Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet NanoMATe (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Atherosclerosis is a disease of the arteries. It leads to the formation of atherosclerotic plaques (atheromas), which may disrupt the blood flow to target organs, leading to heart disease and stroke - the most common causes of death in developed countries. Cardiovascular imaging has traditionally focused on the anatomy of the atherosclerotic plaque; however, the degree of vessel narrowing caused by the plaque isn’t the only characteristic that can determine the clinical outcome. Indeed, the cellular and molecular composition of the atheroma can indicate whether the plaque might cause complications. In particular the local immune-inflammatory response participates from the onset of the pathology through its progression, up to clinical manifestations. Consequently the development of innovative approaches for the molecular imaging of inflammation in atherosclerosis would be key to improve diagnosis and treatment. In the last decade molecular imaging has emerged as a novel tool for the visualization and measurement of biological processes in atheromas. Various imaging technologies have been developed; however, each approach presents severe weaknesses. Surface Enhancement Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) is developing as an effective molecular imaging optical modality in biomedicine because it offers many advantages over traditional technologies, including better sensitivity, and a superior multiplexing capability. Therefore, the primary aim of the present proposal is to develop innovative, highly-sensitive and selective but relatively affordable SERS-based system to measure inflammation in atherosclerotic vessels. I will use nanoparticles (NPs), small metallic particles, which possess the ability to recognise inflammatory markers, as imaging probes. When a light source is shone on these NPs, they can be detected by SERS. The secondary aim is to customise the NPs to enable local treatment of the pathology. The proposed approaches will offer new ways to manage atherosclerosis.

Mots clés : atherosclerosis, immune inflammatory response, nanoparticles, surface enhanced raman spectroscopy  sers

Participants :
- University of Glasgow (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet MaSMob-Lion (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Atmospheric new particle formation adds large spatial and temporal variations to the number size distributions of atmospheric aerosol particles, which brings great complexity in evaluating their health and climatic impacts. It is therefore crucial to understand the formation of atmospheric new particles from gas phase and their subsequent growth at a fundamental level. This solution however is obscured by the over-simplified theory in describing the free-molecular mass-mobility-size relationship. The MaSMob-Lion project is proposed to refine the theoretical basis of the mass-mobility-size relationship to improve its accuracy and reliability in describing the initial particle formation from gas phase. In MaSMob-Lion, the ER will focus on the carrier gas polarizability and conformation effects of <10 nm particles. These effects on mass-mobility relation will be probed experimentally with isomeric monomers and multimers in different carrier gases using the tandem mass-mobility setup and their linkage to particle size will be rationalised through the effective diameter approach with correction terms. Especially, the ER attempts to extend the parameterisations down to the sub-1 nm range for a consistent mass-mobility-size system capable of describing the gas-to-particle phase transition and the subsequent growth. These new knowledges will be used in formulating an easily implementable simple model to assist a quick conversion between mass, mobility and size. Aerosol particles can be measured by their mass and mobility. But in addition, sub-3 nm particles can also be studied via a growth-based method in a supersaturated condensable vapour. The ER will also conduct alternative and complementary mass-mobility study through supersaturation. While aiming to obtain a holistic picture on the mass-mobility-size relationship that can be used to compare different measurement techniques, these additional data will also be used in model validation and refinement.

Mots clés : ions, clusters, aerosol particles, size, mobility, mass

Participants :
- Indiana University (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Tartu (Estonie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 160615.68 €
Projet NEMESIS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic skin inflammatory disease affecting 10-20% of children worldwide. The etiology of AD is incompletely understood, but many elements (e.g., genetic, environmental or immune) are thought to contribute to the pathogenesis. The skin is specifically enriched in mast cells (MCs) and innervated by a network of abundant sensory neurons. New findings suggest that nociceptive sensory neurons (nociceptors) might regulate the development of immune responses. Skin MCs also express a transcriptional signature of genes encoding neuropeptide receptors (e.g., Mrgprb2: the receptor for the substance P [SP]), through which MCs might uniquely interact with nociceptors. Based on solid preliminary data, the central hypothesis of this project is that SP-producing nociceptor/Mrgprb2+ MC interactions play a critical role in AD pathogenesis. Using a relevant mouse model of AD and innovative imaging approaches, we now aim to elucidate [1] which subset(s) of nociceptor is involved in AD, [2] how SP+ nociceptor/Mrgprb2+ MC interact in our model and in skin lesions from patients diagnosed with AD and [3] how such interactions might favor skin barrier dysfunction. This project promises to provide new insights into skin neuro-immune interactions and may lead to the discovery of new therapeutic targets to treat AD pathology.

