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Limb wounds in horses are common, however healing is exceedingly slow and fraught with complications. Contrary to body wounds, limb wounds demonstrate only a small amount of wound contraction. The specialist procedure of applying split-thickness skin grafts to limb wounds stimulates wound contraction by unknown mechanisms. The objective of this project is to identify those mechanisms to develop a treatment strategy for equine limb wounds for use in general  practice. Limb wounds are severely impacting animal welfare due to an extended healing/treatment duration, and the risk of euthanasia due to a poor functional outcome. By stimulating wound contraction, healing time will be reduced, and the functional outcome improved, directly benefitting the welfare of wounded horse and reducing treatment cost for the owner. Aim: To identify dermal components stimulating wound contraction, and to develop this knowledge into future state-of-the-art treatment of equine limb wounds for use in general practice. Hypotheses: i) Application of dermal fractions to collagen gels seeded with equine fibroblasts will increase gel contraction in vitro; ii) Application of dermal fractions to experimental limb wounds in vivo, will increase wound contraction resulting in a faster healing time versus wounds treated by conventional methods. Methods: i) The contractile effect of different dermal components will be assessed in a collagen gel/ fibroblast model; ii) Identified dermal components will be tested in a standardized experimental limb wound model in vivo (n=5). Ultimately, results from this project are expected to improve wound treatment in horses, directly impacting animal welfare by reducing healing time and improving the functional outcome of wounded horses. This will also directly benefit horse owners and caretakers and making veterinarians able to offer better treatment solutions.

HESTEFORSK - Raskere og bedre sårheling hos hest med autologe hudkomponenter

The goal of the Bilingual Experiences, Cognitive Ageing and underlying Mechanisms (BECAME) project is to examine the functional neuroplastic mechanisms underlying mitigatory effects of bilingual experience on age-related cognitive decline. While evidence is available for structural brain changes supporting bilingualism-induced effects on cognitive aging (CA), functional mechanisms underlying such effects are not yet well understood. BECAME aims to fill this gap by investigating the trajectory of bilingualism-induced functional neuroplasticity across the adult lifespan (ages 18-85), crucially adopting an individual differences approach related to measurable degree of bilingual engagement. Importantly, although such benefits are thought to be rooted early in the lifespan, evidence for the timeframe and conditions of their early emergence is scarce. The choice of including the whole adult lifespan allows us to investigate these mechanisms and their emergence more directly from a lifespan perspective. I combine behavioral testing with brain recordings via electroencephalography (EEG). EEG is widely used in cognitive neuroscience to assess brain activity and the degree of communication between brain regions (functional connectivity) in response to stimuli and at rest. Combining behavioral and EEG modalities will allow me to test bilingualism’s effect on functional connectivity, as well as its consequences for functional efficiency, the minimum required neural activation to successfully perform a task. This will enable a detailed, evidence-based account of the protective effects observed in older-aged bilinguals, and how they are built from earlier life stages. By illuminating the relationship between multilingualism and resulting neurocognitive adaptations, BECAME will enable to capitalize on it as a health initiative, with manifold societal implications and the potential to be translated into actionable policies exploiting multilingualism to ameliorate effects of CA.

Bilingual Experiences, Cognitive Ageing and underlying Mechanisms

Hovedmålet med kreftbehandling er å eliminere kreftceller og dette er tradisjonelt oppnådd ved kirurgi, bruk av giftige medikamenter (cellegift) og stråling. En ny og betydningsfull tilnærming til kreftbehandling kalt immunterapi, har derimot fått mye oppmerksomhet det siste tiåret; Her forsøker leger og forskere å utnytte immunsystemet vårt for å målrettet  ødelegge kreftceller. En nøkkelaktør i denne banebrytende tilnærmingen er en gruppe «drapsmenn» i immunsystemet kjent som cytotoxiske T-lymfocytter (CTL-er). Disse cellene har en bemerkelsesverdig evne til å oppdage kreftceller ved å gjenkjenne unormale molekyler på overflaten av kreftcellene - molekyler som friske celler ikke har. Når CTL-er gjenkjenner kreftcellene ødelegger de dem ved å frigjøre giftige molekyler som initierer kreftcellenes selvdestruksjon. 
 
Selv om betydelige innsats har blitt dedikert til å forstå hvordan CTL-er aktiveres og hvordan de gjenkjenner kreftceller, vet vi mindre om de påfølgende hendelsene inne i kreftcellene som fører til deres død. Fra før vet vi at CTL-er kan initiere to forskjellige typer celledød i kreft: den første, kalt apoptose, er en stille og ordnet prosess der kreftcellene krymper og brytes opp uten å varsle immunsystemet; den andre, kalt pyroptose, er en mer dramatisk prosess som involverer dannelse av åpninger i cellemembranen, noe som fører til at cellene svulmer opp og sprekker. Under denne cellebristen blir innholdet inne i cellene frigitt i omgivelsene, og dette kan fungere som 'faretegn' som kan stimulere en sterkere immunrespons mot kreftcellene. Betydningen av denne cellebristen for å forsterke anti-tumorresponsene vil bli undersøkt i dette prosjektet. 
 
