Project description
The secret light sculptors of the microbial world
Photosynthetic microbes sit at the base of aquatic food webs, converting light into energy with exquisite biochemical machinery. But what if they also shape life? The EU-funded MicroPAS project aims to build on an important discovery: in some sulfur-metabolising bacteria, tiny intracellular globules appear to bend and trap light. Using advanced microscopy, spectroscopy, and numerical modelling, researchers will probe how these organelles guide photons inside living cells, potentially tuning wavelength, intensity, and retention time as the microbes grow. By scaling up from single cells to dense communities, the project will explore whether bacteria collectively regulate light fields. The work could lay the foundations for ‘living photonic’ materials inspired by nature’s own optical engineers.
Objective
Phototrophic microorganisms including diverse bacteria harness sunlight to execute metabolic functions, rendering them indispensable as the base of most of the aquatic food webs. Harnessing light efficiently, a key prerequisite for survival and fitness of such species, is achieved biochemically via photoreceptors and light-sensitive actuators, cascading into gene expressions, protein functions, and tactic traits. Our recent findings on bacterial sulphur globules—energy-rich intracellular organelles in sulphur metabolising bacteria—reveal optical properties which could allow active manipulation of light fields within individual cells. Building on this fundamental discovery, MicroPAS proposes a paradigm-shifting approach to organelle-mediated light manipulation, grounded in the physics of light-matter interactions. Using a combination of microscopic and spectroscopic techniques on both lab-grown and nature-isolated sulphur bacterial species, together with data-backed numerical modelling, MicroPAS will uncover how species-specific intracellular organelles (e.g. sulphur or calcite globules), and their internal distribution determine optical modes, enabling active light-guidance. By accounting for the evolving cell shape, globule attributes and bio-energetics over the course of their growth stages, the results, across individual to collective scales, will delineate if and how the wavelength, intensity and photon retention times are actively regulated by bacteria. Finally, I will analyse emergent phenomena at collective scales where self-regulation of light may result in enhanced penetration or scattering, ultimately allowing to leverage feedback and nonlinear effects for designing living photonic circuits. By uncovering how intracellular light modulation governs optimal behaviour and physiology, MicroPAS will pioneer an unprecedented data-rich biophotonic framework, and thereby advance next generation of living optical matter based on nature-inspired light modulation.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
4365 ESCH-SUR-ALZETTE
Luxembourg
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.