The evolution of eyesight, how not to disrupt animal flight, and immunotherapies in cancer treatment. Biologists Michael Bok and Cecilia Nilsson, along with medical researcher Paul Bourgine, have been awarded the prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant to further study these topics.
Michael Bok, researcher, Lund Vision Group:
Can you describe your research?
I study the evolution of eyes and visual systems. This new grant attempts to discover how advanced visual abilities like colour and polarisation vision evolved, and how the brain processes these complex information streams reliably.
To do this I will be looking at three champions of colour and polarisation vision: mantis shrimp, water fleas, and bioluminescent firefly squid. Using advanced molecular, neuroanatomical, and environmental light measurement approaches, I will discover the interplay of genes, circuits, and behaviour contributing to advanced visual capabilities. These findings will have border impacts into the design of bio-inspired image processing methods, and sensors for environmental light monitoring.
What will the funding be used for?
I plan to study these animals in the lab as well as in their natural habitats (water fleas in lakes around Sweden, firefly squid in the deep sea off of Japan, and mantis shrimp at tropical coral reefs in the Caribbean and Pacific).
I will reconstruct the genetic profiles of the diverse photoreceptors in the eyes of my focal species (single cell transcriptomics), as well as the circuits in their optic lobes (connectomics). I will also design new camera systems that capture a complete picture of their natural environmental light fields, and use these to design behavioral arenas to test their visual capabilities.
What does this grant mean to you?
This grant represents a tremendous opportunity to consolidate my broad research interests into a single, cohesive, but ambitious project. I am particularly excited to grow my research team over the coming years and get the opportunity to make new, exciting discoveries about some of the most fascinating creatures on the planet.
Cecilia Nilsson, researcher, Lund Migration Group:
Can you describe your research?
My research focuses on flying animals and how they use the air to travel long distances. Every year, billions of birds and insects migrate between continents, something they do to take advantage of how resources vary seasonally. I study how we can better understand these journeys, especially what happens when they are in the air. By using various methods, including large-scale radar networks, we can track their journeys in detail and see when and at what altitudes they fly. This is important because many migratory species are declining sharply, while human activity in the air is simultaneously increasing. By mapping the migration patterns of flying animals, we learn more about what has shaped this behaviour throughout evolution, and how we can avoid conflicts with things like wind turbines and aircraft.
What will the funding be used for?
The grant will be used to investigate how different types of large-scale disturbances can affect flying animals during migration. We will look at how magnetic storms can influence their internal compasses and navigation during their journeys, and how artificial light affects the migration of animals that fly at night. We will also examine how short-term heatwaves can impact their motivation to migrate. By understanding how flying animals respond to these disturbances, we hope to learn more about what drives their migration and how humans influence it.
What does this grant mean to you?
It means a tremendous amount. I will be able to continue my research here in Lund, which I would not have been able to do otherwise. I can also expand my team and hire new colleagues, which I am very much looking forward to!
Paul Bourgine, associate professor at the Lund University Faculty of Medicine and Wallenberg Center for Molecular Medicine:
Can you describe your research?
ImmunhOss is built on the hypothesis that our bone marrow tightly regulates inflammation and immunosuppression. Now, what cells are involved, how they organise, and if they can have a dual role remains a mystery. Here we will develop advanced models of the human bone marrow to decipher its immunoregulatory properties. We plan to uncover the presence of immune niches, and whether those are implicated in immune cell regulation and immunotherapy outcomes. Ultimately, we will test if immune niches can be reprogrammed to increase therapy efficacy.
What will the funding be used for?
The funds will primarily allow the recruitment of additional researchers. It will also cover experimental expenses including costly multi-omics and spatial analysis.
What does this grant mean to you?
This is just incredible. It is likely the most competitive grant scheme, they are so many outstanding researchers out there and funding is limited; how can one be confident in obtaining such a grant? From our standpoint, it brings confidence in our research. As stem cell biologists and tissue engineers, we are stepping into a new terrifying territory: cancer therapy and immunology. It is exciting and the ERC will only bring visibility and credibility to our approaches.
About the ERC Consolidator Grants:
The European Research Council has awarded Consolidator Grants to 349 researchers. The grants, totaling EUR 728 million, aim to support outstanding researchers as they establish their independent research groups and develop their most promising scientific ideas. The funding is provided through the EU's Horizon Europe program.
