Two Proof of Concept grants for Leiden
Professor of Developmental Biology Christine Mummery and chemist Dr Dennis Hetterscheid have each been awarded an ERC Proof of Concept grant. These grants are to explore the societal potential of ideas generated in previous ERC-funded projects.
Christine Mummery, Head of the Department of Anatomy and Embryology at the LUMC, received an ERC Advanced Grant in 2013 and Dennis Hetterscheid received an ERC Starting Grant in 2014. How will they use the new grants to turn the promising output of their ERC-funded research into innovative propositions?
Developing Triple Transient Measurement System for further applications
Christine Mummery and her team were awarded funding in 2013 for the Trips Transient Measurement System (TTM), which she recently published a paper about in Nature Communications. TTM is used to see what happens when heart muscle cells receive a nerve impulse that triggers a contraction. It makes it possible to predict the effect of disease or medicines on the human heart. Mummery and her PhD candidate Berend van Meer will further develop the system for use by other researchers and pharmaceutical companies.
Determining the market value of very diluted hydrogen peroxide
Dennis Hetterscheid will use his grant to determine the market value of hydrogen peroxide that is produced in the electrochemical methods that he and his coworkers developed with his ERC Starting Grant. His previous project, which was funded with an ERC Starting Grant, was entitled Cu4Energy. Hydrogen peroxide is often shipped, stored and handled in very concentrated and therefore dangerous form, and used in a very diluted form in many products such as stain removers and disinfectants. The proposed approach will allow for the continuous, sustainable production of hydrogen peroxide in low and safe concentrations.