Videre er vi fascinert av muligheten for å avdekke ytterligere, ennå ukjente, former for celledød indusert av CTL-er. Utforsking av disse dødsrelaterte prosessene i kreftcellene kan potensielt øke effektiviteten av immunterapi og bidra betydelig i den pågående kampen mot kreft.

The primary goal of most cancer therapies is to induce cancer cell death. Immunotherapy relies on the cytotoxic activity of lymphocytes such as natural killer cells (NKs) and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) to achieve this. While a significant amount of research in immunotherapy focuses on the events within cytotoxic lymphocytes or at the interface between cytotoxic lymphocytes and cancer cells, less is known about the molecular mechanisms that orchestrate cancer cell death, particularly in the case of CTL-mediated death.
CTLs are known to induce two types of cell death in cancer: non-inflammatory apoptosis and proinflammatory pyroptosis. Pyroptotic cancer cells release proinflammatory signals that attract immune cells to the tumor site, thereby enhancing the anti-tumor response. Cell lysis is a common outcome of pyroptotic cell death. It is unclear whether lysis can be decoupled from pyroptosis in cancer cells and whether the proinflammatory properties of pyroptotic cancer cell death depend on lysis. Moreover, it remains unknown whether CTLs can induce other forms of cell death in cancer, apart from apoptosis and pyroptosis.
Studying the mechanisms of CTL-mediated cancer cell death is challenging because CTLs selectively target cells expressing specific antigens. However, given the critical role of CTLs in immunotherapy, it is essential to deepen our understanding of CTL-induced cancer cell death.
This project aims to develop novel methodologies to investigate the death mechanisms that are initiated by CTLs. In addition, we will identify new pathways and mediators involved in CTL-induced cancer cell death. Furthermore, we will assess the contribution of proinflammatory cell death and lysis in promoting anti-tumor responses in vivo. Overall, this research will improve our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of CTL-mediated cancer cell death and potentially reveal novel targets to enhance the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy.

T-cell-mediated proinflammatory cell death and lysis in cancer

En av de vanligste, men minst studerte, utfordringene med å bli eldre er problemer med å kommunisere. Mange eldre sliter spesielt med pragmatiske ferdigheter, som å forstå undertekst, eller tilpasse det de sier til personen de snakker med. 

La oss si at en lege må gi en alvorlig beskjed til en pasient. For å gjøre det litt lettere å takle, bruker legen vagere språk, som "kanskje" i stedet for "sannsynligvis". Mens yngre voksne ofte tar hensyn til høflighetsstrategier i måten de tolker det som blir sagt på, har eldre ofte vanskelig for å forstå når noen snakker indirekte. Mange eldre voksne har vanskelig for å forstå ikke-bokstavelig språk og kan misforstå alvorlighetsgraden av diagnosen. Dette kan påvirke beslutningen deres om behandling, noe som kan føre til utilsiktede konsekvenser. 

Siden god kommunikasjon er viktig både i viktige medisinske samtaler og i hverdagen, er det viktig at vi finner ut hva som gjør at eldre kan ha vansker med å forstå og bli forstått. RESILIENCE skal hjelpe til med denne utfordringen ved å samle data om praktiske, kognitive og språklige ferdigheter hos voksne i alderen 18-90 år over tid. Dette vil gi oss en stor mengde data om pragmatiske, kognitive og språk ferdigheter og gjøre det tilgjengelig for forskning. Med denne dataen som grunnlag har vi følgende mål: 

• Forstå hvordan praktiske evner endrer seg generelt gjennom voksenlivet. 
• Finne ut hvilke mekanismer som påvirker pragmatiske evner på forskjellige tidspunkter i livet.
 • Utvikle en teoretisk modell som forklarer hvordan pragmatiske ferdigheter endrer seg med alderen.
 • Lage algoritmer som kan forutsi hvordan pragmatiske evner vil utvikle seg for enkeltpersoner i årene som kommer. 
• Utvikle og teste et verktøy som kan måle pragmatisk helse (både pragmatiske ferdigheter og deres underliggende mekanismer), noe som kan åpne  for å iverksette tiltak. 

Dette vil gi oss muligheten til å forstå bedre hvordan folk kan utvikle pragmatisk resiliens gjennom livsløpet.

