The 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank, and Richard Henderson ‘for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution’
Their work has allowed scientists to freeze biomolecules to look at their structures and the processes they are involved in.
According to the press release by the Nobel Prize Committee, electron microscopes were long believed to only be suitable for imaging dead matter because the powerful electron beam destroys biological material.
In 1990, Henderson succeeded in using an electron microscope to generate a three-dimensional image of a protein at atomic resolution. This breakthrough proved the technology’s potential.
Frank made the technology generally applicable. Between 1975 and 1986 he developed an image processing method in which the electron microscope’s fuzzy two-dimensional images are analysed and merged to reveal a sharp three-dimensional structure.
Dubochet added water to electron microscopy. The water evaporates in the electron microscope’s vacuum, which makes the biomolecules collapse.
In the early 1980s, he succeeded in vitrifying water – cooling it so rapidly that it solidified in its liquid form around a biological sample, allowing the biomolecules to retain their natural shape even in a vacuum.
Following these discoveries, the electron microscope was optimised and the desired atomic resolution was reached in 2013. Researchers can now produce three-dimensional structures of biomolecules.
In the past few years, scientific literature has been filled with images of everything from proteins that cause antibiotic resistance, to the surface of the Zika virus.
‘Biochemistry is now facing an explosive development and is all set for an exciting future’, the Nobel Prize Committee said.
The post Chemistry Nobel awarded to imaging trio appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
Projeler
EIT Digital, along with 20 partners, has begun the Manufacturing Industry Digital Innovation Hub (MIDIH) initiative.
Funded by Horizon 2020 within the Factories of Future cPPP and I4MS programmes, MIDIH aims to support and link national and local initiatives for the digitisation of manufacturing industry, to boost investment and collaborations through strategic partnership and networking.
The initiative aims to encourage innovation partnerships between solution providers and industrie, as well as bring Europe to the forefront of the Industry 4.0 market by 2023.
By supporting companies in their digitalisation travel, Digital Innovation Hubs are crucial ingredient of the Digitising European Industry (DEI) initiative.
Digital Innovation Hubs have already proven their effectiveness, the concept finding its limits only in the available technical skills and the difficulty to scale business beyond regional/national borders.
MIDIH will connect operating Digital Innovation Hubs focusing on CPS and IoT into a pan-European network capable of more effectively addressing the needs of European industry, notably SMEs and midcaps.
Fabio Pianesi, head of external collaboration at EIT Digital said: “In order to play a major role in the digitisation of European manufacturing industry, European SMEs and midcaps need to be able to access a pallet of services in a unified manner … By pooling together existing Digital Innovation Hubs, Competence Centres and Teaching Factories across Europe and joining forces with major industrial players and platform providers, MIDIH will incubate a pan-European network acting as a ‘one stop shop’ of services allowing SMEs and midcap to successfully meet the challenges of digital transformation.”
Recent studies estimate that digitisation of products and of the manufacturing process can add more than €110bn of annual revenue in Europe in the next five years.
The post EIT Digital begins MIDIH initiative appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
CardLab has announced that it will be using Fingerprint Cards latest T-Shape™ module in its biometric card reference.
In a statement, Fingerprint Cards said that the T-Shape sensor module is designed to optimise integration into smart cards.
Frank Sandelöv, CEO of Cardlab Aps, said: “We are pleased to work with Fingerprints as they have been very perceptive to CardLab input in their work towards developing a sensor that can be easily embedded in volume production.
“Fingerprints’ new unique T-Shape sensor and CardLab’s experience and knowhow in designing Powered Cards is a perfect combination. It will benefit not just CardLab but the card sector in general, which is now able to integrate another layer of security in volume production.”
It is designed to pass ISO standards for smart cards, and pre-qualification evidences its compliance with Card Quality Management (CQM) requirements.
In February, CardLab was granted support from the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme with the scope to embed a fingerprint sensor solution to enhance security.
The solutions which CardLab has developed are compliant with new data protection regulations whilst protecting personal identity; biometric data is stored in the card, and not in a centralised database.
Thomas Rex from the SVP Business Line Smart Cards at Fingerprint said: “That CardLab has chosen to use our T-Shape module in their reference design is an evidence that the T-Shape sensor fits the market requirements and we are pleased to work together.
“This is a proof of our efforts meeting not only the demands of production processes but also demands in terms of security and ease of use.”
The post FPC sensor implemented into CardLab cards appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
GKinetic Energy is in the process of developing an ‘off-grid’ floating device which could generate the electricity to sufficiently power up to 15 homes in Ireland’s remote communities.
The Irish Times reports that the company based in Limerick is working on a 25kw commercial tidal device, following an 8kw prototype which generated outputs above international industry standards in testing phases.
