It is being increasingly appreciated that the deep plumbing systems feeding active volcanoes on Earth are highly dynamic in at least two, interrelated, aspects. First, the depth the upper crustal reservoir(s) may change rapidly between eruptions. Second, the nature and amount of magmas entering the shallow system, and their subsequent interactions, may also vary widely, depending in particular on storage conditions. Both aspects remain poorly understood which seriously hinders any eruption forecasting strategy of active volcanoes, and ultimately our knowledge of magmatic processes. This project is aimed at obtaining fundamental physical/chemical constraints on the interplay between storage conditions and mixing processes, by using a novel laboratory-based approach combined with detailed micropetrological studies in a tight field-stratigraphic context, on an active volcano where mixing is common place, Santorini in Greece. We will first define the temporal evolution of storage conditions at Santorini by working out the phase equilibria of the main eruptive events of the last 350 kyrs. Then, based on this framework, we will perform deformation experiments on felsic-mafic assemblies using a Paterson apparatus under pre-eruptive P-T-X conditions, exploring the roles of strain rate and duration, so as to test how storage controls mixing efficiency. Beyond regional implications, these experiments will (1) provide quantitative constraints on physical aspects of magma mixing, (2) define how magma mixing affects the petrological attributes and chemical evolution of magmatic rocks, and (3) define the effects of boundary layer stripping by shear on reaction and dissolution rates of crystals in magmas, so as to improve our ability to estimate phenocrysts/xenocrysts residence times in magmatic systems. They will also investigate for the first time the role of deformation on the crystallisation of igneous rocks, which may open new avenues of research in the broad field of igneous petrology.

By conjugating DNA-code reading molecules to reagents that induce DNA breaks, we propose to synthesize novel sequence-specific nucleases. We will characterize their cleavage activity in living cells and test their application in targeted genome modification. The conjugates that we already synthesized have allowed us to validate our approach and will be further developed. Novel conjugates will also be prepared for improved specificity, activity and targeting of a wider range of sequences. ...