Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet TEMPO (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Plate tectonics processes continuously destroy oceanic crust, which contain the most reliable record of plate motion. There is therefore little data to constrain net rotation of the lithosphere with respect to the deep mantle, constraints on which are required to produce accurate reference frames for plate motion, The location of intra-oceanic plate boundaries and bathymetry in the geological past are also lost. I will use state-of-the-art numerical convection simulations combined with state-of-the-art machine learning techniques to put constraints on both net rotation and the location of plate boundaries with uncertainty estimates. This is possible due to the self-organising and statistically predictable nature of plate tectonics. I will develop one set of neural networks to make inferences for net rotation with uncertainties given observation of continent positions and movement. The networks will take both synthetic and real geological observations as training inputs and produce estimates for net rotation. They will be thoroughly tested using synthetic data and benchmarked using present-day Earth data, thereby testing both the networks and the physics behind the convection simulations. The networks will then be applied to the geological past. A second set of networks will treat the lack of information on oceanic plate boundaries as an image completion problem to fill the gaps in geological data. They will be trained to produce proposals for the location and type of oceanic plate boundaries that are consistent with the physics behind tectonic motion and mantle convection. The networks learn about the physics from the database of convection simulations. These proposals can be assessed against geological and palaeo-oceanographic data, provide suggestions for alternative solutions, give an indication of uncertainties and guide future data collection and modelling work.

Mots clés : plate tectonic reconstruction, mantle dynamics, geodynamics, oceanic plate boundaries, machine learning, palaeogeography

Participants :
- École normale supérieure PSL (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 196707.84 €
Projet ThromboForce (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Platelet-mediated thrombosis is a major cause of death and disability globally. Thrombosis occurs when platelets adhere and aggregate. In the arterial circulation initial platelet adhesion occurs when the platelet glycoprotein (GP) I-IX-V receptor binds to von Willebrand Factor (vWF). Increased or decreased expression levels of GPIb are associated with increased risk for cardiovascular events and bleeding respectively. The expression of GPIb varies significantly among healthy subjects. The proposed project aims to characterise the role of GPIb expression levels on traction forces and platelet reactivity. It therefore combines my significant expertise in cellular mechanobiology and traction force microscopy with theclinical expertise of Prof Dermot Kenny’s group in platelet biology and the development of diagnostic assays for platelet function. A micropost array platform for high throughput, single cell, traction force measurements will be developed and applied to understand the interaction between GPIb traction forces andplatelet reactivity, first in healthy donors and then in patients with cardiovascular disease receiving antiplatelet therapy. This platform could in the future be further exploited for examining platelet function to further understand platelet cancer interactions, and for the innovation of refined diagnostics to assess platelet reactivity in individual patients. By moving from ETH Zurich to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), this interdisciplinary and intersectoral action will allow me to gain expert knowledge on fundamental processes in vascular biology and to develop my expertise in a clinically relevant manner. The newly gained research and professional competences designed into the fellowship will greatly improve my chances of establishing a competitive independent research group in the newly founded RCSI Centre for Vascular Biology (CVB) in the near future at the interface of clinical research and biomedical diagnostics.

Mots clés : platelets, thrombosis, cell adhesion, traction force microscopy, single cell analysis, automated microscopy

Participants :
- Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (Irlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 187866.0 €
Projet POMOLIM (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is the leading endocrine and metabolic disorder in women, with a prevalence of 5-20%. It is characterized by hyperandrogenism, ovulatory dysfunction, polycystic ovarian morphology and infertility. Epigenetic factors have garnered attention in the pathogenesis of PCOS since changes in DNA methylation and gene expression have been reported in various tissues. Whether these alterations are also found in PCOS oocytes remains unknown. Cumulus cells (CCs) are specialized cells that maintain paracrine signals and cell-to-cell communications with the oocyte to support the acquisition of competence to derive an embryo. This crosstalk is important in PCOS since the reduced oocyte competence is considered the potential causative factor of infertility. PCOS women seeking in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments suffer greater sensitivity to hormonal treatments, which can lead to a high risk of ovarian hyperstimulation. In vitro maturation (IVM) of oocytes has been introduced in the human fertility clinic as a mild-approach alternative to conventional IVF as it requires minimal stimulation of the ovaries. However, there is a need to further develop a better protocol that curtails the 30% gap efficiency existing between IVM and IVF. This project aims to 1) generate DNA methylation and gene expression profiles of PCOS oocytes and paired CCs using single-cell and low-cell parallel sequencing, 2) create an improved, safe and robust IVM system that can increase oocyte competence for these patients and 3) define the molecular pathways that are differentially regulated in oocytes and CCs after in vitro maturation. The project will benefit from the experience in fertility treatments and safety assessment of the host supervisors, Profs. Smitz and Anckaert. The access to human material will be granted by the home institution. In addition, a secondment in Dr. Kelsey’s laboratory (Cambridge, UK) will provide pioneering single-cell technologies.

