Five ERC Consolidator Grants awarded to TUM researchers
Can electric stimulation help the brain regain speech after a stroke? Can generative artificial intelligence create realistic 3D objects? Can qubits, the fundamental units of quantum computing, be entangled using light? These are among the questions that five research teams at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) aim to answer with the support of prestigious ERC Consolidator Grants.
Professors Simon Jacob and Julijana Gjorgijeva will each receive an ERC Consolidator Grant for their research in neuroscience. Additionally, three other TUM researchers have been awarded these renownded grants. Photo: Astrid Eckert/TUM
Bernstein members involved: Simon Jacob, Julijana Gjorgijeva
Each project will receive up to two million euros in funding from the European Research Council. Another project is being funded with a Proof of Concept Grant. These grants are awarded to researchers who want to explore the market potential of their ERC research projects. This brings the total number of ERC Grants at TUM to 236.
Prof. Dr. Julijana Gjorgjieva
Many of our everyday activities—like reading a book in a noisy café or playing the piano—depend on feedback loops in the brain. These loops enable us to compare current sensory experience with previously learned information from higher brain regions. Despite its central importance, it is still unclear how this feedback is implemented in the brain. In the Feedback Circuits project, Prof. Julijana Gjorgjieva will develop theory and models to study the mechanisms underlying such feedback loops in a specific brain region known as the neocortex. The research will be constrained by recent experimental data on the diversity of cell types and the mechanisms of synaptic plasticity that adjust connections between neurons. This project will reveal not only how feedback loops shape everyday behaviour, but also how disruptions in these loops contribute to certain psychiatric disorders. Furthermore, this research aims to inspire the design of more powerful artificial intelligence systems.
Prof. Dr. Julijana Gjorgjieva is a Professor of Computational Neurosciences. She was awarded the ERC Starting Grant in 2018.
Prof. Dr. Simon Jacob
Language is traditionally associated with the left hemisphere of the brain. However, the right hemisphere may also play a crucial role, especially in restoring language function after brain damage, such as that resulting from a stroke. In his RHETORICAL project, Prof. Simon Jacob will leverage cutting-edge technologies to better understand the right hemisphere’s role in language processing. Jacob and his team are utilizing microelectrode arrays that record the activity of large groups of individual neurons directly in the human brain. These arrays are implanted in the right hemisphere of patients who suffer from language impairments following a left-sided stroke. Beyond studying the detailed neuronal mechanisms of language, Jacob and his team will also explore whether it is possible to actively support language recovery by highly precise modulation of language circuits through neurofeedback and electrical microstimulation.
Simon Jacob is Professor of Translational Neurotechnology and coordinator of the TUM Innovation Network NEUROTECH. His previous work was already funded by an ERC Starting Grant.
You can find the complete press release on the TUM website.
