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Funding
Funding
HFSP supports novel, innovative and interdisciplinary basic research focused on the complex mechanisms of living organisms. A clear emphasis is placed on novel collaborations that bring biologists together to focus on problems at the frontier of the life sciences.
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Awardees
Awardees
In this section you find information about the awardees in the HFSP scientific programs. This includes a searchable database of HFSP awardees, information on the HFSP Nakasone Award and other achievements by HFSP awardees.
- News & Impact
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Events
Events
HFSP promotes and participates in several events every year. We are committed to bringing together the scientific community and forging new opportunities to network and have scientific discussions that help to create bridges and partnerships for the future of frontier science.
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About
About
The Human Frontier Science Program is a program of funding for frontier research in the life sciences. It is implemented by the International Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO) with its office in Strasbourg. Here you can find all you need to know about the HFSPO.
Awardees
2026
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Research Grants - Early Career
Nervous system reorganization during complete eye regeneration in apple snails
FORLI Angelo (ITALY)
- Italian Institute of Technology (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia , IIT) - Genova - ITALY
ACCORSI Alice (ITALY)
- The Regents of the University of California, on Behalf of its Davis Campus - Davis - United States
How do animals restore organ function after injury? This fundamental question is often approached from two distinct scientific perspectives. Neuroscientists typically study how the brain and behavior respond to damage, such as stroke or spinal cord injury, using mammalian models with limited regenerative capacity. Meanwhile, regenerative biologists focus on the amazing abilities of species that can regrow entire organs, investigating the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying structural regeneration. However, these two fields rarely intersect, leaving a major gap in our understanding of how regenerated organs are functionally reintegrated into a fully developed nervous system. This project bridges neuroscience and regenerative biology by investigating functional recovery in a genetically accessible and highly regenerative invertebrate: the golden apple snail (Pomacea canaliculata). These snails can fully regenerate vertebrate-like eyes in adulthood, offering a unique opportunity to investigate how the nervous system adapts to restore vision and behavior after injury. We will combine classical and cutting-edge techniques in molecular biology, transcriptomics, genetic engineering, neural recordings and behavioral assays to obtain an integrated understanding of the changes occurring in the apple snail central nervous system after eye amputation and regeneration. By integrating these approaches, we aim to uncover the principles that allow biological systems to reestablish homeostasis and restore function after damage. This interdisciplinary research will not only advance our understanding of regeneration and neural plasticity but also inspire new strategies in regenerative medicine and bioengineering. By identifying the mechanisms that support functional recovery, our findings may inform future efforts to repair damaged tissues and restore lost functions in humans.
2026
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Grant Awardees - Program Grants
Genetic conflict over sex ratio in vertebrates
AKERA Takashi (JAPAN)
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, NIH NHLBI - Bethesda - United States
MARQUES André (BRAZIL)
- Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (Max-Planck-Institut für Pflanzenzüchtungsforschung, MPIPZ) - Cologne - GERMANY
HEJNAR Jirí (CZECH REPUBLIC)
- Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences - Prague - CZECH REPUBLIC
One of the few “laws” in biology is Mendel’s Law of Segregation, which states that each allele of a gene has an equal chance to transmit to the gametes (egg, sperm, and spores) and therefore to the next generation. Such segregation will result in the typical 3:1 phenotype ratio as in Mendel’s experiments with garden peas. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that this law can be violated by selfish DNA, which exploit meiosis (a specialized cell division to produce gametes) to increase their own rate of transmission. This genetic cheating in meiosis, meiotic drive, potentially occurs whenever haploid gametes are produced from diploid parents, an inherent process in all sexually reproducing organisms. Female meiosis provides a unique opportunity for genetic elements to cheat because of the highly asymmetric cell division: only chromosomes segregated to the egg are transmitted to the descendants, while the rest are degraded in polar bodies. Although meiotic drive was first noted in 1942 in maize, the cell biological mechanisms of biased transmission remain largely unknown. Sex chromosomes are a hotspot of selfish DNA, and non-Mendelian transmission of sex chromosomes leads to biased sex ratio in the population, putting species survival at risk. Birds are an ideal system to study the impact of meiotic drive on sex ratio because the segregation pattern of their sex chromosomes (Z and W) in female meiosis directly translates into the sex ratio of the offspring. Using chicken oocytes, we propose a multidisciplinary program to study the impact of genetic cheating on sex ratio. We will exploit the wealth of genetic resources and natural variation in the chicken model to assess the evolution of selfish DNA and its impact on sex chromosome transmission. Combining our expertise on biased chromosome segregation (AKERA), long-read sequencing to assemble genomes (MARQUES), and the chicken model (HEJNAR), we will reveal how selfish DNA bias sex ratios and how the host genomes fight back to maintain sex ratios, a fundamental requirement for species survival.
