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TWIN4EarLiStAge

Twinning for excellence in research, training and innovation in early-in-life stress and aging.

THE PROJECT

Project Start Date

September 1st, 2024

Project Duration

36 Months

About The Project

TWIN4EarLiStAge (TWINNING FOR EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH, TRAINING AND INNOVATION IN EARLY-IN-LIFE STRESS AND AGING) is designed to establish the first Center for Research Excellence, Innovation and Training in the Biology of Aging (BoA) in Greece.

  • Project start date: September 1st, 2024
  • Project duration: 36 months
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TWIN4EarLiStAge

Project Objectives

Objective 1

Promote a collaborative research project in the Biology of Aging (BoA) field with international impact: how early-in-life events can affect the aging process and age-related pathologies.

Objective 2

Provide research training, improve skills, and promote career development for young scientists.

Objective 3

Strengthen the research management and organizational skills of the UoC Research Support Office (RSO) staff by transferring knowledge from the partner institutes.

Objective 4

Enhance UoC’s capacity to commercially exploit the research output and promote technology transfer and entrepreneurship.

TWIN4EarLiStAge

Research Focus

A central aspect in aging concerns the extent to which early-in-life events can determine the aging process. For instance, stress-inducing conditions during development can positively impact healthspan and lifespan. However, the location, timing and cellular effects of such events are largely unknown. The coordinator (University of Crete) wishes to build on previous knowledge on signaling functions of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) which, when activated during early life stages, have protective effects. By partnering with two prominent Centers in Aging Research, we plan to identify the critical time window and specific mechanisms which are triggered in response to stressors to contribute to lifespan determination and apply this knowledge to prolong life and protect against age-related pathologies.
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TWIN4EarLiStAge

Training and Dissemination

This Twinning action will also enable the University of Crete to establish comprehensive training for its young scientists, strengthen the research management and organizational skills of its staff and the capacity to commercially exploit research outputs. Though this partnership University of Crete will establish the first excellence hub in Research, Training and Innovation in the Biology of Aging in Greece and will converge with the most advanced institutions in terms of the quality of scientific data it produces, the amount of funding it secures, the supportive research culture and career prospects for its young scientists and the way it communicates research results and converts them to tangible outcomes for the society.

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TWIN4EarLiStAge

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This project is funded from the European Union’s Horizon Europe call HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ACCESS-02 under Grant Agreement No 101159690.

TWIN4EarLiStAge

Consortium

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Daphne Bazopoulou

Daphne Bazopoulou, received her Bachelor’s, M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Crete and worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Departments of Mechanical Engineering & Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology of University of Michigan (USA).

In 2021, she returned to Greece and established her independent research group in her home country. She is currently an Assistant Professor of the University of Crete, Department of Biology and a collaborating faculty member of IMBB at the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH). Daphne has worked extensively on the role of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) and redox signalling in the C. elegans aging process. She leads the Biology of Stress and Aging Lab which uses inter-disciplinary approaches i.e., from molecular biology, physiology, and engineering to study the impact of environmental stressors on organismal health and survival. Daphne has published in leading journals, including Nature, Nature Microbiology, and Nature Aging and has received competitive funding from national and international agencies for her research and entrepreneurship activities (NIH, Foundation Sante, Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation, University of Michigan-Center of Entrepreneurship).

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Ellen Nollen
Ellen Nollen is a professor of Molecular Biology of Aging at the European Research institute for the Biology of Ageing (ERIBA) of the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG). Her research focuses on cellular and organismal mechanisms of protection against protein damage in aging and age-related diseases.
Nollen pioneered the use of genome-wide genetic screens in C. elegans models to uncover evolutionary conserved biological mechanisms of protection and identify targets for interventions. Ellen serves in scientific advisory boards of organizations related to aging and age-related diseases, including the Max Planck Institute for the Biology of Aging, in Cologne and Parkinson NL. She also served as an interim director of ERIBA at the UMCG Groningen and is a board member of the Dutch Society for Research on Ageing (DuSRA). Nollen won several personal fellowships, including NWO talent and EMBO long term fellowships for research at Northwestern University, USA, and a Veni fellowship to continue her independent research line at the Hubrecht Institute. She received a Rosalind Franklin Fellowship to start her group at the UMCG and won a EMBO Young Investigator Award, an Alfred Tissières Young Investigator Award and an ERC StG as recognition of her pioneering work on modifiers of protein aggregation and toxicity.
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Maria Ermolaeva
Maria Ermolaeva is an accomplished biochemist and longevity researcher. After earning her degree in biochemistry from Lomonosov Moscow State University in 2002, she pursued doctoral studies at EMBL in Rome and the University of Cologne, where she explored inflammatory regulation in mouse models.
From 2009 to 2015, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the CECAD Excellence Cluster at the University of Cologne, investigating the links between DNA damage, stress resilience, and healthy aging. Since 2015, Dr. Maria Ermolaeva has led the “Stress Tolerance and Homeostasis” research group at the Leibniz Institute on Aging in Jena, Germany. Her lab focuses on developing interventions that enhance functional resilience in aging, ultimately promoting healthy longevity. Their research explores metabolic and microbial interventions, along with various inducers of adaptive stress responses. The Ermolaeva lab employs a diverse range of model systems, from nematodes and human in vitro models of replicative aging to killifish and mice. Maria has published extensively in leading journals, including Nature, Cell, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Immunology, and Nature Metabolism. Her contributions have been recognized with awards such as the 2022 Dieter Platt-Stiftung Research Award in Biogerontology and prestigious funding, including an ERC Consolidator Grant to advance personalized longevity treatments. In addition to her basic research on aging, Maria has nearly a decade of experience in technology transfer, overseeing translational projects through the SPARK@FLI program since 2016.
TWIN4EarLiStAge

Activities

The initiative aims to enhance research training, capacity building, and public engagement at the University of Crete (UoC). Through structured programs, it supports young scientists, strengthens research support services, promotes knowledge transfer, and fosters effective dissemination and communication.

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TWIN4EarLiStAge is designed to establish the first Center for Research Excellence, Innovation and Training in the Biology of Aging (BoA) in Greece.

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