University College Dublin researchers Assoc Prof Barry Wardell and Prof Kylie Jarrett receive a total of €5 million for projects exploring gravitational waves and livelihoods generated by digital platforms.

Diego Di Bernardo of the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (TIGEM) has received a €2.5 million ERC Advanced Grant for DIMERCIRCUITS, a project that combines synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, and systems biology to create programmable genetic circuits. These tools aim to precisely and reversibly control gene expression, paving the way for safer, more personalized gene therapies. Using rare diseases like Friedreich’s ataxia as testbeds, the project could unlock new treatment strategies for a broad range of genetic conditions..

The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) in Klosterneuburg receives over 10 million Euro by the European Research Council (ERC). Four research projects – in astrophysics, neuroscience, brain imaging, and math – were awarded around 2.5 million Euro each in the form of a competitive ERC Advanced Grant. ISTA is one of the most successful institutions at winning grants from this EU funding body.

A new study  by Prof. XUE Tian from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Prof. YAO Yonggang of the Kunming Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Prof. ZHAO Huan of Hefei University has revealed that chronic exposure to artificial light at night (LAN) can trigger depression-like behaviors by activating a specific neural pathway in the brain.

For the first time, a research team led by Markus Koch from the Institute of Experimental Physics at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) has tracked in real time how individual atoms combine to form a cluster and which processes are involved. To achieve this, the researchers first isolated magnesium atoms using superfluid helium and then used a laser pulse to trigger the formation process. The researchers were able to observe this cluster formation and the involved energy transfer between individual atoms with a temporal resolution in the femtosecond range (1 femtosecond = 1 quadrillionth of a second). They recently published their findings in the journal Communications Chemistry.

Professor Peng Lu and his team from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Faculty of Engineering at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), have achieved a groundbreaking milestone in aerial manipulation technology. Their innovative Aerial Elephant Trunk (AET), a novel aerial continuum manipulator, has demonstrated unparalleled capability in performing complex aerial manipulation tasks, marking a significant leap forward for the development of the low-altitude economy.