The ERC’s Advanced Grants support exceptional researchers, who are leaders in their field, in undertaking ambitious research projects. The grants are awarded under the 'excellent science' pillar of Horizon 2020, the EU's research and innovation programme.
Professor Imre Berger, from the School of Biochemistry and Director of the newly formed Max Planck-Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology, is one of the recipients of the ERC Advanced Grants.
The project; ‘Precision Docking of Very Large DNA Cargos in Genomes’ will implement a comprehensive synthetic biology approach to create new and powerful, virus-derived nano-devices with unprecedented capacity to rectify disease-causing errors in mammalian genomes.
The ground-breaking tools they develop will be applied to potentiate cell-based immune therapies, towards a step-change in cancer treatment.
Professor Berger said: “Correcting large sections of faulty code in the genome is a paramount, unresolved challenge in gene therapy. With this prestigious ERC Advanced grant we will bring to bear the power of synthetic biology to overcome this impeding bottleneck."
The University of Bristol’s second recipient of the ERC Advanced Grant is Professor Sarah Street, from the School of Arts, for her project ‘Film Studios: Infrastructure, Culture, Innovation in Britain, France, Germany and Italy, 1930-60’ (STUDIOTEC).
STUDIOTEC investigates film studios across four major production sites: Britain, France, Germany and Italy during their major years of activity, 1930-60. Using archives, comparative historical research and a range of spatial analysis, 3D and VR tools, the project team will explore studio spaces as dynamic, diverse creative and economic infrastructures.
This combination of interdisciplinary methodologies will create new understandings of how the collaborative and material environments of studio spaces and technologies shaped film production and cultures.
Professor Street said: “It’s an honour to have been given this fantastic opportunity to research European film studios in a completely new way. I’m looking forward to collaborating with a great team across disciplines over the next five years.”
The announcement today comes as part of a €520M ERC boost into research designed to investigate some of the most pressing questions that could lead to the creation of 2000 new jobs.