The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded the ERC Advanced Grant to the genetics researcher Manolis Pasparakis. The award is endowed with 2.5 million euro for five years and is considered the most important European research grant.
Manolis Pasparakis is professor at the CECAD Cluster of Excellence for Aging Research and at the University of Cologne's Institute for Genetics. His research focuses on the mechanisms regulating inflammation. With the ERC Advanced Grant, Pasparakis and his team will work on a project investigating the role of necroptosis, a recently discovered cell death pathway, in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.
ERC Advanced Grants are awarded to outstanding researchers for projects that are considered risky due to their innovative approach - but could open up new paths in their fields of research.
Manolis Pasparakis studied biology at the University of Athens. After postdoctoral training at the Institute for Genetics of the University of Cologne, he worked at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Monterotondo, Italy. He became professor at the Institute for Genetics of the University of Cologne in 2005. In 2013 he received his first ERC Advanced Grant.
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