2026
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Grant Awardees - Program Grants
Metabolic rearrangements: The bacterial frontline for coping with fluctuating conditions
AMSTER-CHODER Orna (ISRAEL)
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Jerusalem - ISRAEL
HUANG KC (United States)
- Stanford University School of Medicine - Stanford - United States
WIGNESHWERARAJ Sivaramesh (GERMANY)
- Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine - London - United Kingdom
Bacteria constantly face changes in their environment and must respond quickly to survive. Understanding how they adapt will help fight infections, design cells for industrial applications and provide insight into the forces that have molded the microbiomes within and on our bodies. The traditional picture is that cells adapt to environmental changes by turning genes on or off. While such regulation is clearly important for the eventual recovery of cells, it is often too slow to be effective when cells face sudden stresses. We propose a new paradigm for stress responses in which the first line of defense is not based on genes and their expression, but driven by physical and chemical changes that can occur almost instantaneously within the cell. These early events can be compartmentalized to specific regions, such as the polar endcaps or within small droplets called “condensates,” enabling the cell to organize and multitask its response. As a result, unappreciated features that could impact adaptation are the degree of molecular crowding, how key metabolites, RNAs and proteins are spatially distributed, and the extent to which condensates can be re-organized. In this study, we will focus on E. coli, a model for the enteric bacteria found in the human gut, during gut-relevant perturbations like sudden changes in osmolarity or temperature when they enter and exit a host. By exploiting our combined expertise in cell biology, biochemistry, and computational modelling, we will systematically characterize morphological changes that alter the global landscape for cellular organization, as well as physical changes inside the cell such as molecular crowding. We will then quantify how they collectively shape the early adaptive response. To understand how each cellular region reorganizes, we will use advanced chemical and imaging tools to track metabolites, gene transcripts, and proteins over short and long time scales. Finally, we will develop biophysical models that integrate these data to predict and interpret bacterial responses, providing insight into what makes bacteria robust and revealing their points of weakness for future targeting. Our synergistic tools and knowledge provide the foundation for our ambitious aim to redefine the framework of bacterial adaptation with transformative implications for basic microbiology as well as medicine and biotechnology.
2026
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Research Grants - Early Career
Genomics, Biosynthesis, Physiology and Synthesis of a Mysterious Ichthyotoxin Family
GREEN Nicholas (AUSTRALIA)
- University of Otago - Dunedin - New Zealand (Aotearoa)
LUKOWSKI April (United States)
- The Regents of the University of California, San Diego (Scripps Oceanography) - La Jolla - United States
ANSAI Satoshi (JAPAN)
- Okayama University - Setouchi - JAPAN
Natural products are one of Nature’s great resources for humankind, prompting us to discover new structures that we may not have conceived of, and to investigate the biological roles that these structures play. Understanding how Nature assembles its natural products has been a cornerstone for developing our ability to synthesise natural products themselves, and unnatural derivatives. Some natural products feature extremely unusual structural patterns, which imply the existence of previously unknown biological machinery for the synthesis of these motifs. Other natural products, whilst the structure may be understood, have completely unknown roles in the producing organism and ecosystem. Our team will investigate a family of little-studied natural products that is mysterious in both these contexts – it features some very rare structural patterns, and almost nothing is known about the way Nature synthesises it, or its purpose. Combined expertise in biology, biochemistry and chemical synthesis will unravel the mystery of these fascinating natural products, search more widely for their occurrence, and shed light on unknown biochemical relationships between organisms.
2026
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Grant Awardees - Program Grants
Electro-chemical Actuation of Tissue Morphogenesis
BARRIGA Elias (CHILE)
- TU Dresden (Technische Universität Dresden) - Dresden - GERMANY
MARTINEZ-MORALES Juan (SPAIN)
- Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) - Madrid - SPAIN
COHEN Daniel (United States)
- The Trustees of Princeton University - Princeton - United States
DUCLUT Charlie (FRANCE)
- Institut Curie - Paris - FRANCE
What does an eye do before it sees? While developing, the eye is surrounded by other structures that will build and shape our heads and faces. This complex process involves the coordination between different types of cells and tissues, such as bones, muscles, and complex sensory systems. All these need to fit together in the correct places, at the correct time. Thus, we propose that the developing eye is a key regulator of this process, coordinating the development of its neighbors. To study this, we focus on the interaction between the eye and the neural crest cells. These cells are critical to the formation of the head and face. But neural crest cells are born far away from the developing face, so they must walk a long path to perform their duties. If they fail to migrate, severe defects appear in our heads. Within their migratory route, neural crest cells pass by and interact with the eye, and if the eyes are not present, defects in the head appear. Building from these facts, we reached our hypothesis that the developing eye, before it starts seeing, guides the neural crest cells towards their correct place and to the right fate. But how? While developing, the eye broadcasts chemical and electrical signals to surrounding cells. We will start by studying whether and how these biochemical and bioelectric signals are capable of steering neural crest cell migration and differentiation by using a combination of tools from the cell and developmental biology fields as well as from experimental and theoretical physics. Instructed by theoretical models, we will also build eye-like cell spheres that will be equipped with light-controlled biochemical and bioelectric components. These structures will allow us to study how cells integrate chemical and electrical cues. The scientific impact of this highly interdisciplinary project is quite exciting, as it goes beyond eye-neural crest cell interactions and will reveal how cells integrate multiple, often contradictory, cues to move and differentiate in the complex environment of developing embryos. Broadly, understanding how our developing organs interact with each other during development will help us to better understand, control, and engineer developmental processes. In the long term, this will enable the design of preventive and reparative therapies targeting embryonic malformations.
