NWO ECHO project grants for FNWI chemistry research
NWO Chemical Sciences is subsidising four of the Faculty of Science's (FNWI) research projects with an ECHO or ECHO-STIP grant. In total, the NWO is distributing €11 million to outstanding scientists via its TOP, ECHO and ECHO-STIP grant programmes, making it possible to launch 33 research projects across the entire spectrum of chemistry. The €260,000 ECHO grants enable researchers to develop creative, high-risk ideas that may form the basis for tomorrow’s research themes.
NWO ECHO grant
- Christa Testerink het Swammerdam Institute of Life Sciences (SILS) has received a €260,000 NWO ECHO grant for her proposal entitled ‘Clathrin-mediated endocytosis in plant salt stress responses: unravelling the biochemical basis.’ Testerink’s research looks at how plant roots respond to salt in the soil. When plants are exposed to salt in the soil, dramatic changes take place in their cell membranes that enable the roots to grow away from the high salt concentrations. Testerink is focusing specifically on the biochemical basis of this process: the interaction of membranes with the proteins that makes this response possible.
- Fred Brouwer of ’t Hof Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS) and Daniel Bonn of the Institute of Physics (IoP) have been awarded an NWO ECHO grant within the focus area ‘Chemistry in relation to Physics/Materials’. Their proposal is entitled "In touch with fluorescent probe molecules: microscopic visualization of contacts and friction": The dynamics of the physical world are mostly determined by the forces between objects at their points of contact. In the granted project, such touching points are visualized at the nanoscale with the help of fluorescent molecules. With this technique the researchers aim to test the physical theory of friction.
- Within the focus area ‘Chemistry in relation to Biological/Medical Sciences’ Jan van Maarseveen is awarded an ECHO grant for his research proposal 'Cu-promoted Epimerization-free C-terminal Peptide Elongation enzymes with long redox chains'. Peptides are small proteins with important farmaceutical applications. Van Maarseveen developed a new method for peptide synthesis based on copper catalysis, enabling the build-up of peptides in a nature mimicking direction. For certain peptides this has turned out to be a very efficient approach, providing control of the spatial structure of the peptide, and as a result of this also of the peptide activity. In this project the method will be further optimised and expanded towards other applications such as the synthesis of small cyclic peptides.
ECHO-STIP grant
- Anett Schallmey (HIMS) receives an ECHO-STIP grant for her proposal 'Degradative enzymes in a synthetic context: Etherase-catalysis for the sustainable synthesis of enantiomerically pure beta-ketoethers and beta-ketosulfides'.By using newly discovered bacterial enzymes potential medicines can be produced in a sustainable way. The intended compounds are meant as therapeutics for the treatment of fungus- and parasitic infections. In future, it may be possible to make such (and other) compounds out of biomass.
Risky concepts
The ECHO grants amount to € 260.000 and enable researchers to develop creative, risky concepts which could result into future research themes. The ECHO-STIP grants amounting to € 260.000 are meant to stimulate researchers who have been newly appointed in chemical ‘focus areas’. € 11 million of NWO funding is awarded to excellent researchers via TOP, ECHO- and ECHO-STIP-grants. This enables 33 chemistry research projects to be kicked off.