Prof. Karen Alim Receives ERC Consolidator Grant for Pioneering Research on Adaptive Matter
Prof. Karen Alim (left) researches the fascinating properties of slime molds. The goal of her project is to improve blood vessels in artificial organs. © Andreas Heddergott / TUM
We are delighted to share that Prof. Dr. Karen Alim, Member of the BioSysteM Cluster of Excellence and Professor of Biological Physics and Morphogenesis at the TUM School of Natural Sciences, has been awarded a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant. This highly competitive funding program, supported by the European Research Council (ERC), enables pioneering, investigator-driven research and enjoys an excellent reputation within the international scientific community.
In her project “Learning Matters!”, Prof. Alim aims to usher in a new era of adaptive matter. Inspired by the remarkable problem-solving abilities of slime molds, she explores how matter can “learn” from past experiences and how these learning principles can be “taught” to engineered systems, such as artificial blood vessels. This fundamental understanding is particularly relevant for the development of artificial organs, which hold great promise but, unlike natural systems, still lack the ability to continuously adapt, mature, and function optimally in changing environments.
The ERC Consolidator Grant provides substantial resources to advance this visionary research and highlights the scientific excellence of BioSysteM members in addressing fundamental questions at the interface of physics, biology, and materials science.
We warmly congratulate Prof. Alim on this achievement and wish her every success with her research project!
The full original announcement, which also features further award-winning projects and recipients, can be found here: https://www.tum.de/en/news-and-events/all-news/press-releases/details/six-erc-consolidator-grants-for-tum-researchers
Further information and links