Two young women from Aragon receive three million euros from Europe for their research projects.

Ana Serrano (I3A) and María Sancho (INMA and IIS Aragón) will lead cutting-edge projects in immersive technologies and in the biological behavior of nanotherapies to target metastases, respectively.. The prestigious Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC), which they have just obtained, will allow them to develop disruptive research over five years, hiring and creating their own work team.

The young research talent of the University of Zaragoza has once again stood out in one of the calls for research excellence at an international level, the prestigious Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). And it has done so twice, as on this occasion, the European Union has selected the research projects of two young female researchers: Ana serrano, professor and researcher at the Aragon Engineering Research Institute (I3A), and Maria Sancho, researcher at the Institute of Nanoscience and Materials of Aragon (INMA, CSIC-Unizar), a joint center of the Higher Council for Scientific Research and the University of Zaragoza, the Aragon Health Research Institute (IIS Aragon) and CIBER-BBN.

Over five years, and with funding of €1.5M per project, both scientists will develop disruptive and innovative research. excellence, leading their own research teams, by hiring scientific staff. Ana Serrano will work to transform immersive technologies, with realistic conditions, closer to their use in applications such as telemedicine, training of surgeons and pilots, the aerospace industry, cultural heritage conservation, or education. For its part, María Sancho will seek to decipher and redesign the identity of the surface of nanomaterials. and extracellular vesicles to maximize the transport of nanotherapies to the tumor cells and, in particular, metastases.

El European Research Council finances and supports a excellent researchers and their teams with the aim of pursuing innovations of high risk and high benefit en any field of research. Scientific excellence is the sole evaluation criterion for the awarding of ERC grants, in their various categories, with the aim of ensuring that funded research leads to significant advances in the frontiers of knowledge. Specifically, the starting grant are directed to researchers with talent, at the beginning of his research career, who have already made a excellent work, with the potential to become a research leader. Therefore We are truly proud of the achievement of these young scientists, They have highlighted the Vice-Rector for Scientific Policy, Pilar Pina, and the CSIC delegate in Aragon, María Jesús Lázaro, at the presentation of the ERCs. They were also attended by the director of the I3A, Jesus Arauzo, the director of INMA, CSIC-Unizar, Elena Gálvez, and the director of the IIS Aragón, Angel Lanas.

With this new concession, The University of Zaragoza goes from 20 to 22 projects ERC since 2009, with a total amount that amounts to from €34.8M to €38.2M, distributed among the following categories:  Proof of Concept, 3; ERC- Starting,9; ERC-consolidator, 4; ERC- Advanced, 5 and Synergy Grant, 1.

Ana Serrano - PROXIE Project

Ana Serrano, Professor and researcher at the Aragon Engineering Research Institute (I3A) and the Graphics and Imaging Lab group at the University of Zaragoza, has obtained a prestigious Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) to develop the PROXIE project (Perceptual Realities: Optimizing XR through Perceptually-Informed Experiences). Thanks to this funding, endowed with 1,5 million euros over five years, four predoctoral researchers, two postdoctoral researchers and a laboratory technician will join the project, contributing to the training of young talents and the consolidation of a group of excellence in perception and XR technologies in Aragon.

El The PROXIE project seeks to understand how people perceive and interact with immersive virtual, augmented and mixed reality (XR) environments under realistic conditions., closer to their use in applications such as telemedicine, surgeon and pilot training, the aerospace industry, cultural heritage conservation, and education. While most current studies analyze perception in highly simplified scenarios, PROXIE focuses on complex and dynamic situations, similar to those in the real world, with the aim of developing computational models that anticipate how we perceive, attend to, and respond in XR environments. The success of this technology depends not only on the power of the computers or the quality of the devices, but on their ability to adapt to the way we perceive the world. Understanding these mechanisms will allow us to optimize the experience in real time, reducing risks and increasing efficiency in critical sectors.

Beyond these immediate applications, XR has the potential to become one of the most influential technologies of the coming decades: It can transform the way we work, learn, interact, and even explore space. From performing remote operations in an operating room to attending a virtual class as naturally as in person, or training astronauts for future missions to Mars, the possibilities are endless. PROXIE seeks to overcome the limitations that have so far held back extended reality, providing the scientific knowledge that will allow this technology to unleash its full potential in our everyday lives.

“If a surgeon in training uses virtual reality glasses,” he explains. Ana Serrano- “PROXIE will allow the system to “know” which part of the scene it’s really focusing on. With this information, the simulation can focus graphics resources on that area, displaying relevant details and reducing unnecessary details. The result is a more realistic, less tiring experience that improves learning accuracy.”

