The FANTOM Doctoral Network (DN) composed of 8 beneficiaries and 12 associated partners in 6 EU countries, recruiting 10 researchers and will be embedded into an established international research programme: The European Research Initiative on Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK)-related malignancies (ERIA) as well as a clinical network: The European Intergroup for Childhood Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (EICNHL). FANTOM will cosset and nurture the recruited researchers to become confident, competent, independent and well-connected European scientists with excellent career perspectives welcomed into these established networks. This will be achieved through a training programme conducted through research and complemented by a balanced programme of transferable skills designed with key input from both academic and industrial collaborators. The training of each fellow will be guided by an individual career development plan and supervised by a PhD committee with clearly allocated academic and industrial supervisors. The primary goal of the network is to train the recruited fellows by participation in an internationally competitive research programme and integrating them into the aforementioned networks. The research programme will address the clinical problems posed by Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL) typified by aberrant ALK expression. Applying innovative model systems and multi-omics technologies, some performed to a single cell level, the biology of ALCL including the roles of the immune system and tumour stroma will be uncovered. These data will be applied to the development of (non-invasive) biomarkers and novel therapeutic approaches that will culminate in the design of clinical trials to address the issues of chemotherapy toxicity, over- treatment and drug resistance. The research and training activities will incorporate not only academic labs but also key research institutes, biotechnology companies, clinical trial bodies and Pharma to realise our research goals.

Environmental change is happening on a global scale. Freshwater ecosystems represent some of the most endangered habitats in the world, with declines in diversity (83% in the period 1970-2014) far exceeding that of terrestrial counterparts. One of the primary causes of reduced riverine ecosystem health is a loss of habitat associated with excessive fine sediment deposition (typically referred to as particles <2mm). Fine sediment is a natural part of river systems, however alterations to land use (e.g. intensive farming) and channelization / impoundment (via dams and reservoirs) have altered the quantity of fine sediment such that inputs now far exceed historic levels. Additionally, increasing hydrological extremes associated with climatic change, such as intense rainfall events, are likely to further increase the delivery of fine sediment to river channels. Fine sediment deposition alters and degrades instream habitats making rivers unsuitable for flora and fauna to live in. Such changes lead to reductions in the biodiversity of riverine ecosystems and affects all components of the food web from fish and insects through to algae. Understanding the ecological implications of fine sediment is therefore imperative to be able to manage our rivers so that they can support and sustain healthy ecosystem functioning and support anthropogenic activities (e.g., fisheries, recreational activities). This is however challenging because a number of environmental factors control the consequences of fine sediment for flora and fauna. The proposed Fellowship aims to understand and quantify which environmental factors (e.g. land use, size of fine sediment and of the gravels within the river, time of year) influence the severity of fine sediment deposition for river communities. Specific objectives are to (i) quantify the trends between fine sediment loading and ecological responses in the UK and internationally; (ii) determine if there is a threshold of fine sediment loading before ecological degradation occurs and how this varies within individual rivers, (iii) develop understanding of how environmental controls (e.g. grain size, hydrological exchange) structure the effects of fine sediment and; (iv) outline a future research agenda to tackle the management of fine sediment in rivers. In achieving these objectives, my Fellowship will provide a framework to determine when and which river types (e.g. highland or lowland, geology) are most at threat from fine sediment pressures internationally. The Fellowship will focus on macroinvertebrates (river invertebrates such as snails, insects and crustaceans) as a target organisms being abundant, diverse and occurring across the globe. The Fellowship represents a novel and exciting research programme with international reach and applicability that combines global datasets with multi-country field and artificial stream channel experiments (alpine and lowland) and laboratory experiments over different spatial scales to develop and validate theories spanning different environmental settings. The fellowship will lead to an exciting step-change in our understanding and will address unique fundamental research questions whilst working synergistically with UK statutory regulatory agencies and end-users such as the Environment Agency of England, Natural Resources Wales and Scottish Environmental Protection Agency. The research generated will have important ramifications for how stakeholders allocate resources to monitor and manage UK riverine ecosystems and will enable more efficient and targeted conservation and restoration plans.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is one of the most devastating diseases in neurology affecting some 50,000 individuals at any time in Europe, and causing around 10,000 deaths each year. The main clinical features are weakness and wasting of muscles, but dementia may also occur. ALS represents a good model for study of all neurodegenerative conditions, as it has a characteristic phenotype, rapid progression and the correlation between diagnosis during life and autopsy diagnosis is close to 100%. However, validated neurochemical biomarkers for monitoring disease activity, for generating earlier diagnoses and for defining prognosis are lacking. Active European collaborations are in place for harmonizing clinical datasets, neuroimaging and neuropathology protocols. A preliminary strategy for harmonization of biological and tissue samples has been established. Standardized protocols for clinical data and sample collection are now urgently required for optimization and harmonization of biomarker development. The overall aim of this proposal is to provide a common European strategy for the prioritization and selection of candidate biomarker domains for optimization and harmonization. This will in turn provide a long-term platform by which existing collaborative structures that are relevant to neurodegenerative disease biomarkers (including academic initiatives, co-funding strategies, biobanks, industrial efforts, private-public alliances) are integrated within an inclusive web-based virtual biobank. Samples and clinical/imaging/neurophysiologic and neuropathological datasets provided by participating members can then be optimally utilized to enable state of the art collaborative analyses. The established platform will also act as an important communication channel between this consortium and the rest of the ALS/Neurodegeneration field to ensure that the optimization efforts are in line with the whole ALS/ND field, to avoid duplication of work, and to ensure better acceptance and utilization of the project results by all stakeholders. Ultimately, the platform will be used to disseminate the results to the whole ALS/Neurodegeneration field, and will act as a permanent Interactive European ALS biomarker platform for researchers to optimize/harmonize novel biomarkers using an established pan-European ALS methodology. The platform will also allow interaction with those of other cognate groups (e.g the NEALS group within the US) and with patient groups and other relevant stakeholders.

