ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

In the road towards quantum technologies capable of exploiting the revolutionary potential of quantum theory for information technology, a major bottleneck is the large overhead needed to correct errors caused by unwanted noise. Despite important research activity and great progress in designing better error correcting codes and fault-tolerant schemes, the fundamental limits of communication/computation over a quantum noisy medium are far from being understood. In fact, no satisfactory quantum analogue of Shannon’s celebrated noisy coding theorem is known. The objective of this project is to leverage tools from mathematical optimization in order to build an algorithmic theory of optimal information processing that would go beyond the statistical approach pioneered by Shannon. Our goal will be to establish efficient algorithms that determine optimal methods for achieving a given task, rather than only characterizing the best achievable rates in the asymptotic limit in terms of entropic expressions. This approach will address three limitations — that are particularly severe in the quantum context — faced by the statistical approach: the non-additivity of entropic expressions, the asymptotic nature of the theory and the independence assumption. Our aim is to develop efficient algorithms that take as input a description of a noise model and output a near-optimal method for reliable communication under this model. For example, our algorithms will answer: how many logical qubits can be reliably stored using 100 physical qubits that undergo depolarizing noise with parameter 5%? We will also develop generic and efficient decoding algorithms for quantum error correcting codes. These algorithms will have direct applications to the development of quantum technologies. Moreover, we will establish methods to compute the relevant uncertainty of large structured systems and apply them to obtain tight and non-asymptotic security bounds for (quantum) cryptographic protocols.

1 492 733 €

Start date: 2021-01-01, End date: 2025-12-31

The main objective nowadays in the field of biomaterials is to design highly performing bioinspired materials learning from natural processes. Importantly, biochemical and physical cues are key parameters that can affect cellular processes. Controlling processes that occur at the cell/material interface is also of prime importance to guide the cell response. The main aim of the current project is to develop novel functional bio-nanomaterials for in vitro biological studies. Our strategy is based on two related projects. The first project deals with the rational design of smart films with foreseen applications in musculoskeletal tissue engineering. We will gain knowledge of key cellular processes by designing well defined self-assembled thin coatings. These multi-functional surfaces with bioactivity (incorporation of growth factors), mechanical (film stiffness) and topographical properties (spatial control of the film s properties) will serve as tools to mimic the complexity of the natural materials in vivo and to present bioactive molecules in the solid phase. We will get a better fundamental understanding of how cellular functions, including adhesion and differentiation of muscle cells are affected by the materials s surface properties. In the second project, we will investigate at the molecular level a crucial aspect of cell adhesion and motility, which is the intracellular linkage between the plasma membrane and the cell cytoskeleton. We aim to elucidate the role of ERM proteins, especially ezrin and moesin, in the direct linkage between the plasma membrane and actin filaments. Here again, we will use a well defined microenvironment in vitro to simplify the complexity of the interactions that occur in cellulo. To this end, lipid membranes containing a key regulator lipid from the phosphoinositides familly, PIP2, will be employed in conjunction with purified proteins to investigate actin regulation by ERM proteins in the presence of PIP2-membranes.

1 499 996 €

Start date: 2011-06-01, End date: 2016-05-31

Uncertainty is everywhere, as the saying goes, but rarely considered in ethical reflections. This project aims to reinterpret ethical discussions on current advances in biomedicine: instead of understanding bioethical positions as extensions of classical normative views in ethics (consequentialism, deontologism, contractualism etc.), my project interprets them more accurately as involving various normative approaches to decision making under uncertainty. The following hard cases in bioethics provide the motivation for research: 1) Regulating scientific research under uncertainty about the ontological/moral status (e.g. parthenogenetic stem cells derived from human parthenotes) in the context of meta-reasoning under normative uncertainty. 2) The value of preventive medicine in healthcare (e.g. vaccinations) in the context of decision-making under metaphysical indeterminacy. 3) Population or reproductive decisions (e.g. preimplantation genetic diagnosis) in the context of valuing mere existence. The main drive behind this project is the rapid progress in biomedical research combined with new kinds of uncertainties. These new and “deep” uncertainties trigger specific forms of emotions and cognitions that influence normative judgments and decisions. The main research questions that will be addressed by conceptual analysis, new psychological experiments, and case studies are the following: how do the heuristics and biases (H&B) documented by behavioral scientists influence the formation of normative judgments in bioethical contexts; how to demarcate between distorted and undistorted value judgments; to what extent is it permissible for individuals or policy makers to yield to H&B. The hypothesis is that many existing bioethical rules, regulations, practices seem to have emerged from unreliable reactions, rather than by means of deliberation on the possible justifications for alternative ways to decide about them under several layers and types of uncertainty.

1 499 625 €

Start date: 2019-02-01, End date: 2024-01-31

For over half a millennium, the great medieval capital of Angkor lay at the heart of a vast empire stretching across much of mainland SE Asia. Recent research has revealed that the famous monuments of Angkor were merely the epicentre of an immense settlement complex, with highly elaborate engineering works designed to manage water and mitigate the uncertainty of monsoon rains. Compelling evidence is now emerging that other temple complexes of the medieval Khmer Empire may also have formed the urban cores of dispersed, low-density settlements with similar systems of hydraulic engineering. Using innovative airborne laser scanning (‘lidar’) technology, CALI will uncover, map and compare archaeological landscapes around all the major temple complexes of Cambodia, with a view to understanding what role these complex and vulnerable water management schemes played in the growth and decline of early civilisations in SE Asia. CALI will evaluate the hypothesis that the Khmer civilisation, in a bid to overcome the inherent constraints of a monsoon environment, became locked into rigid and inflexible traditions of urban development and large-scale hydraulic engineering that constrained their ability to adapt to rapidly-changing social, political and environmental circumstances. By integrating data and techniques from fast-developing archaeological sciences like remote sensing, palaeoclimatology and geoinformatics, this work will provide important insights into the reasons for the collapse of inland agrarian empires in the middle of the second millennium AD, a transition that marks the emergence of modern mainland SE Asia. The lidar data will provide a comprehensive and internally-consistent archive of urban form at a regional scale, and offer a unique experimental space for evaluating socio-ecological resilience, persistence and transformation over two thousand years of human history, with clear implications for our understanding of contemporary urbanism and of urban futures.

1 482 844 €

Start date: 2015-03-01, End date: 2020-02-29