Mots clés : neuroimmunology, nociceptors, mast cells, skin barrier, atopic dermatitis, allergic disorders

Participants :
- Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 185076.0 €
Projet TMS_ATT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Attentional deficits are a frequent consequence of brain damage after stroke. Current treatment approaches using brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) are based on two theoretical constructs, namely (1) inter-hemispheric inhibition within the dorsal attention network and (2) the presence of interactions between the ventral and dorsal attention network and. The proposed projects put these constructs to the test by combining TMS with neuroimaging and, based on these findings, explore novel brain connectivity based TMS treatments. Collectively, these projects advance current neurocognitive models of attentional control and lead to advanced TMS protocols that can alleviate attention deficits in patients.

Mots clés : transcranial magnetic stimulation, positron emission tomography, functional magnetic resonance imaging, attention, hemineglect

Participants :
- University of Coimbra (Portugal) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 148635.6 €
Projet AttoDNA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

AttoDNA considers the early (attosecond to few-femtosecond) events following photo-excitation/ionisation in DNA/RNA canonical and non-canonical nucleobases for the first time. This involves the electronic movement before the onset of nuclear dynamics, ascertaining the length in which this initial purely electronic motion extends in time and how it affects the ensuing nuclear dynamics and its outcome with regards to the photostability shown by the genomic material from a bottom-up approach. By monitoring the electronic and nuclear motions in canonical and non-canonical nucleobases, the way in which they couple can be elucidated and the specific motions contributing to photostability extracted from a novel standpoint. Photostability is one of the main properties thought to play a crucial role in the selection of the nucleobase monomers in prebiotic extreme UV exposure, by encoding the genome using the most suitable (photostable) building blocks as an elegant solution to aid in its photo-protective design and thus defend itself against the threat of photochemical damage. Beyond its intrinsic importance given its essential role towards preserving our genomic material, an in-depth knowledge of this outstanding property also provides a unique perspective on the events where these photo-protection mechanisms fail, namely the photo-damage instances, and in the subsequent repair mechanisms mediated by electron transfers as those put in place by enzymes and/or in specific non-invasive treatments like photodynamic therapies, the most widespread treatment for cancer. The project therefore aims at extending the foundations rationalising DNA's photostability by exploring the potential role of the electronic dynamics prior to the onset of nuclear dynamics for the first time and is expected to have a large impact in the fields of photochemistry and photobiology.

Mots clés : casscf, caspt2, ab initio, photostability, attosecond

Participants :
- Imperial College London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet PhantomAiD (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Authoritarian political forces are a growing global phenomenon. In critical theory, this is explained either through material factors, running the risk of economic reductionism, or through psychological traits, individualizing the matter in a problematic way. To date, no theoretical framework integrates the two dimensions in a consistent way, leading to deep rifts in political analysis. The proposed research programme introduces the term phantom possession in order to bridge between the material and the psychological level. The notion of phantom possession allows the reconstruction of authoritarianism as driven by property logic. Conceptualised as a domain requiring control and defence, the phantasmatic entitlement becomes a reference point for authoritarian mobilization. Consequently, the subject of authoritarianism can be characterized as a phantom owner. The full theory of the authoritarian personality as phantom owner consists of three components. The first is an account of the politics of phantom owners. As Hannah Arendt mentioned in her analysis of modern mass-politics, authoritarianism is destructive in a way prefigured by early modern property discourse. I analyse destructiveness as the core characteristic of authoritarian politics. The second component investigates the psychology of phantom owners. To understand the psychological basis of authoritarianism, I link the Frankfurt School approach of authoritarian character formation with newer trends in feminist object-relations theory. On this basis, prejudices can be understood as defensive mechanisms, and defensiveness as the defining feature of authoritarian psyches. The third component implements my account. I show how the dual license to violence implied by property – the right to destroy and the right to aggressively defend one’s property – structures current authoritarian mobilization around such disparate domains as abortion, immigration, gender, and environmental politics.

