Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet SUN_Atomtronics (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The proposed research project is in the field of atomtronics, a research area that capitalizes on the versatility and customizability of ultracold atoms trapped in magneto-optical traps to realize quantum circuits of guided matter-waves in various architectures. Specifically, I rely on a peculiar aspect of atomtronic circuits: the statistical nature of the quantum fluid coursing through them, be it bosons, fermions, or a mixture thereof, which dictates their functionality, leading to radical new circuitry. Focusing on atomtronic circuits whose quantum fluid is composed of strongly interacting multi-component fermionic and bosonic atoms, I will provide prototypes for unique and innovative hardware for quantum technologies geared towards quantum sensing, extending the scope of cold atom quantum simulators in basic science. My efforts will simultaneously span across three domains that Europe's Quantum Flagship and its several extensions outlined: sensing, simulation, and basic science. An attractive feature of atomtronics is the expectation that final applications exploiting its devices and its strategic sub-fields are close to fruition, corroborated by the great efforts and resources of important 'world nerve-centres' for quantum technologies (NIST (USA), CQT-NUS (Singapore) and LENS (Italy)). After an intensive study of atomtronic circuits operating with bosonic fluids, recent experiments have set in motion the next chapter in atomtronics to explore the potential of multi-component fermionic matter-waves circuits. Building on the foundation of my earlier works on this topic, the ideas outlined in this proposal explore this new direction of atomtronics-enabled quantum technologies revolving around the SU(N) AQUID -- the atomtronic counterpart of the SQUID, which is expected to realize rotation sensors with heightened capabilities and serve as a platform for the realization of a current-based atomtronic qubit.

Mots clés : atomtronics, multi component particles, su n fermions, persistent currents, mesoscopic physics, many body physics, quantum technologies, quantum sensing, quantum simulation, basic science

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
- Cnr - istituto nazionale di ottica (Italie) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université Grenoble Alpes (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 235854.75 €
- Quobly (France) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
Projet BIFUCCO2 (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

As a global society, we face the urgent challenge of reducing CO2 emissions. In response, governmental organisations, such as the European Union, have introduced policies promoting sustainable practices and renewable energy sources. One initiative is the conversion of CO2 into valuable products, with CO2-based methanol synthesis emerging as a promising approach. Methanol serves both as a low-density fuel and a feedstock for essential chemicals. While heterogeneous catalysts are commonly used in this reaction, they necessitate harsh conditions and exhibit low selectivity. Homogeneous catalysts, in contrast, operate at milder conditions and allow for fine-tuned active sites, potentially enhancing performance. Nevertheless, conventional methods for discovering new efficient catalysts are time-consuming and costly. BIFUCCO2 aims to overcome these limitations by leveraging computational techniques to pinpoint the most promising homogeneous bifunctional catalysts for this reaction from over a million in silico designed candidates. By implementing a machine learning (ML) workflow, the identification of the most efficient catalysts for this process will be achieved, enabling our experimental collaborators to validate the findings. The project merges the applicant’s knowledge in data-driven techniques, the proficiency of Res. Prof. Nova’s group in catalytic mechanisms (University of Oslo), the experience of Res. Prof. Balcells in ML applications (University of Oslo), and the expertise of Prof. Dr. Reiher (ETH Zürich, secondment) in chemical reaction networks, alongside contributions from experimental collaborators (Prof. Beller, LIKAT). BIFUCCO2 provides a framework for enhancing my existing research skills and acquiring novel insights from domain experts across various disciplines. The training activities during the grant period will significantly advance my professional career, consolidating my ability to lead a research group in the field of computational chemistry.