Mots clés : dna methylation, polycystic ovarian syndrome, single cell sequencing techniques

Participants :
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 166320.0 €
Projet INSPIRATION (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Polyploidization is one of the major driving forces of plant evolution and crop domestication and plays a key role in plant environmental adaptation. The function of multiple gene copies (homoeologous genes) from different subgenomes can vary from each other (sub/neofunctionalization), which is considered as the key to understanding polyploidy evolution and environmental adaptation. However, most sequence variations between homoeologous genes lie on the non-coding region or are synonymous mutations, which cannot lead to codon change. To data, very little is known about how the vast majority of sequence variations over the gene body regions drives subgenomes sub/neofunctionalization in polyploidy. Recently, Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) induced RNA structural alteration is demonstrated to play key roles in post-transcriptional regulations such as RNA decay and splicing. Further studies in human disease showed that SNP-induced RNA structural changes are associated with diverse human disease and phenotypes. And also, temperature can affect the RNA structures that more stably folded mRNAs tended to show lower decay rate. This brought attention to the existing function of synonymous mutations as well as non-coding SNPs. Thus, I hypothesize that SNP-induced RNA structural alteration might lead to the subgenomes sub/neofunctionalization and play an important role in temperature stress response. As tetraploid wheat is widely grown in the Europe and its yield is severely affected by heat stress, I will test my hypothesis in tetraploid wheat. Firstly, genome-wide RNA secondary structure profiling will be applied to compare SNP-induced RNA structure variations between subgenomes in tetraploid wheat. Secondly, I will investigate the roles of SNP-induced RNA structure variations in RNA stability and splicing pattern changes between subgenomes. Finally, I will assess the role of SNP-induced RNA structure variations in response to high temperature.

Mots clés : wheat, polyploid, rna secondary structure, plant high temperature response, plant heat response

Participants :
- UK Research and Innovation (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 224933.76 €
Projet ProSPECT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Polyploids, which result from Whole Genome Duplication (WGD) events, are thought to have enhanced adaptability which might explain why they are so pervasive in nature and especially in crop plants. Furthermore, polyploids exhibit multiple advantages, from an agricultural perspective, such as often having larger fruits, and being more resilient to like drought and salinity. However, polyploidy requires evolving an adapted meiosis (well documented in natural polyploids) to cope with their additional chromosome sets during meiotic segregation; otherwise, resulting aneuploidies lead to genome instability and fertility problems. Because little is known about these adaptive mechanisms, the meiotic instability displayed by artificially generated (synthetic) polyploids (which lack of an evolved meiosis) cannot be eluded and the use of these synthetic polyploids remains exceptional as a tool to generate novel crop varieties. It is expected that regulating meiotic crossovers to prevent formation of multivalent associations among more than two homologous chromosomes during meiosis would decisively improve segregation and fertility of synthetic polyploids. While compelling, this hypothesis has not been formally tested. ProSPECT aims to address the problem of genome instability in synthetic polyploids by testing the viability of two strategies to artificially induce meiotic adjustments that might improve chromosome segregation using Arabidopsis thaliana polyploid mutants as a proof of concept. To do so I will use two strategies: (a) First, I will use meiotic recombination mutants known to reduce the number of meiotic crossovers to test if this is sufficient to limit the chances for multivalent formation in A. thaliana synthetic polyploid inbreds. (b) Second, I will use polyploid hybrids carrying combinations of meiotic mutants known to restrict meiotic crossovers to (nearly) identical partners to test if this is sufficient to impede associations among more than two chromosomes.