2026
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Grant Awardees - Program Grants
Breaking the Limits of Sugar Sensing in Plants Using Photon Avalanche FRET
HILDEBRANDT Niko (FRANCE)
- McMaster University - Hamilton - CANADA
BEDNARKIEWICZ Artur (POLAND)
- Institute of Low Temperature and Structure Research, Polish Academy of Sciences - Wroclaw - POLAND
FROMMER Wolf (GERMANY)
- Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf (Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf) - Düsseldorf - GERMANY
Fluorescent biosensors are of paramount importance for investigating signaling and metabolism in multicellular organisms, e.g., synthesis, transport, degradation and signaling of metabolites, energy production, development, and defense against pathogens. Currently used biosensors heavily rely on fluorescent proteins, which have significant drawbacks concerning their photophysical performance. The main goal of our project is the development of a new nanoparticle-based biosensing technology for real-time intra- and extra-cellular quantification of extremely small changes of metabolites, which is not possible with currently available methods. Realizing our challenging project goal at the interface of physics, chemistry, and biology requires an international team of experts in synthesis and optical characterization of nanoparticles (Artur Bednarkiewicz, Poland), nanoparticle bioconjugation and biosensing (Niko Hildebrandt, Canada), and the analysis of transport and signaling in plants (Wolf Frommer, Germany). Our interdisciplinary and collaborative approach covers all aspects from the experimental proof-of-concept, over the implementation into advanced biosensing approaches, to the translation into real-life analysis of molecular mechanisms in plant physiology with a focus on real-time sugar sensing. Our new technology will move the frontiers of metabolite analysis in plants and the method will be directly transferable into the analysis of many other biomolecular interactions in life and health sciences.
2026
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Research Grants - Early Career
Light-harvesting strategies from the forest floor: mapping the photonic morphospace of shade plants
BORSUK Aleca (United States)
- New York Botanical Garden - Bronx - United States
BELLO Valentina (ITALY)
- University of Pavia (Università degli Studi di Pavia) - Pavia - ITALY
Thousands of plant species thrive on the forest floor, in conditions of diffused, low-intensity, spectrally filtered, or transient light. These challenging habitats have led to the evolution of highly specialized adaptations. Yet, while many studies focus on light-leaf interaction in well known sun loving plants, our understanding of how plants growing in deeply shaded environments—such as montane or tropical forest understories—optimize light harvesting remains limited. Indeed, although unique adaptations developed by shade plants have been observed in a few scattered studies (e.g. optical micro-structures redistributing light in the leaf epidermis of some jewel orchids), there are still no systematic comprehensive studies on these mechanisms. The goal of our project is to extend the frontier of plant ecophysiology and biophotonics by systematically elucidating the sophisticated strategies and principles that guide light harvesting in the leaves of shade-adapted plants. To achieve this, we will employ a unique interdisciplinary approach combining plant science with photonics and advanced optical engineering. Leaves of diverse species of shade plants (e.g. Begonia, Ludisia, Selaginella) will be investigated with advanced imaging techniques and non-destructive novel optical methods, providing insights into their microstructure and photonic properties. Experimental data will serve to develop sophisticated models able to simulate how light propagates in the leaf tissue and how it is optimally collected by leaf photonic structures. Last, we will exploit algorithms of artificial intelligence to classify experimental data collected and identify the unique mechanisms or convergent strategies evolved by different shade plant species that cannot be recognized through traditional methods. Our project aims to navigate the unexplored depths of shade plants — diminutive yet remarkable heroes that survive in the shadows, but may hold the key to advance botanic research. The outcomes of our projects also hold significant potential for unlocking novel solutions to major challenges in optics, technology, material engineering, and sustainability.
2026
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Research Grants - Early Career
Probing the role of pattern recognition receptor diversity in non-immune evolutionary novelties
GOODHEART Jessica (United States)
- American Museum of Natural History - NY - United States
SLEIGHT Vicky (United Kingdom)
- University of Aberdeen - Aberdeen - United Kingdom
BESSHO-UEHARA Manabu (JAPAN)
- Tohoku University - Sendai, Miyagi - JAPAN
How do new traits evolve in animals, allowing them to do things their ancestors could not? Molluscs—such as snails, clams, and octopuses—offer some of the most dramatic examples of biological innovation. They build intricate shells from minerals in their environment, some produce light through bioluminescence, and others, like certain sea slugs, steal stinging structures from their prey and repurpose them for their own defense. While these novelties are spectacular, we know little about the molecular mechanisms that allowed them to evolve. Our project explores the idea that a class of genes usually linked to immunity may also play unexpected roles in the origin of these traits. These genes, called pattern recognition receptors, help cells recognize foreign material such as bacteria or viruses. We propose that in molluscs, they may have been adapted to detect, tolerate, and incorporate very different kinds of “foreign” materials, from minerals to whole organelles. To test this idea, we will combine evolutionary studies of molluscan genomes (USA), experiments that track and manipulate gene activity during development (UK), and biochemical studies that uncover how proteins and their partners interact (Japan). Together, we will ask whether diversification of these receptors made it possible for molluscs to repeatedly evolve such unusual traits. By challenging the traditional view that these genes are limited to immune defense in molluscs, our project has the potential to change how we think about the evolution of novelty. It will not only deepen our understanding of molluscs, a group central to marine ecosystems worldwide, but also reveal more general principles of how living organisms evolve new ways to interact with their environment.
