RAN Newsletter 02/2024 Further ERC Grants and an Emmy Noether Junior Research Group for Heidelberg University
Heidelberg University has once again received highly endowed funding from the European Research Council (ERC): Five researchers are receiving an ERC Advanced Grant for projects at Ruperto Carola, the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg and the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, and one researcher will be able to further develop a research result in neurobiology towards transfer with an ERC Proof of Concept Grant. A new junior research group for biological data science was also established as part of the Emmy Noether Programme of the German Research Foundation (DFG).
The ERC Advanced Grant of the European Research Council goes to outstanding established researchers who, with their scientific work, want to implement ground-breaking and, in a positive sense, risky research projects. The financial support lasts, at most, for five years. The funding will go to chemist Prof. Dr Andreas Dreuw and neuropharmacologist Prof. Dr Rohini Kuner, who carry out their projects – in theoretical and computational chemistry, and in pain research, respectively − at the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing and the Medical Faculty Heidelberg. The ERC has allocated funding for them totalling around five million euros. Likewise members of Ruperto Carola are neuropsychologist and clinical psychologist Prof. Dr Herta Flor, neuroscientist Prof. Dr Hannah Monyer and neurologist Prof. Dr Michael Platten, who have each earned an ERC Advanced Grant for their projects at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim and the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg. These awards total nearly seven million euros.
The ERC project “High-Performance Computational Photochemistry and Spectroscopy” (HIPERCOPS) headed by chemist Andreas Dreuw deals with calculating electronically excited states of molecular systems in order to be able to simulate photochemical processes on the computer. The ERC has allocated funding worth around 2.5 million euros for the project. Andreas Dreuw has been Professor of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry at Heidelberg University since 2011 and heads an eponymous research group at the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing. 2023 he was elected Vice-Rector for Research and Digitalisation at Ruperto Carola.
With her research in the context of the ERC project “Uncovering the Cortical Cellular Basis of Specificity and Chronicity of Pain” (PAIN ENSEMBLES), neuropharmacologist Rohini Kuner explores the question of which neuronal ensembles – coactive neurons intermingled in networks – contribute to the specificity and chronicity of pain. The ERC has allocated funding worth around 2.5 million euros for the project. Rohini Kuner has taught and done her research as Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Medical Faculty Heidelberg of Heidelberg University since 2006. She has been Managing Director of the Institute of Pharmacology located there since 2009.
In her ERC project “A Mechanism-based Approach to the Prevention of Chronic Pain and its Comorbid Mental Disorders” (MECHPAIN) neuropsychologist and clinical psychologist Herta Flor concentrates on chronic pain which typically goes hand in hand with mental disorders like depression or states of anxiety and, despite enormous efforts by the health system, is still hard to treat. The ERC has allocated funding worth around 2.4 million euros for the project. Herta Flor has served as Senior Professor at the Medical Faculty Mannheim of Heidelberg University since October 2023, having been appointed Professor of Neuropsychology and Clinical Psychology at Ruperto Carola in the year 2000. Until 2023, she was Scientific Director of the eponymous institute at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim.
With the ERC project “Cognitive Deficits Resulting from Selective Vulnerability of Septal Inhibitory Neurons: Mitochondrial Dysfunction as a Driver?” (Vulnerable Inhibition) neuroscientist Hannah Monyer strives to find new explanations for the emergence of neurodegenerative diseases. The ERC has allocated funding worth around two million euros for the project. Since 1999, Hannah Monyer has been the Medical Director of the Department of Clinical Neurobiology at Heidelberg University Hospital – a bridge department located at the Medical Faculty Heidelberg, Heidelberg University and the German Cancer Research Center.
In his ERC project “Characterizing and Harnessing Tumor-reactive T Cells in the Brain” (CENTRIC-BRAIN), neurologist Michael Platten and his team will develop and optimise artificial intelligence-guided personalised cellular immune therapies for malignant brain tumours. The ERC has allocated funding worth around 2.5 million euros for the project. Michael Platten is the Director of the Neurological Department of Mannheim University Hospital and director of the Mannheim Center of Translational Neuroscience at the Medical Faculty Mannheim, where he has held a professorship of neurology since 2016. At the German Cancer Research Center he heads the Clinical Cooperation Unit Neuroimmunology and Brain Tumor Immunology.
The ERC Proof of Concept Grant is intended to support scientists who already hold an ERC grant and want to continue developing a research result from theory into practice. Neurobiologist Prof. Dr. Simon Wiegert, a scientist at the Medical Faculty Mannheim of Heidelberg University, is working on a fibre photometry system that can be used for a variety of processes to optically measure brain functions. He will receive 150,000 euros in funding over a period of one and a half years to examine potential applications and develop his system for market entry. The Proof of Concept funding for hyFiPhotometry emerged from the LIFE synapses project, which was funded by an ERC Starting Grant. The focus of that project was on examining the relationships between the structure and function of individual synapses in the brain. The research team led by Prof. Wiegert has developed a versatile and cost-effective device that has the potential to open up a whole host of new applications. This is now to be further developed and prepared for commercial use. Simon Wiegert leads the Department of Neurophysiology at the Medical Faculty Mannheim and is a member of the Mannheim Center for Translational Neuroscience (MCTN), which offers a platform for basic researchers as well as translational and clinical neuroscientists. His research ranges from synaptic-cellular neurobiology to network and systems neurobiology.
An Emmy Noether junior research group at Heidelberg University is investigating how to gain new insights into fundamental biological mechanisms from large-scale molecular data sets. Led by Junior Professor Dr Britta Velten, it has started work at the Centre for Organismal Studies and the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing. Prof. Velten’s research team wants to develop a procedure based on machine learning and statistical methods with which to model the impacts of genetic changes on different organisms. The German Research Foundation (DFG) is funding the six-year studies in the field of data science in biology to the tune of approximately 1.4 million euros. The Emmy Noether Programme of the German Research Foundation gives exceptionally qualified young researchers the opportunity to prepare for a university professorship by leading an independent junior research group over a period of six years. Britta Velten completed her bachelor’s and master’s degree in mathematics at Heidelberg University. In 2019 she earned her doctorate in the field of statistics at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg. Before, in May 2023, she was appointed to a tenure-track professorship for multifactorial data analysis and machine learning in the life sciences at Heidelberg University, she did postdoctoral research at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg and the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge (United Kingdom).
