For the past two years, Alexandra Vallet, Associate Professor at CIS, has been leading the BrainSomnia project as part of the ERC research programme.
The European Research Council (ERC), established by the European Union in 2007, is Europe’s leading funding body for frontier research. It funds researchers of all nationalities and all ages to carry out projects across Europe.
A physicist specialising in fluid dynamics, solute transport and solid mechanics, Alexandra seeks to understand how sleep can help the brain eliminate neurotoxic proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Recent work shows that pulsations of the brain’s blood vessels during sleep promote this clearance. The project combines numerical simulations, laboratory experiments and a clinical study to quantify the impact of these pulsations on the transport and clearance of neurotoxic proteins.
BrainSomnia: Brain clearance during sleep by cerebrovascular pulsations – a new approach to dementia prevention
BrainSomnia has now been awarded an ERC grant. The ERC Consolidator Grant will fund Alexandra Vallet’s work to the amount of €1,999,947. This grant is a strong recognition of the excellence of the researcher’s work, that of her team at the Centre for Biomedical and Healthcare Engineering at Mines Saint-Étienne, and of the SAINBIOSE Unit.
Congratulations to Alexandra Vallet on receiving this grant; we wish this ambitious project every success.
