Three researchers have been awarded lucrative Synergy Grants by the European Research Council together with LMU. The funded projects investigate nanomachines made of DNA, the protein factories of the cell, and the physics of clouds.

Physicist Professor Tim Liedl, biochemist Professor Roland Beckmann, and meteorologist Professor Fabian Hoffmann have each been awarded a Synergy Grant for projects carried out in international research teams. Synergy Grants are one of the most coveted awards of the European Research Council (ERC).

With its highly competitive Synergy Grants, the ERC supports projects that can only be realized with the interdisciplinary collaboration of two to four teams of researchers and which lead to “advances at the frontiers of knowledge.” The funding per project consists of up to 14 million euros for a period of up to 6 years.

“I am extremely pleased about the success of our researchers who have been awarded ERC Synergy Grants. This is an impressive recognition of the scientific excellence of our scholars and the innovative strength of our university,” says LMU President Matthias Tschöp.

The ERC-funded projects in detail

Using DNA to build the next generation of technology
Constructing nanomachines – tiny devices built atom by atom – has long been the stuff of science fiction. An ERC Synergy Grant, funded with around €9 million, has been awarded to Professors Jeremy Baumberg (University of Cambridge), Tim Liedl (LMU Munich), and Peer Fischer (University of Heidelberg) for the DNA4RENOMS (DNA for Reconfigurable Nano-Opto-Mechanical Systems) project to help make this dream a reality.

Modern technologies such as smartphones, projectors, acceleration sensors, and medical implants rely on micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS). These are microscopic machines etched into silicon chips which can sense movement, eject ink, or steer light in optical devices. Despite their success, they remain expensive to manufacture and involve much waste of materials and energy. What is more, their further miniaturization using conventional production methods has reached its limits.

The new project takes a radically different approach. Instead of chipping away silicon layer by layer like a stonemason, the team will build up their nanomachines from the molecular level, using the self-assembling properties of DNA – the same molecule that encodes genetic information – to create reconfigurable nano-opto-mechanical systems (NOMS). By combining these DNA frameworks with optical control, the team aims to build devices that move, sense, and react at the nanoscale. “Essentially, we will pluck DNA with lasers – and listen to their snap,” says LMU physicist Tim Liedl, who is a member of the “e-conversion” and “BiosysteM” clusters of excellence.

These optically controlled nanomachines could form the foundation for a new class of sensors, mechanical amplifiers, and even artificial muscles, with potential uses in medicine, robotics, and sustainable manufacturing. Because DNA structures can be disassembled and rebuilt, this approach also promises a new model of atom-efficient, recyclable nanotechnology – a crucial step toward more sustainable materials and devices. “This is not just about making something small,” says Liedl. “It’s about inventing a completely new way to make machines – one that nature itself could approve of.” The ERC Synergy Grant provides long-term support for this ambitious collaboration, which unites expertise in DNA assembly, optical manipulation, and nanoscale mechanics.

Decoding the cell's protein factories
Roland Beckmann, Professor of Biochemistry at the Department of Chemistry / Gene Center Munich and member of the clusters of excellence NUCLEATE and BioSysteM, investigates fundamental processes of life. He is particularly interested in the structure and function of ribosomes, the protein factories of the cell, and how these vital cellular machines influence health and illness.

The assembly of new ribosomes is a tightly regulated process which has scarcely changed over the course of evolution and is necessary for the growth of all living beings. Successful ribosome production requires the coordinated action of hundreds of cellular factors, including so-called small nucleolar ribonucleoproteins (snoRNPs). Human snoRNP defects or alterations in snoRNP expression are linked to bone marrow disorders, neurodegeneration, and cancer.

“We recently discovered that a specialized class of snoRNPs play central yet underappreciated roles in ribosome assembly,” says Beckmann. These assembly-promoting (ap-)snoRNPs possess unique components which empower each snoRNP to guide a specific step of ribosome assembly. However, their structure and mechanism of action are virtually unknown. In his consortium snoOPERA (Beyond Modification: Defining Hidden Roles of snoRNPs in Ribosome Assembly), which has been awarded around 10 million euros in funding, Beckmann has teamed up with Professor Brigitte Pertschy (University of Graz), Dr. Antony Henras (French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)), and Professor Sara Woodson (Johns Hopkins University) to close this gap in our knowledge.

The researchers will integrate various cutting-edge technologies in order to characterize ap-snoRNPs from yeast and humans. This will involve determining their components and 3D structures, defining their biological functions, and unraveling the physical mechanisms by which they promote ribosome assembly. “With our findings, we want to open up new insights into the role of snoRNPs in ribosome assembly and help elucidate their significance for human health and disease,” explains Beckmann.

Understanding turbulent clouds
Fabian Hoffmann is a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the Institute of Meteorology at Freie Universität Berlin. He has led an Emmy Noether Junior Research Group at LMU’s Meteorological Institute until September 2025. His main research interests are the physics of clouds at various scales, including microphysics, dynamics, and the role of clouds in the Earth’s climate system.

Changes in global cloud cover could exacerbate climate change. However, the extent of this effect remains highly uncertain. The dominant cloud type on Earth in terms of cloud cover is stratocumulus. These low-lying, shallow, and horizontally spread-out clouds cover a fifth of the Earth’s surface. One of the greatest challenges in climate science is predicting how clouds in general and stratocumuli in particular will change in a warming world.

The ERC Synergy Project TurPhyCloud (The Role of Turbulence in the Physics of Clouds), which has been awarded 13.7 million euros in funding for a period of six years, brings together experts from experimental physics, theoretical physics, and meteorology to investigate the full range of processes that influence the formation of these clouds. Professor Eberhard Bodenschatz (MPI for Dynamics and Self-Organization), Professor Bernhard Mehling (University of Gothenburg), and Professor Pier Siebesma (Delft University of Technology) are part of the project team in addition to Fabian Hoffmann.

The team will conduct extremely high-resolution measurements on the Finnish island of Utö to capture the full complexity of stratocumulus clouds – from processes on the kilometer scale all the way down to the micrometer scale. From this information, the researchers plan to develop statistical models of turbulent processes in cloud physics that surpass conventional simulations in accuracy and resolution. “Our goal is to develop a new simulation model which is oriented toward and validated by the results of the field campaigns,” explains Hoffmann. The idea, then, is to embed this model into weather and climate models. “Through the combination of unique measurements with realistic simulations, TurPhyCloud will substantially improve climate predictions and weather forecasts,” concludes the meteorologist.