Vincent McCormack, GKinetic’s chief executive, said: “When we first started looking at this we identified what the problems were within the industry and a key one was deployment cost.
“We came up with a floating device that accelerates the flow into the turbines so we are actually getting double the speed of the water and, therefore, greater power”.
The developing device would be easily deployed in rivers with depths as shallow as two metres, and will provide electricity for communities which to date have relied on unsustainable and pollutant fuels such as diesel.
In its testing phase, the device will be trialled at Limerick Docks and has turbines on both sides of the vertical cylinder to provide acceleration which is double that of natural water flow.
Manufacturing partner DesignPro, based in Rathkeale, recently received grant funding of €2.7m from Horizon 2020 in order to commercialise 25kw and 60kw devices using the technology.
McCormack added: “We are now going to develop our first commercial unit but that will require rigorous testing over two years. Once we’re beyond that, we expect to be into full production of 25kw machines in 2020.
“We are fully funded out for that period to bring the design to commercialisation.”
The post Off-grid tidal energy to power Ireland’s homes appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
A draft funding plan published on Monday (2 October) proposes to dedicate €111m between 2018 and 2020 for researchers who want to study the causes and effects of migration.
A further €139m is proposed to be dedicated to investing in research on issues of “governance”, as in the rise of extremism in the Middle East and the Balkans, the strength of democracy, and the future of post-war order of international organisations.
The plan’s authors say that the intent “is to address the concerns of the European citizens regarding migration, the fourth industrial revolution and the challenges of governance”.
To date, the European Commission has published five of 12 draft work programmes, detailing how it intends to spend around €30bn from 2018 to 2020 on research topics.
The research plan on social sciences focuses heavily on the pressures of migration. It calls for researchers to propose studies into the factors which encourage people to migrate, patterns of migration, and how global organisations manage migration.
Furthermore, the programme identifies that more research is needed into the causes of violent extremism, and how it can be contained.
It points to the Middle East and the Balkans as regions for specialist study, as well as the causes of extremist ideologies more generally.
Other topics under the proposed project include studying the illegal trafficking of cultural goods, the impact of technology on children, and innovative approaches to cultural tourism.
The post Migration and extremism under H2020 agenda appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
A series of meetings, led by European research project VRE4EIC, brought together representatives from European initiatives involved in environmental multidisciplinary data-driven sciences.
VRE4EIC – a Europe-wide Virtual Research Environment to Empower multidisciplinary research communities and accelerate Innovation and Collaboration – is releasing its first results since its launch in 2015.
The e-VRE – enhanced Virtual Research Environment – reference architecture, and component software for the e-VRE.
The Horizon 2020-funded project aims to provide 70,000 European researchers with tools to support collaboration and multidisciplinary data-driven science in order to tackle societal challenges such as climate change and energy sustainability.
In Rome, the project strengthened its links with the EPOS and ENVRIplus projects, which are implementing interoperable research infrastructures.
A roadmap was also discussed between VRE4EIC and EPOS to establish a relationship between EPOS ICS – Integrated Core Services – which enables accessibility to assets of the Thematic Core Services and VRE4EIC.
The talk concluded in a discussion into future implementation plans of ENVRIplus and EPOS, including integration under VRE4EIC.
Keith Jeffery, scientific co-ordinator of the project, said: “The week was a great success with much integration of both existing products and future plans leading towards smooth interoperation of EPOS and ENVRIplus with VRE4EIC.”
VRE4EIC was awarded a €4.4m investment from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
The post VRE4EIC meets EPOS and ENVRIplus appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
The European Commission has published early details on funding opportunities for the next three years under its Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) research stream.
The commission says it wants to receive game-changing proposals for new candidate megaprojects, or flagships, which will each receive €1bn.
The paper appeared on a commission website, which generally does not publish draft materials.
Proposals must target ‘a visionary unifying goal’ within one of three main areas of ICT, health and life sciences, and energy, environment and climate change.
The publication does not commit to how many new flagships will be financed, but says up to €1m in seed money is available for promising ideas on topics ranging from robotics and artificial intelligence, to renewable energy production, conversion and storage devices, and projects that offer new insight into the functioning of human cells.
It also gives new information on plans for the EU Quantum Flagship, which launches next year, and there will be more money for established flagships, such as the Human Brain Project, which will receive a further €150m, and the Graphene Flagship.
There are indications that the commission will take action regarding the demand for FET competitions, which from next year will be run out of the new European Innovation Council.
“Oversubscription and underfunding … is addressed by increased budget, clearer and enforced scoping, and advice on resubmission,” the paper adds.
Final work programmes for the 2018-2020 period of Horizon 2020 are expected to be published next month.
The post Commission releases details of future megaprojects appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
Leading science and technology company Merck has updated its Horizon 2020 participation to improve biopharmaceutical downstream processing.
