Kiel marine researcher Marian Hu receives around 2 Million Euros from the European Research Council

• Marine biologist Dr. Marian Hu awarded prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant
• Hu's CarboCell project investigates cellular mechanisms of carbon fixation in marine organisms such as sea urchins and corals
• Research project helps to better understand the impact of ocean acidification on calcifying organisms

Calcifying organisms such as sea urchins or corals fix carbon in their skeletons and shells. Over long time scales this has lead to the formation of gigantic geological structures such as coral reefs, carbonate sediments or mountains on our planet. This process of biomineralization is crucial in the global carbon cycle and requires deeper understanding as environmental conditions change, both in primeval seas and in the future ocean. To investigate these relationships, marine scientist Dr. Marian Hu, Emmy Noether Group Leader at the Institute of Physiology at Kiel University, applied for project funding from the European Research Council (ERC) - and now received the prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant.

The ERC is supporting Hu's research on cellular mechanisms of calcification for five years and with around two million Euros. "On behalf of the university board, I congratulate Marian Hu and his research group for this outstanding award," says Professor Eckhard Quandt, CAU Vice President for research, transfer, scientific infrastructure and digitization. "The funding commitment from the European Research Council is a great personal success for Marian Hu and an important milestone for his further scientific career. It represents a valuable extension of the excellent expertise at Kiel University and its partner institutions in the field of interdisciplinary marine sciences."

Exploring largely unknown mechanisms of calcification

In his project CarboCell "Vesicular mechanisms of carbon fixation in calcifying cells of marine animals", Hu will work on the mechanisms of carbon fixation in cells of calcifying marine organisms such as sea urchins or corals. These have the ability to convert the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO₂) into a versatile construction material. Hu and his team will develop a new concept of the mechanisms responsible for biomineralization in marine organisms. The work, which is related to the Kiel Universities priority research area Kiel Marine Science (KMS), will start in summer 2023.

To date, relevant research has focused primarily on calcification mechanisms outside cells. "Previous research results have shown that the first stage of calcification takes place inside cells in many organisms. However, it is still unexplored how these biological systems manage to form calcium from carbon dioxide in this process," says group leader Hu.

Physiological methodology in research and application

Hu and his research group are using calcifying model organisms, like the sea urchin larva to advance our understanding regarding their responses to ongoing ocean acidification. "Our research on sea urchins, which originated in the Cambrian era and have survived five mass extinction events in Earth's history, makes an important contribution to the evolution of biomineralization," the marine scientist said. The new project aims to uncover fundamental mechanisms of intracellular calcification.

To this end, the researchers want to determine in particular the chemical composition in the calcification vesicles of the calcifying cells. They will also investigate the mechanisms by which animals manage to control these chemical conditions. Marine researcher Hu: "This knowledge can help us to develop new conceptual approaches of biologically-inspired methods for the utilization of the greenhouse gas CO₂. So the results of CarboCell will be an important milestone for a better understanding of how marine organisms function, and will help to address other challenges caused by human-induced environmental change and contribute to ocean health research in the long term."

The CarboCell project thus joins a broad spectrum of marine science research initiatives at Kiel University and its partner institutions. "The interdisciplinary research landscape in the marine sciences as well as the promotion of young researchers by the Postdoc Center at Kiel University have contributed substantially to the success of this proposal," says Hu. While this project is primarily about basic research, it still allows for an applied perspective. "Nature's elegance in using carbon in its most sustainable way can be a guide for us humans to exist on this planet in the long run. We can still learn a lot from nature," so the marine biologist.

Dr. Marian Y. Hu
Institute of Physiology
Kiel University
m.hu@physiologie.uni-kiel.de
+49/431/880-3202