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The ERC is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. Their Starting Grants, part of the Horizon Europe programme, are designed to support exceptional researchers at the beginning of their careers to launch their own projects, build research teams, and pursue their most promising ideas. This year, the scheme attracted 3,928 proposals, with just 478 (12%) of these being funded.
Among them there are two from the Medical Sciences Division:
Dr Yi-Ling Chen (CAMS Oxford Institute, Nuffield Department of Medicine): Dr Chen’s funded project will investigate how lipid molecules generated during Group A Streptococcus (GAS) infection (e.g., strep throat) contribute to autoimmune diseases. By using patient samples and advanced Omics technologies, her team will deepen our understanding of how lipid antigens can be recognised by the immune system, as well as uncovering new treatment strategies that could prevent or mitigate autoimmune complications, amidst a global rise in GAS infections.
Dr James Whittington (Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Department of Experimental Psychology): His project aims to understand the algorithms by which networks of neurons support flexible behaviour, by both building neural network models and developing mathematical theories of optimal neural codes that flexibly solve tasks. He will then collaborate with experimentalists to test model and theory predictions in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.
Congratulations to all the awardees!