From their early origins urbanization has produced both benefits and penalties due to the generated anthropogenic stress. Documented overheating such as urban heat island (UHI) compromises human wellbeing in cities, where 60% of the world population lives and is exposed to the related health risks and vulnerability. An urgent solution is much needed here and now, since classic passive cooling techniques showed to slowly mitigate UHI. A disruptive improvement must be dedicated to eradicate the problem by conducting a ground-breaking multidimensional and multidisciplinary research. That is the key motivation of HELIOS, which aims at holistically developing the resilient urban skin of the future. This skin will take advantage of the combination of successful radiative cooling in the atmospheric window(8-13μm) and high solar reflectance integrated for the first time to photoluminescence in the short wave(0.25-2.8μm) thanks to the breakthrough lead-free halide perovskites. HELIOS will develop novel radiative cooling structures into temperature responsive carriers (eg phase change-oxides, thermonastic shape-memory alloys) and albedo adaptive photoluminescent finishing, with the twofold purpose to tailor radiative supercooling performance enough to minimize winter penalties and to give the desired colour finishing, finally allowing the sustainable upscaling of this research frontier. This approach would radically change the building physics paradigm, with the ambition of rethinking built environment into a fully-dynamic resilience, as only Nature can do. HELIOS will indeed analytically and experimentally identify the thermal-radiative physics of such skin, assessing its performance for indoor-outdoor human comfort and energy-efficiency. HELIOS bio-inspired radiative and photoluminescent skin will be indeed tailored and optimized for each dynamic boundary, as demonstrated through a disruptive building physics experimentally-validated balance and urban canopy model worldwide.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is one of the most aggressive, clinically and biologically heterogenenous, hematological alignancies. The different genetics classify disease entities, and define the prognostic risk category to which AML patients are assigned and the treatment choices.There is one entity, the AML with nucleophosmin (NPM1) gene mutations, that accounts for onethird of all adult AML (the most frequent) and where another gene mutation - the Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3)-internal tandem duplication (ITD) - acts as ‘tip of the balance’ for patients’ risk definition, drastically worsening the prognosis and hanging treatment in those 40% of patients where it is detected. This has been a main field of research of Prof. Maria Paola Martelli and her team since years and specifically of her ERC consolidator grant ContraNPM1AML. Here, she will exploit concepts stemming from her ERC funded studies on the key role of kinases in the NPM1-mutated AML development, response to therapy and initiating relapse, and focus on that 60% of patients regarded at favorable prognosis, who nevertheless in 40% of cases will relapse with extremely dismal outcome. Currently, successful strategies to identify novel frontline key markers to refine risk are not available. reMARK-AML takes the challenge and changes prognostic risk parameters, pointing at re-envisioning the marker at single-cell level. A first strategy has been designed and will be tested for the proof-of-concept in patients in a prospective non-interventional study. We have established contacts with industrial partners for the development of fit-for-purpose diagnostic assay prototypes to test then in the study. The success of reMARK-AML will open the next challenge of developing marketable diagnostic kits and defining a strong business plan in order to measure the impact of our idea and PoC in the real-world clinical setting.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disease that is currently affecting 2.3 million people worldwide. Incidence rates of MS are significantly higher in Europe and in other regions located within the northern hemisphere. In Europe, the number of patients currently afflicted with MS is estimated to be at 700,000, with incidence rates ranging from 2.3-12.2/100,000 per year. GlobalData assessed the market value for MS treatments in 10 major markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, US, Canada, Japan, China and India) in 2014 to be at €16.2 billion and predicts it to rise to approximately €18.82 billion by 2024. This increase is attributed to the projected sales of newly-approved drugs. The main shortcoming of current MS treatments ultimately lies in their lack of efficacy, specifically in that they are unable to prevent progressive neurodegeneration in MS patients. MS poses a significant economic burden on society as the disease affects primarily young people who are in their most economically-productive years. Aside from limited efficacies, current treatment options are also associated with severe side-effects (increased risks of infection, cancer), high costs and inconvenient administration routes (e.g. intravenous, intramuscular, subcutaneous). The aim of DIDO-MS is to assess the commercial viability of a newly identified small molecule as a drug in the treatment of MS.

Invasive alien herbivore species are a major threat to agriculture because they directly damage crops and induce severe yield losses, but also because they indirectly impact the structure, stability and functioning of native arthropod communities. Indirect facilitation mechanisms can cause unpredictable outbreaks of native pest species but, surprisingly, they have been rarely studied within arthropod communities. Within the framework of invasive species management (Regulation EU 1143/2014), understanding pest facilitation mechanisms is a research priority. This is also because invasive species negatively impact the reliability of agricultural Decision Support Systems, used in sustainable agriculture (Directive 2009/128/EC). PESTNET aims, as general objective, at developing a novel inter- multidisciplinary and intersectoral approach (field monitoring, DNA metabarcoding, multilayer ecological network analyses, citizen science) to depict the basic and applied ecological consequences of a human-introduced alien crop pest on the invaded trophic network. The model system used for implementation is represented by the highly invasive Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, Halyomorpha halys, native stink bug species and shared egg parasitoids. An original two-fold cutting-edge approach is proposed aiming at assessing the following specific objectives: Obj. 1) Evaluation of indirect pest facilitation mediated by host-parasitoid prevalence in non-invaded vs. invaded networks; Obj. 2) Evaluation of stink bug community changes using a mobile monitoring system (app) to estimate spatial trends in stink bugs abundance. Through the involvement of academic and non academic (industry) partners, the project will provide novel insights on how an invasive herbivore pest of worldwide economic importance is impacting sustainable agriculture by interference with the local arthropod community.