ERC awards Starting Grants to MDC scientists

Two researchers of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch will receive more than €3m in research funding from the European Research Council. Cancer researcher Dr Michela Di Virgilio and systems biologist Dr Baris Tursun will receive an ERC Starting Grant endowed with €1.9m and €1.5m respectively. The ERC grants are for a period of five years and will begin in spring 2015.

In her ERC project, Di Virgilio focuses on the repair of DNA double-strand breaks. These cytotoxic DNA lesions arise following exposure to ionising radiation and several chemicals, but they also occur in B lymphocytes as intermediates of physiological processes essential for antibody production. Accurate repair of DNA double-strand breaks is essential for the maintenance of our genome integrity but also for the establishment of a proper immune response. Di Virgilio will investigate the regulatory mechanisms that ensure efficient and accurate repair of these lesions in B lymphocytes. By elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying DNA repair in B cells, Di Virgilio hopes to advance the understanding of the molecular basis of immunodeficiencies and cancer predisposition.

Tursun will investigate how cells can be directly reprogrammed, thus circumventing the use of embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells and generating tissues for the treatment of severe diseases in the future. However, direct reprogramming is currently only successful in a few cells types, and it is not well understood why most cells are refractory to this process. Recently, Tursun’s research group identified factors which inhibit direct conversion of germ cells into neurons or muscle cells. In ERC project, Tursun will further investigate the mechanisms which restrict direct reprogramming. For their investigations, C. elegans will be used, a roundworm widely used as a model system in genetics and systems biology, and the first animal to have its genome completely sequenced; its developmental programme is understood at the single-cell level.