A 2 million euro financing to better understand the mechanisms of some important gastrointestinal pathologies. TheEuropean Research Council has awarded for the project "Modeling Inter-Scale Energetics in GastroIntestinal ElectroMechanics" (MiGEM) l'ing. Alessio Gizzi, Associate Professor of the Departmental Faculty of Engineering of theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma with a ERC Consolidator, the most prestigious European recognition for research awarded directly to a scientist.
Not yet 40 years old Alessio Gizzi, the only researcher from a Roman university among the 2024 winners, has just obtained theERC Consolidator 2024 along with others 28 Italian scientists out of a total of 328 scientists across Europe, selected from among the more than 2300 questions submitted last year.
"The ERC Consolidator Call - explains the Rector, Eugenio Guglielmelli - supports the growth of the best talents in the most challenging phase of their career. We are proud to have within our academic staff a young scientist capable of achieving such a prestigious result, which will certainly generate new growth opportunities in our University in the field of medical physics. The few researchers who manage to access this funding are considered among the top scientists in Europe. It will be a pleasure to support with the highest priority the implementation of this project and the valorization of all new knowledge for innovation and social impact".
Prof. Gizzi will lead the frontier project over the next five years MiGEM which aims at a greater knowledge of gastrointestinal pathologies such as dysrhythmias, gastroparesis and paralytic ileus (affecting more than 60% of the adult population) with the final aim of understanding the causes that generate these disorders and identifying more effective therapeutic strategies than the current ones. The project will involve the development of theoretical-computational digital models based on innovative experiments capable of measuring for the first time in the world the heat generated by the gastrointestinal wall and mapping its movement. MiGEM looks at gastrointestinal pathologies from the perspective of prevent them, identifying therapeutic strategies in silico through the optimization of existing devices, their efficiency or better use, or by proposing new therapeutic strategies not yet present.
Student UCBM, Alessio Gizzi is part of theResearch Unit of Nonlinear Physics and Mathematical Models led by prof Simonetta Filippi, vice-rector and full professor of Theoretical Physics who commented: "Our Research Unit has always had an interdisciplinary and international vocation. These are the fundamental factors that over time have allowed Gizzi, whom I joyfully congratulate, to build an autonomous curriculum and a scientific experience that is up to the competition among European scientists".
Consolidator Grants are one of the measures implemented by Horizon europe to support frontier research. The call is aimed at researchers with 7-12 years of experience after obtaining a PhD, with an excellent scientific curriculum and extensive international experience.