Mots clés : bifunctional catalysts, co2 hydrogenation

Participants :
- École polytechnique fédérale de Zurich (Suisse) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université d'Oslo (Norvège) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 251578.56 €
Projet EXPLAC (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Placentotrophy (delivery of nutrients to the fetus throughout pregnancy) is a highly derived reproductive strategy present in most mammals and some other vertebrates, including a handful of reptiles. Even though many different viviparous (life-birthing) reptiles are known in the fossil record, the presence of placentotrophy in these groups has never been documented. This project aims to explore the potential presence of placentotrophy in extinct the viviparous marine reptiles: ichthyosaurs and sauropterygians. Previous work on other animal groups indicates that a change in bone organization, induced by calcium scavening, is likely to be visible if placentotrophy is present. In this study whales are used specifically as comparison for extinct marine reptiles due to their similarity in ecology and bone histology. I will therefore first investigate the effects of pregnancy on bone organization in whales to test whether the patterns seen in terrestrial animals are visible in a fully marine adapted clade. Then, I evaluate if a similar signal is present in extinct marine reptiles. Bone organization will be assessed via bone micro-anatomy, specifically cortical thickness and trabecular bone volume, which have shown to be different in pregnant individuals. Data will be collected using CT scans and drill core samples. This study presents the first attempt to assess the presence of placentrophy in a fossil animal and is a crucial step in understanding the evolution of amniote reproductive strategies. Since many of the necessary clades for understanding this evolutionary puzzle are lost to extinction, utilizing fossil material is essential.

Mots clés : placentotrophy, pregnancy, bone organization, ichthyosauria, sauropterygia, cetacea, calcium scavenging

Participants :
- Université d'Oslo (Norvège) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 251578.56 €
Projet EnergyLeap (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

We are at a pivotal time in climate action. To fight climate change, we need to accelerate scale-up of clean energy technologies, like fuel cells, electrolyzers, and batteries, which underpin our energy transition. A major bottleneck in accelerating rational design of next-generation devices is the non-optimal, heterogenous, and often stochastic nature of porous materials within these devices. A vital design parameter of porous materials is pore-scale wettability, which can fundamentally alter transport of species, and thereby dictate device performance. However, we do not yet know the ideal wettability configuration to design our devices around due to fundamental gaps in our understanding of mixed wettability. In this project, I plan to synergistically combine three fields – physics, energy engineering, and automation – to provide a fundamental blueprint to design two-phase flow in next-generation energy materials. First, I will create a microfluidic platform to conduct high-throughput experiments and statistically analyse the effect of a wide range of wettability combinations on flow patterns. State-of-the-art wettability models will be advanced and validated using experiments and create a “mixed-wet phase diagram”. I will then computationally explore the established phase diagram to create designer porous materials with directed transport properties for energy application. Then, superior computational designs will be tested experimentally to cross-validate model capabilities and propose porous media for energy applications (with a focus on water transport in fuel cells). The multi-disciplinary physics-informed design strategy employed in the study is expected to benefit diverse clean energy technologies, with potential applications in microfluidic disease diagnosis and other engineered flow systems.

Mots clés : two phase flow in porous media, surface wettability, clean energy

Participants :
- Université d'Oslo (Norvège) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 267418.56 €
Projet CIRCASUC (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Our circadian clock controls a wide range of physiological processes to respond to external demands through a fine-tuning coordination between the hypothalamic central clock and the peripheral clocks. Understanding the bidirectional communication and the reliance on external cues that specifically affect these clocks is of paramount importance. Yet, both circadian clocks can function even in the absence of these external signals, highlighting their endogenous nature. This underscores the existence of endogenous signals such as metabolites and other biomolecules that can modulate the circadian clocks. Surprisingly, this aspect remains largely unexplored in current research.  Succinate is both an energetic metabolic product of mitochondrial activity and a byproduct of the microbiota, with critical physiological roles in cellular function at various levels. Furthermore, in the last years, succinate is emerging as a biomarker for early detection of metabolic dysfunction and cardiovascular risk. As a basis for the current proposal, we have recently reported, via an untargeted approach, that succinate regulates core-clock genes in adipocytes via its cognate receptor, SUCNR1. Thus, building upon our previous studies, we propose that succinate may serve as a pivotal endogenous signal capable of modulating the circadian clocks.  Within the framework of this project, we present for the first time the concept of succinate as a link between metabolism and circadian clocks. To accomplish our goals, we will employ the complementary expertise between Dr Fernández-Veledo (supervisor and renowned expert in the succinate/SUCNR1 axis) and Dr Ribas (candidate and expert in chronobiology). By merging these two fields, we aim to integrate the notion of temporality into the succinate/SUCNR1 axis, and advance our understanding of the intricate relationship between metabolism and circadian rhythms.

