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Prestigious European scholarships for two top researchers

Peter Carmeliet and Bart De Strooper awarded ERC grants totaling 5 million euro

Peter Carmeliet and Bart De Strooper have brought two ERC Grants home to VIB-K.U.Leuven, worth approximately 2.5 million euro each. These prestigious European scholarships support promising, innovative, world-leading research.

Peter Carmeliet

Professor Peter Carmeliet and his team at the VIB Vesalius Research Centre, K.U.Leuven are specialised in research conducted into the angiogenesis process: the formation of blood vessels, specifically in the development of cancer cells. The end goal of their research is to prevent the development of tumours by stopping the energy supply to blood vessels, which is necessary for tumours to grow. “The idea emerged about three years ago,” Carmeliet explains. “I decided to wait before I applied for an ERC Grant because the application file has to demonstrate both innovation and significant perspectives and results. It’s impossible to do that if you only have an idea, but nor can you do it if you have already published too many articles about the research. It is important to wait for the right moment.”

“But even then, it is still a long shot. I heard that the chances of being awarded a grant like this are approximately one or two percent. By comparison, the chances of being awarded an FWO (Research Foundation – Flanders – ed.) scholarship were about 25 percent last year and they dropped to 14 percent this year. It is an extremely competitive, international environment. And if you want to have any chance at all, you must have a subject that is not only well-grounded scientifically but also one which opens the door to new, creative possibilities.”

“Angiogenesis is the key word to our research. In my field, there has been a long search to inhibit the molecules that drive angiogenesis. This strategy has its advantages, but also has limitations. That is why my team and I want to examine whether it isn’t better to paralyse the metabolism of the blood vessels, which is stimulated by these molecules. You could compare it to a car; if you remove the driver, the car can still drive with a different driver, but that is not the case if you remove the petrol. In other words, we do not want to starve the tumour by cutting of the vascular supply, but rather by starving the blood vessels themselves.”

“Obviously this grant is an enormous financial stimulus for such a ‘high risk, high profile’ project, for which it is very difficult to find support via other channels. Of course it also entails certain responsibilities, but we are used to that at VIB, which operates through performance based research. That is no different with this grant.”

Bart De Strooper

Professor Bart De Strooper of the VIB Department of Developmental and Molecular Genetics, K.U.Leuven has been awarded 2.5 million euro to develop a new approach in research into the causes of Alzheimer’s disease. “In recent years, much research has been conducted into the causes of the genetically hereditary forms of the disease,” Professor De Strooper says. “The hereditary variants are, however, only a small fraction of all the cases of Alzheimer’s. The molecular origins of the most common, non-hereditary forms of the disease – so-called ‘sporadic Alzheimer’s’ – are still largely unexplained.”

Bart De Strooper intends to use the ERC grant to research the importance of microRNA (miRNA) in the emergence of these forms of the disease. miRNAs are short pieces of nucleotides that influence the expression of messenger- RNA (mRNA) in various ways. “Early studies have demonstrated that the formation of such miRNAs is also altered in Alzheimer’s patients. My research team will use this new financing to construct a stable framework in which to determine how and to what extent this regulation mechanism is disrupted in Alzheimer’s patients. This research may form the basis for new techniques to diagnose the disease. It is also intended to result in the identification of new targets for medication.”

“Getting an ERC Grant is a tough race. In publications based on prior research, I was fairly certain that we had a sound case, but you’re up against extremely tough competition either way.”

“The most important advantage is that the financing of my research team is more stable now. The most important disadvantage is that I will have more work now. Of course I can depend on members of the team for some tasks, such as writing long reports, but on the other hand, I will have to attend more meetings, do more recruiting, monitor more literature, etc. Such funding is more than welcome, but it has consequences, which of course I’m perfectly happy to take on as well.”

Ludo Meyvis