The European Research Council (ERC) announced the recipients of the latest call for Consolidator Grants this week. Among the awardees are three researchers in the BIST Community: Dr. Direna Alonso-Curbelo (IRB Barcelona), ICREA Prof. César Rodriguez-Emmenegger (IBEC), and ICREA Prof. Arnau Sebé-Pedrós (CRG). The researchers will develop their innovative projects and consolidate their independent research teams over the next five years with €2 Million in funding.
Three researchers in the BIST Community have received the coveted ERC Consolidator Grants: Dr. Direna Alonso-Curbelo (IRB Barcelona), ICREA Prof. César Rodriguez-Emmenegger (IBEC), and ICREA Prof. Arnau Sebé-Pedrós (CRG).
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded ERC Consolidator Grants to Dr. Direna Alonso-Curbelo, head of the Inflammation, Tissue Plasticity & Cancer Lab at IRB Barcelona, ICREA Prof. César Rodriguez-Emmenegger, who leads the Bioinspired Interactive Materials and Protocellular Systems Group at IBEC, and ICREA Prof. Arnau Sebé-Pedrós, who heads CRG’s Single cell Genomics and Evolution Group. Backed by funding amounting to €2 M over the next five years, the researchers will, respectively, explore how inflammatory processes influence the initiation and progression of cancer, develop Phagocytic Synthetic Cells (PSCs) to fight antibiotic-resistant pathogens, and map the evolutionary relationships between different animal cell types by studying the primordial dwellers of the seas.
The ERC Consolidator Grant is one of the European Union’s most competitive and prestigious funding mechanisms, designed to support outstanding mid-career scientist in building and consolidating their independent research teams. The application process is highly competitive; In the current funding cycle, only the top 14.2% of applicants were selected from more than 2,300 submissions from across Europe.
IGNITE: Unmasking Non-Genetic Determinants Instructing Tumor Initiation
The mechanisms underlying the earliest phases of tumor initiation remain enigmatic. While genetic mutations play a critical role, non-genetic factors such as inflammation and epigenetic mechanisms also significantly influence its development. Understanding how these factors interact is essential for advancing the prevention and treatment of this disease.
Dr. Direna Alonso-Curbelo from IRB Barcelona has been awarded for her project IGNITE, which will explore the fundamental mechanisms by which different inflammatory processes drive (or inhibit) the initiation and progression of cancer, taking inflammation-driven pancreatic cancer as a paradigm.
“We want to understand how individual cells perceive and respond to changes in their inflammatory environment,” explains Dr. Alonso-Curbelo. “We hypothesise that different types of inflammation affect cells in distinct ways and that epigenetics plays a key role in shaping the diversity and evolution of these responses.”
The results from IGNITE could serve as a starting point for new concepts for the early diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer and, potentially, other inflammation-driven malignancies. By understanding how inflammation and epigenetics interact at different biological levels to influence cancer susceptibility and evolution, it will be possible to develop more specific detection and interception strategies.
“We hope our work will contribute to intercepting cancer at earlier stages and harnessing inflammatory signals to steer its progression into clinically more manageable states,” concludes the BIST Community researcher.
PhagoSynCell: Combatting antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Antimicrobial resistance poses a critical global health threat, exacerbated by the slowdown in new antibiotic development. The PhagoSynCell project, led by ICREA Prof. César Rodriguez-Emmenegger at IBEC, introduces a revolutionary solution: creating synthetic cells with advanced membranes engineered from novel self-assembling polymers. In future, these programmable membranes will endow the PSCs with the ability to predate on even the most resistant bacteria, and in this way protect us like the cells from the immune system do.
Beyond addressing antimicrobial resistance, PhagoSynCell seeks to establish the foundational principles of artificial phagocytosis. This approach has the potential to revolutionise medicine by introducing synthetic cells as quasi-living therapeutic tools. These advancements could pave the way for broader applications in immunotherapy, precision medicine, and beyond.
“This grant is a remarkable milestone, enabling us to push the boundaries of bioengineering and tackle a problem of profound global significance,” said Rodriguez-Emmenegger. “With PhagoSynCell, we aim to develop a safe and innovative therapy to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria while laying the groundwork for future synthetic cell technologies.”
CELLSYSTEMATICS: Scientists dive into oceans to trace evolution of cells
Earth’s oceans harbour many creatures big and small, including ancient animal lineages which hold vital clues to one of biology’s most profound mysteries: how did the many different types of cells which compose complex organisms – like neurons, skin cells and muscle cells – evolve over time?
A team of scientists at the CRG, led by ICREA Prof. Arnau Sebé-Pedrós, is embarking on an ambitious project to map the evolutionary relationships between different animal cell types by studying the primordial dwellers of the seas. Using advanced genetics tools, they aim to map out a family tree of cell types, providing new insights into the building blocks of life.
The project will focus on Cnidaria, a group of animals which includes jellyfish, corals, and sea anemones. These creatures are ideal for studying because they have a wide variety of cell types with both conserved and unique features. They are also an ancient animal lineage, having existed for over 550 million years during life’s long history on Earth.
“Cnidarians are one of our most distant animal relatives” says Sebé-Pedrós, “They provide a unique window to reconstruct the ancient origins of some types of cells, as well as to help us understand how new cell types continuously emerge in evolution.”
The work also lays the foundation for “cell systematics,” a new framework for classifying cell types based on their evolutionary relationships, much like how species are classified in taxonomy.
A family tree of cell types could revolutionise biology and medicine. Cell types are the building blocks of life and knowing how they change over time helps us understand the evolution of complex life forms at cellular level resolution. They can also reveal how changes to DNA at the molecular level led to new cell functions and structures, contributing to the diversity of life.
The grant will also contribute to the Biodiversity Cell Atlas project, coordinated by Dr. Sebé-Pedrós, which is an incipient global effort to create detailed maps of all the different types of cells in many different organisms similar to those created as part of the Human Cell Atlas initiative.
