Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet Mtb CoaBC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The increasing prevalence of drug-resistant microorganisms worldwide and the shortage of novel antimicrobial chemotherapeutics in the pipeline places our capacity to treat infectious diseases under serious threat. Antimicrobial chemotherapies with novel modes of action are desperately needed. However, the development of such therapies is a formidable task associated with a high failure rate. This has been partly attributed to the limited diversity of high-throughput screening libraries and difficulties converting potent inhibitors of targets into cell-active leads. We intend to use a novel, unified and efficient approach to target, in multiple pathogenic microorganisms, the conserved biosynthesis pathway of Coenzyme A (CoA), an essential enzyme cofactor. Using powerful “fragment-based” approaches, pioneered in Cambridge, we have developed a series of highly potent inhibitors of the most vulnerable enzyme target in the bacterial CoA biosynthesis pathway of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), Mtb CoaBC, a target which has recently been validated in experiments using conditional knockdown mutants in CoA pathway genes. We will focus our initial efforts in confirming that tuberculosis (TB) can be combatted with small molecule CoaBC inhibitors. In addition, we propose to assess the cross-species activity of these inhibitors on a panel of other pathogenic microorganisms, leveraging this research and potentially generating leads for antibiotics against these other pathogens.

Mots clés : coenzyme a, tuberculosis, coabc, target validation, durggability, antibiotics

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet MBLIs (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The increasing problem of antibiotic resistance is a major global public health concern. In the EU 25,000 patients die each year due to infections caused by multi-resistant bacterial pathogens, and the EU spends at least 1.5 billion euro per year on healthcare costs. The β-lactam antibiotics are the most important antibiotics representing >60% of small molecules in clinical use. BLAs contain a β-lactam ring which is critical for penicillin-binding protein inhibition. However, BLA efficacy is declining due to resistance mechanisms including the widespread occurrence of β-lactamases, which catalyse β-lactam hydrolysis. Metallo-β-lactamases, long-considered as of little clinical relevance, now present a serious global threat to almost all BLAs, rendering the development of approaches to MBL inhibitors important. Unlike the serine β-lactamases, the MBLs are structurally and mechanistically unrelated to PBPs, and are not inhibited by current mechanism-based SBL inhibitors. Due to variations in MBL structures, a major challenge in MBL inhibition is the development of compounds with the breadth of selectivity necessary for clinical utility. Society is now in an alarming situation and there is a clear need for the development of an MBLI:β-lactam-based combination therapies. The aim of my proposed work is to pioneer, enable and inspire the generation of broad-spectrum MBLIs active against a panel of clinically representative MBLs, but inactive against human enzymes with related active sites. To obtain the desired objective, novel approaches are proposed and include the use of phosphonates and phosphinic acids for: (a) MBL-directed DCC coupled to analysis by non-denaturing ESI-MS and 31P-NMR, (b) 31P-NMR reporter screening method, (c) pre-equilibrated DCLs for MBL-directed DCC, and (d) the synthesis of modified inhibitors. The study will be interdisciplinary and encompass organic synthesis, biological MS/NMR, structural biology, and medicinal chemistry.

Mots clés : lactam antibiotics, antibiotic resistance, metallo   lactamases, broad spectrum mbl inhibition, dc chemistry, protein ms and 31p nmr, phosphonates, phosphinic acids, pre equilibrated dcc

Participants :
- University of Oxford (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet THIN (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The initial foundering of lithosphere into the upper mantle, known as subduction initiation, is one of the key, most intriguing, and least understood processes of the solid Earth’s cycle. Despite being a relatively ephemeral phenomenon only lasting a few million years, subduction initiation is paramount to understand the driving forces of plate tectonics. The study of subduction initiation processes has mainly focused on supra-subduction zone ophiolites, which are emerged relics of oceanic lithosphere originally formed above a nascent subduction zone. Geological evidence from these ophiolites strongly suggest that subduction initiation causes extreme thinning of the rocks located above the incipient subduction zone; yet, the origin and main features of this process cannot be investigated directly in modern active systems. The main objective of this project is to investigate the tectonic processes triggered by a nascent subduction zone to fully untangle the complex and still poorly understood process of subduction initiation. The proposed research will analyse for the first time the deformation in the mantle section of one of the best preserved and most complete ophiolites of the world (the Semail ophiolite of Oman) to ultimately unveil the mechanism(s) aiding lithosphere thinning during subduction initiation. THIN will use a combination of paleomagnetic, magnetic fabric, structural geological, and geochronological techniques to reconstruct the tectonic rotations in the mantle section of the Oman ophiolite and ultimately produce a four-dimensional (three dimensions over time) model of deformation that will shed key lights on one of the most fundamental geological processes for our planet.

