The ERC Advanced Grants competition, part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, is one of the most prestigious and competitive funding schemes in the EU. It gives senior researchers the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs. A record of 3,329 proposals was submitted to this funding round, with 9.6% of proposals being selected for funding.
Among the awarded researchers, four are from the Medical Sciences Division:
Professor Zhengming Chen, Nuffield Department of Population Health
Professor Chen’s project will bring together population biobank data from more than 1.15 million people in East Asia, Europe and Latin America to study how body fat affects health. It will look beyond weight alone to better understand different types of obesity, why some people develop metabolic diseases even at a healthy weight, and how these patterns may vary across ancestries and populations. By combining genetic, clinical and molecular data, Professor Chen aims to characterise disease burden associated with obesity, uncover the biological mechanisms behind obesity and identify new targets for more precise prevention and treatment.
Professor Ketan Patel, MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine
Professor Patel’s research will focus on DNA repair pathways and their effect on human health and ageing. Previous work by his group identified that chemicals such as acetaldehyde and formaldehyde – produced in the body through metabolism, diet and alcohol consumption – damage DNA, causing cancer and tissue degeneration. In this ERC-funded programme, his team will investigate these effects in vital organs such the brain, liver and kidney to understand how the body protects against them. They will also screen for potential drug candidates to reduce age-related decline linked to metabolic stress.
Professor Bernhard Staresina, Department of Experimental Psychology
Professor Bernhard’s Ontogeny of Memory (MemOnto) project will address the paradox known as infantile amnesia: the fact that most of us retain little or no conscious memory of our earliest years, despite the extraordinary amount of learning that takes place during this period. The project will combine electroencephalogram recordings, studies in rodents and computational modelling to test two complementary possibilities: that early memories fade because sleep-based consolidation mechanisms are still developing, or because the developing brain progressively transforms how memories are represented, rendering them difficult to access later in life.
Professor Kate Watkins, Department of Experimental Psychology
Despite decades of research, the brain mechanisms underlying stuttering remain one of the great unanswered questions in speech neuroscience. The STUTTER project will bring together advanced brain imaging, neurophysiology and novel therapeutic approaches to understand why stuttering starts, why it stops and why it sometimes persists, with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes for children and adults who stutter.
Congratulations to all the awardees!