3. September 2026
Dr. Viviana Rincón Montes and Dr. Casey Paquola from Forschungszentrum Jülich have each been awarded an ERC Starting Grant. In their projects, they are exploring new ways of integrating brain implants into nerve tissue and of improving how we understand and predict mental health conditions in adolescence using patterns of individual brain development.
Two women researchers from Forschungszentrum Jülich have each been awarded an ERC Starting Grant: Dr. Viviana Rincón Montes from the Institute of Biological Information Processing - Bioelectronics (IBI-3) for her project "CoalescentBrain" and Dr. Casey Paquola from the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine - Brain and Behaviour (INM-7) for "NEUROCAST". The European Research Council (ERC) awards Starting Grants to particularly innovative projects led by researchers in the early stages of their independent careers - providing up to € 1.5 million funding per project over a five-year period. An additional € 1 million can be made available to cover further eligible costs when these are necessary to carry out the project.
Implants that coalesce with the brain
Neural implants can measure electrical signals in the brain and produce targeted impulses. They open up new possibilities of restoring lost functions and treating neurodegenerative diseases. One of the main challenges is the fact that such implants are foreign objects for the body.
Dr. Viviana Rincón Montes wants to change this with her project "CoalescentBrain - Bio-camouflaged Neural Implants for Coalescent Brain Integration". She aims to create a new generation of implants, that do not just adapt mechanically to the soft tissue of the brain but also interface with it more closely.
She is developing a biohybrid solution that combines inert technical materials with living cells. The idea is that such implants will be more readily accepted by the surrounding tissue and integrated into the body as if they were a natural part of it.
In the long term, such implants could operate more precisely, integrate into tissue more readily, and combine electrical and biological functions more effectively than current systems. This could help people in future whose motor, sensory, or communication abilities are impaired by neurological disorders - such as Alzheimer's, epilepsy, or blindness. Before this basic research project is ready for medical application, further research and extensive testing are required.
"We want to understand what conditions actually make biointegration in brain tissue possible," says Rincón Montes.
Individual brain development
The second project selected for funding focuses on mental health in adolescence. During this phase of life, the brain changes fundamentally. It is also the period when many mental health conditions appear for the first time. Why some adolescents develop mental health issues while others remain mentally resilient despite facing similar stresses is still not fully understood.
In her project "NEUROCAST - Neurodevelopmental Forecasting of Mental Illness in Adolescence", Dr. Casey Paquola is studying not only average values but also individual developmental trajectories. She uses large, long-term datasets and MRI scans of more than 10,000 adolescents.
Based on the findings, her research team will create a reference framework for brain development that accounts for the fact that healthy brain maturation can follow many different pathways - a diversity that existing models have so far failed to adequately capture. The team will then examine how biological factors - such as genetic predispositions, hormonal changes, or the individual level of brain maturity - as well as environmental conditions and formative life experiences, such as the family and social environment or traumatic experiences, influence individual developmental trajectories. This also involves investigating which patterns are associated with mental resilience or an increased risk of developing mental health conditions.
A primary goal is to develop a predictive method that estimates the likely future development of the brain in a single examination. The team is combining state-of-the-art imaging with machine learning. They will then test whether this information improves the prediction of clinical outcomes, such as how symptoms will develop or how effective a treatment will be.
In the long term, NEUROCAST could help improve the assessment of risks and disease progression, and enable more personalized treatment based on individual developmental trajectories. The planned method will initially be used as a research tool rather than as a clinical test that can be used directly in practice.
"Not all adolescents develop in the same way. We want to understand these individual pathways better and find out whether they can provide insights into mental health, the progression of an illness, and treatment outcomes," says Paquola.
Both projects are laying the groundwork for a future form of medicine that promises to be more precise, less invasive, and more personalized.