Volcanic eruptions can destroy infrastructure, displace communities, disrupt air travel, damage businesses and, unfortunately too often, take people's lives. Thus, predicting volcanic eruptions has real-world life and death implications. Eruptions are often preceded by increased thermal anomalies, with volcanoes sometimes showing signs of large-scale thermal unrest for years prior to an eruption. These anomalies can be detected from satellite borne infrared sensors data such as Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS). One of the issues with remote sensing based monitoring of volcanoes, is the presence of glaciers, which can mask or distort the thermal signal. This is of particular relevance, given that ice-clad volcanoes can lead to some of the most dangerous eruptions (e.g. triggering of lahars). It is precisely these volcanoes that this proposal is targeting, through the development of a new, international, and truly multidisciplinary collaboration between UK glaciologists, and US and Italian volcanologists. This project will be paradigm shifting as it will use glaciers located on volcanoes as "thermometers", which could (and should) therefore be utilised to improve the monitoring of dangerous, ice-clad volcanoes. The novel idea is based on a preliminary study conducted by the UK team which indicates that the calculated equilibrium line altitude (cELA) of glaciers that sit on volcanoes (volcanic-glaciers from now on) is considerably higher than for proximal "normal" glaciers. This suggests that volcanic-glaciers are impacted by enhanced basal melting due to elevated geothermal heat flux from the underlying volcano such that their dimensions and elevation are restricted. The "hotter" the volcano, the higher the cELA of volcanic-glaciers. In this project we will use state of the art remote sensing techniques developed by our international project partners to analyse ASTER and MODIS thermal imagery and extract the median thermal anomaly of ice-clad volcanoes in South America over a period of 19 years (2002-present). At the same time, we will calculate and analyse the cELA offset between volcanic-glaciers and proximal "normal" glaciers and correlate our results with the volcano thermal anomalies, using state of the art GIS tools developed by the UK team and applied to high resolution digital terrain models. The overall purpose of our project is to develop a much improved, robust, quantitative relationship between volcano thermal anomalies and volcanic-glacier cELAs. Our study aims to analyse all South American volcanoes, active at some point during the Holocene, that host one or more glaciers and also have proximal glaciers from which to extract the regional climate-controlled cELA. First, we will undertake a glaciological analysis to highlight the difference in cELA between volcanic glaciers and proximal, "normal" glaciers. We will then compare our glaciological results with an analysis of both the long- and short-term volcano thermal anomalies. The purpose of this proposal is to foster a productive, international collaboration that will outlast the 2 year duration of the project. Results will constitute a paradigm-shift for the study of ice-clad volcanoes, such that glaciers will no longer be perceived as a hindrance to imaging of longer term thermal anomalies, but may represent a tool with which to measure them. The ultimate ambition is to improve the monitoring of volcano unrest, thus preventing loss of life for many people that live nearby dangerous ice-clad volcanoes.

As human life expectancy continues to lengthen, there will be an increased number of implants in human bodies. The growing biomaterials field can already produce artificial teeth and skin, cochlear implants, artificial corneas, coronary stents and artificial hips, among others. As our need for implants grows, there is a continuing drive to improve the materials from which they are made. Magnesium-based metals and alloys are often used for orthopaedic implants, because they have similar mechanical properties to human bone, and they dissolve to components already present in the body. In the past, they have caused problems because they release hydrogen gas when placed in the body, which can be harmful and needs to be removed. Certain compositions of Mg-based metallic glass containing zinc and calcium, do not release hydrogen, and so, providing they retain the appropriate mechanical properties, they are much more suitable for use as biomedical implants than existing materials. The aim of this project is to use computer modelling to design and optimise these Mg-based metallic glasses for safe implantation into the human body. Advances in computer simulation mean that it is now possible to investigate the structure of complex materials such as these ternary metallic glasses. The molecular dynamics (MD) simulations we will use will reveal the atomic structure and the nature of the chemical bonds which exist in the glass. In the glass compositions which do not release hydrogen, a passivating layer is known to form on the surface of the glass when it is implanted in the body, but only for certain compositions of the glass. We will construct accurate models of the bulk and surface properties of these glasses, as well as those of related compositions. MD simulations will provide atomic-level resolution of the structure of the glass, and we will use this to identify the features which control the formation of the surface layer, and the release of hydrogen, and understand how these can be controlled. We will also model the interaction of the glass surface with the physiological environment, to gain a full understanding of the reactions which occur in the body. Through the simulation of a wide range of glass compositions, and full analysis of the compositional dependence of the surface layer, we will be able to deduce what reactions cause the formation of the passivating layer, and inhibit the release of hydrogen. Once we understand the features which control the formation of the surface layer, we will optimise Mg-based metallic glasses for use in biomedical implantation, by computational design of suitable glass compositions which have the appropriate mechanical properties but also do not release hydrogen. This will lead to the design of improved and safe implants for biomedicine, especially in orthopaedic applications.