ERC Advanced Grant to Christer Betsholtz
Christer Betsholtz has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant to study the function of a molecular barrier in the brain.
Photo: Göran Ekeberg
The awarded grant will be used for a project about the arachnoid barrier, a molecular barrier in the mid-brain. The archnoid barrier is known to exist, and it is evolutionary preserved between different mammalian species, but its physiological and pathophysiological role is still unclear.
This is something that Christer Betsholtz and his team aim to determine, with the aid of the new ERC grant. They will create animal models in which they can selectively knock out the arachnoidea barrier and study what happens. This is a similar set-up as they used previously when they knocked out different parts of the blood-brain barrier and studied the consequences.
“I am very happy and grateful for the support for this project, which hopefully will provide new knowledge about the barrier function of meningeal membranes in health and disease,” says Christer Betsholtz.
ERC Advanced Grant is awarded leading, well-established principal investigators and amounts to Euro 2.5 million for five years.