ERC success for five Ireland-based researchers
Five Ireland-based researchers have today been awarded European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants, with a value totalling almost €9million.
ERC Starting Grants are among the most prestigious and competitive awards for early-career researchers globally, recognising only proposals of exceptional quality and ambition.
These grants give researchers the independence, scale and international recognition to build teams, take intellectual risks and pursue ideas with the ambition and originality to open new directions in their fields at the very frontier of knowledge. Today’s results represent a powerful vote of confidence in the calibre of emerging research talent based in Ireland and in its capacity to compete at the highest European level.
The five new awardees are Dr Alan Costello, National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT); Dr Alan Seltzer and Dr Seungkuk Ahn, University College Dublin (UCD); and Dr Casey Platnich and Dr Gabriela Kronemberger, Trinity College Dublin (TCD). Together, the awards represent close to €9 million in frontier research funding for Ireland-based, early career researchers. They also include a landmark first ERC award for NIBRT, further broadening the national ERC footprint.
This year’s competition was particularly intense, with a record 4,807 proposals submitted across Europe, a 22% increase on the previous call and an overall success rate of just 8.8%.
Commenting on today’s announcement of the awards, Dr Maria Nash, ERC National Delegate and National Contact Point based at Research Ireland, said:
This is an exceptional achievement for these five outstanding researchers, their host institutions and for Ireland-based research. To secure five ERC Starting awards in such a fiercely competitive call is a strong endorsement of the calibre of research talent in Ireland and the institutional teams who support applicants through one of the most demanding funding competitions in the world.
The Funded Projects:
Dr Alan Costello, National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training – Creating a bilingual organism with Two mutually Orthogonal genetic CODES (TO-CODES)
Dr Alan Costello, who established the Biological Engineering Group at NIBRT in 2024 with support from a Research Ireland Pathway Award, has been awarded ERC funding to support research into expanding what living cells can be engineered to do.
Every living cell relies on molecular machines called ribosomes to read genetic instructions and assemble proteins from a defined set of natural building blocks (amino acids). Yet ribosomes are potentially capable of doing much more than nature requires of them. In principle, they could be used to incorporate entirely new building blocks and create molecules that do not exist in the natural world. The challenge is that a cell’s ribosomes already perform an essential role in keeping it alive.
TO-CODES will seek to overcome this fundamental constraint by creating a new cell with two independent protein-production systems. If successful, the research could provide scientists with a powerful platform to build novel biopolymers with customised chemistries. The potential applications extend from the discovery of new medicines and sustainable biomanufacturing to the development of safer engineered biological systems.
“Engineering the essential functions of a living cell has always been a challenge in biology,” said Dr Costello. “With this project, TO-CODES, we hope to change that, expanding what a living cell is capable of. I am enormously grateful to the ERC for the opportunity to pursue an idea of this ambition and to build the team that will make it possible.”
Dr Alan Seltzer, University College Dublin – Tracing Anthropogenic Biogeochemical and Physical Influences on Subsurface Hydrogeology (TabPhish)
Dr Alan Seltzer, an Ad Astra Fellow and Assistant Professor at UCD School of Earth Sciences, has been awarded ERC funding to support research into the hidden history of groundwater systems. Groundwater provides drinking water to billions of people around the world – this includes around a quarter of Ireland’s drinking water – while also supporting agriculture and industry. Yet groundwater resources face growing pressures from human activity, including pollution, over-extraction and the effects of climate change. Our understanding of how groundwater systems are changing is limited by the relatively short duration of direct water-level observations and by the incomplete picture of the nitrogen cycle provided by measurements of nitrate alone.
The TabPhish project will use naturally occurring gases dissolved in groundwater as chemical fingerprints to reconstruct past changes in groundwater levels and nitrate contamination, extending our view from the past several centuries through to the present day. By revealing how groundwater systems have responded to environmental change over much longer timescales than direct observations allow, the research aims to improve our fundamental understanding of how these systems work and, ultimately, our ability to predict and protect critical groundwater resources in the future.
Reflecting on the ERC funded project, Dr Seltzer said, “Groundwater is an exceptionally important natural resource, but much of its history is effectively hidden from us. This project will use naturally occurring signals dissolved in groundwater to open a new window into how water levels and nitrate pollution have changed over centuries. This award is transformative for my work, it will allow me to build a research team and laboratory at UCD, develop entirely new tools for studying groundwater, and establish a programme of research aimed at helping us to better understand, predict and ultimately protect this critical resource.”
