Harald Schmidt receives prestigious ERC Grant
09 nov 2011
Harald Schmidt receives prestigious ERC Grant
Last week, CARIM Professor Harald Schmidt (chairman of the dept. of Pharmacology) received a prestigious Advanced Investigator Grant from the European Research Council. ERC Advanced Grants allow exceptional established research leaders to pursue ground-breaking, high-risk projects that open new directions in their respective research fields or other domains. The next 5 years Schmidt will receive about 2.3 million Euros to conduct his 'RadMed' project: Radical Medicine: Redefining Oxidative Stress.
Harald Schmidt (52), who joined our institute in January 2010, has an impressive track record with positions in Germany, the USA, Australia and experience in academia, industry and biotech. He was director and co-director of several major program grants in Germany, and founded an interdisciplinary cardiovascular research centre (Centre for Vascular Health) at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. One of his strengths is bringing together scientists from different fields, resulting in the inauguration of three productive research fields: NO, cGMP and NOX. Two major shifts that were caused by the lab of Schmidt were a change of attention from NO to the signaling beyond (cGMP), and from antioxidants to the causes of oxidative stress (NOX). These shifts then led to the identification of new pathomechanisms and new therapies. In the past months the group of Schmidt achieved major breakthroughs by identifying a radical/ROS source (NOX4) as fundamental mechanism in stroke.
Aim of the project
Oxidative stress, an excess of radical and other reactive oxygen species (ROS), has been suggested as a major disease mechanism. However, the major clinical trials using anti-oxidants have been failures, even suggesting serious side effects. With the RadMed project, Schmidt proposes different approaches. First, instead of letting radicals form and then scavenge them, he will identify their disease-relevant sources and prevent their formation or specifically repair the damage caused by ROS. Second, they will differentiate beneficial signaling roles of ROS. In combination, this will result in unprecedented precision and molecular specificity.
Frontier research
The European Research Council (ERC) is the first European Union funding body set up to support investigator-driven frontier research. The term 'frontier research' reflects a new understanding of basic research. On one hand it denotes that basic research in science and technology is of critical importance to economic and social welfare, and on the other that research at and beyond the frontiers of understanding is an intrinsically risky venture, progressing on new and most exiting research areas and is characterized by an absence of disciplinary boundaries.
Here you will find the full press release in Dutch. back