Collaboration outcomes will involve a reduction in the size and number of downstream unit operations, and the elimination of centrifugation to improve efficiency and reduce the need for expensive resin volumes.
Capture via precipitation is also being studied as a replacement for protein A chromatography.
Merck executive board member and CEO of Life Science Udit Batra said: “The biopharmaceutical industry is facing pressure to reduce manufacturing costs and deliver greater efficiencies, all while being environmentally responsible.
“It is important for companies like Merck and our customers to help address industry-wide challenges and accelerate the process of getting drugs to patients in need.
“Through the Horizon 2020 programme, consortium members are already delivering important advances for downstream processing.”
The nextBioPharmDSP project is co-ordinated by Lek Pharmaceuticals, a Sandoz company in Slovenia, with consortium members including Sandoz GmbH and University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (Austria); Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany); National Institute of Chemistry (Slovenia); and National Systems srl (Italy).
Merck participates in the consortium through its French subsidiary, Millipore SAS.
Uroš Urleb, global head technical development biosimilars in the Biologics Technical Development and Manufacturing Unit at Novartis, added: “Next generation bioprocessing strategies will improve our industry’s ability to efficiently and cost-effectively supply high quality medicines.
“The consortium is delivering new approaches to the conventional manufacturing workflow and we expect the results of our efforts will help address variations in capacity needs, enable sustained drug supply and offer important environmental benefits.”
The post Merck provides H2020 update appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
An international research programme is responding to an increasing demand of internet traffic to develop widespread data coverage with unprecedented speed at millimetre waves.
Emerging technologies such as telemedicine, internet of things (IoT), 4K video streaming, driverless cars and augmented reality applications will need zettabytes of wireless data.
Due to limitations to the amount of data which can be transmitted by microwaves, the only way to provide data with fast download speeds is through covering urban areas with dense grids of micro, nano and pico ‘cells’, at microwave frequencies.
€2.9m Horizon 2020 project ULTRAWAVE, led by engineers at Lancaster University, UK, aims to build technologies capable of manipulating the millimetre wave spectrum beyond 100GHz.
Professor Claudio Paoloni, co-ordinator of ULTRAWAVE and head of engineering at Lancaster University, said: “When speeds of wireless networks equal fibre, billions of new rapid connections will help 5G become a reality.
“It is exciting to think that the EU Horizon 2020 ULTRAWAVE project could be a major milestone towards solving one of the main obstacles to future 5G networks, which is the ubiquitous wireless distribution of fibre-level high data rates.”
ULTRAWAVE aims to create an ultra-capacity layer to achieve the 100 gigabit of data per second threshold, which is easy to deploy.
The layer will be able to feed data to hundreds of small and pico cells, regardless of the density of mobile devices in each cell, which could widen the potential for new network paradigms and architectures that will facilitate 5G.
Moreover, the ultra-capacity layer requires significant transmission power in order to cover wide areas and overcome the high attenuation at millimetre waves.
This will be achieved by merging three predominant technologies – vacuum electronics, solid-state electronics and photonics – in a unique wireless system, enabled by transmission power at multi Watt level.
The post Engineers pioneer high-speed wireless data appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
East Greenwich and Greenwich Peninsula, London, UK, are to benefit from a new clean air initiative thanks to Sharing Cities.
The five-year Sharing Cities programme uses technology and advanced data analytics to address challenges faced by major cities. The initiative is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme.
Sharing Cities will work alongside the Royal Borough of Greenwich’s low-emission neighbourhood (LEN) programme to implement new schemes which will address local air quality.
Nathan Piece, Sharing Cities transnational programme director, the Greater London Authority, said: “The people of Greenwich will undoubtedly benefit from the Sharing Cities scheme, in which some of the brightest and best brains in Europe are sharing their knowledge in an attempt to meet the challenges of issues such as air pollution and congestion.”
In excess of 30 partner organisations from across Europe met in Royal Greenwich as part of the EU programme.
During this meeting, the borough announced a zero-emission deliveries (ZED) project – the first council-supported cargo bike ZED scheme in London, which aims to reduce congestion and poor air quality in Greenwich, caused by delivery vehicles.
The project will offer local residents and businesses a service for letters, parcels, and goods weighing up to 200kg.
Greenwich is also introducing an electric bike loan scheme as a further supplement. Residents can loan an e-bike for a month to trial the technology and to see how it can help them cycle more, and further, around London.
“Deliveries contribute significantly to congestion and pollution and the new zero-emission delivery project should help provide a cleaner alternative for local businesses so they can minimise the impacts of their logistics movements, and help improve air quality locally,” added the councillor and cabinet member for transport, economy and smart cities, Sizwe James.
The post Sharing Cities launch London clear air programme appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.