2026
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Grant Awardees - Program Grants
Noise or signal? Information fidelity at the edge of jamming
BETZ Timo (GERMANY)
- University of Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität Gottingen) - Göttingen - GERMANY
HOLT Liam (United States)
- NYU Grossman School of Medicine - New York - United States
IMAJO Masamichi (JAPAN)
- Hokkaido University - Sapporo - JP
Every living cell is filled to the brim with molecules that constantly move, interact, and compete for space. This crowding makes the interior of the cell behave less like water and more like a soft material that can suddenly become jammed, almost like traffic on a busy road. When this happens, the mobility of larger molecules slows dramatically (like cars), while smaller ones continue to slip through (like bicycles). At the same time, cells generate bursts of internal energy that can counteract this jamming and “fluidize” their interior. These physical shifts are so abrupt and powerful that they could fundamentally shape how cells handle information, but this idea remains largely unexplored. Our project explores the bold idea that cells do not rely only on biochemical reactions to process information, but also on the physics of their crowded interiors. In this view, the physical state of the cell—whether jammed, fluid, or somewhere in between—can amplify, filter, or even replace traditional signaling mechanisms. This could provide an additional layer of communication that has so far remained hidden, explaining why different organisms evolved very different strategies to cope with changes in their environments. To investigate this idea, we will bring together expertise from physics, biochemistry and molecular biology. By probing how signaling behaves as the interior of the cell shifts between different physical states, we will uncover whether cells have evolved to resist such changes, or whether they actively exploit them to make faster and more robust decisions. We will also build simplified “model cells” and engineer controllable signaling systems, giving us the unique opportunity to test these ideas in ways that natural cells alone cannot reveal. If successful, this research will provide an entirely new way of thinking about how life processes information—one that goes beyond chemistry to include the physics of living matter. Such a discovery would not only transform our understanding of cell biology, but also open avenues for designing new biomedical and technological strategies that harness the principles of life at the edge of criticality.
2026
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Research Grants - Early Career
Tracing the Evolutionary History of Sensory Perception via TRP Channels
YAÑEZ GUERRA Luis Alfonso (MEXICO)
- University of Southampton - Southampton - United Kingdom
BEZARES-CALDERON Luis (MEXICO)
- Laboratoire de Biologie du Développement de Villefranche-sur-mer - Villefranche-sur-Mer - FRANCE
How did animals first begin to sense and respond to the world around them? To explore this question, we are studying a family of proteins called TRP channels: molecular sensors that allow cells to detect heat, pressure, acidity, and chemical signals. In humans and other animals, TRP channels help us feel pain, regulate body temperature, and maintain internal balance. Yet we still know little about how these proteins first evolved or what roles they played in the earliest animals. Our project investigates the origins of these TRP channels by focusing on species that branched off early in animal evolution, including organisms such as the jellyfish Clytia hemisphaerica, and single-celled organisms called choanoflagellates, the closest living relatives of animals. These species are ideal for discovery: they represent evolutionary stages before the appearance of complex nervous systems, yet still perform sophisticated behaviours such as swimming, feeding, and responding to changes in their environment. We will begin by comparing TRP genes across a wide range of organisms to reconstruct their evolutionary history and trace how different types of channels emerged. We will then use high-throughput molecular tests to see how TRP channels from cnidarians and choanoflagellates respond to temperature, chemicals, and mechanical forces. Finally, we will connect these molecular findings to real behaviours in jellyfish larvae and choanoflagellates using modern genetic tools and live imaging. By uncovering how TRP channels worked in the earliest animals and their relatives, this research will reveal how the building blocks of sensation and communication evolved long before the first brains or nerves appeared. In doing so, we aim to illuminate the transition from single cells sensing their surroundings to the complex sensory systems that support life today.
2026
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Grant Awardees - Program Grants
Listening to the neighbors: How do plants use volatiles to communicate with each other?
BRANDIZZI Federica (United States)
- Michigan State University - East Lansing - United States
GERSHENZON Jonathan (United States)
- Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (Max-Planck-Institut für Chemische Ökologie) - Jena - GERMANY
MAOZ Ben (ISRAEL)
- Tel Aviv University - Tel Aviv - ISRAEL
WETTON Brian (CANADA)
- University of British Columbia - Vancouver - CANADA
All living beings need to communicate. Communication builds relationships by allowing us to share our experiences, needs, and wants. Therefore, communication is at the core of our lives. Communication is vital to any community’s health and structure because it allows us to express thoughts, share feelings, and spread information. Communication can occur in many ways, including verbal, written, and other nonverbal modes. The latter is employed by plants, which emit chemicals and perceive chemicals in their surroundings. Although much is being discovered about how plants emit volatile chemicals to communicate with other plants, there is a lack of understanding of how plants perceive these signals from different species. Our proposed research aims to fill this critical knowledge gap by investigating the deadly relationship occurring between tomato plants and dodder, a parasitic plant. Through yet unknown mechanisms, dodder perceives volatiles emitted in the air by tomato. This phenomenon allows dodder to direct its growth towards the tomato plant to eventually latch onto its stem and suck out its vital juices. The dodder-tomato relationship represents an exquisite system to discover how plants perceive volatiles, which will lead to an understanding of how plants communicate with each other and structure their ecosystems. We will pursue the ingenious hypothesis that disrupting dodder’s ability to respond to the host’s attractants will help to identify the components necessary for volatile-based communication among plants, including the direct receptors for volatiles. Our team of investigators with expertise in genomics, robotics, mathematical modeling, and chemical ecology has laid out a plan based on the identification of volatiles and their targeted dispensation, as well as the implementation of genomics and mathematical modeling, to isolate and characterize mutated dodder plants that are unable to sense the tomato scent. Molecular characterization of these mutants will lead to the discovery of the sensory machinery necessary for dodder to attack tomatoes. Accomplishing our research will define the mechanisms underlying plant-plant communication, establish innovative principles to build climate-resilient ecosystems, and set the ground for technological and intellectual foundations to analyze interspecies volatile-based communication across the plant kingdom.
