Per Augustsson, Enrico Ronchi, Mikkel Brydegaard, Andreas Nord and Yafa Shanneik have each been awarded the prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant.
Enrico Ronchi, a researcher in fire safety engineering, is developing new ways to create an inclusive evacuation design for buildings. The research concerns investigating emergency evacuation solutions that are suitable for vulnerable groups such as older populations and people with functional limitations.
"The growing impact of climate change, ageing populations and geopolitical uncertainties have highlighted the need for inclusive emergency evacuations more than ever before," says Enrico Ronchi.
As part of the ERC Egressibility project, he will build a multidisciplinary team that will carry out massive data collection of behaviours and use these data to develop an inclusive machine-learning model (according to ethical AI principles) that can transform evacuation design through what is known as the egressibility concept. Among other things, multi-sensory Virtual Reality (VR) experiments will be conducted at the Safety Hub on Campus Helsingborg to study human behaviour during different emergency evacuation scenarios.
"The ERC grant is a career changer because it provides generous funding, prestige and freedom that opensincredible opportunities for a researcher. The ERC grant will enable a paradigm shift in evacuation research and drive change towards a safer, fairer and more inclusive society," explains Enrico Ronchi.
Per Augustsson, a researcher in biomedical engineering, is developing new devices to separate cells and nanoparticles using ultrasound. Sound contains energy that can generate forces on microscopic objects such as blood cells and biological nanoparticles.
Blood is mostly made up of red blood cells, but also contains white blood cells that are part of the immune system. The blood of cancer patients may also contain circulating tumour cells, which are thought to play a role in how cancer spreads to different organs in the body. It is important to be able to separate out different types of cells from the blood in order to examine them in detail.
Studying the physics of ultrasound waves interacting with fluids and microscopic objects can lead to new ways to improve the diagnosis and treatment of metastatic diseases, such as cancer.
"Using ultrasound-based technology, we can identify and isolate rare cells in the blood by exploiting their unique mechanical properties. This approach allows precise characterisation of thousands of cells, enabling the development of new methods to separate subsets of cells from other blood components," says Per Augustsson.
The results are expected to improve understanding of the functions of rare cells and support efforts to refine cancer diagnosis and treatment strategies.
"The grant means continuity for the curiosity-driven research I conduct. This means that I can keep key people in my research team for another five years, including myself. It also means that I can recruit new postdocs and doctoral students who can be trained in a challenging and exciting project," explains Per Augustsson.
Mikkel Brydegaard, senior lecturer at the Physics department, draws on his experiences from electrical engineering and atomic physics to develop laser diagnostic tools for new insights into the ecology and diversity of insects.
By combining biophotonics (i.e. light interaction with biological tissue) with lase remote sensing for environmental monitoring, his group makes an effort to study living organisms in their natural surroundings, rather than bringing them into laboratories and vacuum chambers. The prospects are rapid evaluation for abundance and diversity of mitigations such as flower strips or restored wetlands. Whereas the present methods for counting and classification of insect require tremendous resources and time, his methods can currently count a hundred thousand insects per day and distinguish hundreds of classes.
Within his new ERC grant HyperSense, his group will develop four new prototypes of hyperspectral lidar (or laser radar). Currently lidar systems typically have a single or a couple of wavelengths. His new concept can provide lidar with hundreds of spectral bands which can be used to deduce micro-, nano- and pico-scopic details of biological targets. Applications include classification of pollen on bees, virus in insects, hair growth on mosquitoes, navigation of midges and diversity of zooplankton.
Andreas Nord, a researcher at the Department of Biology, will receive SEK 22 million to study how warm-blooded animals are affected as the climate becomes warmer and more unpredictable.
As part of the project, he will study different species of birds to determine how quickly heat tolerance could evolve and what will happen to our bird populations if tolerance fails to adapt. In the final part, Nord plans to conduct a common-garden experiment with birds from southern Europe and northernmost Scandinavia to test whether the process underlying heat adaptation differ in the north and south, and whether directional selection for heat resilience is already taking place in nature.
Combining traditional ecological and animal physiology techniques with modern genetic modification, Andreas Nord's project will cover the full range of organismal organisation, from genomics and cellular functions to whole animals. At the end of the action, the project will have painted the most comprehensive picture of the physiological responses of birds in a warmer world to date. This knowledge can provide important guidelines for prioritising the management of protected areas, natural resources, and threatened animal populations, and can also be exploited by industry to improve food security.
"By the end of the project, I hope to be closer to answering three critical questions: whether, and how quickly, birds can become better at handling heat, what happens if they can't, and whether there is already ongoing directional selection towards improved heat tolerance in the wild. The project will also create two new animal models to study birds and heat, which I believe will benefit the research field for many years to come," says Andreas Nord.
Yafa Shanneik, a visiting professor of Islamic Studies at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, will receive an ERC Consolidator Grant for the RELI-GENE project, which sheds light on how marriage and reproductive practices are influenced by religions and state health policies.
The study, which is the first of its kind, focuses on close-knit religious communities in Europe and the Middle East where marriages within families or communities are often encouraged to preserve common family lines and cultural, ethnic and religious identities. At the same time, these practices increase the risk of hereditary diseases, leading to more government regulation for 'genetically vulnerable' communities. The project will study these dynamics against the backdrop of different healthcare systems, policies and religious traditions.
The grant will enable fieldwork to be carried out in the Middle East, Europe and North America and the creation of an interdisciplinary research team. Innovative research methods such as art and immersive technology will be used to engage communities and disseminate results to a wider audience.
"The ERC grant is an incredible milestone in my academic career and means a lot to me," says Yafa Shanneik.
"I have previously worked with vulnerable groups, especially refugees from the Middle East. During a pilot study in the United Arab Emirates, I realised how individuals, families and communities are affected by being considered 'genetically at risk'. This is a global phenomenon that requires research at a global level. Only ERC funding makes it possible to realise such a project," explains Yafa Shanneik.
