Pictured Above / (L to R) Professor Meytal Landau, Professor Asya Rolls, Professor Avi Schroeder, Assistant Professor Graham de Ruiter, and Professor Nadav Amdursky

Recently, five researchers from the Technion were awarded prestigious Consolidator Grants by the European Research Council (ERC) for unique projects in their respective disciplines. The ERC Consolidator Grants provide $2.14 million to each recipient and are awarded to scientists with 7-12 years of postdoctoral research experience to fund their explorations and allow them to pursue their most promising ideas. The five Technion recipients are:

Associate Professor Nadav Amdursky, a researcher in the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry who focuses on biological electron and proton transfer. He will use the grant to fund a new study that will explore the transfer of protons within proteins and create tools to measure these pathways as well as answer questions relating to cellular respiration.

Associate Professor Meytal Landau, who studies amyloids, or fibrillar aggregates of proteins that are associated with human illnesses such as microbial and neurodegenerative diseases, in the Faculty of Biology. She will explore amyloid structure-function relationships and mechanisms with the hope of gaining insights into rational design of antimicrobials.

Associate Professor Asya Rolls, of the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine analyzes how immunity is affected by emotional and cognitive processes. Her project will focus on the connection between the brain, the immune system, and the fascia – the largest tissue in the body that functions as a barrier between organs and muscles – and how they function in neuro-immune communication.

Associate Professor Avi Schroeder of the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering will use advanced nanotechnology medicines to treat aging and neurodegenerative brain conditions including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

Assistant Professor Graham de Ruiter, of the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, works in the area of catalysis, discovering new molecules and materials to speed up chemical reactions. His research could influence many existing processes in the agricultural, fine-chemical, and pharmaceutical industries.

The Technion’s Executive Vice President for Research, Professor Jacob (Koby) Rubinstein, said “ERC Consolidator Grants are considered the flagship of research excellence under the Horizon Europe Research & Innovation Program. Our winners lead groundbreaking research in a wide range of disciplines: new insights in biology and medicine that hold the power to improve the effectiveness of medical treatments, and breakthroughs in chemistry that will revolutionize industry and protect our planet. The best researchers in Europe compete for these prestigious grants. It is a testimony to the excellence of our scientists and to the merit and potential that the ERC panel sees in their proposed research. While these are personal achievements of our researchers, we see their collective win as a testimony to the quality of research in the Technion as a whole.”