Dr. Marilena Hadjidemetriou, a leading Cypriot researcher, has been awarded a prestigious €1.5 million European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant to advance her groundbreaking work in nanomedicine. This significant funding will enable Dr. Hadjidemetriou and her team to explore innovative approaches in the field, with a focus on developing new nanotechnologies that could revolutionise the treatment of diseases such as cancer.
The ERC Starting Grant, one of Europe’s most competitive and highly sought-after research funding schemes, is awarded to early-career researchers who show exceptional promise and potential to contribute to frontier research. Dr. Hadjidemetriou’s project stood out for its ambition, scientific merit, and potential societal impact, particularly in how it could transform current medical treatments by leveraging the power of nanotechnology.
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Nanomedicine, a cutting-edge field that uses nanoscale materials for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases, has long been viewed as the future of healthcare. Dr. Hadjidemetriou’s research aims to push the boundaries of this field by developing novel nanoparticles that can target and treat specific cells within the human body. Her work focuses on improving the delivery of drugs to tumour cells while minimising damage to surrounding healthy tissues—an ongoing challenge in cancer therapies.
Speaking about her ERC award, Dr. Hadjidemetriou expressed her excitement and gratitude for the opportunity to continue her research with the support of such a significant grant. “This funding will allow us to make important strides in understanding how we can utilise nanotechnology to target diseases more effectively,” she said. “Our goal is to develop treatments that are not only more efficient but also have fewer side effects for patients.”
This achievement is not only a personal milestone for Dr. Hadjidemetriou but also a significant boost for Cyprus’ scientific community. Her success in securing the ERC Starting Grant highlights the growing international recognition of the country’s research capabilities. It also emphasises the importance of investing in science and innovation to position Cyprus as a competitive player in the global research arena.
Dr. Hadjidemetriou’s project has the potential to open new doors in personalised medicine, where treatments can be tailored to individual patients based on the specific characteristics of their disease. This would mark a paradigm shift in how diseases like cancer are treated, moving away from one-size-fits-all approaches towards more precise, targeted therapies.
The ERC Starting Grant will provide Dr. Hadjidemetriou’s team with five years of funding, allowing them to focus on pushing the boundaries of nanomedicine and exploring its applications in real-world clinical settings. With this support, Dr. Hadjidemetriou’s research could yield significant advancements in healthcare, potentially transforming how we approach some of the most challenging medical conditions of our time.
