- Three researchers at LMU working in international teams have been awarded prestigious Synergy Grants by the European Research Council.
- The funded projects investigate nanomachines made of DNA, the protein factories of the cell, and the physics of clouds.
Physicist Prof. Tim Liedl, biochemist Prof. Roland Beckmann, and meteorologist Prof. Fabian Hoffmann from LMU Munich have each been awarded a Synergy Grant for projects carried out in international research teams. Synergy Grants are one of the most coveted awards of the European Research Council (ERC).
With its highly competitive Synergy Grants, the ERC supports projects that can only be realized with the interdisciplinary collaboration of two to four teams of researchers and which lead to "advances at the frontiers of knowledge." The funding per project consists of up to 14 million euros for a period of up to 6 years.
"I am extremely pleased about the success of our researchers who have been awarded ERC Synergy Grants. This is an impressive recognition of the scientific excellence of our scholars and the innovative strength of our university," says LMU President Matthias Tschöp.
The individual ERC-funded projects
Using DNA to build the next generation of technology
Professors Tim Liedl (LMU Munich), Jeremy Baumberg (University of Cambridge), and Peer Fischer (University of Heidelberg) have been awarded an ERC Synergy Grant for their project DNA4RENOMS (DNA for Reconfigurable Nano-Opto-Mechanical Systems). The grant funding will support the construction of nanomachines - tiny devices built atom by atom.
Modern technologies such as smartphones, projectors, acceleration sensors, and medical implants rely on micro- and nano-electromechanical systems. These are microscopic machines etched into silicon chips which can sense movement, eject ink, or steer light in optical devices. Manufacturing them, however, entails much waste of materials and energy.
Backed by an ERC Synergy Grant, the new project is pursuing an innovative approach which involves disassembling and rebuilding DNA structures. "This is not just about making something small," says Tim Liedl. "It's about inventing a completely new way to make machines - one that nature itself could approve of."
Decoding the protein factories of the cell
In the Synergy Grant project snoOPERA (Beyond Modification: Defining Hidden Roles of snoRNPs in Ribosome Assembly), Professor Roland Beckmann (LMU Munich) is collaborating with Professor Brigitte Pertschy (University of Graz), Dr. Antony Henras (French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)), and Professor Sara Woodson (Johns Hopkins University) to characterize certain cellular factors - so-called snoRNPs - that play underappreciated roles in ribosome assembly.
The assembly of ribosomes - the protein factories of the cell - is a tightly regulated process which is necessary for the growth of all living beings. Defects or alterations in snoRNP expression are linked to bone marrow disorders, neurodegeneration, and cancer in humans.
The snoOPERA researchers will integrate various cutting-edge technologies in order to characterize a special class of snoRNPs whose structure and mechanism of action are virtually unknown. "With our findings, we want to open up brand new insights into the role of snoRNPs and help elucidate their significance for human health and disease," explains Roland Beckmann.
Understanding turbulent clouds
The project TurPhyCloud (The Role of Turbulence in the Physics of Clouds), for which Professor Fabian Hoffmann (Freie Universität Berlin; until September 2025: LMU Munich), Professor Eberhard Bodenschatz (MPI for Dynamics and Self-Organization), Professor Bernhard Mehling (University of Gothenburg), and Professor Pier Siebesma (Delft University of Technology) have been awarded an ERC Synergy Grant, brings together expertise from experimental physics, theoretical physics, and meteorology to investigate the full range of processes that influence the formation of stratocumulus clouds.
These low-lying, flat, and horizontally extended clouds cover a fifth of the Earth's surface. One of the greatest challenges in climate science consists in predicting how clouds in general and stratocumuli in particular will change in a warming world.
The team will carry out extremely high resolution measurements on the Finnish island of Utö, which will capture the full complexity of stratocumulus clouds - from processes on the kilometer scale all the way down to the micrometer scale. From this information, the researchers plan to derive statistical models for turbulent processes in cloud physics which surpass conventional simulations as regards accuracy and resolution. "Through the combination of unique measurements with realistic simulations, TurPhyCloud will substantially improve climate predictions and weather forecasts," explains Fabian Hoffmann.
