Project acronym PhilAnd
Project The origin and early development of philosophy in tenth-century al-Andalus: the impact of ill-defined materials and channels of transmission.
Researcher (PI) Godefroid DE CALLATAŸ
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH5, ERC-2016-ADG
Summary The objective of PhilAnd is to conduct a large-scale exploration of how, and under which form, philosophy appeared for the first time in al-Andalus. This issue is pivotal to understanding the history of sciences and ideas, and the role of the Arab-Muslim world in this transfer to Medieval Europe. Its relevance today also lies in the fact that it addresses questions of cultural and religious identities, since the formative stage of philosophy in al-Andalus proved decisive in shaping the intellectual background of many later authors from the Peninsula, whether Muslims, Jews, or Christians. At the crossroads of major lines of enquiries in scholarship and in line with recent discoveries having important chronological implications, PhilAnd focuses on the 10th century, a period usually disregarded by historians on the assumption that philosophy as such was not cultivated in the Iberian Peninsula before the 11th-12th centuries. Its originality is also to put emphasis on ‘ill-defined’ materials and channels of transmission, a field which remains largely unexplored. This project consists of five topics designed for highly-specialised scholars, and of another three transversal types of exploration conducted in the form of conferences convened with leading experts in the world. The final objectives are to test the hypothesis: 1) that the emergence of philosophy in al-Andalus significantly predates the currently accepted time; and 2) that the impact of this formative stage was considerably wider than commonly acknowledged. This project also seeks to provide a better evaluation of the originality of the first Andalusī philosophers with respect to their Oriental forerunners. This cutting-edge investigation is likely to stimulate major changes in our perception of how this primeval stage of philosophy in al-Andalus determined the subsequent developments of rational speculation among the three monotheistic communities of the Peninsula and the intellectual formation of Europe.
Summary
The objective of PhilAnd is to conduct a large-scale exploration of how, and under which form, philosophy appeared for the first time in al-Andalus. This issue is pivotal to understanding the history of sciences and ideas, and the role of the Arab-Muslim world in this transfer to Medieval Europe. Its relevance today also lies in the fact that it addresses questions of cultural and religious identities, since the formative stage of philosophy in al-Andalus proved decisive in shaping the intellectual background of many later authors from the Peninsula, whether Muslims, Jews, or Christians. At the crossroads of major lines of enquiries in scholarship and in line with recent discoveries having important chronological implications, PhilAnd focuses on the 10th century, a period usually disregarded by historians on the assumption that philosophy as such was not cultivated in the Iberian Peninsula before the 11th-12th centuries. Its originality is also to put emphasis on ‘ill-defined’ materials and channels of transmission, a field which remains largely unexplored. This project consists of five topics designed for highly-specialised scholars, and of another three transversal types of exploration conducted in the form of conferences convened with leading experts in the world. The final objectives are to test the hypothesis: 1) that the emergence of philosophy in al-Andalus significantly predates the currently accepted time; and 2) that the impact of this formative stage was considerably wider than commonly acknowledged. This project also seeks to provide a better evaluation of the originality of the first Andalusī philosophers with respect to their Oriental forerunners. This cutting-edge investigation is likely to stimulate major changes in our perception of how this primeval stage of philosophy in al-Andalus determined the subsequent developments of rational speculation among the three monotheistic communities of the Peninsula and the intellectual formation of Europe.
Max ERC Funding
2 495 335 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-10-01, End date: 2022-09-30
Project acronym TECNEC
Project Preclinical concept validation of tumor endothelial cell metabolism for novel anti-angiogenic therapy
Researcher (PI) Peter CARMELIET
Host Institution (HI) VIB
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), LS4, ERC-2016-ADG
Summary MAIN GOAL: To characterize the metabolic changes, fuelling growth of tumor endothelial cells (TECs) versus normal healthy endothelial cells (NECs), and identify & validate metabolic genes, deregulated in TECs, as targets for anti-angiogenic cancer therapy.
BACKGROUND & RATIONALE: Tumors stimulate blood vessel growth (angiogenesis) to nourish cancer cells, but current anti-angiogenic treatments lack sufficient efficacy. NECs are widely used for anti-angiogenesis development, but TECs, the real target cells, have been dismissed, even though they differ fundamentally from NECs. We pioneered NEC metabolism research and demonstrated that inhibition of specific metabolic pathways can block angiogenesis. Nothing is however known on TEC metabolism. I hypothesize that TECs “hyper-activate” their metabolism in a tissue-specific manner, and that targeting TEC metabolism is a novel concept for inhibiting tumor angiogenesis.
METHODOLOGY: We will perform a transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis of TECs & NECs isolated from cancer patients, use an in-house developed bioinformatics platform (BIOMEX) to analyze the omics data in order to rank deregulated metabolic genes, and construct TEC-tailored genome scale metabolic network models (GEMs) allowing in silico computational modeling to predict metabolic targets that affect TEC but not NEC growth. The in vitro angiogenic activity of top targets will be biologically validated directly or after a negative selection shRNA-based screen, followed by validation in preclinical tumor models in vivo, using conditional knockout mice. All procedures are operational. Deliverables include in vivo validated metabolic targets, driving tumor angiogenesis.
NOVELTY, OVERALL & CLINICAL IMPACT: These pioneering studies on TEC metabolism promise to open up new horizons/opportunities for cancer research. Treatment with inhibitors of the validated targets promises to normalize hyperactive TEC metabolism as a novel anti-angiogenic cancer therapy.
Summary
MAIN GOAL: To characterize the metabolic changes, fuelling growth of tumor endothelial cells (TECs) versus normal healthy endothelial cells (NECs), and identify & validate metabolic genes, deregulated in TECs, as targets for anti-angiogenic cancer therapy.
BACKGROUND & RATIONALE: Tumors stimulate blood vessel growth (angiogenesis) to nourish cancer cells, but current anti-angiogenic treatments lack sufficient efficacy. NECs are widely used for anti-angiogenesis development, but TECs, the real target cells, have been dismissed, even though they differ fundamentally from NECs. We pioneered NEC metabolism research and demonstrated that inhibition of specific metabolic pathways can block angiogenesis. Nothing is however known on TEC metabolism. I hypothesize that TECs “hyper-activate” their metabolism in a tissue-specific manner, and that targeting TEC metabolism is a novel concept for inhibiting tumor angiogenesis.
METHODOLOGY: We will perform a transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis of TECs & NECs isolated from cancer patients, use an in-house developed bioinformatics platform (BIOMEX) to analyze the omics data in order to rank deregulated metabolic genes, and construct TEC-tailored genome scale metabolic network models (GEMs) allowing in silico computational modeling to predict metabolic targets that affect TEC but not NEC growth. The in vitro angiogenic activity of top targets will be biologically validated directly or after a negative selection shRNA-based screen, followed by validation in preclinical tumor models in vivo, using conditional knockout mice. All procedures are operational. Deliverables include in vivo validated metabolic targets, driving tumor angiogenesis.
NOVELTY, OVERALL & CLINICAL IMPACT: These pioneering studies on TEC metabolism promise to open up new horizons/opportunities for cancer research. Treatment with inhibitors of the validated targets promises to normalize hyperactive TEC metabolism as a novel anti-angiogenic cancer therapy.
Max ERC Funding
2 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-11-01, End date: 2022-10-31
