ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

Despite its importance for human health and climate change organic aerosol (OA) remains one of the least understood aspects of atmospheric chemistry. We propose to develop an innovative new framework for the description of OA in chemical transport and climate models that will be able to overcome the challenges posed by the chemical complexity of OA while capturing its essential features. The objectives of ATMOPACS are: (i) The development of a new unified framework for the description of OA based on its two most important parameters: volatility and oxygen content. (ii) The development of measurement techniques for the volatility distribution and oxygen content distribution of OA. This will allow the experimental characterization of OA in this new “coordinate system”. (iii) The study of the major OA processes (partitioning, chemical aging, hygroscopicity, CCN formation, nucleation) in this new framework combining lab and field measurements. (iv) The development and evaluation of the next generation of regional and global CTMs using the above framework. (v) The quantification of the importance of the various sources and formation pathways of OA in Europe and the world, of the sensitivity of OA to emission control strategies, and its role in the direct and indirect effects of aerosols on climate. The proposed work involves a combination of laboratory measurements, field measurements including novel “atmospheric perturbation experiments”, OA model development, and modelling in urban, regional, and global scales. Therefore, it will span the system scales starting from the nanoscale to the global. The modelling tools that will be developed will be made available to all other research groups.

2 496 000 €

Start date: 2011-01-01, End date: 2015-12-31

Nowadays human intellectual product is increasingly produced and disseminated solely in digital form. The capability of digital data for effortless reproduction and transfer has lead to a true revolution that impacts every aspect of human creativity. Nevertheless, as with every technological revolution, this digital media revolution comes with a dark side that, if left unaddressed, it will limit its impact and may counter its potential advantages. In particular, the way we produce and disseminate digital content today does not lend itself to controlling the way data move and change. It turns out that the power of being digital can be a double-edged sword: the ease of production, dissemination and editing also implies the ease of misappropriation, plagiarism and improper modification. To counter the above problems, the proposed research activity will focus on the development of a new generation of enabling cryptographic technologies that have the power to facilitate the appropriate controls for data movement. Using the techniques developed in this project it will be feasible to build digital content distribution systems where content producers will have the full possible control on the dissemination of their intellectual product, while at the same time the rights of the end-users in terms of privacy and fair use can be preserved. The PI is uniquely qualified to carry out the proposed research activity as he has extensive prior experience in making innovations in the area of digital content distribution as well as in the management of research projects. As part of the project activities, the PI will establish the CODAMODA laboratory in the University of Athens and will seek opportunities for technology transfer and interdisciplinary work with the legal science community.

1 212 960 €

Start date: 2011-04-01, End date: 2017-03-31

HIV/AIDS is one of the most destructive pandemics in human history, responsible for more than 25 million deaths. More than 30 million people live with limited or no access to therapeutic treatments, mainly due to the high cost of highly active antiretroviral therapies (HAART) and current diagnostic tests as well as due to the lack of basic infrastructure (e.g. lack of electricity, no trained personnel) that can support these tests. The need for innovative, inexpensive diagnostic instrumentation technology that can be used in resource-limited settings is immediate. While programs that offer free HAART are being implemented in resource-limited settings, no diagnostic tests are available for evaluating the efficacy of HAART provided for the reasons mentioned above. Efficient management of HAART requires monitoring the course of HIV infection over time. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the CD4 T-cell count test for monitoring the clinical status of HIV individuals in resource-limited settings. We propose to develop a portable, inexpensive, MEMS (MicroElectroMechanical Systems)-based, imaging system for counting the absolute number of CD4 cells from 1 l of whole blood. We use the term ‘imaging system’ to denote the different approach we follow for counting CD4 cells: rather the reading one by one singles cells (as it is done with flow cytometry), our system can image simultaneously thousands of individual cells, pre-assembled on the surface of a biochip. Although the proposed imaging system can replace current expensive cell counting instrumentation, our goal is to develop a system that can reach the end-user wherever limited infrastructure is present and no access to a hospital or clinic is possible. Such technology will not only enable to monitor the efficacy of an individual’s HAART in the developing world, but it will make more medicines available by identifying patients who need a treatment from patients who do not need it.

1 986 000 €

Start date: 2012-06-01, End date: 2017-05-31

Malignant pleural effusion (MPE) is a significant problem most commonly caused by adenocarcinomas. Although tumors involving the pleura vary in their ability to produce MPE, pathways critical for MPE formation are poorly defined. We have found that mouse tumors harboring mutant (”)KRas produce MPE in mice while tumors without ”KRas do not. LLC and MC38 lung and colon adenocarcinomas, potent inducers of MPE in syngeneic mice, harbor ”KRas that drives constitutive Ras and alternative nuclear factor (NF)-ºB signaling, inflammatory gene expression, and recruitment of specific myeloid cells to the pleural space. In contrast, mouse B16 melanoma and AE17 mesothelioma have wtKRas, lack constitutive Ras/alternative NF-º’ signaling, and are incapable of forming MPE. RNAi-mediated silencing of KRas in MC38 tumors abrogated MPE formation and Ras/alternative NF-º’ activation, while these phenomena were reconstituted in B16 tumors after KRas overexpression. We hypothesize that Ras-activating mutations drive the inflammatory phenotype of adenocarcinomas critical for MPE formation, which is characterized by Ras/alternative NF-ºB activation, inflammatory signalling to host vasculature/immune system, and recruitment of specific myeloid cells, and results in endothelial proliferation/leakiness. To test this hypothesis, we propose to: 1) define the relationship between Ras-activating mutations (RAM) and MPE formation; 2) identify tumor cell Ras-dependent signalling pathways and gene expression signature critical for MPE formation; 3) investigate the host response to tumor cells with RAM that results in MPE; and 4) target Ras and dependent signalling pathways as potential therapy for MPE. Studies will be performed using delivery of mouse/human tumors with/without RAM into the pleura of syngeneic/immunocompromized mice and are likely to yield new insights into the mechanisms of pleural tumor progression and to identify novel approaches to treatment of cancer patients with MPE.

1 995 000 €

Start date: 2011-04-01, End date: 2016-03-31