A cornerstone of human communication is our reliance on pragmatic skills to guide linguistic interactions (e.g., reasoning about others' mental states to bridge the gap between what is said and intended in conversation). However these skills are highly sensitive to age-related decline, leading to miscommunication and uninformed decision making in the older adult population. This raises an important question, one which has puzzled linguistics and psychologists for decades: if pragmatic competence is fundamental to communication, why do individuals vary so much in this capacity? 

Traditionally, psychologists have approached pragmatic competence from a cognitive angle, reasoning that individual differences in executive functions (i.e., the cognitive skills associated with goal-directed actions) are what underlie effective pragmatic behavior. In a similar vein, language scientists have taken a linguistic approach, reasoning that one’s language background (e.g., the frequency with which individuals shift between languages) shapes pragmatic skills by enhancing sensitivity to the communicative context. This focus on either cognitive or linguistic influences has resulted in two expansive yet disparate areas of research.

RESILIENCE will unite these disciplines to pursue a longstanding debate on what underlies pragmatic resilience and decline using a large-scale, interdisciplinary and longitudinal approach. By gathering data on adults' (ages 18-90) pragmatic, cognitive and language skills over multiple time points, we will develop a comprehensive theoretical model that explains how cognitive and linguistic systems interact to shape pragmatic competence as we age, and create algorithms that predict the trajectory of an individual’s pragmatic abilities in upcoming years. Based on these results we will design a multidimensional tool that detects the earliest signs of pragmatic deficits, leading to future interventions, allowing us to uncover the paths to pragmatic resilience.

Uncovering the paths to pragmatic resilience

Sink er et essensielt mikronæringsstoff som kreves for funksjonen til hundrevis av proteiner involvert i et bredt spekter av biologiske prosesser. Etter inntak av sink fra kosten reguleres nivåene i kroppen nøye gjennom absorpsjon, sekresjon og ekskresjon via spesialiserte proteiner, såkalte sinktransportører, i tarmen. Enhver ubalanse er skadelig for menneskers helse, spesielt er tarmen følsom for sinkfluktuasjoner, hvilket påvirker tarmbarrieren og kan føre til inflammatoriske sykdommer og kreft i tarmen. 
På molekylært nivå er de presise mekanismene som styrer funksjonen til de ulike sinktransportørene fortsatt uklare. Hos mennesker finnes det over tjue slike proteiner, og de fleste inneholder områder rike på aminosyren histidin. Disse histidinene mistenkes å spille en avgjørende rolle i å binde sink. Nylig oppdaget vi et enzym som modifiserer disse områdene ved å sette metylgrupper på histidin, og viste at metylerte histidiner har en lavere affinitet for sink. Dette prosjektet har som mål å identifisere nye mekanismer som regulerer sinknivåer gjennom histidinmetylering av sinktransportører, å utvikle forskningsverktøy for effektiv studie av histidinmetylering, og å legge grunnlaget for nye behandlinger av tarmsykdommer.

The delicate balance of zinc levels in the body is essential for human health. Zinc is absorbed and excreted via intestinal zinc transporter proteins, and perturbations of this process are associated with pathologies, including inflammatory diseases and cancers of the bowel. The precise molecular mechanisms regulating zinc transport, however, remain a major knowledge gap. Based on the recent discovery of an enzyme methylating histidine residues in zinc transporters, and drawing on preliminary findings which demonstrate reduced affinity of methylated histidines to zinc, this project aims to identify novel mechanisms regulating zinc homeostasis through histidine methylation. We will examine the regulation and effect of histidine methylation on zinc transport in intestinal cell culture and organoids, and examine how knockout of the methylhistidine-generating enzyme affects the integrity and pathology of the intestinal tract in mouse models. In addition, we will identify reader proteins specifically recognizing methylhistidines and develop anti-methylhistidine antibodies and inhibitors to use as tools for detection, enrichment, and inhibition of histidine methylation. Such tools are urgently needed by the international research community, as none are currently available commercially. Overall, this project will lead to great advances in the field of protein regulation, and may uncover novel mechanisms in intestinal zinc transport and pathology.

