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

Amino acids (AAs) are essential raw materials in the food and pharmaceutical industries. The global AA market was valued at around USD 28 billion in 2023, and is expected to reach around USD 63 billion by 2033. Traditional microbial and chemical processes involve lengthy reaction times, toxic reagents, and large centralized factories. In the context of carbon neutrality, electrosynthesis of AAs with small-scale devices is an ideal alternative to address these issues. However, current AAs electrosynthesis suffers from significant challenges: (1) A lack of comprehensive mechanistic understanding of the active sites-intermediates/target products correlation, leading to an insufficient theoretical foundation for catalyst design. (2) The absence of engineering-focused studies on optimizing efficient flow reaction cells and large-size cathodes limits the practical application at higher current densities. This project aims to address these challenges through three key approaches: catalyst design, size effect-related mechanistic studies, and engineering of large-scale carbon cathodes and flow cells. Specifically: (1) Synthesize bimetallic active centers (Fe-Ni, Fe-Cu, Ru-Ni, Ru-Cu) with varying sizes, from single atoms to diatoms, clusters, and nanoparticles, for AA electrosynthesis. (2) Conduct mechanistic studies using in situ XAS and FT-IR to identify the true active sites and obtain reaction intermediates, to enhance understanding of reaction mechanisms and the important C-N coupling process, and further establish the intrinsic relationship between active sites, intermediate selectivity, and catalytic activity. (3) Develop large-size carbon electrodes via a self-assembly hydrogel strategy and a flow electrochemical cell system for continuous AA synthesis. This project will greatly expand the understanding of the structure-activity relationship, and guide the development of highly efficient AA electrosynthesis systems on a practical scale.

Mots clés : electrosynthesis of amino acids, single dual atom catalysts, in situ xas, large size carbon electrodes, flow electrochemical cell

Participants :
- Université technique du Danemark (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 263393.28 €
Projet CHOTENICS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Cholesterol is a unique lipid, essential for membrane integrity, cell signalling and cell proliferation. Accordingly, mammalian organisms have evolved an elaborate myriad of mechanisms to control cholesterol transport and distribution within cells. However, our understanding of these mechanisms remains incomplete due to (i) the functional redundancy inherent among cholesterol transporters, which limits their study through conventional genetic approaches, and (ii) the general lack of suitable probes. CHOTENICS aims to address this knowledge gap by exploring intracellular cholesterol transport using a novel chemical genetics approach. The project is built on the hypothesis that fast-acting chemical tools can rapidly modulate subcellular cholesterol distribution, enabling direct dissection of transport mechanisms before indirect effects manifest. To accomplish this goal, a high-content screening assay will be first developed to track cholesterol localisation, and then used to identify small molecules that modulate its transport. Chemical optimisation and mass spectrometry-based target identification will provide target hypotheses that will be further tested using biophysical assays and validated via genetic methods. This integrated approach is ground-breaking since it will reveal cholesterol transport pathways, mechanisms, and drug targets, and will uncover the therapeutic potential of targeting cholesterol transport processes. CHOTENICS is designed to complement the current knowledge of the researcher in chemical synthesis and biological assay development, provide specific training in proteomics and genetics, and equip the researcher with new technical and transferable skills to become a well-rounded chemical biologist. The host organisation will gain from the researcher’s expertise in chemistry and biology and find opportunities to expand its network of international collaborations.

Mots clés : cholesterol, intracellular cholesterol transport, chemical genetics, target identification, small molecules

