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Metallic nanomaterials will play an important role for meeting future energy needs: they are increasingly used to enhance the performance of semiconductor solar cells. This research project is aimed at investigating an efficient approach to directly convert sunlight into electricity or hydrogen fuel, using only nanostructured metals instead of metal-semiconductors composites. Materials and processing costs for solar cells based only on metals are expected to be lower than those based on metal-semiconductor composites.

Pluripotent cells have the capacity to form any cell of the body, including tissues present during embryonic development only: the placenta, amnion and yolk sac (extra-embryonic cells). By activating specific genes in pluripotent cells with CRISPR-Cas tools, we successfully generated extra-embryonic cell types in a dish. The specialization of extra-embryonic cells was examined by testing activation of multiple gene sets. Next, we over-activated genes involved embryo development, investigating how mis-regulation of genes in certain cells may lead to developmental errors. The study increase our knowledge of early fetal development, and can contribute to understanding why problems may occur during pregnancy.

According to string theory we live in 10 dimensions, a whopping 6 more than just space and time. Mathematicians interpret these extra dimensions as a connection between two different types of geometry. The researchers will demonstrate that this connection is much stronger than expected by applying insight from knot theory.

The use of small parts of organs grown in fluidic “chips” outside the human body reduces the need for both research animals and human subjects in the development of new drugs. The researcher aims to improve the accuracy with which such technologies mimic the behaviour of organs in the body.