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An essential aspect of the cells in our body is their ability to move, to repair certain tissues or chase intruders, for example: but how do they do it? Scientists from TU Delft, AMOLF and Utrecht University reveal how glue-like proteins called crosslinkers could not only help to hold the whole cell together passively, but surprisingly cause the cell to move as well. The research is now published in PNAS.

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded two TU Delft researchers a Vici grant of up to 1.5 million euros. This will enable them to develop an innovative line of research and further expand their own research group for a period of five years. Vici is one of the largest personal scientific grants in the Netherlands and is aimed at advanced researchers.

Currently, storage is the key issue holding back the energy transition. Professor Fokko Mulder and CEO Mattijs Slee from Battolyser Systems are within reach of the solution: the Battolyser is a battery and a hydrogen factory in one. The TU Delft spin-off is a textbook example of how to create impact from research.

We generate more and more electricity from solar panels and windmills, but what if there is no wind and the sun is not shining? Will you still be able to charge your phone? This is one of the many questions that will be addressed in a brand new series of lectures by the MuseumJeugdUniversiteit. For this "green" series – made especially for children between the ages of 8 and 12 – this long-term collaboration between MuseumJeugdUniversteit and Science Centre Delft travels to the TU Delft campus, which celebrates its 180th anniversary this year.

The development of new technologies for biological wastewater treatment is turning our view of sludge upside down. Microbiologist Mark van Loosdrecht receives the 2022 Novozymes Prize for his pioneering work in copying and reusing nature’s mechanisms in wastewater treatment and resource recovery. Van Loosdrecht: “Treating wastewater will become good business in the future.”

The mechanisms connecting growth with cell size have been mysterious – up till now: in a recent publication in Current Biology, researchers from TU Delft and AMOLF have uncovered that the signaling molecule ppGpp is essential to regulate cell size. Surprisingly, they also discover cells adjust their sizes to concentrations of ppGpp, rather than strictly according to growth rate.

Arjen Jakobi (Department of Bionanoscience) receives the ERC Proof of Concept Grant for his groundbreaking research on cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM). "This grant will allow us to take our new CryoChip technique for high resolution images of protein molecules to the next level for the development of new drugs," says Jakobi.

The Reactor Institute Delft (RID) continuously invests in better measuring methods and techniques in order to facilitate pioneering research. We have accelerated this with the OYSTER (Optimised Yield - for Science, Technology & Education - of Radiation) programme.

The cost of new technologies such as those used to make green hydrogen can quickly be reduced if the government applies a stable and targeted innovation policy. This is according to Paulien Herder, professor of Energy Systems and Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences. She is also a Topteam member in the Energy Top Sector. As the Captain of Science she represents knowledge institutions. Herder was also closely involved in the GroenvermogenNL proposal for green hydrogen and green chemistry that was accepted by the National Growth Fund.

The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the ERC Starting Grants for young researchers. Four of them are scientists from TU Delft. This European grant of €1.5 million for a five-year programme is intended to enable individual scientists to build their own teams and conduct groundbreaking research.