Pere Gelabert from the Dep. of Evolutionary Anthropology at the Faculty of Lifesciences (University of Vienna) will explore the often-overlooked role of carnivores and their interactions with humans during the Pleistocene in his upcoming ERC project SHADOWS. He seeks to understand how these carnivores coexisted with humans, competed for resources, and ultimately faced extinction.
The project will employ cutting-edge methods such as high spatiotemporal precision sampling for sediment DNA and paleoproteomics. Ultimately, the research will significantly expand our understanding of the biological processes that lead to extinction and provide important insights for the protection of critically endangered species today.
Read more about the project here
Isabella Anderson-Wagner from the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science (CeMESS) has been honored with a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for her research project “MemoryLane”. In the research project Isabella Anderson-Wagner and her team aim to clarify how the gut microbiome affects the neural basis of memory processes. The focus of their work is on the hippocampus – a brain structure inside the medial temporal lobe that is essential for well-functioning memory.
Read more about the project here
Anton Goloborodko, Group Leader at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, was awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) for his research on homology search in DNA repair. The funded project will investigate how DNA damage is repaired to preserve genetic information.
Read more about the project here