Petra Hajkova, the head of the CSC’s Reprogramming and Chromatin Group, has been awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant of €2 million.

ERC Consolidator Grants recognise outstanding researchers at the stage when they are consolidating their own independent research teams. With a success rate of just eight per cent, these grants are among the most prestigious in Europe.

The grant will fund cutting-edge research into the dynamic character of nucleic acid modifications during embryonic development in mice. Elucidating these mechanisms will prove crucial to further our understanding of the regulation of epigenetic information in vivo and during reprogramming back to pluripotency in vitro.

“Studying the mechanisms underlying reprogramming could enhance our understanding of epigenetic changes observed early in cancer,” says Petra. “I’m very excited about the grant because it will give us the opportunity to carry out some outstanding experiments,” she adds.

Altogether 5 CSC researchers have been awarded one of the highly endowed ERC grants. Besides Petra Hajkova, these are Jean-Baptiste Vannier, Irene Miguel-Aliaga, Till Bartke and Amanda Fisher.

Established in 2007 by the EU, the ERC in Strasbourg is the first pan-European funding organisation to support investigator-driven cutting-edge research on the basis of scientific excellence. Since 2007, the ERC has funded over 4,500 projects across Europe. More information on ERC funding and statistics here.