ERC Grants awarded to three UG scientists

Three University of Groningen researchers have been awarded an ERC Starting Grant: Cristobal Bertoglio, Giulia Fulvia Mancini and Cyril Moers. The European Research Council (ERC) awards these personal grants of EUR 1.5 million to excellent researchers in order to stimulate groundbreaking research in Europe.

The three researchers:

Dr. Cristóbal Bertoglio (Faculty of Science and Engineering, Bernoulli Institute for Mathematics, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence):
Cristóbal Bertoglio has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant for hi-fi cardiovascular modeling from super-fast MRI. Bertoglio’s research project called CardioZoom, aims to make possible quantitative MRIs of thin cardiovascular structures at very short MRI scan times.

Computational modeling of the cardiovascular system has already shown promising results in improving clinical outcomes in few diseases. The preferred choice for cardiovascular data is Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Unfortunately, MRI is not reliable for imaging the kinematics of thin structures like valves, arterial, atrial and right-ventricular walls, or they involve long and complex scans for the left-ventricle. The ambition of Bertoglio’s research CardioZoom is to bring forth novel methods for personalizing the computational models for these challenging anatomical structures, but also from simple and very short MRI scan times, and without compromising the reliability of the personalized models. If successful, the project may lead to new means of studying cardiovascular disease and potential new diagnostic tools.

Dr. Giulia Fulvia Mancini (Faculty of Science and Engineering, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials):
Giulia Mancini has been awarded a Starting Grant for her project entitled 'Advanced EUV/soft X-ray microscopy in the ultrafast regime: imaging functionality of nanomaterials across length scales' (ULTRAIMAGE). ULTRAIMAGE tackles the need for novel strategies in the characterization of functional nanomaterials, through the study of their fundamental structure-property relationships. Key to this advance is the development of innovative imaging modalities, which combine ultrahigh resolution in both time and space. The insights from the research will enable a better understanding of fundamental nanoscale behaviour, vital to a better design of energy-efficient next generation devices.

Dr. Cyril Moers (Faculty of Medical Sciences/UMCG):
UMCG researcher and transplant surgeon Cyril Moers will be conducting research in the coming years into the use of perfusion machines with which donor kidneys can be tested. The insights from the research should lead to nephrologists and surgeons being able to make the right choice more often in the future when it comes to accepting or rejecting donor kidneys.

More about ERC

ERC supports talented young researchers in setting up a research team and starting an independent research project. An ERC grant enables these researchers to start bold, groundbreaking research and thus open up new avenues in their field of study.