Ruth Pérez was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant within its 2023 call to Ruth Pérez, head of the group of Biological Systems Chemistry at the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas (CIB-CSIC). The ERC has considered the researcher's scientific excellence and the proposed research's outstanding nature to grant this project 2 million euros over the next five years.

The funded project, under the name of ‘Chem2Sense’, aims to develop an innovative synergic application of hybrid and modular nucleic acid aptamers and a direct method for the selection-identification of these molecules using the latest advances in oligonucleotide sequencing. ‘Chem2Sense’ will bring highly sensitive and versatile nucleic acid aptamers to cover a broad range of vital applications with the potential to detect biomarkers, pathogens, or environmental pollutants, among other molecules.

The ERC Consolidator Grants are designed to support excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they may still consolidate their independent research team or program. Principal Investigators must demonstrate their scientific proposal's ground-breaking nature, ambition, and feasibility.

Within the 2023 Call, 308 proposals have been selected out of more than 2.100 applications. Spain, with 23 projects, ranks third in the number of grants awarded in this edition along with France, behind Germany (66 projects) and the Netherlands (36).