2026
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Grant Awardees - Program Grants
In cold blood: biophysical mechanisms of neuromuscular function in cold-active insects
TUTHILL John (United States)
- University of Washington - Seattle - United States
MARSHALL Katie (CANADA)
- University of British Columbia - Vancouver - CANADA
BRAUCHI Sebastian (CHILE)
- Universidad Austral de Chile - Valdivia - CHILE
PENG Xubiao (CHINA)
- Beijing Institute of Technology - Beijing - CHINA
In spite of the challenges imposed by the cold, some animals have evolved to live and move in high, alpine environments. An extraordinary example is the snow fly, Chionea, a flightless crane fly that thrives in snow-covered environments across the northern hemisphere. In the mountains of the Pacific Northwest USA, for example, adult snow flies are active from November until April, when they can be observed sprinting across the surface of the snow, searching for mates in a barren, frigid landscape. Although many species can survive exposure to subfreezing temperatures, what is unique about snow flies is that they are able to sustain coordinated motor behavior at internal body temperatures that incapacitate other animals, down to -10C. Snow flies do not actively regulate their internal body temperature, for example through shivering. Therefore, snow flies must possess unique adaptations that allow their neurons to function below the thermodynamic limits for ion channel gating and action potential propagation. The purpose of this project is to identify and understand these mechanisms. There is a long history of making fundamental discoveries by studying animals adapted to living in extreme environments, and our goal is to add cold-active insects to this list.
2026
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Grant Awardees - Program Grants
Decoding an ancient RNA social network
BUCK Amy (United Kingdom)
- University of Edinburgh - Edinburgh - United Kingdom
LEY Ruth (United States)
- Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen - Tübingen - GERMANY
TOSAR Juan (URUGUAY)
- Institut Pasteur de Montevideo - Montevideo - URUGUAY
KAISER Stefanie (GERMANY)
- Goethe University Frankfurt (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) - Frankfurt am Main - GERMANY
Life depends on RNA, a versatile molecule that helps cells make protein, regulate genes, and respond to changes in the environment. Scientists used to think that RNA carried out these tasks only inside cells. We now know that RNA is also found outside of cells, from human bodily fluids to microbial biofilms. What exactly these extracellular RNAs (exRNAs) do is still a mystery. Current research has emphasized small RNAs inside extracellular vesicles, but mounting evidence suggests that this is only one component and structured RNAs such as transfer RNAs (tRNAs) and Y RNAs are abundant and can also exist freely outside vesicles. These RNAs have special codes in them that have been largely overlooked by standard sequencing approaches, leaving fundamental questions unanswered: Why do different organisms release these exRNAs into their environments? What information do they contain and how do other organisms decode this information? We hypothesize that extracellular RNAs are detected by cellular sensors, especially those that trigger immune responses. By discovering how these RNAs are formed, how they are chemically altered, and how they are sensed, we anticipate opening up a fundamental type of communication between hosts, their friendly microbes, and invading pathogens. Our international team brings together chemistry, biology, immunology, ecology and evolutionary science. During the first half of the project, we will explore how ribonucleases, a group of enzymes, cut RNAs into fragments that are resistant to degradation outside of cells. We will then compare the chemical modifications found on these fragments, which could be recognition signals. We will then analyze how these RNAs and their modifications are detected by Toll-like receptors, a family of sensors that trigger the immune system. We will ultimately assess how extracellular RNAs influence real-life interactions between animals, bacteria, and parasitic worms. By revealing how extracellular RNAs are generated and sensed, this work will shed light on an evolutionarily ancient communication network that connects all life. These findings may lead to new paths for understanding infection, immunity, and homeostasis among humans and their microbial symbionts.