Dr Seungkuk Ahn, University College Dublin – DEciphering Species-specific dImorphism in inteGriN-ExtraCellular matrix Mechanobiology (DESIGN-ECM)
Dr Seungkuk Ahn, Associate Professor at UCD School of Medicine and Fellow at UCD Conway Institute, has been awarded ERC funding to advance research into more accurate human-mimetic preclinical models. Human mimetic preclinical models imitate human organs, tissues, and diseases to enable safer, more accurate testing for new drugs and therapies. Such models are created by employing core biomaterials and cells existing in our tissues. These models have significant potential to enhance our understanding of human disease and the development of treatments. However, the majority of human preclinical models to date have neglected the species and sex of the extra cellular matrix and cells as biological variables, while species- and sex-dependent biomaterial and cell properties have been well acknowledged in animal and clinical studies.
DESIGN-ECM will address this gap by investigating species-driven dimorphism in biomaterials and cell biology across various disciplines such as materials science, bioengineering, organoids, mechanobiology, nanobiotechnology. Success in this project will reshape the design of future preclinical models to seriously reckon with species and sex of biomaterials and cells, moving towards personalised tissue models in the long term.
On becoming an ERC awardee, Dr Ahn said, “This ERC Starting Grant will lay the foundation for my group at UCD, following my recent appointment as Associate Professor in the School of Medicine in July 2024. The scale of the ERC Starting Grant will enable me to deepen a comprehensive understanding of genuine human pathophysiology and in vitro human tissue model, facilitating work with my UCD and international collaborators and progress to beyond the state-of-the-art. I believe that this project will provide a greatly needed and versatile platform for drug discovery and therapeutic innovation, relevant to both academia and industry.”
Dr Casey Platnich, Trinity College Dublin – Single-molecule Nanopore Analysis of Pathogenic RNA Regulation (SNAPRR)
Dr Casey Platnich, Assistant Professor at TCD’s School of Chemistry, has been awarded ERC funding to support research into new technologies for detecting and understanding RNA viruses. These viruses, which include those responsible for diseases such as COVID-19, Zika and hepatitis C, continue to pose a major threat to global health. Detecting them quickly and accurately is essential for diagnosing infections, tracking outbreaks and developing new treatments. However, current technologies often miss important details about viral chemistry that can influence how these pathogens spread, evolve and respond to medicines.
SNAPRR will develop a new way to study viral RNA (the genetic material of many viruses) one molecule at a time, using tiny nanopore sensors approximately a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair. By selectively tagging viral RNA with molecular barcodes, the team will identify individual viruses as they pass through these nanopores while simultaneously detecting subtle genetic changes and chemical features that existing methods often miss.
Beyond improving our understanding of viral biology, the technology could pave the way for portable diagnostic devices, support the development of new antiviral medicines and vaccines, and strengthen our ability to respond rapidly to emerging infectious diseases.
Speaking about the award and the work it will support, Dr Platnich said, “Viruses are constantly changing, so keeping pace with them requires entirely new ways of studying their genetic material. I’m passionate about developing technologies that can examine individual RNA molecules in unprecedented detail. By revealing hidden molecular information, I hope this work will deepen our understanding of viruses and help shape the next generation of diagnostic tools and therapeutics. I’m extremely grateful to the ERC and to Trinity College Dublin for the opportunity to tackle these important research questions.”
Dr Gabriela Kronemberger, Trinity College Dublin – Programmable immune control for functional meniscus regeneration (SMART-MENISCUS)
Dr Gabriela Kronemberger, a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow based in TCD’s School of Engineering, has been awarded ERC funding to support research into functional regeneration of the knee meniscus.
Meniscal injuries are among the most prevalent orthopaedic conditions worldwide. However, current treatment strategies have had limited success in replicating the complex structure and function of the native meniscus. Moreover, they often overlook the post-injury inflammatory microenvironment, an important factor that impairs healing and contributes to progressive knee joint degeneration.
The project aims to address this critical gap by integrating 3D bioprinting, stem cell engineering and gene delivery technologies to develop an approach that simultaneously targets the structural, cellular and immunological challenges of meniscus repair.
In the long term, SMART-MENISCUS may also establish a versatile framework for regenerating other musculoskeletal tissues, paving the way for innovative strategies in the tissue engineering field.
Commenting on the project and the award, Dr Kronemberger said, “Meniscus injuries are very common, affecting a wide range of people of different ages, from elite athletes suffering sports-related meniscus injuries to our mothers and fathers whose menisci degenerate with age and general wear and tear. Despite their common nature, existing treatments are sub-optimal and new approaches are badly needed. Becoming an ERC awardee is the greatest honour of my career. I am deeply grateful to the ERC for this opportunity, which comes at a pivotal moment for me, and I am excited to begin this project, which will allow me to build my own research team and pursue ambitious new directions in tissue engineering to address a critical, unmet need. I would like to sincerely thank all my mentors, collaborators, and lab colleagues for their unwavering support, as well as the outstanding team at Trinity’s Research Development Office.”
Photo caption: Pictured (top-left): Dr Alan Seltzer, Dr Seungkuk Ahn; (bottom-left): Dr Casey Platnich, Dr Gabriela Kronemberger; (right): Dr Alan Costello.
