LMH Fellow in Medicine, Professor Ana Domingos, is one of just seven researchers at the University of Oxford to be awarded a 2025 European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant.
The ERC Advanced Grants are among the most competitive funding schemes in the EU, aimed at established researchers pursuing ambitious, curiosity-driven projects. The scheme is highly competitive: this year, the ERC received 2,534 proposals, of which only 281 (11%) were funded. Each grant is worth up to €2.5 million over five years.
Professor Domingos’ research focuses on how the brain helps regulate fat burning through the sympathetic nervous system. Attempts to target this system for obesity treatment have been limited by concerns about potential effects on the heart, partly due to gaps in understanding how the relevant nerve networks are organised. Her lab is addressing this by developing advanced imaging and single-cell technologies to map the specific nerve cells that control fat burning without affecting the heart. Using the ERC Advanced Grant, Professor Domingos and her team will characterise these neurons across different species used in drug development. Ultimately, the goal is to discover new ways to boost fat burning without affecting appetite or heart health, through a systems-level approach to sympathetic neuroscience.
Professor Domingos said of the funding: “Receiving this competitive grant is an honour reserved for few, and it validates the importance of my research vision: that we must have a modern understanding of a long-overlooked neural system. This support enables my lab to pursue neuroscience-driven strategies for safe and cheaper obesity treatments—uncovering mechanisms that benefit millions.”
