Three ERC Proof of Concept Grants awarded to Faculty of Science researchers

Three researchers from Utrecht University's Faculty of Science have each been awarded an ERC Proof of Concept Grant worth €150,000. The grants have been awarded to projects led by Albert Heck, Joost Snijder and Ina Vollmer. The funding will help translate the results of their previous ERC-funded research into innovations with societal and commercial impact.

ERC Proof of Concept Grants are designed to help researchers bridge the gap between fundamental research and real-world applications. Awarded by the European Research Council (ERC), the €150,000 grants enable scientists to explore the commercial or societal potential of discoveries made during earlier ERC-funded projects.

AutoSERA
Principal Investigator: Prof. Albert Heck

Professor Albert Heck and his team are developing a new way to identify exceptionally powerful human antibodies. Today, most therapeutic antibodies are discovered by analysing the genetic material of B cells in the blood. However, the antibodies that actually provide protection are produced by plasma cells in the bone marrow and circulate only as proteins in the bloodstream. As a result, many of these valuable antibodies remain invisible to existing discovery methods.

The AutoSERA project takes a fundamentally different approach. Rather than analysing genetic material, the technology reads the circulating antibody repertoire directly at the protein level from small blood samples.

The project builds on Heck's ERC Advanced Grant project REVAMP. Earlier research using this approach led to the discovery of highly potent antibodies against COVID-19 that had been completely missed by conventional methods.

The new Proof of Concept project is being carried out together with Abvion, a spin-off company founded by members of Heck's research group to bring this technology to market. The grant will enable the team to scale up the technology and move it closer to applications that could accelerate the development of new medicines.

“This ERC Proof of Concept Grant allows us to translate our fundamental research into new medicines inspired by our own immune system,” says Heck.

FLAVIGEN
Principal Investigator: Dr. Joost Snijder

Dengue infects hundreds of millions of people every year, yet developing a safe and effective vaccine remains a major challenge. One reason is that dengue virus exists in four distinct variants. Even more challenging, antibodies that protect against one variant can sometimes make infection with another variant more severe.

Researchers led by Joost Snijder have developed a new way to stabilise a key part of the virus. This keeps the viral protein in the shape that best triggers a protective immune response while reducing the risk of producing unwanted antibodies.

With the ERC Proof of Concept Grant, the team will further develop the technology and evaluate it in preclinical studies. They will also explore opportunities to bring the innovation closer to practical application in collaboration with industrial partners. Ultimately, the technology could contribute not only to safer dengue vaccines but also to vaccines against related viral diseases.

“The grant came at a perfect moment for us. We have been working on the design of better antigens for vaccines against dengue and related viruses for several years now. In recent months, many things fell into place and we can’t wait to see how these latest inventions hold up in the preclinical tests. I’m also very grateful and relieved that molecular virologist Adinda Kok – who’s been a driving force for this project – can stay on longer with this financing to strengthen the team.”

Scalable IMPACT
Principal Investigator: Dr. Ina Vollmer

Although plastic recycling is becoming increasingly important, much of the world's plastic waste is still incinerated or recycled into lower-quality materials. Ina Vollmer is developing a new method that chemically recycles plastic waste into high-quality raw materials for new plastics.

Instead of using extreme heat, her approach relies on mechanical force. Plastic waste is processed together with steel balls in a special milling device, breaking the chemical bonds in the material. This makes it possible to recover the original building blocks of the plastic and reuse them to produce new, high-quality plastics.

The technology has already led to the creation of the spin-off company Repolyze. With the ERC Proof of Concept Grant, Vollmer aims to adapt the process for different plastic waste streams and accurately determine its energy efficiency. These are important steps towards large-scale commercial application.

“This project will help us optimise our recycling process for different types of plastic waste and accurately quantify its energy efficiency,” says Vollmer. “That will help Repolyze attract investors and pave the way towards commercialising the technology.”