Mots clés : structural geology, deformation, paleomagnetism, magnetic fabrics, ophiolite

Participants :
- University of Birmingham (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet UNIFY (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The integration of reliable quantum sources on a photonic microchip is at heart of intense research in today quantum photonics. Our project is devoted to the realization of quantum correlations such as photon entanglement based on nonlinear interactions in semiconductor coupled nanocavities, ultimately with few photons. Unlike conventional semiconductor quantum sources that require deterministic coupling of emitters into small cavities and/or operation at ultralow temperatures, UNIFY will achieve unconventional sources with quantum correlations using Indium Phosphide-based bulk or quantum well photonic crystal cavities on Silicon, on-chip integrable and operating at room temperature in the telecommunication band. UNIFY relies on a recent theoretical prediction: photon entanglement from nonlinear optical transitions –i.e. bifurcations– in coupled cavity systems, such as spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB). SSB-induced quantum correlations will be sought with either weak nonlinearities per photon and strong fields (continuous variable), or relatively large nonlinearities per photon in a few photon regime. UNIFY proposes to tackle them using a twofold strategy: passive (coherent excitation), and active (nanolaser) experimental configurations. For the latter, cavities with large spontaneous emission factor (β) will be realized to decrease the saturation photon number. The combination of nanocavities with tunable inter-cavity evanescent coupling, high-quality factors, ultra-small mode volumes, efficient input/output light coupling and high β-factors will ultimately lower the intracavity photon number below ~10. Such a platform is compatible with device integration on a photonic microchip, small footprint and scalability. We thus propose to unify an outstanding early career researcher with experience on coherent excitation SSB and world leaders in nanophotonics and quantum optics in order to enable a new generation of unconventional quantum photonic nanosources.

Mots clés : nonlinear dynamics, symmetry breaking, nanophotonics, photonic crystals, nanocavities, nanolasers, photon correlations, entanglement, iii v semiconductor, silicon integration

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 184707.84 €
Projet 2DInterFOX (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The integration of two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials with non-2D nanostructures is of key technological importance in nanoelectronics and energy applications. Despite this, the atomistic understanding of 2D/non-2D interfacing is critically limited. In particular, functional non-2D metal-oxides need to seamlessly integrate with 2D materials (as e.g. dielectrics, barrier layers, charge transfer dopants or photo-catalysts) but to date 2D/non-2D oxide interfacing has not been addressed on an atomically resolved level. The project proposed here employs atomically-resolved, element-specific, aberration-corrected in-situ scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) techniques to elucidate the structural, chemical and electronic interactions of scalably chemical vapour deposited 2D nanomaterials (graphene, hexagonal boron nitride, molybdenum disulphide) with device-relevant non-2D metal-oxide nanostructures (e.g. Al2O3, HfO2, MoO3, TiO2). The project links realistic ex-situ 2D/non-2D oxide integration processes (evaporation, sputtering, atomic layer deposition) with dedicated in-situ STEM experiments and complementary spectroscopic fingerprinting (electron energy loss spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy). It benefits from a unique combination of the applicant researcher’s extensive experience in in-situ characterisation of 2D materials and the applicant supervisor’s pioneering track record in STEM of 2D materials. The proposed work will establish a holistic picture of 2D/non-2D oxide interactions and thus provide critically required insights towards industrially scalable integration of 2D nanomaterials with non-2D nanostructures.