Zinc transport regulation through histidine methylation

Noen av oss tåler stressende livshendelser godt. Andre derimot utvikler vedvarende fysiske og psykiske plager som følger av stress. Hvor godt vi håndterer stress avhenger av et komplekst samspill mellom miljøfaktorer, sosiale forhold, biologisk sårbarhet og indre motstandskraft. Forskning på stressreaksjonene til dyr og pasientgrupper som til vanlig lever under mye stress viser at en gruppe signalstoffer i kroppen som aktiverer det samme hjernesystemet som cannabis – endocannabinoidene – kan begrense styrken på stressreaksjoner og bidra til at man raskere kommer seg til hektene. I dette prosjektet skal vi undersøke hvordan mestring av stress på kort og lang sikt henger sammen med nivåer av endocannabinoider i kroppen for å forstå hvorfor noen personer er mer motstandsdyktige mot stress enn andre. I den ene studien følger vi pasienter som skal gjennomgå en stressende, men veldig vanlig, situasjon: kirurgi. Her måler vi pasientenes opplevelse av stress, samt mentale og fysiske helse, fra tiden før til to år etter operasjonen og undersøker hvordan dette henger sammen med nivåene deres av endocannabinoider og andre stresshormoner. I den andre studien bruker vi data fra et eksperiment hvor deltakerne har blitt utsatt for psykososialt stress til å undersøke om endocannabinoidnivået deres påvirker hvordan de reagerer på stress, og om stresset i seg selv kan påvirke kroppens produksjon av endocannabinoider. Til syvende og sist er målet med studien å vurdere hvorvidt målinger av endocannabinoidnivåer kan brukes til å forebygge helseplager og til å evaluere behovet for økt oppfølging etter alvorlig stressende påkjenninger i livet.

In the face of major life stressors, some individuals cope well whereas others develop ill health and long-term adverse outcomes. Predicting who needs additional support in response to major life stressors is essential for targeted prevention and more efficient allocation of resources. The endocannabinoid system is emerging as a promising target for understanding vulnerability and resilience to stress. This system appears to buffer stress in two ways: by limiting the magnitude of the stress response, and by facilitating recovery after a stressful event. While the early findings are intriguing, they mainly stem from studies in rodents and small clinical groups with high stress burden. What role endocannabinoids have more globally for human resilience, health and well-being remains elusive. 

In this project we address this gap by leveraging comprehensive experimental and clinical data on two potent stress models: psychosocial stress and surgery. Drawing on these unique datasets, which combine experimental control with ecological validity, we will decipher how endocannabinoid levels influence people’s stress response and recovery across minutes, days, weeks and years. The project represents a novel directional shift for endocannabinoid research and will (i) determine the value of endocannabinoid levels as a biomarker to predict outcomes after surgery, (ii) quantify sex differences, (iii) assess endocannabinoid interplay with opioid analgesics, sex hormones and other stress markers (iv) spearhead open and reproducible science practices in endocannabinoid research, and (v) make this fine-grained and novel data available through an interactive web application. 

This project represents an ambitious effort to understand endocannabinoids’ role in stress resilience and will determine the value of endocannabinoids as a predictive biomarker and potential target for individualized treatment.

Deciphering endocannabinoid stress buffering in humans: 
Mechanistic and clinical investigations

WHeelchair Activity Monitoring project (WHAM)

Wheelchair users (WCU) are three to five times more inactive than the general population, leading to a high risk of developing preventable secondary conditions. Although physical activity (PA) guidelines have been specifically developed for WCU, we lack systematic approaches to implement them in practice, as well as valid algorithms to monitor PA change in WCU through sensor-based solutions. Accordingly, the overall scientific aim of the WHeelchair Activity Monitoring project (WHAM) is to advance PA research and practice in WCU by developing valid digital markers for monitoring of and providing feedback on PA, paving the way for implementation and intervention. I will accomplish this through combining the complementary research fields of 1) behavioural intervention studies focusing on increasing PA in WCU (core competence University of British Columbia, UBC; outgoing phase) and 2) sensor-based PA monitoring (core competence Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU; returning phase – consolidated by non-academic placement at Maastricht Instruments, which develop research prototypes including PA monitors). WHAM’s scientific aim is achieved through three objectives: 1) Measure the effect of a pragmatic exercise intervention trial on self-reported physical activity levels and cardio-respiratory fitness, 2) Develop valid algorithms for tracking PA markers in WCU, and 3) Co-create a framework that outlines how PA can be conjointly monitored and provided feedback on in WCU. This fellowship will enable me to become established as an internationally recognized researcher in the field of “physical activity and disability”, while bringing together ongoing national disjointed research activities in this field. Altogether, my overall ambition is to contribute to reducing inequalities in daily-life participation among WCU compared to the rest of the population.

BOLD MINDS aspires to enhance the understanding of vulnerability factors underlying the emergence of borderline personality disorder (BPD), with an ultimate aim of increasing the potential for young individuals to receive early, evidence-based help when their mental health is at risk. BOLD MINDS will achieve this by investigating whether disruptions in two aspects of autobiographical memory (AM), narrative identity (NI) and involuntary AM (IAM), are associated with BPD features and problem behaviours in adolescents concurrently and over time. In doing so, BOLD MINDS will strengthen the understanding of mechanisms underlying the emergence of BPD in adolescence and lay a groundwork for developing evidence-based early interventions for BPD. While currently limited, the study of AM in this field is essential for two reasons. Firstly, because the aspects of AM under investigation, NI and IAM, are known to be involved in identity formation and emotion regulation which represent two key psychological processes that are disrupted in adults with BPD and are linked to problem behaviours such as self-harm and suicidality. Secondly, because promising research is emerging on the use of AM targets in the treatment of emotional disorder in adults, and provides a strong model for future treatment development with vulnerable adolescents. In addition, this timely research program aligns with calls from international organizations to prioritize early interventions to promote adolescent mental health. BOLD MINDS will adopt and adapt state-of-the-art ecological momentary assessment and analytical techniques and work at the crossroads of clinical and cognitive psychological perspectives, allowing for a multidimensional approach to understanding BPD vulnerability. Training-through-research and formalized training of the experienced researcher will prepare her for a permanent academic position and the founding of her own research lab specializing in AM and early interventions for BPD.