Mots clés : critical theory, feminist philosophy, frankfurt school, hannah arendt, psychoanalysis

Participants :
- University of Verona (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 171473.28 €
Projet PERIOD (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Autonomous vehicles are about to change completely the transportation systems, the automotive and military markets, and burst deep space exploration. However, while autonomous cars are expected to reduce of two-three orders of magnitude the number of traffic accidents and burst space exploration, the current self-driving systems are not yet compliant with ISO26262 dependability requirements to be adopted in large-scale and are not yet sufficiently reliable to be part of a space mission. In particular object detection, a critical task in autonomous vehicles, has been demonstrated to be highly undependable and to be responsible for the great majority of accidents in current self-driving cars prototypes. “Pursuing Efficient Reliability of Object Detection for automotive and aerospace applications” (PERIOD) challenge is to improve the dependability of object detection frameworks in an effective and efficient way. PERIOD aims at analyzing and proposing solutions to overcome the software and hardware dependability issues of object detection. By correlating computing architectures and software reliability analyses with the impact of faults in the vehicle behavior, PERIOD aims at reducing the probability of misdetection without the time, power, and cost overheads that make traditional fault-tolerance solutions unsuitable for automotive or aerospace real-time systems. The proposed action will enable a highly interdisciplinary collaboration between the experienced researcher, a talented associate professor with a significant track record in computer science and computer engineering, and the supervisor, a world leader in test, embedded systems, and computing architectures for automotive/space applications whose group is embedded systems in one of Europe’s leading research institutions.

Mots clés : reliability, dependability, transient errors, autonomous vehicles

Participants :
- Polytechnic University of Turin (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 171473.28 €
Projet SINHOPSI (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

A globally consistent system of measurement units and reference standards is a necessary underpinning feature of most technological, industrial and economic activities. In fact, to perform measurements of physical quantities, record and compare them in a consistent way, systems of units and standards have been historically developed and agreed upon. However, in the last few decades, the ever-increasing need for stability and reliability has determined a shift from standards based on material artefacts or prototypes towards those based on physical phenomena and true constants of nature. The focus of this proposal is the development of a novel quantum technology to generate highly accurate electric currents directly linked to the elementary charge. This could serve as the practical implementation for a quantum-based standard for the SI unit ampere, which is a long-standing goal in electrical metrology. Semiconductor nano-scale charge pumps have been used in the last three decades to generate accurate electric currents by clocking the transport of single electrons with driving oscillators. The main limitation to the fidelity of the charge transfer is ultimately ascribable to the poor spatial confinement of electrons that produces errors during the pumping cycle. In this project silicon-based nanotechnology will be employed to realize and operate the world-first charge pump based on the transfer of single holes rather than electrons. A hole carries the positive equivalent of an elementary charge, but its effective mass can be significantly larger than the electron's. The resulting tightly confined charge carrier wavefunction is expected to provide significant benefits in suppressing pumping errors. The primary objectives will be to develop the underpinning technology to fabricate and operate the first single-hole pump, and experimentally assess its performances in comparison to the well-established electron-based technology.

Mots clés : silicon nanoelectronics, charge pumping, quantum dots, quantum electrical metrology

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet CRISPR-Locate (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