Mots clés : aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microcopy, in situ, graphene, two dimensional nanomaterials, hexagonal boron nitride, chemical vapour deposition

Participants :
- University of Vienna (Autriche) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 166156.8 €
Projet EPmIC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The integrity of the cell membrane, while essential for life of any biological cell, presents a barrier that sometimes needs to be transiently disrupted in order to deliver therapeutic molecules inside the cell. High-intensity pulsed electric fields (PEFs) are used increasingly in medicine to achieve such increase in cell membrane permeability via a phenomenon called cell membrane electroporation. PEF-based clinical applications include gene therapy techniques, DNA vaccination, electrochemotherapy, non-thermal tumor ablation, and cardiac ablation. Depending on the desired outcome of the PEF treatment, the targeted cells must either survive or die. However, different cell types exhibit different susceptibility to PEF treatment, with some cells being killed at lower pulse amplitude than others, which often presents a disadvantage that limits the safety and efficiency of PEF treatment. In this action I aim to design an approach that will allow us to increase or decrease cell’s susceptibility to PEF treatment in a controlled, clinically applicable way. The approach is based on using modulators of membrane ion channels, that can influence the extent and longevity of post-pulse membrane depolarization – a hallmark of membrane electroporation. My idea is on the one hand inspired by increasing amount of evidence showing the involvement of ion channels in PEF-induced cell response, and on the other hand by the fact that ion channel modulators are already successfully used in treatment of various diseases and we can expect exciting development of new modulators in the near future. The design will be guided by state-of-the-art microscopic techniques and computational models, including molecular dynamics simulations, particle-based simulations, and finite element modeling, that will help elucidate the molecular mechanisms of membrane depolarization and choose the appropriate modulators and pulse parameters for fine-tuning the treatment outcome.

Mots clés : high voltage electric pulses, electroporation, voltage gated ion channels, molecular dynamics, particle based simulations, finite element method, in vitro cell culture experiments, cell viability

Participants :
- University of Ljubljana (Slovénie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 155288.64 €
Projet Goods of the Earth (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The interdisciplinary Goods of the Earth project explores the process of making of textiles, ceramics and metalwork within the pre-Mongol marketplace in the Islamic world (750 – 1258 CE). This study, the first of its kind, analyses and compares written Islamic legal sources like the Hisba-manuals together with extant artifacts to highlight the transfer of technical craft knowledge and information between Baghdad – the capital of the Abbasid Empire – and al-Andalus – the cultural omphalos within the western Islamic world – as well as the social role of the artisan-craftsman and the organisation and division of labour within the pre-Mongol marketplaces. Exploring the pre-Mongol marketplace, its products and artisan-craftsmen will gather new information concerning the transfer of knowledge and will enable new discussion of art and craft in the field of Art History, Islamic Art History, Arab philological Studies, political and social history, the History of Science and Textile History. Furthermore, this project will show the importance of the applied Arts for the field of Art History. The Goods of the Earth project is hosted by the University of Copenhagen’s Centre for Textile Research (CTR), a world-wide leader in the field of textile studies. The project will benefit from CTR’s optimal research and training environment while contributing to the expansion of its global scientific network. The secondment institution will be the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin with its Department III (Artifacts, Action, Knowledge) famous for their broad and interdisciplinary methodological approaches in order to understand the changing role of artifacts in the creation, diffusion and use of scientific and technological knowledge. The results will be communicated through a series of academic publications and conferences, as well as Project Open Day (European Researcher Night) for students and the general public in order to give them an understanding.

Mots clés : islamic textiles, islamic metalwork, islamic ceramics, social role of the artisan, marketplace in the premodern islamic world, pattern notation systems, dissemination of information and knowledge

Participants :
- University of Copenhagen (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 219312.0 €
Projet River-HMV (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The interdisciplinary knowledge and ability for river managers to effectively predict flood risks, restore rivers, and assess future alterations are currently restricted to the limited understanding of how river hydraulics, morphology, and vegetation alter a river’s planform, effect sediment mobility, and control the surrounding habitats. To improve this knowledge and capabilities, this research seeks to i) use physical model flume experiments to quantify the hydraulic, morphologic, and vegetation interactions of a braided channel as well as investigate the use of manipulated channel avulsion as an innovative method to increase a river’s floodplain conveyance, ii) to quantify the accuracy of a cutting-edge numerical model’s simulations, and iii) to improve the numerical model’s functionality. Through increased knowledge, improved model capabilities, and potentially identifying a new technique to increase a degraded river’s floodplain dynamics, this research can improve the efficacy of river managers around the world. In particular, Europe could utilize the contributions of this research to help meet the ecological-morphological aspects of the Water Framework Directives and Flood Directives and to restore many of the heavily altered rivers of the European Alps.

