Excessive carbon emissions and management of construction and demolition waste (CDW) are critical challenges that the EU seeks to overcome to achieve climate neutrality. Portland cement (PC), an indispensable material for modern infrastructure construction, is responsible for approximately 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, while CDW represents the largest waste stream in the EU, accounting for more than a third of all waste. The SUSTAIN project addresses these issues by absorbing carbon emissions through integrated bio-mineralisation and accelerated carbonation of CDW materials and utilising it to develop novel self-healing carbon-negative concrete. The project is interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary in nature, aiming to carbonate recycled concrete powder (RCP) and recycled aggregates (RA) through a synergistic process that combines CO2 absorption with microbial-induced enhancement. This process aims to meet the cement demand in the construction sector by repurposing RCP as supplementary cementitious material and improving the quality of RA to enable their full replacement of natural aggregates. Additionally, this treatment will give self-healable properties to concrete, allowing it to autonomously repair cracks through microbial-induced carbonate precipitation during its service life. This project aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of “Sustainable Cities and Communities” and the European Green Deal, thus enhancing EU scientific excellence. The researcher will receive extensive training to advance his career by learning new analytical and experimental skills, effective management, advanced training, supervision skills, publishing papers, writing EU patents, and funding proposals. The project will play a vital role in achieving net-zero CO2 emissions, offering climate-neutral construction materials, and equipping the researcher with cutting-edge skills to catalyse future leadership roles in academia and industry.

With major progress being made in tissue engineering and organ regeneration, it is important to understand how the expression of genes in stem cells leads to their development into specialised cell types. Skin epithelium is a self-renewing biological structure that consists of the stem cells residing in the basal layer and differentiating into keratinocytes of suprabasal layers. This process results in a formation of an epidermal barrier protecting organisms from harmful environmental factors and is accompanied by activation of a number of epidermis-specific genes, located in the genome as clusters on four distinct chromosomes. However, it is unclear how these clusters are distributed in the nuclei of epidermal cells and what regulates their intra-nuclear arrangements and activity. We will test whether this process is regulated by a specific Satb1 protein that intergrates remodeling of large chromatin domains with regulation of gene expression. This project will shed light on the mechanisms that control gene reorganisation in the nuclei of epidermal cells and will be useful for better understanding the principles of stem cell-driven organ regeneration. Success of this project will be important for the progress in establishing new approaches in stem cell-based therapy and regenerative medicine.

Raman spectroscopy has been demonstrated to be a viable non-destructive technique for the analytical interrogation of geological scenarios for life / detection signatures based on the presence of characteristic biochemicals produced by extremophilic organisms for their survival in hostile environments. The interaction between organisms and their environment is critical to survival and evidence for extant, and importantly, extinct lifeforms may be surmised from unambiguous identification of biological and geological markers in the geological record. The recent announcement of the acceptance of a combined Raman/LIBS instrument for the ExoMars programme by ESA is a major step forward in the broadening of the life-detection instrumentation portfolio for the proposed lander/rover and it is necessary now to construct and evaluate a prototype miniaturised instrument for testing in a range of terrestrial Mars analogue situations. At the University of Bradford, Professor Howell Edwards and his group have been studying the Raman spectra of extremophiles from Mars analogue sites for many years and have built up expertise in the recognition of biomolecular signatures obtained under a wide range of experimental conditions. The group has instigated a collection of key samples from a diverse range of terrestrial scenarios considered to be 'Mars analogues'. These studies have initiated, through identification of biomolecular Raman spectral marker bands in the presence of geological mineral host matrices, the preparation of a database of reference spectra for direct recognition of extinct and extant organisms in complex systems. The Bradford Group is identified as a key contributor to the international Raman/LIBS instrument science working team led by Prof. Fernando Rull (University of Valladoid) and will be leading the Raman/LIBS Biomarker programme.

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