A great surprise in the wake of the Human Genome Project has been the discovery of vast numbers of RNAs that do not encode proteins. Alongside 19,000 protein-coding genes, our genome contains at least 20,000 long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) genes, but recent estimates push that number to 100,000. Extensive annotation efforts are presently discovering lncRNAs far faster than their functions can be elucidated, and thus only <1% of lncRNAs have been experimentally characterised. These discoveries have created a grand challenge of understanding lncRNAs’ biological significance. To do this, we must solve the pressing question of how lncRNAs’ functions are encoded in their primary sequence. As a proxy of lncRNAs function we can use subcellular localisation since lncRNAs function as a mature RNA molecule. One hypothesis is that, similar to proteins, lncRNAs are modular molecules composed of separable functional domains. Previous studies, including my own, have used conventional methods to identify domains in a handful of lncRNAs by laborious deletion experiments. I propose to advance this field, via a novel high-throughput technique, CRISPR-Locate, capable of detecting lncRNA domains and their function in their natural endogenous context. I will delete ⁓1000 different lncRNA domains at the same time and simultaneously insert RNA tags at their place. Subsequently, I will fractionate cells by their compartments and purify tagged lncRNAs. Afterwards, I will sequence all the tagged lncRNAs and, by comparing the change in the subcellular localisation between mutated and wild type cells, I will identify which domains are responsible for subcellular localization. Finally, I will use CRISPR-Locate to create a map of lncRNA domains, an invaluable resource linking sequence to function, and bring us a step closer to unlocking the potential of 10^4 novel genes in medicine and biology.

Mots clés : long non coding rna lncrna, crispr cas9, subcellular localisation

Participants :
- University of Bern (Suisse) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- National University of Ireland (Irlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 184590.72 €
Projet 3-5-FIRST (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

A group III/V semiconductor quantum dot will be interfaced with an ensemble of ultracold alkali atoms (first group). This interface will allow to combine efficient single photon generation in quantum dots with the excellent properties of cold atom quantum memories to build a key element for future high-speed quantum networks. Semiconductor quantum dots have been developed into one of the best single-photon sources, providing single-photon generation on demand at a high rate and with high spectral purity. Independently, ultracold atoms have emerged as excellent quantum memories, providing single-photon storage with high efficiency and long lifetime. Using a new type of quantum dot that emits single photons at a wavelength compatible with rubidium atoms and a new broadband quantum memory scheme, we will directly interface these two systems for the first time. A single photon emitted from the quantum dot will be stored in the atomic ensemble and retrieved again on demand, realizing a key element of a quantum network. These achievement, which constitutes the primary goal of this project, wil form the basis for future experiments where the system will be used to create entanglement between two atomic ensembles and ultimately between the atoms and the quantum dot spin. These experiments will establish a new technology for quantum communication and distributed quantum computation, combining high bandwidth, high efficiency, and long storage time.

Mots clés : ultracold atoms, quantum dot, single photon, quantum memory, quantum network

Participants :
- University of Basel (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 187419.6 €
Projet MIONIÑO (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

A key dispute in palaeoclimate research is whether or not a permanent El Niño-like state, with warm waters spreading across the equatorial Pacific, existed during the late Miocene. Late Miocene climate was similar to the 4°C warming predicted for 2100 by the IPCC. As today’s El Niño causes global climate anomalies, a permanent El Niño-like state in the past may have had serious, global consequences, such as widespread aridity. MIONIÑO will test the existence of a late Miocene permanent El Niño-like state using geochemical microfossil records from recently recovered Western Pacific Warm Pool (WPWP) sediments and earth system modelling to assess equatorial Pacific conditions, their driving forces and global impacts. MIONIÑO is timely, only being possible since the recovery of crucial WPWP samples in late 2016. MIONIÑO is also original and novel, presenting a new template for solving complicated climate questions using a new, robust stratigraphy and an interdisciplinary approach. UCL Earth Sciences is the ideal location to pursue state-of-the-art research in palaeoceanography and stratigraphy. Combining my existing expertise with key specialist knowledge from UCL researchers will equip me with the required skills to successfully complete MIONIÑO. I can hone my research vision and gain transferable skills to help me achieve my ultimate career goal of an academic research position. MIONIÑO will advance past and future climate change research. Resolving the debate on permanent El Niño-like conditions in the late Miocene will discern whether warm El Niño events, as occurred in 2015/2016, become more frequent or evolve into a new mean state. Assessing causal links between permanent El Niño-like conditions and increased continental aridity will improve the future climate models that underpin European climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. MIONIÑO can further help us understand the true societal impact of more frequent or even permanent El Niño-like conditions.

Mots clés : permanent el ni o like conditions, late miocene, benthic foraminiferal stable isotopes, planktic foraminiferal stable isotopes, modelling driving forces and impacts, western pacific warm pool

Participants :
- University of London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €