The development of active compounds that can efficiently fight microbial infections and cancer are of utmost importance for food security and human health, two main challenges for Europe. Tetrapyrrolic photosensitizers (PS) are good candidates to meet these expectations. These photo-excitable molecules induce cell death via the formation of oxygen reactive species (ROS) and present very low toxicity in the absence of light. They are already used in photodynamic therapy (PDT) for cancer or skin disease treatments or in photo-antimicrobial chemo-therapy (PACT). Unfortunately, the research and training are still largely fragmented in this field in Europe. Some scientific barriers have to be overcome to increase their efficacy, e.g. improvement of the excitation pathways, ROS production, specific cell targeting, Gram (-) bactericidal effect and prevention and/or eradication of biofilms. That is why the EJD Polythea project aims developing an integrated and multidisciplinary approach of PDT through the implementation of 10 PhD research projects. The Polythea consortium proposes to develop (i) new tetrapyrrolic PS for various types of PDT including anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and immune-activating application, improving their photophysical and biological properties; and (ii) innovative bio-inspired drug carriers or supports. In parallel, a joint doctorate structure gathering 5 countries will be created and a multidisciplinary and inter-sectorial training programme will be implemented through network events and secondments to non-academic partners. It will provide a common background on PDT to the ESRs and make them more valuable employees, effective at problem solving. Practical applications should come out of this project such as first aid bandages, new skin/anti-tumour treatments, self-sterilizing surfaces for food industry or prosthetic devices.

Plate Tectonics (PT) is a well-established framework of moving plates made of oceanic and continental lithosphere. The main driving force of this system is the slab pull, a force imposed as the older and colder subducting plate sinks into the asthenosphere at convergent boundaries, producing Low Temperature/High Pressure (LT-HP) metamorphic rocks. Although our understanding about PT has improved in the last decades, there are major unknowns remaining, namely when and how its onset took place, a highly controversial topic. The record of LT-HP metamorphic rocks becomes continuous only from 850-750 Ma onwards, but recent evidence of these rocks at 2100-2000 Ma suggests a similar Tectonic regime operated at this time as well. An outstanding question arises: did Plate Tectonics, as we know it today, begin to operate only 850Ma ago or did this change take place much earlier but disappeared as the result of a preservation bias affecting LT/HP rocks? FINGER-PT will test this hypothesis using detrital minerals in sedimentary rocks that can track older LT-HP. Key minerals that can retain pressure, temperature, and age (P-T-t) information will be used, applying chronothermobarometric tools. Through a multidisciplinary approach, we will (i) combine the existing tools with new ones to obtain reliable P-T-t conditions; ii) test these tools and study the survival of eroded LT-HP terranes via mineral analyses in analogue modern sediments draining an exposed subduction zone; iii) identify and sample the most appropriate units, whose detrital minerals record the last 1000 to 4000 Ma, to trace the secular evolution of cold subduction. The emerging new tools from FINGER-PT, some that push current technological boundaries, will be widely applied by other petrologists. Establishing when modern-day PT began will influence the geodynamic mechanisms proposed for the early Earth (e.g. sluggish tectonics), forcing a shift of current conceptual models on the evolution of Earth systems.

EXCELScIOR will develop, extend and fully unlock the research potential of the University of Coimbra (UC, Portugal) through the implementation of a new interdisciplinary ERA Chair devoted to Meta-research (i.e., “research on research”, or Meta-science). Meta-research fosters reproducibility and interdisciplinarity, making science more efficient through better use of research data, more reliable through better verification and ultimately more transparent (open) and responsive to societal challenges and needs. EXCELScIOR strategic goal is thus to improve UC’s research methods and practices, and enhance approaches to integrate information, generate reliable evidence and maximize its impact, in order to increase the scientific production, quality and organizational praxis of Research & Innovation at UC towards EU/ERA excellence. Biomedical Sciences will be the ERA Chair’s primary target during the project’s execution, but the intrinsic nature of meta-research is seemingly apposite and will then continue to revolutionize and advance multiple other research areas, within UC and beyond. The named ERA Chair holder _ Professor John Ioannidis from the University of Stanford _ is considered a pioneer in meta-research, being one of the ten most-cited scientists globally across all sciences. His work in the field attained worldwide recognition and has transformed research in biomedicine and multiple other scientific areas. Under his leadership, this ERA Chair will strive and, in the long term, evolve into a new research to action center _ the Meta-Research Innovation Center - Coimbra (METRIC C) _ bound to operate in tandem with the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS) and its sister in Berlin (METRIC-B), both of which co-founded and (co-)directed by Professor Ioannidis.

Congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) is a rare disease of newborns / infants in whom functionally defective nonneoplastic beta-cells with inappropriate over-secretion of insulin cause hypoglycaemia and severe morbidity: CHI is a major cause of hypoglycaemic brain injury with intellectual disability, epilepsy and cerebral palsy. The LightCure project addresses 3 major challenges in CHI: (i) improve early diagnosis to avoid brain damage, (ii) define burden of disease and (iii) develop an innovative technology for improved treatment of CHI with fewer side effects. Diagnosis of CHI is challenging as newborns pass through a short period of physiological hyperinsulinism, which quickly resolves after birth. However, stress-induced hyperinsulinism also occurs in the perinatal phase (asphyxia, small for gestational age children, maternal diabetes etc.). CHI is difficult to differentiate from these conditions, which is one explanation for the fact that in the last 50 years, diagnosis of CHI has not improved. In LightCureHop, we propose to improve early diagnosis of CHI by two complementary approaches. First, we propose to collect blood samples from newborns to determine physiological and pathophysiological parameters for a defined set of metabolic markers in healthy newborns and newborns with stress-induced hyperinsulinism and compare them to CHI cases. By including a large cohort (>500) and expanding the range of metabolic markers, we aim to overcome limitations of previous studies that failed to establish clear physiological and pathological values associated with brain damage. Second, we aim to identify children at risk using this method followed by the development of a specific test based on the detection of CHI-specific miRNA profiles in extracellular vesicles isolated from blood. Like this, the consortium will deliver a new method for early and specific diagnosis of CHI, aiming at preventing brain damage caused by delayed diagnosis.