Mots clés : succinate, sucnr1, circadian rhythms, molecular clock, obesity, type 2 diabetes

Participants :
- CERCA Institution (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 181152.96 €
Projet DesiBio (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Bacterial biofilms–conglomerates of bacteria held together by an extracellular matrix–play a major role in our lives including disrupting medical implants, industrial pipelines, or providing antibiotic tolerance to bacteria deep within biofilms by e.g., limiting antibiotic diffusion. It is imperative we understand biofilm population dynamics to improve both our health and industrial processes. However, biofilms are difficult to study because 1) they often contain multiple bacterial species or multiple genetic variants of a single species that form biofilm subpopulations, where the interactions of subpopulations are controlled by their spatial distribution within the biofilm and 2) they are often found growing on irregular surfaces with nooks and crevices, in contrast to most biofilm models on flat agar surfaces. To understand the biofilm dynamics, and thus to control it, it is crucial to analyze the impact of the surface shape and the spatial distribution of biofilm subpopulations on the biofilm formation and growth. However, we lack tractable methods to do so for several days necessary for a typical biofilm to stabilize. Here we propose a synergistic effort based on years of research by myself (surface irregularity, microfluidics expert) and the Imperial College Host (bacteria printing expert), where we aim to use microfabrication techniques, microfluidics, and droplet printing to develop a system to follow bacterial interactions in a growing biofilm where we control: a) the initial patterning of the community, b) surface irregularities on which the community grows, c) cell-surface interactions. We will work with Prof. Sujit Datta at Caltech (secondment) to follow mutant spread in biofilms in porous beds, and we will work with a Paris-based company Hummink to potentially the results of DesiBio for potential commercialization (non-academic placement).

Mots clés : biofilm, microfluidics, droplet printing, bioprinting, surface shape, antibiotic resistance, antimicrobial resistance, bacteria printing, bacterial adhesion and cohesion

Participants :
- Imperial College London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 299203.58 €
- Institut de technologie de Californie (Etats-Unis) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Hummink (France) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
Projet NAPS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

This proposal will examine if a daytime nap improves memory consolidation, with the largest and most diverse sample size of any study ever conducted on this topic. We will achieve this through a preregistered multi-lab collaboration with contributing sleep labs from all over the world. Previous research has indicated that sleep is beneficial for memory consolidation; it has further been suggested that sleep mainly consolidates emotional memories, and that sleep helps to reduce the emotional reactivity associated with emotional experiences. Recent meta-analytic work has, however, revealed that previous studies on this topic have been massively underpowered and that selective publishing of positive findings is a major problem in the field.  The study will have a within-subject crossover design. Participants will come to the lab in the early afternoon and encode neutral and negative images. For each image, they will also rate the emotional response it elicits. Participants will then either take a nap, monitored with polysomnography, or spend an equivalent amount of time awake, and then have their memory performance for the images tested, and rate their emotional response to the images once again. This research design will allow us to answer the following questions: A) will sleep, as compared to wake, increase memory consolidation? B) Will this sleep dependent-consolidation benefit be more pronounced for negative compared to neutral items? C) Will any particular sleep stage be especially involved in memory consolidation? D) Will sleep, as compared to wake, decrease the emotional reaction to previously viewed images? By doing this as a registered report, we will increase transparency and reduce risk of selective reporting of significant results. This study will, for the first time, produce robust and reliable estimates that will inform us about the putative benefits of promoting sleep in the immediate aftermath of learning experiences and/or negative events.

Mots clés : sleep memory naps cognition consolidation rem sleep sleep stages emotional memory affect replication research multi lab collaboration open science

Participants :
- Institut Karolinska (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 206887.68 €
Projet CLOCKED (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Changes in sleep patterns are common among people with dementia, however why short (≤6hrs) or long sleep (≥9hrs) duration is less favorable for dementia, remains unknown. Given that approximately 46% & 44% of variability in sleep duration is explained by genetics, it is pertinent to consider genetic influences when understanding the mechanisms contributing to sleep-related risk for dementia. In addition to sleep, there is growing interest in the relationship between circadian rhythms, the 24-hour cycles of body & dementia. Links between Alzheimer’s’ dementia and the circadian system are suggested by common observations that an early symptom of Alzheimer’s’ dementia is fragmented sleep/wake patterns with increasing night\time activity and daytime naps. Even among individuals who are cognitively intact, altered circadian rhythms of motor activity have been linked to amyloid pathology; the hallmark of Alzheimer’s’ dementia. There is some evidence linking weakening circadian rhythm to dementia, yet it is not clear whether disruption of clock contributes to incidence dementia. In CLOCKED, I will use data from the Swedish Twin Registry with over 20 years of follow-up, the largest twin registry in the world to assess if sleep polygenic risk score influences the risk of incident dementia (overall, Alzheimer’s’, vascular) & examine whether differences in dementia risk are influenced by a genetically predicted sleep or sleep driven mainly by non-genetic factors, i.e., environmental lifestyle factors. Using accelerometry data on around 100,000 participants from the UK Biobank data, I will assess the relation of accelerometer-assessed circadian rhythmicity with incident dementia & quantify dementia risk stratified by sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, shift work, lifestyle factors, & metabolic status; and determine whether a risk score consisting of circadian factors (i.e., circadian syndrome) is a more accurate predictor for dementia than existing risk scores.