2026
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Grant Awardees - Program Grants
Checkpoint Cell Wall: Re-enacting the interplay between intrusive plant cells and host tissues
KRAUSE Kirsten (GERMANY)
- UiT The Arctic University of Norway - Tromsø - NORWAY
BURCH-SMITH Tessa (United States)
- Donald Danforth Plant Science Center - St. Louis - United States
IMBERTY Anne (FRANCE)
- CNRS delegation Alpes - Grenoble - FRANCE
JOHNSTON Iain G (United Kingdom)
- University of Bergen, Norway - Bergen - NORWAY
Almost every single organism is at some point during its life exposed to an interaction with a parasitic species that will disturb the host’s health and fitness, either temporarily or permanently. Especially in plants, that cannot move to evade, the host tissue is often invaded by parasites, even ones from the plant kingdom, whose highly evolved intrusive cells have gained abilities that turn them into perfect invaders. We know that in the regions (or “interfaces”) where host tissue and intrusive parasite tissue meet, a molecular warfare between the two opponents is fought that decides who wins the battle for the metabolic resources. But what we don’t know about the phenomenon of intrusive growth is a whole lot more – and most of this is related to a plant cell’s outer shell, or cell wall: Do intrusive cells use their cell walls as mechanical weapons to overcome the host tissue barrier? If so, what has made their walls stronger or more potent? Or is it possible that they have turned physical weakness (i.e. flexibility) into a strength in the context of infection? How do intrusive cells make sure to find host cells that are not too damaged to still provide them with nutrients? And how can a plant-parasitic plant keep its own cell walls unscathed and safe from the very enzymes it deploys during host invasion? During the “CHECKPOINT CELL WALL” project, we will use two sedentary plants, one of which is a parasite (dodder/Cuscuta) that infects the other (e.g. tobacco), to address some of these fundamental questions. Our team from Norway, France and the USA will use its interdisciplinary expertise to devise novel approaches to de-mystify the enigmatic intrusive cells and their cell walls. Specifically, we will involve theoretical considerations (by mathematical modelling), compare them with measured or observed facts (using chemical analytics, super-resolution optical imaging and volume electron microscopy), and validate our conclusions by designing fake hosts from hydrogels where different haptics and biochemistry can be mimicked. We will take what we have learned one step further and produce artificial cell walls by bioprinting to observe their interactions. Results from such studies will give scientists new tools to optimize plant cell wall properties for different purposes or simply understand these important tissue connectors better.
2026
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Grant Awardees - Program Grants
Cells, tissues, & thermodynamics: implications for a changing world
TRIVEDI Vikas (INDIA)
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL-Heidelberg) - Heidelberg - GERMANY
CONCHA Miguel (CHILE)
- Instituto de Neurociencia Biomedica (BNI) - Santiago - CHILE
CHAIGNE Agathe (FRANCE)
- Utrecht University (Universiteit Utrecht, UU) - Utrecht - NETHERLANDS
STUMPF Michael (GERMANY)
- University of Melbourne (Melbourne University) - Melbourne - AUSTRALIA
In his New York Times essay The Cosmic Landscape, physicist L. Susskind wrote “Life is fragile: it thrives only in a narrow range of temperatures between freezing and boiling. How lucky that our planet is just the right distance from the sun.” Temperature is indeed one of the most fundamental forces driving life. Every organism has evolved to function within a narrow thermal range, and even small deviations can disrupt metabolism, protein folding, or cell division. Embryos are especially vulnerable, as they must coordinate countless cellular events to build tissues. With climate change driving rapid and unpredictable shifts in temperature, understanding how living systems cope with these fluctuations is urgent. This simple but profound challenge has united four scientists across three continents to explore the surprising strategies that embryos may use to buffer themselves against temperature stress. Our starting point is a paradox. Zebrafish embryos grown at cooler temperatures fail to complete the cell division process, producing large cells with multiple nuclei. Yet, development continues and the embryos grow into healthy adults. This mirrors annual killifish, which naturally develop multinucleated cells in variable environments, and recalls similar phenomena in the placenta of mammals. Multinucleation—long viewed as a defect—may therefore represent an adaptation that allows tissues to remain robust when temperatures fluctuate. The puzzle is profound because temperature destabilizes nearly everything: enzymes misfire, proteins lose their shape, molecules diffuse at the wrong rates, and even tissue properties like viscosity are altered. How then can embryos preserve robust development when the very physics that underpins life is destabilized? Making progress demands approaches that can bridge scales - molecules, cells, and tissues - and strategies that transcend disciplines- integrating biology, physics, and computational science. Through a comparative approach across animals and by combining live imaging with genetic, biophysical and computational tools, we will study how temperature alters some biological processes and the strategies organisms have to fight back and undergo normal development. In a world facing rising and fluctuating temperatures, these insights are essential for understanding how organisms—from embryos to ecosystems—adapt and survive.
