Manchester wins three major European grants for pioneering research

The University of Manchester has won three prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grants for pioneering research into ovarian cancer prevention, collagen-linked diseases and more sustainable computing.

The six-year projects will explore tiny programmable devices that could one day find and destroy precancerous cells before ovarian cancer develops, investigate how collagens acquire their correct chemical structure in the body and what happens when this process is disrupted, and develop faster, more energy-efficient ways of carrying out the complex calculations needed for science and AI.

The awards are among 48 ERC Synergy Grants worth €500 million announced through the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme, which brings together researchers with different areas of expertise to tackle major scientific challenges.

Cancer killing bots

The €10.6 million ECLIPSE project- Early Cancer Lesion Interception via Programmable Sensor-Equipped morphobots – will explore whether tiny programmable devices could detect and destroy the precancerous cells that can lead to ovarian cancer.

The devices aim to navigate the fallopian tubes, using advanced sensing and imaging to identify precancerous changes before delivering anticancer drugs directly to affected cells.

The approach could ultimately offer an alternative to preventative surgery for some women and lay the foundations for future clinical trials.

The project brings brings together Principal Investigators: Dr Christine K. Schmidt and Prof. Richard J. Edmondson from the University of Manchester, Prof. Ben G. Davis from the University of Oxford and Prof. Oliver G. Schmidt at Chemnitz University of Technology in Germany. Approximately €4.3 million of the funding is allocated to Manchester.

Dr Schmidt said: “We now know that many ovarian cancers begin in the fallopian tubes, but detecting the earliest precancerous changes remains a major challenge. ECLIPSE brings together expertise from very different scientific disciplines to develop entirely new ways of finding and targeting these cells. Our ultimate ambition is to intercept ovarian cancer before it progresses to a stage where treatment is often no longer curative.”

Rethinking scientific computing

The €10 million RaMPA project brings together Professors Françoise Tisseur and Jack Dongarra at Manchester, Professor Laura Grigori at EPFL and the Paul Scherrer Institute, and Professor Torsten Hoefler at ETH Zurich.

The international team aims to rethink how numerical precision is used in scientific computing. Rather than carrying out every calculation at the highest precision, RaMPA will develop the mathematical foundations, algorithms and software needed to adapt precision throughout a computation, while guaranteeing the accuracy and reliability of the final result. By exploiting modern and future computing hardware more effectively, the research will make scientific simulations faster and more energy efficient, and enable calculations that are currently beyond reach.

Professor Tisseur said: “By making much better use of the computing power available to us, we want scientists to tackle problems that are currently beyond reach, from more detailed climate simulations to increasingly complex questions in materials science and quantum chemistry, while reducing the energy needed to do so.

“The strength of RaMPA is that it brings together expertise in numerical mathematics, algorithms, software and computer systems. Combining these areas gives us the opportunity to rethink how scientific computations are performed, rather than simply making existing methods faster.”

Understanding Collogen

The €2.5 million CollagenQUEST will connect discoveries about how collagen is made with kidney and bone disease, bringing together Professor Rachel Lennon, Dr Joan Chang and Dr Mychel Morais in Manchester with researchers in Finland, Italy and the USA.

The team will combine expertise in basement membranes, collagen production, computing and mass spectrometry to understand how changes inside cells affect tissues and ultimately patients.

Professor Lennon said: “Joan, Mychel and I want to connect what happens inside a cell with what it means for a whole tissue – and ultimately for patients. Our partners bring the expertise needed to understand the enzymes, molecular structures and cellular processes behind those changes.

“The strength of CollagenQUEST is that we can follow a question from patient genetics to a molecular experiment and back into living cells and tissues. That is how we can tackle a problem none of our teams could solve alone.”

ERC President Prof. Maria Leptin said: “The Synergy Grants give exceptional researchers the opportunity to combine their different approaches and pursue ideas that might otherwise remain out of reach. The selected teams have demonstrated both the ambition and the creativity needed to explore uncharted territory.”