ERC Advanced Grant: Roslyn Bill’s €2.2M award to explore early interventions to prevent dementia onset

9 May 2023

Professor Roslyn Bill, a world-renowned scientist from Aston University’s College of Health and Life Sciences, has been awarded a €2.2 million ERC Advanced Grant to explore how the activity of a protein in the brain that is named aquaporin-4 can help slow-down cognitive decline.

FORTIFY project

Professor Bill will lead the FORTIFY project over five years, using her discovery of the movement of aquaporin-4 to understand how the cleaning mechanism in the brain works during sleep. The glymphatic system is a mechanism that allows the clearance of waste products from the brain while sleeping, and her research will focus on how aquaporin-4 controls this system.

Early intervention treatment

As people age, the effectiveness of this cleaning mechanism lessens, and Professor Bill’s hypothesis is that the movement of aquaporin-4 in the brain changes the cleansing mechanism’s effectiveness. Understanding this process could lead to an early intervention treatment that could slow the onset of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

About ERC Advanced Grant

The ERC Advanced Grant is one of the most prestigious and competitive of the EU funding schemes. It provides researchers with the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs.

Professor Bill: “Every three seconds someone in the world develops dementia, and there is no cure. I want to stop that from happening.”

By understanding the molecular mechanisms of brain waste clearance, she believes there is an opportunity to develop medicines that can slow the onset of dementia, just as statins are prescribed to control heart disease.

Start clinical trials summer 2023

Professor Bill discovered that the water channel protein aquaporin-4 increases the permeability of brain cells to water after a brain or spinal cord injury. Doctors have been able to manage the symptoms of brain injury by intervening in ways that may require surgery. However, Professor Bill and her team are set to start clinical trials in summer 2023 to test a method to stop swelling from happening in its tracks, building on her discoveries.

Applying to ERC Advanced Grant

ERC Advanced Grant funding is amongst the most prestigious and competitive of the EU funding schemes, providing researchers with the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs. Roslyn points out the value of having support from ttoptart. 

ttopstart was really helpful with, the formalization and structuring of the proposal and was critical about the concept. ttopstart challenged my ideas and offered a different perspective, when
needed.

How can ttopstart help you with your ERC application?

ttopstart has a strong track record of successfully developing ERC projects. To help with ERC applications, ttopstart begins by analyzing the applicant’s CV to determine the likelihood of success. If the applicant decides to proceed, ttopstart uses its FFWD method to co-create the research framework, define the core research questions, and support the entire writing process. ttopstart draws on its extensive experience with ERC applications to refine the applicant’s personal vision, clarify the project’s broader scientific impact, and define the proposed scientific novelty in comparison to current research. If you’re interested in learning more, please contact us by filling out the form below.

ttopstart is proud to have supported Roslyn towards her successful application to the ERC Advanced Grant.

Read more about Roslyn’s research

“ttopstart was really helpful in formalizing and structuring my proposal and was critical in developing the concept. ttopstart challenged my ideas and offered a different perspective, which was really important.”

– PROF. ROSLYN BILL, PhD
WINNER ERC ADVANCED GRANT

 

Get in touch with us

Would you like to know more about ttopstart? Please let us know and we will get in touch with you!