2026
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Grant Awardees - Program Grants
The evolution, function and ecological relevance of sleep in the oceans: an invertebrate perspective
CHATZIGEORGIOU Marios (GREECE)
- Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine - London - United Kingdom
LESKU John (CANADA)
- La Trobe University Australia - Melbourne - AUSTRALIA
PARIS-LIMOUZY Claire (United States)
- University of Miami - Coral Gables - United States
Sleep is one of biology’s great mysteries. Nearly all animals sleep, but why they sleep and how sleep evolved remain open questions. This international research project aims to uncover the origins and functions of sleep by studying some of the ocean’s most unusual and understudied creatures: sponges and tunicates. Sponges are among the simplest animals and lack neurons entirely, while tunicates are the closest living relatives of vertebrates. Can these animals sleep? If so, what does that tell us about the evolutionary roots of sleep, and its possible functions beyond the brain? Evidence of sleep in these groups would demonstrate extraordinary evolutionary conservation and illuminate its original function, whereas their absence would identify the first animals known not to sleep. To answer these questions, we will leverage three species: the sponge Amphimedon queenslandica and the tunicates Ciona intestinalis and Oikopleura dioica. We will first test whether their quiescent periods meet the behavioral criteria for sleep. We will then explore whether sleep influences the ecologically important processes of metamorphosis and the construction of gelatinous filter-feeding structure called oikos (house). Subsequently we will use functional imaging to elucidate the neuronal basis of sleep in the simple chordate brain of Ciona larva and explore the role of neurotransmitters in transitions between sleep and wake states. In both tunicates and sponges, we will investigate whether sleep facilitates DNA repair, suggesting a potentially ancient role for sleep in maintaining genome integrity. We will also study these animals in their natural environments using custom-built Drifting In-Situ Chambers (DISCs) deployed in the unique ecosystems of the Norwegian fjords and the Great Barrier Reef. These systems will allow us to monitor behavior continuously and assess how pollution -artificial light at night, underwater noise, and chemical runoff- disrupts sleep and related physiological processes. Finally, we will incorporate sleep-like states into larval dispersal models to evaluate their ecological consequences. By combining neuroscience, evolutionary biology, environmental science and mathematical modeling this project will redefine our understanding of sleep, revealing its ancient origins and vital roles in development, brain function, and ecological resilience.
2026
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Grant Awardees - Program Grants
Intracellular self-assembly of bird feather photonic nanostructures
KAWAGUCHI Kyogo (JAPAN)
- RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research (RIKEN CPR) - Wako, Saitama - JAPAN
SARANATHAN Vinod Kumar (INDIA)
- CNRS MOY800 CTRE POITOU CHARENTES - Tours - FRANCE
CHUONG Cheng-Ming (United States)
- University of Southern California - Keck School of Medicine - Los Angeles - United States
Birds display some of the most breathtaking colors in nature—from vivid blues, shimmering greens, to dazzling metallic or iridescent sheens—yet these colors do not come from pigments. Instead these structural colors as they are called arise from intricate nanoscale features within their feathers, which control the flow of light through precise and repeating labyrinths of air and ß-keratin, the protein that makes up much of feathers. Understanding how birds build these microscopic nano-optical or photonic systems could inspire a new generation of materials for use in displays, coatings, and sensors, when it is really challenging for engineers to synthesize such photonic systems that operate with visible light. This research aims to uncover the biological blueprint behind how these natural optical materials are put together. We will study budgerigars—parrots with striking blue plumages—to discover how the proteins in their feathers spontaneously come together into complex nanostructures to produce color. The project brings together experts in biology, biophysics, and biochemistry to explore how genetic instructions, cellular processes, and physical laws work together to shape these structures during feather growth and development. By combining advanced imaging, genetic and biomaterials analyses, and computer simulations, we will trace how protein molecules organize themselves into larger macromolecular patterns that reflect specific colors, as the feather grows and changes. This work goes beyond mere curiosity—it seeks to unlock nature’s design principles for creating such naturally functional materials. The goal is to translate these biological insights into new technologies that mimic nature’s efficiency and elegance. For example, future materials could be engineered to change color in response to environmental cues, or provide durable, non-toxic alternatives to synthetic dyes. Ultimately, this project aims to show how evolution has solved complex engineering challenges, offering real-world inspiration for sustainable innovation in science and technology.
2026
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Grant Awardees - Program Grants
How snakes lost their limbs
MALLO Moises (SPAIN)
- Fundação GIMM - Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine - Lisbon - PORTUGAL
COHN Martin (United States)
- University of Florida - Gainesville - United States
ELO Laura (FINLAND)
- University of Turku - Turku - FINLAND
Snakes belong to the group of animals called tetrapods, which are defined by the presence of four limbs. The paradox of “limbless tetrapods” is explained by discoveries of fossil snakes with legs and by molecular studies showing that modern snakes descended from limbed ancestors. Understanding how and why snakes lost their limbs has fascinated scientists for centuries. The application of genomics to this question led researchers to search for special features in the snake genome that might explain their lack of legs. While some differences were found, experiments showed these changes cannot account for the complete loss of limbs. Furthermore, in lizards, the closest relatives of snakes, several lineages lost their limbs independently of snakes, and their genomes do not show those snake-specific features. This suggests that the disappearance of limbs in different tetrapods cannot be explained by snake genetics alone. Snakes and limbless lizards both have unusually long, stretched bodies. In most tetrapods, limbs are positioned at opposite ends of the trunk. Therefore, it is possible that in long-bodied animals, the increased distance between front and hind limbs imposed new constraints on limb formation. Losing limbs and streamlining the body opened new environmental niches not accessible to limbed animals, which likely increased evolutionary pressure to dispense with limbs altogether. Our project explores the link between long trunks and limb loss. Hindlimbs (rear legs) normally develop at the back of the trunk, and this requires close communication between different tissues to “switch on” the limb program. Why does this process fail in very long-bodied animals? To answer this, we will use advanced techniques to study how genes are activated and how tissues communicate. We will compare the ends of the trunk in embryos of limbed species (like mice and some lizards) with limbless ones (like snakes and other lizards). We expect to find some features consistently present in limbed animals but absent in their limbless relatives, and other features that are unique to each limbless group. We will then test whether these differences can truly explain limb loss by recreating them in mouse embryos using powerful genome-editing tools. This will let us directly test whether the changes that we identify played causal roles in the evolutionary disappearance of limbs.
