have had in the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition is then essential to unravel the real causes of Neanderthal demise and AMH success. To do this, SUBSILIENCE will identify the subsistence strategies adopted by both human species in response to those climatic changes at 20 key archaeological sites located across southern European peninsulas. By applying zooarchaeological and taphonomic analyses, the behavioural flexibility and resilience of each human species will be assessed. In addition, to enable effective testing, local terrestrial climatic and environmental conditions will be accurately reconstructed using stable isotopes from animals consumed, producing a unique, continuous and properly-dated general environmental framework, improving existing knowledge. Finally, to further explore the problem, an innovative procedure to estimate prey abundance, ecology and human behaviour, involving the estimation of the ecosystem carrying capacity, will be developed. This multidisciplinary and novel approach will provide, for the first time, accurate answers to questions concerning a) which particular subsistence patterns (if any) favoured AMH over Neanderthals while coping with the changing environment and b) the extent to which climatic oscillations affected Neanderthal extinction. In this, it will be of relevance to the study of Prehistory on a pan-European scale.
Max ERC Funding
2 000 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-06-01, End date: 2024-05-31
Project acronym TRADITION
Project Long-term coastal adaptation, food security and poverty alleviation in Latin America
Researcher (PI) Andre Carlo COLONESE
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA
Country Spain
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH6, ERC-2018-COG
Summary TRADITION aims to understand the long-term trajectory of human interaction with coastal resources and its legacy to present day small-scale fisheries in Latin America. Founded on traditional knowledge rooted in the past, small-scale fisheries are a crucial source of food and livelihood for millions of people worldwide, and play a pivotal role in poverty eradication in developing countries. A thorough recognition of the cultural and socio-economic significance of Latin American fisheries requires a temporal component that only archaeology and history can provide. TRADITION will investigate a 4000-year record of coastal exploitation in one of the world's most threatened tropical environments: the Atlantic forest of Brazil. We will draw together archaeological, palaeoecological, historical and ethnographic records to address fundamental questions that impinge upon our current understanding of the development of small-scale fisheries in this region. How did coastal economies adapt to the spread of agriculture? What was the impact of past climate and environmental changes on coastal populations? What was the impact of European colonisation of the Americas on the development of small-scale fisheries? What was the role of historical institutions and regulations in the negotiation between traditional and modern practices in small-scale fisheries? How have the historical practices and events shaped current small-scale coastal communities, and can this knowledge benefit current management strategies. The answers will help us understand how coastal economies responded to unprecedented societal and environmental changes by adapting their subsistence practices, technology and culture, while contributing to the foundation of coastal societies in Latin America.
Summary
TRADITION aims to understand the long-term trajectory of human interaction with coastal resources and its legacy to present day small-scale fisheries in Latin America. Founded on traditional knowledge rooted in the past, small-scale fisheries are a crucial source of food and livelihood for millions of people worldwide, and play a pivotal role in poverty eradication in developing countries. A thorough recognition of the cultural and socio-economic significance of Latin American fisheries requires a temporal component that only archaeology and history can provide. TRADITION will investigate a 4000-year record of coastal exploitation in one of the world's most threatened tropical environments: the Atlantic forest of Brazil. We will draw together archaeological, palaeoecological, historical and ethnographic records to address fundamental questions that impinge upon our current understanding of the development of small-scale fisheries in this region. How did coastal economies adapt to the spread of agriculture? What was the impact of past climate and environmental changes on coastal populations? What was the impact of European colonisation of the Americas on the development of small-scale fisheries? What was the role of historical institutions and regulations in the negotiation between traditional and modern practices in small-scale fisheries? How have the historical practices and events shaped current small-scale coastal communities, and can this knowledge benefit current management strategies. The answers will help us understand how coastal economies responded to unprecedented societal and environmental changes by adapting their subsistence practices, technology and culture, while contributing to the foundation of coastal societies in Latin America.
Max ERC Funding
1 877 107 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-09-01, End date: 2024-08-31
