IBMC researcher Reto Gassmann received a European Research Council (ERC) grant.

IBMC researcher Reto Gassmann received a European Research Council (ERC) grant.
Six researchers working in Portugal received Starting Grants from the ERC of 1,3 to 1,4 million Euros. These grants will finance research projects proposed by these researchers in the next five years.

ERC Starting Grants aim to support up-and-coming research leaders who are about to establish a proper research team and to start conducting independent research in Europe. The scheme targets promising researchers who have the proven potential of becoming independent research leaders. It will support the creation of excellent new research teams.

Last year Reto Gassmann received an EMBO Installation Grant that helped Gassmann establish his research group at the IBMC.

Most of Gassmann’s PhD and postdoctoral work has addressed the question of how cells segregate their genome. During his postdoc at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in San Diego, he studied the function of kinetochores, the structures on chromosomes to which the microtubules of the spindle attach during cell division. He was particularly interested in the kinetochore role of the microtubule minus-end-directed motor cytoplasmic dynein. The EMBO installation grant proposal is about expanding on this work to more broadly investigate how cytoplasmic dynein is regulated in space and time to fulfil its many other important cellular functions.