Mots clés : dementia, sleep, polygenic risk score, circadian rhythm, accelerometer

Participants :
- Institut Karolinska (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 206887.68 €
Projet MaResIn (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) is a progressive disease characterized by aberrant immune activation and chronic vascular inflammation as a result from a failure in the resolution phase. However, the mechanisms responsible for this dysregulation are not well understood. Little is known about the role of smooth muscle cells (SMCs) in regulating resolution of inflammation, an active process orchestrated by endogenous specialized proresolving lipid mediators (SPMs). These include the maresin family, and in particular maresin 1 (MaR1), which was recently shown to be a specific activator of LGR6. Despite the potent anti-inflammatory and proresolving actions of MaR1 in murine models and human cells, its role in ASCVD remains uncovered. Hence, this proposal aims to elucidate the role of SMC-derived resolution of inflammation in ASCVD, and the impact of MaR1-LGR6 in stimulating resolution. Specifically, I will focus on the molecular mechanisms of MaR1-LGR6 signaling, mainly on the phagocytic capacity of SMCs. I will employ mechanistic and functional assays in human SMCs, as a proxy for its potential in plaque “clearing” and plaque stabilization. I will characterize the expression of LGR6, by mass spectrometry imaging, and the biosynthesis of MaR1 in human atherosclerotic tissue (local) and identify indicators in blood samples (systemic) by LC-MS/MS-derived lipidomic profiling of human samples, in to obtain a profile of systemic lipid biomarker(s) that reflects the local abundance of SPMs or their receptors. This could be used to design personalized proresolving prevention in prone-to-CVD individuals. Lastly, I will investigate the SMC phenotypic modulation by MaR1-LGR6 in a LGR6-specific SMC-deletion ASCVD mouse model. Deciphering the SMC-mediated resolution programs in inflammation (a novel concept in ASCVD), and the involvement of MaR1-LGR6 in this process, will be a major advance in understanding chronic cardiovascular inflammation and its mechanisms.


Participants :
- Institut Karolinska (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 206887.68 €
Projet WAVESCOPE (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Since the beginning of the 20th century, oscillatory patterns have been identified in recordings of human brain activity. Neural oscillation research is a highly active area of investigation, with several competing hypotheses about the role oscillations might play in human cognition. Here we focus on the spatial dimension and look at the emergent topic of oscillations in the form of ‘traveling waves’. These have been detected in different cortical areas, but there is no clear computational role. In the proposed project, I will first develop the waveSCOPE toolbox for the spatiotemporal characterization of propagating events. This open source toolbox (WP1) uses a novel-to-the-research-field algorithm. The algorithm leverages the fact that we can record cortical activity with many sensors (e.g. using MEG or EEG) and arrive at multivariate estimation of phases across recording channels. This allows tracking traveling waves across many frequencies, without the selection of a prior frequency-of-interest. The procedure will be validated in resting state data and compared systematically to other state-of-the-art wave detection algorithms. I then will apply the novel methodology to speech processing data acquired via magnetoencephalography (WP2). During the processing of speech, one typically observes a complex coordinated hierarchy of rhythmic activity. We will investigate whether wave propagation direction is congruent to directions expected by functional anatomic organization and known auditory processing stages. The knowledge and skills gained from this interdisciplinary project, using a new recording modality as well as a new domain of study, will allow me to further develop a competitive scientific career as an independent researcher. In terms of scientific impact, the characterization of propagating activity will be helpful in the hunt for well-motivated abstractions in the amount of ever-increasing brain data and therefore of fundamental importance for neuroscience.

Mots clés : speech perception, magnetoencephalography

Participants :
- Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 189687.36 €