Dr. Ana Serrano is specialist in visual perception, computer graphics and immersive XR technologies. PhD in Informatics Engineering from the University of Zaragoza, has developed her international career in leading institutions such as Stanford University (USA), the Max Planck Institute for Informatics (Germany) and Adobe Research. Her research has been recognized with numerous awards, including the IEEE VGTC Significant New Researcher Award (2024), awarded each year to a single individual worldwide at the largest international conference in the sector (IEEE VR). This award positions her as one of the most influential young researchers internationally in the field of XR. Other recognitions include the Eurographics PhD Award (2020), which recognizes the best doctoral theses in Europe in computer graphics, the Eurographics Young Researcher Award (2023), as well as awards from leading companies such as the NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship (2018) and the Adobe Research Fellowship (2017).

“The awarding of this project represents a unique opportunity to consolidate my research career and continue strengthening our team in Zaragoza,” says Ana Serrano. “My goal is to ensure that PROXIE's progress transcend the academic sphere and have a real impact in society, improving the way we work, learn and interact through immersive technologies.”

María Sancho-SEVEN Project

The European Research Council (ERC) has also awarded another prestigious Starting Grant, endowed with €1.5M, María Sancho, biotechnologist and PhD in Chemical Engineering, a researcher in the Nanoparticles and Nanostructured Films (NFP) group at the Institute of Nanoscience and Materials of Aragon (INMA, CSIC-Unizar), the Aragon Health Research Institute (IIS Aragón), and CIBER-BBN. She specializes in the field of nanomedicine and, in particular, in the study of new vehicles for selectively targeting nanotherapies with cancer. In this case, the financial amount awarded is increased by €343.500 for the acquisition of specific materials, bringing the total to €1.843.500.  

Sthe SEVEN project (Screening metastasis targeting properties of Extracellular Vesicle's biomolecular corona for Engineering therapeutic biomimetic Nanoparticles) It aims to identify the changes that occur on the surface of nanomaterials when they are placed in contact with biological fluids. and that hinder their transport to target tumor cellsThat is, to identify the characteristics and biomolecules that “stick” to the surface of the nanoparticles, responsible for the phenomenon known as “biomolecular crown". The project also provides for the hiring of 3 PhD students, two postdoctoral researchers and a laboratory technician. 

“We spend a lot of time in the lab designing complex therapeutic nanoparticles. However, when these are put into in contact with a biological medium (such as blood), the properties that we had designed taking care of even the smallest detail, unfortunately had changed completely", notes María Sancho. "This is mainly caused by the formation of a phenomenon known as "crown of biomolecules” that form on the surface of drugs, therapies and nanoparticles, forming a kind of “crown” or “layer” of different molecules that “stick” to their surface drastically changing their identity”, to the point of, unfortunately, also change the characteristics of the designed nanomaterials, affecting in some cases their biomedical application. This fact is particularly important when it comes to extracellular vesicles, "nanotransporters" produced by our own cells that can be used as Trojan horses for delivering nanotherapies to tumor targetsIt is well known that some of these vesicles can accumulate specifically in tumors, decreasing their presence in unwanted tissues. However, when the vesicles come into contact with a biological fluid, such as blood, this crown forms, changing their identity and characteristics. In a way, This crown changes the rules of the game and the effectiveness of the vesicles to deliver therapies to tumors is drastically reduced..

Therefore, SEVEN aims to investigate how extracellular vesicles behave in fluids and biological environments and how their therapeutic content affects the vesicles' natural ability to accumulate in metastases. If we are able to understand The dynamics of corona formation, the nature and context of its formation in extracellular vesicles loaded with therapeutic nanomaterialsYes, we will be able to customize and redesign that crown to maximize its presence in the target tumor cells.

path
María Sancho has over 10 years of experience in multidisciplinary research in the fields of nanomedicine, chemical engineering, and cancer. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zaragoza, with the support of the Spanish Association Against Cancer thanks to an AECC Postdoctoral Talent Grant since 2023. In 2020, she defended her doctoral thesis, Extraordinary Doctorate Award, in the group of Prof. Jesús Santamaría at the University of Zaragoza. Subsequently, from 2021 to 2023, she carried out a postdoctoral stay of more than two years in the group of Prof. Luisa De Cola at the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research (Milan, Italy) with a project of the Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC). In 2023, she obtained an AECC Postdoctoral Talent Grant and a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship MSCA Grant, which allowed her to return to the INMA (CSIC-Unizar) to continue her professional career. His research career has been recognized with several awards and accolades (from the Heraldo's Third Millennium Award to the Distinction of his doctoral thesis as one of the 10 best doctoral theses in 2021 by the Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain, among others). 

"These ERC Starting grants are an exceptional opportunity for young researchers because they provide the technical and human resources to propose new ideas and hypotheses and be able to carry them out in the laboratory," he points out. Maria Sancho"It's a dream for any young researcher at the beginning of their research career, allowing them to consolidate their career." 

Source. University of Zaragoza.