Alan Carleton, full professor in the Department of Basic Neurosciences and member of the Synapsy Centre for Mental Health Neuroscience, and Christoph Scheiermann, full professor in the Department of Pathology and Immunology and member of the Geneva Centre for Inflammation Research, have each been awarded an ERC Proof of Concept grant, a European Research Council scheme open to researchers who already hold ERC funding, to explore the practical potential of their discoveries. Proof of Concept grants are designed to bridge the gap between scientific discovery and real-world application, through a patent, a prototype, or evidence of clinical feasibility.

Alan Carleton: repairing brain circuits to restore cognition

Cognitive impairments — deficits in working memory, mental flexibility or attentional control — weigh heavily on the daily lives of people affected by neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders (schizophrenia, autism, ADHD). Yet current treatments, largely based on broad modulation of neurotransmitters, offer only modest efficacy. The CLAUSTUNE project builds on earlier work identifying a population of claustrum neurons that play a key role in executive function. Alan Carleton's team has already succeeded in restoring the activity of these neurons in mice, re-establishing working memory and cognitive flexibility. The project will now test whether a candidate pharmacological compound, followed by targeted circuit modulation, can restore these functions in models of neurodevelopmental disorders — with the aim of establishing the claustrum as a new therapeutic target.

Project: Tuning claustrum circuits to restore cognitive function (CLAUSTUNE).

Christoph Scheiermann: putting circadian biology to work for immunotherapy

CAR-T therapies have transformed the treatment of certain blood cancers, with response rates of up to 90%. Yet durable remission remains limited to 30–40% of cases, and efficacy against solid tumours remains poor. Christoph Scheiermann's project stems from a key discovery: circadian rhythm regulates immune response and influences the effectiveness of immunotherapy depending on the time of day it is administered. His team developed cirCAR-T, a strategy that enhances CAR-T cell performance without any additional genetic modification — boosting tumour cell killing tenfold in laboratory tests. This Proof of Concept grant will support testing the approach in settings closer to clinical reality, particularly for solid tumours, and will help clarify the regulatory and commercial pathways for its development.

Project: Circadian-conditioned CAR-T cells (cirCAR-T) for enhanced tumor immunotherapy.