Mots clés : river hydraulics, morphology, and vegetation  a case for improved knowledge and numerical model capabilities

Participants :
- University of Trento (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 180277.2 €
Projet BIMAAR (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The interdisciplinary research explores the ways transnational autobiographies by black authors address different forms of black mobility in the Americas during the Age of Revolutions and its aftermath until the onset of the US American Civil War (1760-1860). During that time, large parts of the Americas gained their independence from the European colonial powers. Simultaneously, black-authored narrative texts emerged in the region. Among them, autobiographies played a key role as vehicles of asserting black selfhood and participating in societal discourses. Four major types of black life narratives developed at the time: slave narratives, Indian captivity narratives, spiritual autobiographies, and memoirs-as-travelogues. In all of them different form of (im)mobility played a defining role in shaping black identities and experiences. The research is the first of its kind to study transnational black autobiographies from across the Americas in the Age of Revolutions with a focus the (voluntary or enforced) spatial, socio-cultural, and narrative mobilities of black people. Its objective is to produce a series of scholarly essays, to be subsequently joined into the first comprehensive study on the subject. Drawing on the theoretical and methodological approaches of Inter-American, Black Atlantic, Mobility, and Autobiography Studies, the project closes a gap in the scholarship of the Americas and the Atlantic world. Due to the aesthetic innovation and societal relevance of autobiography in the region from 1760-1860, the research will be based on a literary analysis of the major types of black Inter-American life writing of the era. In so doing, it will not only chart black contributions to autobiography but also advance the theoretical study of the genre. Home to the renowned Institute of Black Atlantic Research and its world-class scholars of the Early Black Americas and Black Atlantic (Prof Rice, Dr Hoermann, Dr Saxon), UCLAN provides an ideal host institution.

Mots clés : inter american literature  north america, latin america, caribbean

Participants :
- University of Central Lancashire (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet DEEPER (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The interface between the Earth’s rocky mantle and molten outer core, located 2900 km below the surface, is marked by a patchwork of enigmatic structures. These structures, revealed by anomalous reductions in the speed of traveling seismic waves, are characterized by high density, partial melting, and low topographic heights (10-40 km above the core-mantle boundary). Due to the low seismic wave speeds, they are called UltraLow Velocity Zones (ULVZs). Since their ﬁrst discovery in the 90s, our understanding of the ULVZs has been based on seismic observations. The inﬂuence of microscale distribution of melt and minerals on the seismic signature and the internal structure of the ULVZs remain a challenging question in geophysics. To address this question, this project will use a cross-scale approach to quantify the inﬂuence of partial melting and solid composition on the elastic properties and rheology of the UL-VZs based on a microstructural model. Using the microscale constraints on the physical properties, the km-scale internal structure of the ULVZs will be simulated using a ﬁnite elements model. The interdisciplinary approach of this project relies on using state-of-the-art high performance computational ﬂuid mechanics models to answer fundamental questions in Earth Sciences. The uniqueness of this approach arises from the special consideration of microstructures, a crucial, but difﬁcult to quantify aspect in Earth sciences. The multidisciplinary aspect of this work will train the researcher in new modeling skills. Upon his return to India, where research in deep Earth is still in its infancy, the researcher will be able to establish his own research agenda leading the country’s effort in that area. Continued inter-national collaboration between the host institution and the researcher’s future group will be of enduring value to the EU.


Participants :
- University of London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet NetRom (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The issue of early marriage in Roma communities has been politicized through a negative view of reified cultural practices. I propose a new approach, situated at the crossroads of social anthropology, network analysis and law, in an attempt to include the issue of early marriage in the analysis of a human group, in terms of kinship and surrounding networks as well as the production of an autonomous legal structure. The study will privilege multi-situated participant observation of a kinship network in the originally eastern Romanian community that terms itself “Bessarabian Roma”. Today they have been settled in Milan and Paris for some fifteen years. Their practice of early marriage will be analysed with a focus on the importance of “women’s agency”. This choice also aims at the empowerment of educated Roma women sitting on a Romni Advisory Board set up for the purposes of the project. In proceeding in this way I hope to shed light on early marriage as a political issue by coming to understand the morphology of the kinship networks and the emic representations of marriage, whether judicial, symbolic or economic.

Mots clés : roma, social network, kinship, early marriage, legal pluralism, woman agency, empowerment

Participants :
- University of Verona (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 180277.2 €