The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) can rapidly reorganize its functional domains and inter-organelle communication sites in response to cellular demands. ER-mitochondria communication is essential for normal cell physiology, as it conveys lipid exchange, mitochondrial calcium uptake, among other vital processes for mitochondrial function. In neurons, activity-mediated dynamics of ER and mitochondria are required for synaptic responsiveness to induction of synaptic plasticity and stimulating neuronal activity increases the number of ER-mitochondria contact sites (ERMCSs). Whilst system modelling predicts that ERMCSs control the postsynaptic energy landscape, the actual contribution of synaptic and perisynaptic inter-organelle dynamics to synaptic plasticity is still quite unknown. The small and compact structure of dendrites constrains the visualization of local ER-mitochondria contact site dynamics, being the application of nanoscopy techniques fundamental to follow these processes upon induction of synaptic plasticity. The use of cutting-edge super-resolution microscopy in this project will provide unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution to the study of activity-mediated ER and mitochondria dynamics and inter-organelle contacts heterogeneity in live neurons. Likewise, it will clarify the contribution of ERMCSs to sustain normal dendritic physiology as well as the intricate system triggering and upholding synaptic plasticity. Dysfunction of the ERMCSs has been reported in various neurodegenerative disorders due to mutation in proteins promoting and supporting ER-mitochondria communication. Neurodegenerative disorders are responsible for a great burden in disease, as dementias alone affect over 7 million people in Europe and this figure is expected to increase dramatically with aging of the population.

The UN's Sustainable Development 2030 report highlights the urgent need for net-zero emission energy to combat climate change. Renewable energy and improved energy efficiency are key, as a significant portion of energy is lost as heat. Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) offer a solution by converting waste heat into electrical power through thermal gradients. Recognising the significance of thermoelectric energy conversion materials, the Henry Royce Institute and the Institute of Physics have identified them as a critical area of materials research to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Current ceramic thermoelectric materials face sustainability challenges due to their reliance on scarce, toxic elements. In this context, the search for efficient ceramic materials is a necessity. Moreover, the development of hybrid materials combining ceramics with conductive polymers provides a promising alternative due to their flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and low thermal conductivity Notably, recent developments have yielded printed TEGs based on conductive polymers for energy harvesting. Nonetheless, challenges impede their optimal power output, including limited temperature differentials across the TEG. Conventional cooling solutions like pumped fluids or rigid metal fins are unsuitable for flexible TEGs, hindering their progress. This project aims to enhance flexible TEG efficiency by integrating photothermal materials, which increase the thermal gradient through sunlight-induced photothermal conversion. Comprehensive TEG modelling will guide materials optimization, fabrication, and testing. The project has broad applications, including energy-efficient wearables, remote power sources, and sustainable energy harvesting systems. Improving printed organic TEGs and addressing thermal management aim to contribute significantly to global net-zero efforts, reduce energy waste, and advance sustainable energy solutions for society and the environment.

Diabetic foot ulcers (DFU) are one of the most severe and costly long-term diabetic complications, causing a considerable financial burden to patients and healthcare sectors globally. Most commercial wound dressing materials are based on linear natural or synthetic polymers, and they are not capable of treating DFU efficiently. Innovative material design and therapeutic methodologies are critical to provide improved treatments for DFU. Hyperbranched dendritic polymers show advantages of having multiple terminal groups for multivalent interactions, low viscosity, cost-effectiveness and large-scale production in high yield, which are important features in practical biomedical applications. The aim of this proposal is to develop advanced cationic dendritic networks (CDNs) which are designed to eliminate infections and stimulate favorable immune modulation during the DFU healing process. In this context, a library of cationic heterofunctional hyperbranched dendritic-linear-dendritic copolymers (HBDLDs) based on polyethylene glycol (PEG) and 2,2-bismethylol propionic acid (bis-MPA) will be synthesized and hybridized with collagen to fabricate well-defined CDNs to deliver insulin locally for improving DFU treatment. The cations will provide long-term antibacterial activity; collagen, insulin and the dendritic structures and cationic charges are envisioned to provide the immune modulation during DFU healing process. I will study the effects of the CDNs on skin cells at molecular level, and identify functional groups and structures of materials that can actively promote DFU healing. Proof-of concept wound dressings will be designed based on the material properties and gelation mechanism, and methods for large scale production of the optimized hydrogels will be explored. It is promising that this project will provide a better treatment for DFU and potentially other chronic wounds.

The project aims at developing robust, reliable and effective techniques for generation of extreme conditions. Positive TPa as well as negative MPa pressures in liquids will be produced with limited resources available in everyday research environment. The project offers a unique integration of approaches and resources in high voltage engineering and plasma physics applications towards classical problems of compressible fluid mechanics. It investigates by experiment, computation and theory the major physical properties of imploding shock waves in liquids and offers approaches to enhance efficiency of the focal energy concentration. The project develops a novel method for generation of imploding rarefaction waves, a well controlled scenario that provides with exactly opposite range of extreme conditions, namely negative pressures in liquids. The approaches comprise a single generator facility that opens research on a broad spectrum of basic-to-applied subjects, promising a long-term investment towards studies of materials at extremes. The facility is applied on a selected subject of mechanical treatment of cellulose fibers, aiming at enhancing the efficiency of fibres disintegration, homogenization and fibrillation processes by applying, both selectively and combined, compression and tension pulses on a broad range of intensities, from strong to extreme.

SPHERE is a historical study of humanity’s relation to planetary conditions and constraints and how it has become understood as a governance issue. The key argument is that Global Environmental Governance (GEG), which has arisen in response to this issue, is inseparable from the rise of a planetary Earth systems science and a knowledge-informed understanding of global change that has affected broad communities of practice. The overarching objective is to provide a fundamentally new perspective on GEG that challenges both previous linear, progressivist narratives through incremental institutional work and the way contemporary history is written and understood. SPHERE will be implemented as an expressly global history along four Trajectories, which will ensure both transnational as well as transdisciplinary analysis of GEG as a major contemporary phenomenon. Trajectory I: Formation articulates a proto-history of GEG after 1945 when the concept of ‘the environment’ in its new integrative meaning was established and a slow formation of policy ideas and institutions could start. Trajectory II: The complicated turning of environmental research into governance investigates the relation between environmental science and environmental governance which SPHERE examines as an open ended historical process. Why was it that high politics and diplomacy came in closer relations with environmental sciences? Trajectory III: Alternative agencies – governance through business and civic society explores corporate responses, including self-regulation through the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility, to growing concerns about environmental degradation and pollution, and business-science relations. Trajectory IV: Integrating Earth into History – scaling, mediating, remembering will turn to historiography itself and examine how concepts and ideas from the rising Earth system sciences have been influencing both GEG and the way we think historically about Earth and humanity.