Mots clés : meiosis, polyploidy

Participants :
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191149.44 €
Projet DAMAGE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Poor developmental conditions have been shown to impact subsequent health, fertility and lifespan, both in human and animal models. However, the molecular, developmental and physiological mechanisms underlying these adverse effects on health later in life are still poorly understood. Since mammalian models do not allow manipulations of embryo development independently of maternal influence and nutritional state (i.e. without the mother potentially compensating for any manipulation), I will pioneer a new avian model using experimental controls of embryo growth and development through modulation of incubation temperature. The key goals of this postdoctoral project are: (i) To determine the extent to which developmental conditions (i.e. slow vs. fast embryo growth rate, developmental instability) induce deleterious effects on health, fertility and rate of ageing in later life. (ii) To identify the molecular and/or physiological mediators of such adverse effects, by targeting parameters related to the ageing process (mitochondrial functioning, oxidative stress, telomere erosion and cellular stress resistance) and investigating the ‘sparing of vital organs’ hypothesis. (iii) To test both pre- and post-natal antioxidant therapies as preventive strategies to limit the deleterious impact of poor growth conditions on subsequent health, fertility and rate of ageing. This project will use a novel approach to reveal completely new insights into the importance of developmental conditions for subsequent life-history trajectories and rates of ageing. It will also provide important insights for the poultry industry about the impact of developmental conditions and in ovo antioxidant supplementation on subsequent productivity and fertility.

Mots clés : fetal programming, bird, oxidative stress, telomere, mitochondria

Participants :
- University of Glasgow (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet SPYCAVER (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Predicting evolution is one of the major aims of evolutionary biologists. Convergent evolution—the independent outcome of similar traits in distinct lineages—occurs frequently in nature at every level of biological organization in distinct evolutionary lineages. In this context, convergence has been considered to play contrasting roles in shaping biodiversity patterns. The success of colonizing and thriving in a new environment strongly depends on the existence, or lack, of specialized traits that ensure survival in it, a phenomenon referred to as environmental filtering. Thus, organisms adapted to extreme environmental conditions provide an ideal framework to study repeatability in evolution and, ultimately, to test for predictability, the ability to match a priori specialized traits to specific environmental conditions. Subterranean extreme environmental conditions exert strong selective pressure on strict cave-dwelling organisms which, respond by evolving a similar suit of phenotypic and physiological traits. The main aim of this project is to investigate whether environmental selective pressures, determine patterns of genomic convergent evolution in obligate cave-dwelling organisms. I will use an interdisciplinary approach, integrating field research, available ecological and phenotypic data, and newly generated genomic information to investigate the genomic bases of convergent evolution in cave-dwelling organisms. For this, I propose to investigate i) the genomic basis of adaptation to different subterranean microhabitats, ii) the speciation mechanisms in subterranean species, and iii) the causes of phylogenetic constrain on microhabitat preference. This project will give an unprecedented understanding of repeated evolution. Additionally, the results obtained may have far-reaching implications for medicine and conservation biology, of great relevance to several H2020 Focus Areas.

Mots clés : convergent evolution, cave evolution, phylogenomics, biodiversity

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 184707.84 €
Projet ISSVS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Prenatal stress (PS) is more detrimental to males than to females. Evidence is accumulating that PS may play an important etiological role in the incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders, which often show a male bias in incidence. The mechanisms underlying the sex-specific effects of PS are still unknown, but recent evidence implicates a crucial role for microglia, the resident immune cells of the central nervous system. Although in the adult brain microglia are activated only after infection or injury, in the developing neonate microglia show a structurally activated pattern, especially in males, which coincides with the critical period for hormonal action that cause sexual differentiation of the brain. Very recently the immune system, with a central role for microglia cells, was found to play a pivotal role in the masculinizing pathway. I hypothesize that the sex-specific behavioral vulnerability to PS is caused by sex-specific activation of neonatal microglia, leading to deficits in synaptic pruning, through epigenetic alterations in microglia, most notable in the COX2 promoter. COX2 is pivotal in the feed-forward mechanism of microglia activation and implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders. I will induce or block neonatal microglia activation to study whether PGE2 is both necessary and sufficient to induce the sex-specific vulnerability to PS and its mechanisms. These experiments may give important novel insights into the sex-specific sensitivity to the prenatal environment, and help understand the male predominance in many neurodevelopmental disorders. Coming from a world-leading lab with the main focus on sex differences in the brain I will bring important new knowledge and techniques to the host institute, while I will be thoroughly trained in state-of-the-art techniques at the interface of neuroscience and immunology at the country’s best research university, creating a novel niche in the field and preparing me for a professorship position in the EU.

