ERC Grants for D-BSSE professors Andreas Moor and Randall Platt

Source: https://bsse.ethz.ch/news-and-events/d-bsse-news/2025/12/erc-grants-for-d-bsse-professors-andreas-moor-and-randall-platt.html Parent: https://bsse.ethz.ch/news-and-events/d-bsse-news.html?AUTHOR=Q2Fyb2xpbiBBcm5kdCBGb3BwYQ&path=L2NvbnRlbnQvc3BlY2lhbGludGVyZXN0L2Jzc2UvZGVwYXJ0bWVudC9lbi9uZXdzLWFuZC1ldmVudHMvamNyOmNvbnRlbnQvcGFyL25ld3NmZWVkXzQzMTg

Andreas Moor, head of the Systems Physiology lab, and Randall Platt, head of the Biological Engineering Lab, receive ERC Consolidator Grants for their research on cellular networks in colorectal cancer and on protein-engineering technologies, respectively. Congratulations!

Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Most of these deaths are due to the spread of cancer (metastasis). Andreas Moor is a professor in the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at ETH Zurich in Basel. He investigates how cancer cells communicate and interact with healthy cells in their environment. In his ERC project, he will study the life cycle of metastatic colorectal cancer cells and their interaction with healthy body tissue, including at the genetic level. The project aims to decipher the cellular networks that cause metastases to form and settle in the body. The findings will ultimately be used to develop new therapies that interrupt communication between cancer and host cells. These therapies aim to prevent or at least limit the formation of metastases in colorectal cancer.

The CRISPR-Cas method can be used to systematically switch off or modify the genes of a cell. The technology is so powerful and important that it has become indispensable in basic molecular biology research. Randall Platt is a professor in the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at ETH Zurich in Basel. In his ERC project, he aims to develop a completely new technology inspired by CRISPR that switches off or influences proteins rather than genes. By using high-throughput screening to selectively switch proteins on or off, or by bringing two proteins together to interact, he will obtain information about protein functions. The new method is set to become an important pillar of biological and biomedical research and contribute to the development of new therapies against cancer, for example.

For this year’s round of Consolidator Grants, 17 ETH researchers submitted projects to the ERC, four applications are successful. Find ETH News listing all ERC Grant-recipients.

Learn about research in the Systems Physiology lab of Andreas Moor and in the Biological Engineering lab of Randall Platt.

Find information on all ERC Grants received by D-BSSE members.