Borderline Personality Disorder: Memory and Identity in Adolescence

Per- og polyfluorerte stoffer (PFAS) er en stor gruppe menneskeskapte kjemikalier med høyt fluorinnhold som antas å ha negative helseeffekter. Kilder til PFAS kan være produksjon av vann-, varme- og flekkbestandige produkter og disse kjemikaliene er en del av hverdagen vår. PFAS påvirkning av biologiske systemer er ikke fullstendig forstått. Noen PFAS er antatt å øke risikoen for å utvikling av ikke-alkoholisk fettleversykdom (NAFLD) og øke risikoen for diabetes. 

For å forstå hvordan PFAS påvirker organene våre ønsker vi å bruke små laboratoriedyrkede organmodeller, kalt organoider. Disse miniatyrorganene kan dyrkes fra menneskelige stamceller og tilbyr et kontrollert miljø for å studere hvordan PFAS påvirker f.eks lever og bukspyttkjertelen vår, uten bruk av dyreforsøk.

For å studere helseeffekter må vi kunne måle nivået av biomolekyler som fettstoffer i leveren og hormoner i bukspyttkjertelen. Til dette trenger vi å utvikle analytiske verktøy for å måle effektene. Først vil vi bekrefte at når leverorganoidene eksponeres for enkelte PFAS-forbindelser utvikles det NAFLD-lignende sykdom ved å sammenligne den biokjemiske profilen (proteiner og metabolitter) til organoider av lever med PFAS-eksponerte organoider. Deretter vil vi utvide den analytiske verktøykassen for å undersøke hvilke metabolske veier som påvirkes, og om effekten er den samme i NAFLD-induserte og PFAS-eksponerte organoider. Vi vil også eksponere insulinproduserende bukspyttkjertelorganoider for PFAS for å undersøke effekten av PFAS på hormonproduksjon. Når effektene av PFAS-eksponering på lever- og bukspyttkjertel-organoider er etablert, vil organoidene bli samkultivert i en chip, og effektene av PFAS-eksponering vil bli undersøkt og sammenlignet med individuelle organoider.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are believed to contribute to metabolic diseases, such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and type 1 diabetes. HE-POP aims to investigate the effects of per- and polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFAS), a type of POPs), on organ function in a controlled environment.

Organoids are multicellular laboratory-grown miniature organs, that are grown from stem cells. HE-POP will use organoids to examine how PFAS affects our organs and develop cutting-edge bioanalytical tools and methodology to measure these effects using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. HE-POP hypothesizes that PFAS negatively affects organ function, as evidenced by changes in hormone and lipid levels characteristic of NAFLD and type 1 diabetes. 

Organoids offer a controlled environment to study the effects of PFAS on the liver and pancreas, without the use of animal models. HE-POP aims to gain evidence of the negative effects of PFAS on organ function through controlled experiments on organoids and aid in understanding the biological mechanisms underlying NAFLD and type 1 diabetes.

HE-POP has fundaments in UN sustainable development goals, specifically #3, #12, and #14/15, seeking an understanding of diseases with worldwide prevalence, and understanding how POPs affect our life and surroundings and help enable the right regulatory actions and replacement chemicals.

HE-POP: Studying the Health Effects of Persistent Organic Pollutants, Using Mass Spectrometry, Organoids, and Organ-On-A-Chip

Dette prosjektet, kalt Hukommelse for musikk, fokuserer på det økende antallet mennesker over hele verden som lever med demens, spesielt Alzheimer's sykdom (AD). AD starter typisk med hukommelsesproblemer og påvirker etter hvert daglige aktiviteter. Aktive musikkintervensjoner, spesielt sang, har vist positive effekter på humør, atferd og livskvalitet for personer med demens, men deres innvirkning på kognisjon er ikke godt forstått. Prosjektet har som mål å fylle dette kunnskapsgapet ved å studere effektene av å lære nye sanger på kognitiv, atferdsmessig og hjernemessig funksjon.

