Significant Support for Research at the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥ – Over 3.2 million euros for Biosciences, Health, and Environmental Research
All in all, the Research Council of Finland for biosciences, health, and environmental research granded funding for 38 Academy Research Fellowships, 12 Clinical Researchers and 76 Academy Projects. Ten of the Academy Projects are consortia consisting of several subprojects. The Scientific Council’s total funding comes to just over 78 million euros.
Academy Research Fellowships
Francesco Cenni, 1 113 000 €
Mapping and modeling skeletal muscle properties in children and young adults with cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy is the most common childhood disability. This causes severe walking consequences, therefore it has a significant impact on the quality of life. Since no cure is yet available for cerebral palsy, the disability persists throughout the lifespan, leading to lifelong deficits in motor function. These deficits are also due to weak skeletal muscles. The present study aims to describe and model muscle development in children with cerebral palsy. This study will analyze muscle morphology and composition in children and young adults. The basic contractile unit of a muscle, known as sarcomere, will also be measured. The overall framework will allow us to understand the underlying mechanism driving the lack of voluntary force production. The consequence of muscle remodeling will be linked to the overall function (walking). The outcome of this project can therefore be directly applied into practice in designing personalized treatments in cerebral palsy.
Postdoctoral Researcher Salla Mattola, 623 000€
Unraveling the role of DNA positioning and interactions in herpesvirus reactivation
Understanding the intranuclear mechanisms of herpesvirus reactivation and its effects on host chromatin structure and dynamics is crucial for basic research and the development of oncolytic virus therapies and novel antivirals aimed at blocking virus reactivation. This project aims to refine the understanding of the mechanisms of virus reactivation and the roles of chromatin organization and phase separation. The research will be conducted at the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥, using an interdisciplinary approach that combines cell biology and biophysics with advanced imaging techniques, protein structure prediction algorithms, and biophysical modeling.
Academy Projects
Functional causes and consequences of partner selection in plant-microbial networks
Associate Professor Nerea Abrego Antia, 599 000 €
Plant-microbial associations contribute to plant fitness by enhancing growth, stress tolerance and disease resistance. These interactions ultimately influence crucial ecosystem processes such as food production, nutrient and carbon cycling, and biodiversity maintenance. However, the functional causes and consequences of realized plant-microbe interaction networks remain poorly understood. That is, do plants select more beneficial microbes under abiotically harsh conditions, and do those selected microbes provide fitness advantages to the plants? For answering these questions, this project will combine field and greenhouse experiments with DNA and RNA molecular analyses. The project will develop an integrative modelling framework that dynamically links species occurrences, species abundances, gene expressions and phenotypic traits.
Mechanisms for the unexpected production of physiologically essential fatty acids in freshwater zooplankton and fish
Associate Professor Sami Taipale, 600 000 €
The project aims to characterize biosynthetic pathways of physiologically essential fatty acids (LC-PUFA) in freshwater invertebrates (zooplankton and freshwater Insecta) for the first time and if any of the explored invertebrate taxa have complete capacity for LC-PUFA biosynthesis. Moreover, hydrogen isotopes of fatty acids enable the first time to unravel how much of LC-PUFA content in pelagic invertebrates and planktivorous fish they have produced endogenously, which is critical in understanding how they can adapt to environmental change, e.g., eutrophication and warming resulting in intensified cyanobacteria blooming. In this project, we study the unknown mechanisms of how zooplankton and fish compensate for the low-nutrition quality diets in lake ecosystems. This may be a crucial mechanism determining how ecosystems can adapt to global environmental change.
Effects of browning on lake dynamics: Who wins and who loses?
The consortium is led by the Finnish Environment Institute, with the University of Helsinki and the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥ participating. At the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥, the research is led by Senior Lecturer Katja Pulkkinen. The Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥'s share of the approximately 1 million euro funding is 300,000 euros.
The Dark LaDy consortium takes a holistic approach to advance our understanding of the complex impacts of browning. The boreal zone is especially prone to browning, and due to anthropogenic pressures, the lakes have turned increasingly brown. Browning is mainly caused by terrestrial dissolved organic matter (DOM) and iron leaching from the catchment. The impacts of DOM in lake ecosystems can be complex depending on the quantity and quality of terrestrial loading. We study the effects of browning on the biodiversity and functioning of lake food webs. Given the importance of lakes as sources of drinking water, recreation, and human nutrition and their impact on the global carbon cycle, it is essential to understand how browning impacts ecosystem functioning, transfer of essential biomolecules and elements across ecosystem levels.
