Two research groups involving Leiden University have been awarded a major European grant, the ERC Synergy Grant. This for research on the development of membranes that can clean water and purify medical drugs and research on the biological clock in certain bacteria.
Pushing frontiers of knowledge
The ERC Synergy Grants enable groups of outstanding researchers within the EU to work together. The generous funding allows them them pool their skills, knowledge and resources to push the frontiers of our knowledge.
See the research Leiden University is involved in below.
Designing ultrathin membranes for efficient separation technology
Grégory Schneider - Leiden Institute of Chemistry
Separation processes are essential in our daily lives, from drug development and purification to cleaning wastewater. These processes, however, use a lot of energy due to the thicknesses of the membranes, together with the random movement of particles. The 2DPolyMembrane project is working to change that paradigm. By developing special 2D membranes that allow particles to flow in a single direction, this project could significantly improve the efficiency of separation technologies.
The project is a collaboration between Leiden University (Dr Grégory Schneider), the Technical University of Dresden (Prof. Thomas Heine), and the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle (Prof. Xinliang Feng). Each research group brings unique expertise-from designing chemically precise nanopores and predicting their selectivity to particular ions, and studying ion transport in confined spaces. The project bridges chemical synthesis of materials, theory and nanoscience. Together, they aim to create ultra-thin, nanoporous membranes that could create new membrane concepts in energy devices like fuel cells, osmotic power generators, and batteries.
How clocks tick in bacteria
Ákos Kovács - Institute of Biology Leiden
Circadian clocks regulate much of the physiology and behaviour of organisms, from single-celled microorganisms to complex mammals. The behaviour of early ('lark') or a late ('owl') wakeup time is regulated by the circadian clock in humans, and alterations in human circadian rhythms are linked to devastating diseases. The MicroClock project aims to investigate how the circadian clock works in the non-photosynthetic soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis, and how it interacts with and influences the internal clocks in plants and fungi.
The ERC Synergy project is a collaboration between Leiden University (Prof. Ákos T. Kovács), LMU Munich (Prof. Martha Merrow) and John Innes Centre in Norwich (Prof. Antony Dodd). The knowledge that these bacteria have internal clocks which synchronise their activities to daily and seasonal cycles opens exciting research horizons in the field of 'chronomicrobiology'. Potential applications from this project lie in human health, biotechnology, and climate-smart farming.