Studien vil omfatte hjemmeboende voksne over 65 år med AD fra Argentina, Østerrike og Norge. Deltakerne vil gjennomgå 5 måneder med intensiv musikalsk opplæring (to ganger i uken) og 5 måneder med minimal opplæring (en gang i måneden) i tilfeldig rekkefølge, med en to måneders pause imellom. Intervensjonene inkluderer å lære nye sanger med en personlig musikklærer. Generell kognisjon vil bli målt ved bruk av Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - Cognitive (ADAS-cog), og hukommelse for musikk vil bli vurdert gjennom ulike metoder, inkludert atferdsoppgaver og hjerneaktivitet (EEG). Humør vil også bli evaluert i hver økt.

Målet er å inkludere 113 deltakere for å sikre pålitelig påvisning av meningsfulle effekter. Studien vil utforske hvordan humør og hukommelse for musikk bidrar til endringer i kognitive evner, og om disse effektene varierer basert på faktorer som kjønn, alder, AD-stadium, eller tidligere musikalsk opplæring og generell utdanning. Prosjektet vektlegger samarbeid mellom forskere, tjenesteytere og brukere for å sikre studiens relevans og anvendelighet.

The number of people living with dementia is increasing and is high in low, middle, and high-income countries. Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common type of dementia, manifests itself initially with cognitive impairment in memory domains, and later affects all activities of daily living. Active music interventions, particularly singing, can help to improve mood, behaviour problems, and quality of life. Too little is known about their effects on cognition, although some promising studies exist. The M4M project aims to fill this gap by measuring effects of learning new songs on clinical, behavioural and brain functioning. Specifically, M4M aims to examine changes in general cognitive functioning and memory for music in non-musician adults with AD undergoing intensive individual musical training based on singing novel songs, compared to minimal training.
        Home-dwelling adults with AD, 65 years or older, in 3 countries (Argentina, Austria, Norway), will receive 5 months of intensive intervention (2x/week) and 5 months of minimal intervention (1x/month), in random order, with a 2-month break in between. Interventions will entail learning new songs with an individual music teacher. At the end of each intervention period, general cognition will be measured with the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale – Cognitive (ADAS-cog) by a person who is unaware of the intervention received. Memory for music will be tested with observations, behavioural tasks, and brain responses (EEG). Mood will be assessed in each session. We aim to include 113 participants; this will help us to reliably detect clinically meaningful effects. We will also examine how mood and memory for music lead to changes in cognitive abilities, and whether effects depend on sex, age, AD stage, or previous musical training or general education. M4M will be conducted in close collaboration between academic researchers, service providers, and service users to ensure relevance and applicability.

Memory for Music: Effects of individual intensive musical training based on singing in non-musicians with Alzheimer’s disease

Midlene fra POLITIKK-Forskningspolitikk fordelt på år

Midlene fra POLITIKK-Forskningspolitikk fordelt på fylker

Midlene fra POLITIKK-Forskningspolitikk fordelt på fagområde

Forskningsleder

Forskningsrådets fagevalueringer - bibliometrisk analyse av omfang

In this project we will write a transition grant proposal with the assistance of Ada della Pia from the consultancy office PNO. Ada della Pia has confirmed her availablility and we have already receivde support from the NFR for 20 hours consultancy  support as a preparation for this proposal. Ada has also assisted us through the Horizon booster service, offered through our ERC grant nanolace, so that she is very familiar with the whole project.

Note that the Eu project nanolace is run through the CEO in her capacity as professor at UiB. However, we have decided that the technology is ready for commercialisation and are applying now for a transition grant as a company. This happens in agreement with UiB and we have received permission to use the technology developed at UiB. A suitable confirmation letter for this will be attached the final application.

Support for writing an EU Transition Grant Application for the company Lace Lithography AS based on the EU FET-Open project Nanolace.

We plan to implement a workshop on nanoscale composite materials, which is a topic involving researchers from a wide range of scientific fields. Research projects on this topic are usually represented at different conferences and an exchange across the different research fields do not have a stage. We want to provide this stage by implementing the proposed workshop to overcome the barriers between the different disciplines. We plan with 20 participants from the different fields, which will meet for three days. The workshop is divided into two parts: an introductory part at the beginning with short keynote talks and followed by several discussion sections focused on the review article and strategies for future research projects and applications.

