Five new Starting Grants from the European Research Council for researchers in Portugal

Cell division, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the control of coordinated movements and the development of the thymus. These are the topics of study of the five new winners in Portugal of the prestigious Starting Grants from the ERC - European Research Council.

Nuno Alves and Ana Carvalho (both from the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Porto), Ana Cecília Roque (from UCIBIO@REQUIMTE at the Faculty of Science and Technology at the New University of Lisbon), Raquel Oliveira (from the Gulbenkian Institute of Science) and Megan Carey (from the Champalimaud Foundation) will each receive an average of 1.5 million euros to develop the projects approved by the highly competitive panels to which they were submitted over five years.

These five scientists are looking for answers to some of the biggest challenges in their respective scientific fields. The results they obtain could lead to major advances in better understanding health and certain pathologies, such as infectious diseases, cancer, autoimmunity and motor neurological diseases.

Ana Carvalho and Raquel Oliveira are both interested in the complex and finely regulated processes that occur during cell division, in the process of mitosis. Raquel will investigate recent results that suggest that, contrary to popular belief, chromosomes are not passive observers during mitosis, but rather play a more active role in its separation, even influencing the mechanisms that supervise the cell division process. She will investigate how structural anomalies in chromosomes can lead to errors during mitosis and what their impact is on the development of an organism (in this case, the mighty vinegar fly, her study model). Ana Carvalho's work focuses on the final stages of mitosis, after the chromosomes have separated, and how the formation of a contractile ring that divides the cytoplasm of the mother cell is regulated to form two daughter cells, each with its own set of chromosomes.

Nuno Alves chose as his study organ the thymus, where T lymphocytes are generated and mature. These cells of the immune system recognize and attack pathogens, but are tolerant of the organism in which they are found. T lymphocytes mature (differentiate) in micro-environments of the thymus, lined by so-called thymic epithelial cells. In these environments, those that recognize their own organism are eliminated, leaving only those that can recognize pathogens. When these processes are disturbed, situations of immunodeficiency or autoimmunity arise. The aim of this research project is to study these microenvironments, in particular the molecular and cellular mechanisms that control the renewal of progenitor cells in thymic epithelial cells and their effect on the differentiation of different types of T lymphocytes. With this knowledge, it may be possible to modulate these processes, with an impact on the health sciences.

Ana Cecília Roque's challenge is to develop tools that enable the rapid identification of antibiotic-resistant bacteria - a global threat that is spreading at an alarming rate. Her approach is part of a new area of diagnostics, based on the detection of volatile microbial metabolites. His group recently discovered a new class of stimuli-responsive materials that show great potential for advancing the field of odor detection. Their research could lead to the rapid identification of pathogenic bacteria, including those that have acquired widespread resistance to antibiotics, with a major impact on disease control.

Megan Carey is the only foreigner in the group, but she has been with the Champalimaud Neuroscience Program for several years. With her ERC funding she will continue to investigate the functioning of the cerebellum, specifically to try to identify which neuronal circuits in the cerebellum contribute to controlled locomotion. He hopes to establish a causal relationship between the activities recorded in specific neuronal circuits and the control of coordinated movements. These correlations could pave the way for better control of movements in disease situations.

These five new ERC winners join 36 others who received funding between 2006 and 2013 Starting, Advanced e Consolidator to work in Portugal.