Politecnico wins two prestigious ERC Proof of Concept grants

Federico Bella

Two Politecnico di Torino research projects have been awarded ERC Proof of Concept funding, a European Research Council initiative aimed at supporting the practical application and exploitation of the results of frontier research projects.

The winners of the prestigious award are Federico Bella and Laura Fabris, both professors at the Department of Applied Science and Technology-DISAT. The ERC Proof of Concept scheme targets researchers who have already received ERC funding, offering financial support of 150 thousand euros to transform innovative ideas into concrete market-ready solutions. These funds allow them to verify the commercial and technical feasibility of the developed technologies, build intellectual protection strategies, and prepare the ground for future commercialization.

Federico Bella has received funding from the European Union to develop the GINNY (Glycerol and nItrogeN conversioN through electrochemistrY) project, which addresses one of the main challenges of the climate crisis: making ammonia production more sustainable. Ammonia is essential for the creation of fertilizers and is at the same time an important energy carrier-it is capable of carrying energy from one form to another, energy that is stored within it and then released when needed. Today the compound is produced by the Haber-Bosch process, which is extremely energy-intensive and polluting. GINNY therefore proposes a different approach, based on an electrochemical reaction using innovative electrolytes and the element potassium as a mediator, thus eliminating the use of lithium and other critical raw materials from the process. It will also be possible, by adopting such an approach, to convert glycerol, a by-product of the biodiesel industry, into high-value compounds such as glyceric acid and dihydroxyacetone, which are used in pharmaceuticals and fine chemistry-a sector of chemistry that produces intermediates, raw materials, active ingredients, additives, processing aids, enzymes and catalysts for various manufacturing, and chemical processing industries. Thus, the GINNY project has the potential to revolutionize the production of ammonia and chemicals, with a more efficient, economical and environmentally friendly system.

“This funding is a valuable recognition of the work done by the young people in my working group, with whom we have inaugurated two new research lines over the past three years – comments Professor Bella – These are research projects of significant impact (ammonia production and potassium-based devices), but also very complex to study and implement”.

Laura Fabris

The STELLAR (SERS-based Technology for EarLy Liquid biopsy Analysis and Recognition) project led by Laura Fabris, on the other hand, will enable early diagnosis of prostate cancer, and subsequently many other cancers, by exploiting advanced technologies such as enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and artificial intelligence. The goal of the project is to detect tumor microRNA (miRNA) fragments through simple blood tests, thus offering a noninvasive, accessible and remarkably accurate method to identify cancer-specific biomarkers and consequently diagnose cancers early. The ambition of Fabris and her research group is to overcome the current limitations of oncology diagnostics, eliminating the need for painful and invasive tests, reducing the cost and time of analysis, and thus making the technology available to more patients. The project involves the development of a complete system, combining a sensing platform based on silver nanoparticle-enhanced substrates and AI algorithms to analyze the data. A system that will open up new perspectives for personalized medicine and medical devices integrated with artificial intelligence.

“This is an important recognition that will allow us to develop a technology that could potentially transform how cancers are diagnosed early going to benefit, first and foremost, patients – says Professor Fabris – We are excited to collaborate in this project with our colleagues at Molinette Hospital and the IIGM in Candiolo, with whom we have excellent and long established collaborations, with the common goal of finding scientific and technological solutions for the good of all”.

Starting from their frontier research, funded by the ERC scheme - Federico Bella is also currently working on the ERC Starting Grant project SuN2rise (Solar driven electrochemical Nitrogen fixation for ammonia refinery) while Laura Fabris on the ERC Consolidator Grant project ANFIBIO (AmplificatioN Free Identification of cancer and viral biomarkers via plasmonic nanoparticles and liquid BIOpsy) - the two professors will work, supported by new Proof of Concept funding, to raise the level of technological maturity of their innovations, with the ultimate goal of generating a significant impact on sustainability and people's well-being.