Sought funding for CiM Professor
Prof. Ryan Gilmour from the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (WWU) has received an award that is only given to particularly promising research talents: The European Research Council (ERC) supports the Professor of Chemical Biology with a "ERC Starting Grant ". About 1.25 million euros for five years are available to further develop the research group of Gilmour who is involved in the Cluster of Excellence "Cells in Motion – CiM".
The research interests of the group of Ryan Gilmour revolve around "molecular design". In this innovative field of chemistry it comes to create molecules with predictable and well-defined properties and functions. With the "ERC Starting Grant" the 33-year-old now wants to extend a special area of research: the production of replicas of fluorinated carbohydrate sugar molecules. These particular carbohydrates should identify special molecular structures in the body - so-called receptors - and selectively bind to selected receptors. Radioactive fluorine isotopes, which are incorporated into the carbs, emit signals that can be visualized with methods of molecular imaging. Thus, it is possible to determine the exact position of a receptor. In this way, metabolic processes can be investigated and diseases will be diagnosed.
The funding line "Starting Grant" aimed at young scientists from two to seven years after graduation. It supports the establishment of an independent group of outstanding researchers. Ryan Gilmour is the third WWU chemist who received a Starting Grant - previously were Prof. Dr. Frank Glorius (2010), also from the Institute of Organic Chemistry, and Dr. Jan Weigand (2012) from the Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry this funding has been awarded. Prof. Dr. Gerhard Erker of Organic Chemistry has been awarded the Advanced Grant in 2011.
In the interdisciplinary Cluster of Excellence "Cells in Motion – CiM", which started in late 2012 at the WWU his work, the researchers deal with the visualization and control of cell behavior in organisms. The German Research Foundation had provided nearly 28 million euros for five years. The budget also funds for a total of four new "CiM professors". One of these chairs is occupied by Ryan Gilmour.
Prof. Dr. Ryan Gilmour
Ryan Gilmour, born in 1980 in Ayrshire (Scotland), received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in England. He then started his research at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), Switzerland. At the ETH he had held a "Alfred Werner Assistant Professorship" from the Werner Foundation, sponsored for talented young scientists in Switzerland. Since October 2012, he is Professor of Chemical Biology at the WWU.