Weak Interactions in complex Photonic Systems

I dette prosjektet tar vi sikte på å måle grunnleggende egenskaper til 2D-materialer. 2D-materialer er fantastiske materialer som bare er 1 eller noen få atomlag tykke, men som kan være opptil flere kvadratcentimeter eller til og med kvadratmeter store. 2D-materialer er svært viktige for utvikling av ny elektronikk, for eksempel såkalt fleksibel elektronikk som kan innlemmes i kropp, klær etc. Det ble nylig vist at to lag av 2D-materialet grafen (grafen er en monolayer av karbon) kan bli superledende når de to lagene er plassert på en vridd måte på toppen av hverandre - magisk vinkel grafen. Superledning er flott, fordi det gjør det mulig å lede elektrisitet uten varmetap, men for tiden er det ikke godt forstått hvordan denne magiske vinkel grafen superledningsevnen kommer til. 
I dette prosjektet vil vi bruke en stråle av nøytrale heliumatomer for å undersøke hvor fleksible 2D-lagene egentlig er og hvordan denne fleksibiliteten endres med temperatur, og vi vil måle hvordan vibrasjonene til atomene i materialet påvirker hvordan elektronene i materialene beveger seg, noe som skal gjøre oss i stand til å forstå hvilken type superledning disse materialene viser.

2D materials have been extensively researched since the discovery of graphene in 2004. Some 2D materials have attracted particular interest in recent years for two reasons: they can exhibit superconductivity and/or they can be used in flexible electronics. The 2018 «Physics World Breakthrough of the year»  showed  that when two graphene layers are rotated 1.1° the material becomes superconducting. This year superconductivity was also found in two  twisted trilayer graphene systems and sample provider for this project Prof. Stevan Nadj-Perge, Caltech, showed that the superconducting properties of maging angle graphene improves when it is placed on a different substrate. The nature of  superconductivity in these 2D materials is not well understood. This hampers the design of new superconducting 2D materials.  

Flexible electronics is pursued intensively for applications such as foldable displays, wearable biosensors, implants for monitoring life signs, artificial nerves, muscle implants and soft robotics.  However, to design flexible electronic components that do not fracture when bent, it is important to know how flexible the different material layers are relative to each other (bending rigidity). For the components to work over a sufficiently large temperature range, it is important to know how the bending rigidity changes with temperature. At present there are no experimental measurements on this for 2D materials and the different theories disagree. 

In this project, we use helium scattering to measure i) the electron-phonon coupling in the low frequency range believed to be particular important for superconductivity of 2D materials, due to the recently observed substrate influence,  and ii)  temperature-dependent bending rigidity for a range of 2D materials. These properties  cannot be measured directly with any other technique. The project will provide crucial information on how to design future 2D superconductors and flexible electronics components.

Temperature-dependent properties of 2D materials:Direct measurements of electron-phonon coupling and bending rigidity with helium scattering

Is på overflater kan vere eit problem i mange samanhengar. Dei fleste av oss i Norge har skrapa is av bilruta ein kald morgon. Eit større problem  er is på vindauger og linser. Dette kan skape sikkerheitsproblem mange stader vinterstid, grunna avgrensa sikt. Is på sensorar og kameralinser gjer at nødvendige målingar ikkje kan gjennomførast. Målet med dette prosjektet var å framstille gjennomsiktige, isavvisande belegg som kan brukast på vindauger og linser. Belegga skal til dels gjere at  isdannelse tek lengre tid, og dersom det kjem is på overflata, skal det vere enklare og fjerne den.

Vort viktigste resultat i dette projekt er at vi har klaret at vise at det er muligt at lage et vældig bra, isavvisende belæg baseret på grafen. Vi har vist at kvaliteten på grafenet er viktig for å bestemma eigenskapane for dette bruksområdet. Planen er at jobbe videre med disse resultater via et spinn-off firma grunnlagt af UiB sammmen med VIS (Bergen Teknologioverføring).

Ice on window/lens surfaces cause operational difficulties in optical sensors and windshields. We propose
a passive, environmentally friendly method to prevent or delay ice formation without the application of
energy while preserving the surface optical properties. This solution overcomes the limits of the active
methods currently employed that are costly, energy consuming, environmentally harmful and dangerous
for lens/window integrity. 

Two families of innovative materials (functionalized graphene and selflubricating
liquid water layer) will be synthesised, characterised, and tested at lab level for multifunctional
coatings (TRL4), with icephobic, robust, lightweight and transparent properties.

ISOS - Multi-functional icephobic, robust, lightweight and transparent coatings for windows and lenses

