Five ERC Grants Awarded To TUM Researchers

Cardiovascular diseases are among the leading causes of death worldwide. Many dangerous events such as stroke or heart attack start with tiny blood clots in small vessels - long before any symptoms appear. Current blood tests can hardly detect these early, localized changes. This is where Karen Alim's FlowAgents project comes in: her team is developing a new sensing technology for vascular organ‑on‑chip systems that realistically model human blood vessels and thrombosis processes. Microscopic, biocompatible particles made of soft hydrogels, roughly the size and flexibility of blood cells, are used as sensors. Circulating with the blood flow through the organ‑on‑chip systems, these particles detect relevant biomarkers and store such events as a molecular "memory". They then generate a fluorescence signal that reflects activity across the entire vascular network. In doing so, FlowAgents addresses a growing need in biomedical research for novel tools to better understand thrombosis processes. Together with academic partners and industry, the team aims to further develop the technology to bring it to market. In the long term, this approach could open up new possibilities for personalized diagnostics and early detection of cardiovascular disease.

Karen Alim is Professor of Biological Physics at the TUM School of Natural Sciences . Her new research project builds on her ERC Starting Grant-funded project FlowMem. In addition, her follow‑up project LearningMatters is supported by an ERC Consolidator Grant.

Cancer therapies using genetically engineered immune cells are seen as a major hope, but so far they have struggled to tackle solid tumors. One key reason is that the tumor microenvironment strongly slows down immune cells. A particularly powerful immune booster is the signaling molecule interleukin‑12 (IL‑12). It can activate immune cells so that they attack tumors more effectively - but at doses high enough to be effective, IL‑12 is highly toxic for the whole body. This is where Matthias Feige's OnsiteOkine project comes in: his team has developed a variant of IL‑12 that effectively includes an internal timer. It remains stable only in the immediate vicinity of its release site in engineered immune cells and then gradually falls apart into inactive components. In this way, IL‑12 is intended to exert its full effect directly in the tumor, while the rest of the body is spared. As a next step, the team plans to test the technology in animal models and, together with clinical and industry partners, advance it toward applications in patients.

Matthias Feige holds the Chair of Cellular Protein Biochemistry at the TUM School of Natural Sciences . He is also a member of TranslaTUM, the TUM Corporate Research Center for Translational Cancer Research and the TUM Center for Functional Protein Assemblies , leads the TUM Innovation Network Next Generation Drug Design , and serves on the steering board of the TUM Center for Smart Drug Design . His research project DeCoDe on protein biosynthesis is already supported by an ERC Consolidator Grant.

Clinical studies have shown that functional electrical stimulation (FES) can improve hand movements in people with motor impairments, such as those resulting from stroke or spinal cord injuries. Researchers from the Chair of Information Technology Control at TUM, led by Prof. Sandra Hirche, are using advanced machine learning techniques to develop methods for automatically configuring stimulation profiles that enable precise hand movements. This automated calibration frees up valuable therapy time, allows the rehabilitation application to be self-administered, and, once set up, could also support use in everyday life. The approach has already been developed and validated in neurologically healthy individuals. The project will now evaluate the system in patients, where muscle responses are expected to vary much more widely than in healthy individuals. Only on this basis will it be possible for patients to use the technology safely, reliably, and independently at home.

Sandra Hirche holds the Chair of Information-Oriented Control at the TUM School of Computation, Information, and Technology . She is a member of the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI ). Her research has already been funded by an ERC Starting Grant, a Consolidator Grant, and an Advanced Grant.

The number of people living with diabetes is steadily increasing worldwide. Current medications cannot halt disease progression; they can only treat symptoms. Over the course of diabetes, the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas gradually lose their function, stop responding to insulin themselves, and ultimately die. Professor Heiko Lickert's BetaProtect project addresses this problem directly. It builds on the discovery of the insulin inhibitory receptor, in short: inceptor, by Lickert and his team. Based on promising results in a mouse model, the team aims to develop a novel therapy for type 2 diabetes that could ideally even reverse the course of the disease. When the researchers blocked the receptor in a mouse model, the cells responded better to insulin again, remained functional for longer, and even showed signs of regeneration. With support from an ERC Proof of Concept Grant, the spin-off company Viacure plans to translate these findings from basic research into the preclinical and clinical development of a new therapy.

Heiko Lickert is Professor of Beta-Cell Biology at the TUM School of Medicine and Health and Director of the Institute of Diabetes and Regeneration Research at Helmholtz Munich. Among other scientific honors, he has received an ERC Starting Grant and, in 2022, an ERC Advanced Grant .

Nanocoatings play an important role in everyday life: with the right coating, pharmaceuticals can be absorbed more effectively, battery lifecycles can be extended, and materials can be better protected against corrosion under extreme conditions such as in aerospace and maritime applications. As part of the BLADE project (Bulk Material Low-pressure Atomic-scale Deposition Engine), Prof. Torgersen and his students Sven Marx and Nishant Mistry are researching novel technologies for the production of nanocoatings. Building on an earlier ERC-funded project on fuel cells, the team aims to further develop atomic layer deposition (ALD) for industrial applications. This technique enables extremely precise and uniform coatings, even on complex porous structures, but has so far been considered too slow and costly for industrial use. With a new low-pressure process, BLADE seeks to overcome these limitations and expand the application of the technology, for example in the energy, battery, and manufacturing sectors.

Jan Torgersen is Professor of Materials Science at the TUM School of Engineering and Design .