IESL-FORTH Scientists create light bullets for high-intensity applicationsControlling the propagation of high-intensity light beams as they travel through transparent media is a challenging task, but IESL scientists have now shown that a relatively new type of light beam called a ring-Airy beam can self-focus into intense light bullets that propagate over extended distances. These highly focused, high-intensity ring-Airy beam light bullets offer a very unique level of control that cannot be achieved with equivalent Gaussian beams, making them ideal for a variety of optical applications ranging from precision materials processing and nanosurgery to attosecond pulse drivers.

Motions of a nanomotor get proteins out of the cell, an essential mechanism for cellular functionThousands of proteins are produced inside our cells. More than a third of these proteins can fulfill their function only after migrating to the outside of the cell, becoming anchored to the cell membrane or being targeted to specific subcellular compartments. How cells regulate trafficking of their proteins is a fundamental problem in biology andis essential for life. Examples of migrating proteins are insulin (whose absence leads to diabetes), antibodies (that combat infections), membrane channels (essential amongst other for neuronal cell function) and toxin-proteins secreted by pathogenic microorganisms.

IMBB researchers reveal that DNA damage triggers a chronic auto-inflammatory response leading to fat depletionResearch carried out at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology-FORTH and published today in Cell Metabolism reveals that intrinsic DNA damage triggers a chronic auto-inflammatory response leading to fat depletion.

NetVolution: Α new ERC starting grant was awarded to FORTH-ICSA new distinction for FORTH, Greece's major Research Centre, came through the recent approval by the ERC (European Research Council) of one more proposal that was submitted by Dr. Xenofontas Dimitropoulos of FORTH's Institute of Computer Science (ICS). This ERC grant will fund Dimitropoulos' "NetVolution" project, to perform research on evolving the routing system of the Internet. ERC starting grants are considered highly honorary: they are given for cutting edge research and they are very competitive -- in 2013, out of 3,329 proposals that were submitted Europe-wide and across all disciplines, only 287 were accepted, i.e. just nine percent (9%); only two (2) of these 287 approved grants are given to researchers in Greek institutions, and "NetVolution" is one of the two. Dr. Dimitropoulos is repatriating to Greece, coming to FORTH and the University of Crete, where he has been elected Assistant Professor, leaving his position with ETH Zurich.