Julia Vorholt has been awarded ERC Advanced Grant
It's the second time that Julia Vorholt receives this prestigious award
In the latest round of the prestigious ERC Advanced Grants, ETH Zurich has secured two of the awards – one goes to Julia Vorholt. She will receive 2.5 million Swiss francs in funding for her project.
Julia Vorholt's new project focuses on ways to impart specific abilities to cells. She takes her inspiration from a partnership between single-celled organisms that was rare – but extremely successful – in the evolution of life: cells living symbiotically within other cells in a process known as endosymbiosis. Over the course of evolution, this gave rise to organelles – separate compartments with their own metabolic functions inside higher cells. The relics of this coexistence include mitochondria, which act as the powerhouses of cells, and chloroplasts, which conduct photosynthesis. With her research group, Vorholt now wants to develop artificial compartments in order to introduce new metabolic characteristics into cells on a modular basis. Numerous biotechnology applications could benefit from this.
The European Research Council (ERC) is the premiere European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. Every year, it selects and funds the very best, creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based in Europe. The highly competetive Advanced Grants are awarded as part of the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
Link to the ETH news article
Link to the external page Press release from the ERC