2026
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Grant Awardees - Program Grants
Rhythms of the Tide: Unveiling the Three-Process Regulation of Sleep in Intertidal Crustaceans
DE LA IGLESIA Horacio (United States)
- University of Washington - Seattle - United States
SZTARKER Julieta (ARGENTINA)
- University of Buenos Aires (Universidad de Buenos Aires) - Buenos Aires - ARGENTINA
EMERY Patrick (United States)
- University of Massachusetts Medical School - Worcester - United States
HUT Roelof (NETHERLANDS)
- University of Groningen (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RUG)) - Groningen - NETHERLANDS
Sleep is an essential process to sustain animal life. Appropriately timed and good-quality sleep is critical to maintain normal brain and body function, and indeed, sustained sleep deprivation leads to disease and eventually death. In most animals studied so far, sleep is regulated by two processes that ensure that sleep occurs at the right time and with the appropriate quality to sustain critical behavioral and physiological functions. Process C is driven by the circadian clock, which dictates at what time sleep should take place. For instance, while humans sleep during the night, mice do so during the day. A second process, known as Process S, determines the ongoing need to sleep based on the time that an animal has been awake; the longer the wake time, the stronger the pressure to fall asleep. This dual-process model of sleep regulation describes in a simple and reliable manner the timing and quality of sleep in terrestrial animals. However, animals that live in the sea need to adapt their behavior not just to the day/night cycle, but also to the tides. This additional challenge is particularly acute in the intertidal zone, where animals are exposed to the inescapable alternation between an aquatic and a terrestrial environment. Thus, we propose that intertidal animals require a third process of sleep regulation, Process T, which accounts for the synchrony of sleep with the tides, in addition to Process C and S. To test this hypothesis comprehensively, we will conduct a series of experiments that capitalize on the use of three intertidal crustaceans, which are exposed to different tidal patterns in their natural habitats, and can be studied with complementary approaches. We will use behavioral and electrophysiological assays to define and characterize sleep in each species. We will use molecular and genetic tools to identify neurons that may underlie the regulation of each of the three processes, as well as neuroanatomical and genetic ablations to target different components of the triple-process model. Our project brings together four investigators with complementary expertise in molecular genetics, sleep, neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, ethology, and mathematical modeling, to explore sleep in a completely novel evolutionary and ecological context, which results from the temporal complexity of the intertidal habitat.
2026
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Grant Awardees - Program Grants
Living Batteries: Reconfiguring cell-wall deficient bacteria as synthetic mitochondria
MOULE Madeleine (United States)
- University of Edinburgh - Edinburgh - United Kingdom
EL KAROUI Meriem (FRANCE)
- CNRS - Délégation Ile-de-France Gif-sur-Yvette (DR04) - Gif-sur-Yvette - Gif-sur-Yvette - FRANCE
MORTEN Karl (United Kingdom)
- University of Oxford - Oxford - United Kingdom
SCOTT Matthew (CANADA)
- University of Waterloo - Waterloo - CANADA
Bacteria are microscopic organisms that can sometimes cause disease, though they are also ubiquitous and essential components of our microbiome. They are surrounded by a protective cell wall, but during chronic infections, they occasionally lose this outer layer and become cell-wall deficient bacteria (CWDB). This helps bacteria to evade the host immune system, which is specifically on the lookout for signatures associated with the bacterial cell wall. Hidden in plain sight, these CWDBs can form silent bacterial reservoirs within mammalian host cells. We propose to exploit the striking immune-evasive properties of CWDBs to engineer them into synthetic mitochondria, the energy-supplying organelle that powers complex cells. Mitochondrial dysfunction has been observed in many chronic diseases and is a critical regulator of ageing. CWDBs could be exploited as a scaffold to create synthetic mitochondrial analogues to repair or restore diseased cells, or to slow the progression of age-related mitochondrial dysfunction. But more than this, we imagine our system as a lens through which we can better understand the evolution of life. The hallmark of non-bacterial cells, including our own human cells, is the presence of sub-cellular organelles. How these structures arose is lost to time, but there is evidence that mitochondria descend from a bacterial cell that was engulfed by a distant unicellular ancestor and never left. The infection of modern mammalian cells by CWDBs has enough in common with the proposed origins of mitochondria that this model of a symbiotic relationship could shed new insight into how the tree of life branched off billions of years ago. By forging an understanding of how CWDBs are maintained as endosymbionts within mammalian cells, we can begin to improvise and engineer around that understanding and to build quantitative mathematical models that recapitulate how CWDBs and human cells share food and energy. This will pave the way towards our ultimate goal of constructing synthetic mitochondria that can restore the function of impaired or ageing human cells. The colonisation of mammalian cells by CWDBs is a simple experimental system that has the potential to open a wide frontier of possibilities in terms of basic science and human health.