Mots clés : sex differences, prenatal stress, microglia, neurodevelopment, pge2, neurodevelopmental disorders, autism, behavior

Participants :
- University Medical Center Utrecht (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 177598.8 €
Projet nanoCellSense (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Presently there is a strong need to single-cell tools able to provide new insights into cellular proteome heterogeneity underlying dynamics, mechanisms and cell states in development and disease. Of particular interest in this framework is the possibility to have an effective intra-cellular proteomic detection in live cells. This mainly for three reasons: the first relates to preservation of higher protein concentration if the detection occurs before a molecule is dispersed in the extracellular environment; the second reason stems from the need to study in greater detail and in real time, single cell processes such as the molecular cell cycle or the molecular fingerprint in a label-free way; the last reason came up from the universal necessity to know the intracellular concentrations of many molecules involved in pathological and not-pathological cellular processes. I hope to achieve the desired goal taking advantage of a scanning ion conductivity microscope (SICM) endowed with a chemically functionalised ultra-sharp nanopipette to visualise living cells highlighting, from the morphological and mechanical point of view, specific target cells, that would be further investigated in their molecular fingerprint piercing the cell membrane and performing a molecular immobilisation screening. For this purpose, the inner surface of the nanopipette will be coated with a self-assembled monolayer of antibodies to target the protein of interest. The interaction between the protein and the coating of the nanopipette would result in a variation in the ionic current flowing through the pipette due to aperture occlusion. Effective binding of the protein to the inner wall of the pipette will be detected and followed in real time and, after opportune nanoprobe calibration, intracellular concentration determined. This low-perturbative, label-free approach for single cell proteome characterisation will open to new possibilities for fundamental research in cell biology and physiology.

Mots clés : label free, single cell analysis, scanning probe microscopy, sicm, chemical functionalisation, antibodies

Participants :
- Imperial College London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet CAMPVANS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Presently, the two-dimensional (2-D) crystals and their van der Waals heterostructures (vdWHs) are attracting a lot of attention from the scientific community due to the unique features that they offer such as the possibility to widely tune their band gap, study strong light-matter interactions at the ultimate thickness limit. These features are of great relevance for the light harvesting applications as in photodiodes and photovoltaic cells. In this project, we propose to optimise the (opto-)electrical and photovoltaic behaviours of these components. The state-of-the-art ab-initio quantum transport solver relying on the density-functional theory and the Non-Equilibrium Green’s Function formalism will be employed to simulate the I-V characteristics of single- and multiple-junction vdWHs as well as their optoelectronic and photoresponse properties. Electron interactions with phonons and photons will be taken into account to ensure very accurate performance predictions. The validity of our models will be tested by comparing our results for vdWH-based devices with experimental data from our collaborators. These results will advance our understanding of the light-matter interaction in the atomistic scale vdWH junctions. We will then investigate whether the innovative idea of using the inter-layer carrier multiplication will lead to significant improvement of the light conversion efficiency of the photovoltaic cells. Novel vdWH-based superlattice photovoltaic cells will be designed and optimised with the precisely calibrated atomistic simulator. The most promising device configuration will serve as reliable design guidelines for our experimental collaborators so that the designed devices can be manufactured and characterised. This project aims to significantly increase the light conversion efficiency of vdWH-based solar cells by enabling the cascade inter-layer carrier multiplication.

Mots clés : 2 d materials, van der waals, ab initio, quantum transport, non equilibrium green s functions

Participants :
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191149.44 €