The scattering of atoms and molecules from surfaces offers important practical and fundamental implications for nanotechnology, material science as well as some aspects of environmental studies. Applied aspects range from atom scattering as a characterization tool (diffraction and microscopy) to determine the structure and dynamics of nanostructures, surface reconstructions and adsorbates on atomic length and timescales, over atom optics, to the understanding of elementary steps of heterogeneous catalysis, atmospheric and astrochemistry, the study of ice formation and capture of molecules in ice and finally to hydrogen storage, fusion, and materials processing. Theory is challenged by the need to treat the energetics and dynamics of complicated many-body systems, often with open boundary conditions and pronounced quantum behaviour.
The international Conference on Scattering of Atoms and Molecules has established itself as an important forum for the worlds experts to meet. At the inorguration conference at the Weissman institute in Israel 9 years ago, it was decided to make this a conference that only takes place every three years, marking it as a particular important event in the community: A regular platform to bring together leading experimentalists and theorists working in the general field of atom / molecule surface scattering and half-scattering, with the goal to exchange ideas and opening new directions.
This application, if granted, will allow us to raise the profile of the conference even further through the invitation of prominent invited speakers as well as through the use of bursaries for Norwegian PhD students and Postdocs to spread the awareness of the field in a larger nano-community and raise the awareness in Norway for the activities done in Bergen. Money will also be spent on free one-day passes for members outside the academic community, particular industry and research institutes who may be interested only in specific aspects of the company.

The third international conference on scattering of atoms and molecules from surfaces

-Hovedmålet med dette prosjektet er å bestemme atomstrukturen til noen av de mest utbredte
flater i naturen: Kvarts og noen av de industrielt viktige overflater: glass. Dette har blitt gjort
ved å undersøke overflatene med et meget unikt verktøy: En stråle av nøytrale heliumatomer. Vi har oppdaget en hittil ukjent overflate rekonstruksjon av kvarts med en periode på ca 5 nm. Dette er en av de største rekonstruksjoner som noensinne har blitt observert på en naken krystalloverflate.

Silica (SiO2) is one of the most common materials on earth. It exists in crystalline and amorphous forms. The applications range from glass windows and building materials over  foam stabilisers, filters and fillers, to quartz oscillators and optical fibre s. Crystalline silica micro particles (quartz) are dangerous causing the illness silicosis upon inhaling. Amorphous silica particles of the same size are harmless. It is still not understood why.  

Despite the fact that silica is one of the most common m aterials on earth with an enormous range of applications, the atomic surface structures of crystalline and amorphous silica are still not known. The problem has been that while the bulk silica materials can be investigated using techniques such as X-ray a nd Neutron scattering, there is a lack of suitable characterisation techniques for the surfaces on the atomic/nano level due to the insulating nature of silica and the chemical composition. 

Here we propose to use Helium Atom Scattering in combination wi th Atomic Force Microscopy to determine the surface structure for the basic crystal planes of alpha quartz and for the melt surface of silica glass. Measurements will be done both on clean surfaces and on hydroxylated surfaces, which are prevalent in Natu re. The measurements on the alpha quartz surface structures will be compared to theoretical predictions and further theoretical work will be done to include the long range reconstructions, which we observed in preliminary measurements. Furthermore we will  test the hypothesis, which was brought forward a few years back that the surface of silica glass contains di-membered and tri-membered rings of the tetrahedrally shaped basic silica units. Such rings are particularly prone to chemical attack, so this is  a very important information for understanding and modelling fracturing and corrosion of glass.

Quartz and Glass: Revealing the Atomic Surface Structures of Silica

The overall aim of this proposal is to create a regional and national nano-science infrastructure platform (tool platform) at the University of Bergen (UiB) centered on the development of nano-based systems for biomedical applications at the tissue/cell l evel and the application of soft matter measurement science (biometrology) at the subcellular level. The scientific projects and partners have identified common needs for advanced scientific equipment and complement each other on scientific aspects, in pa rticular the requirement for biometrology in bionanotechnology applications.  The UiB Nano Platform involves both the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and the Falculty of Medicine and Dentistry. The UiB Nano Platform addresses an unmet national  demand for research in bionanotechnology as stated in the National Strategy for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. It is the ambition of the UiB Nano Platform to develop into a national infra structure center.

The proposal is crucial for the ongoing and pl anned interdisciplinary research projects at the UiB. Two start phase projects: Combined Lithography Techniques for Bio-Nano-Pattern Fabrication and Nanofabricated lenses are presented. On the national level the platform aims to provide investigators acce ss to the following main expertises and services in the frame of scientific collaborations: 

a)	Cell-instructive surfaces: 
1.	Bio functionalized nano-gold-dot patterns 3-120 nm
2.	Magnetic beads guided self assembly 30-500 nm
3.	Micro contact printing > 500 nm 
b)	Free standing nano structures down to 50 nm in width and   spacing down to a few nm
c)	Micro fluidics systems in PDMS, widely used in bio-technology applications 
d)	Access to state of the art hard and soft  lithography facilities
e)	Access t o high-technology devices for imaging and manipulating at the nano scale (Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Electron Microscopy, Confocal Microscope)
f)	Access to novel imaging technology (Helium Atom Mic

POLITIKK-Forskningspolitikk

Forskningsrådets fagevalueringer - bibliometrisk analyse av omfang

Awarded: NOK 0.17 mill.

Funding scheme:

POLITIKK-Forskningspolitikk

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