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Consolidator Grants from the European Research Council (ERC) aim to support European researchers in establishing their teams and developing their most promising scientific ideas. This year, the ERC awarded its Consolidator Grants, totalling 678 million euros, to 328 researchers. Congratulations to César Rodriguez-Emmenegger, Evan Spruijt and Seraphine Wegner, whose projects, directly linked to synthetic cell research, have been selected. Irene Otero-Muras and Liedewij Laan, both members of SynCellEU, have also received a grant for projects that could indirectly offer new solutions to the ambitious challenge of building synthetic cells.
Let’s take a quick look at all the projects. 

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Projects focusing on synthetic cells
Synthetic cells to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Building controllable synthetic cells and tissues
Using light for intercellular communication
Other projects by members of the SynCellEU
Decoding the resilience of cells
Programming cognitive capabilities in micro-organisms
Other grant results
ERC Starting Grant for Jan Steinkühler to explore more sustainable materials for future technologies
Kerstin Göpfrich, Anđela Šarić and Buzz Baum, new Allen Distinguished Investigators

César Rodriguez-Emmenegger – Synthetic cells to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Project: PhagoSynCell – Design and Chemical Construction of Quasi-living Phagocytic Synthetic Cells for Artificial Phagocytosis of Bacteria

Antimicrobial resistance poses a serious threat to global health. César Rodriguez-Emmenegger, ICREA research professor and principal investigator at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), Spain has received €2 million in funding over the next five years to accelerate the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria through his PhagoSynCell project.

With his Bioinspired Interactive Materials and Protocellular Systems Group, César plans to build Phagocytic Synthetic Cells (PSCs), that is, programmable cell-like systems capable of mimicking the natural process of phagocytosis to eliminate harmful pathogens without encouraging the development of drug resistance.

The novelty of his approach: the use of advanced, programmable membranes based on new self-assembling polymers, giving PSCs the ability to predate the most resistant bacteria.

In addition, the outcomes of the project could pave the way for wider applications in immunotherapy, precision medicine, and beyond. “With PhagoSynCell, we aim to develop a safe and innovative therapy to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria while laying the groundwork for future synthetic cell technologies.”

More information:

• ERC Consolidator Grant – Interview with the awarded researcher César Rodriguez-Emmenegger
• Press release: IBEC scientist César Rodriguez-Emmenegger awarded prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant

Evan Spruijt – Building controllable synthetic cells and tissues 

Project: PhaseShape – Coacervate-Controlled Membrane Remodelling and Connecting of Synthetic Cells

Membranes are essential to the functioning of living cells. However, their complexity presents a challenge for the building of viable and reconfigurable synthetic cells and tissues.

Phase-separated condensates present in cells could be the key to meeting this challenge as they are involved in a wide range of functional interactions with their cell membrane.

With his PhaseShape project, Evan Spruijt, associate professor at Radboud University (Netherlands), aims to exploit the potential of phase-separated condensates by developing coacervate protocells whose physicochemical properties and interactions with membranes are dynamically controlled.

More information about the PhaseShape project:
ERC Consolidator Grants for research on synthetic cells, programming and air showers

Seraphine Wegner – Using light for intercellular communication

Project: Lighthouse – Light as a signal for nonchemical cell-to-cell communication in synthetic and biological cell communities

In multicellular systems such as tissues and biofilms, cells communicate via chemical signals. These signals are highly complex and, until now, the selective manipulation of cell-to-cell communication has proved difficult for researchers.

Project Lighthouse tackles the challenge of engineering intercellular communication in a way that does not interfere with existing cell-to-cell communication signals by using light as a signal between cells. Lighthouse promises to provide a more fundamental understanding and paves the way for an independent and highly modular non-chemical form of communication for cellular bionics and bioengineering.

“Synthetic cells will play a central role in the project, as they will be used to design and characterize the light-based communication system. Later, the synthetic cells will interface with living cells, enabling light-based communication between the two,” explained Seraphine Wegner, professor at the Institute of Physiological Chemistry and Pathobiochemistry at the University of Münster, Germany, and one of the principal investigators of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie SigSynCell doctoral network.

Seraphine has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant worth €2.4 million to work on her Lighthouse project over the coming years.

More information:
Press release: “Consolidator Grant” for Seraphine Wegner

Liedewij Laan – Decoding the resilience of cells

Project: PolarRobustness – Evolutionary robustness of cell polarity during molecular diversification. 

Cells are often viewed as intricate machines, in which specific proteins work together in a tightly coordinated fashion to give rise to cellular functions. Surprisingly, however, certain proteins that are essential for core cellular functions in one species are absent in closely related species, while the core function itself is maintained.

With the PolarRobustness project, Liedewij Laan, professor at Delft University of Technology, is seeking to gain a better understanding of this remarkable resilience of cells.

Her lab has previously shown that the losses of proteins are repaired through a collective adaptive response, affecting many cellular processes rather than just a few proteins. PolarRobustness aims to dissect how molecular changes propagate through these cellular processes, in order to collectively achieve evolutionary robustness.

Although the project is not directly related to the subject of synthetic cells, its findings will offer new approaches to building synthetic cells using evolution.

“Our insights will enable the transition from the construction of simple modules, i.e. sets of proteins performing a core cellular function and made up of just a few different molecules, to the evolution-driven integration of these modules, which collectively consist of many different molecules that together will become a living synthetic cell,” explained Liedewij.

More information:

• Four ERC Consolidator grants for TU Delft researchers
• Four Delfts researchers receive ERC grant

Irene Otero-Muras – Programming cognitive capabilities in micro-organisms

CellWise – Engineering, Analysis and Control of Biomolecular Circuits Under Uncertainty

In the field of synthetic biology, which includes synthetic cell research, there is a growing need for more sophisticated biomolecular circuits to design and control cellular functions.

With her CellWise project, Irene Otero-Muras, CSIC tenured track scientist at the Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio – a joint research institute of the CSIC and the University of Valencia) aims to improve predictability in synthetic biology and provide tools for the precise engineering and control of complex biological functions.

“These tools will be developed in the context of ‘tow-down’ synthetic biology, but the framework will be just as valid and the tools easily extended to the ‘bottom-up’ approach,” said Irene.

In particular, CellWise aims to understand better the design principles of several cellular cognitive capacities such as memory and decision-making. It will program these capabilities in micro-organisms such as bacteria and yeast to control the response of cells to certain stimuli, which are at the basis of phenomena such as antibiotic persistence and cell ageing.

More information:
Irene Otero-Muras obtains a Consolidator grant from the European Research Council (ERC)

With his research group, the Bio-inspired Computation Lab at Kiel University in Germany, Jan Steinkühler is conducting research at the intersection of engineering and biology to develop new types of sustainable, energy-efficient computers.

The ERC has just funded his SYNNEURO project (Bottom-up construction of synthetic neural networks from biological matter). With a grant of €1.76 million over the next five years, Jan will mimic certain neuronal functions by assembling neurons using biological building blocks such as lipids and proteins. Jan and his team will use these synthetic neurons to build small networks that solve model tasks and investigate which biological components, in which arrangement and composition, enable the desired electrical processing of information.

Potential applications include the development of more sustainable and energy-efficient sensors and computers.

“My project is designed to improve our understanding of simple, sensory neural networks so that we can work more energy efficiently with more sustainable materials such as lipids and proteins,”  Jan said.

More information: Jan Steinkühler receives 1.76 million euros in EU funding for linking biology and technology