Participants :
- Université technique du Danemark (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 247553.28 €
Projet PlauDe (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Plausible deniability (PD) can be used strategically to convey content without dealing with the repercussions of asserting it explicitly. For instance, one might say “I admire your courage for wearing this dress” to convey an insult without incurring the social costs of explicit aggression. PD underlies such important phenomena as politeness, covert threats, political dog whistles, and flirting. Despite this, PD is understudied and as of yet imperfectly understood. Arguably, PD cannot be reduced to the mere probability of the relevant interpretation. Rather, it also relies on subtle social structures, such as power dynamics, attribution of responsibility and commitment, and their interactions with the linguistic expression of content. This makes PD an extremely complex and fascinating phenomenon from the point of view of linguistics, philosophy of language and, more generally, the cognitive and social sciences. The PlauDe (Plausible Deniability) project aims to develop a unified account of PD that untangles its conceptual components and unifies its various guises under one theoretical umbrella. PlauDe will develop a formal computational model of PD to achieve a high degree of clarity and precision and generate quantitative empirical predictions that will be tested experimentally. The model will improve over previous accounts by analyzing PD as a compromise between conveying content to another language user and avoiding judgment by a judge or bystander, be it concrete or imagined. This model will be used to systematically analyze real-world cases of manipulative language use with the aim of disseminating the judge-based account, which is not only a technical innovation but will also form the basis for a non-technical explanation of the phenomenon, resulting in a workshop to help entities vulnerable to PD-based linguistic strategies.

Mots clés : plausible deniability rational speech act bayesian cognitive modelling

Participants :
- Université Eberhard Karl de Tübingen (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 173847.36 €
- Université Paris Cité (France) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet BiOBreW (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Brewer’s spent grain (BSG) is an agro-industrial by-product produced from breweries (~20 kg BSG/hlbeer). Its annual global production is estimated to be 39 million tons, with 3.4 million tons produced in the European Union. Most BSG is currently used as a low-value animal feed (35€/ton). In this context, BSG represents a promising feedstock for the production of novel added-value biomolecules. Indeed, this lignocellulosic material is composed of polyphenolic macromolecules such as ferulic (FA) and p-coumaric acids (PA), which have very important physiological functions and a market price of ~ 4000 €/Kg. BiOBreW will design novel recombinant enzymes that will allow obtaining high yields of FA and PA extraction from BSG. In addition, the widespread application of FA and PA in pharmaceutical industry is nowadays limited by their low permeability and instability. BiOBreW will overcome this limitation via innovative nano-encapsulation into nanocarriers (biocompatible and biodegradable selective polymers). The pretreated biomass obtained after the enzymatic extraction of FA and PA represents an ideal substrate for biogas production. However, electricity production from biogas will soon became economically non-feasible due to the rapid decrease in the prices of solar or wind power. In this context, the biological conversion of the methane contained in biogas into high added value products represents a novel and cost-competitive platform for biogas valorization. Halotolerant bacteria such as Methylomicrobium alkaliphilum can efficiently synthesize ectoine, one of the most valuable microbial protective compounds (market price ~ € 1,300/kg) using CH4 as the sole carbon and energy source. BiOBreW aims at enriching new high-yield ectoine producing strains and developing a new generation of high mass transfer bioreactors. BiOBreW will upgrade BSG using innovative biotechnologies and help creating new value chains in the context of circular economy in the brewery sector.

Mots clés : antioxidants biogas brewer s spent grain circular economy ectoine high mass transfer bioreactors methane nano encapsulation nanotechnology recombinant enzymes

Participants :
- Compañia cervecera de canarias sa (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Valladolid (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 181152.96 €
- Université technique du Danemark (Danemark) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet TRANSACT (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Cities and urban agglomerations have set ambitious CO2 targets that necessitate a sustainable transition over the coming decade. Recently, the Commission announced a mission to make 100 cities Climate neutral by 2030, creating climate contracts to achieve these ambitious targets. To be held accountable to their climate contracts, local policymakers need new accountability processes that not only statically measure their progress, but are designed to dynamically provide learning, legitimacy and direction. The research objective of TRANSACT is to open the black box of accountability systems in order to re-conceptualize accountability to ensure transparency, coordination, learning and effectiveness. Traditional accountability systems are static and based on pre-defined indicators and scientific investigations are limited to the study of assessment and sanctioning mechanisms or avoiding the practice of accountability altogether, ignoring horizontal accountability and learning needed to organize a sustainable transition. Combining interdisciplinary knowledge from Urban Climate Governance, Public Management with practitioner experience the first aim of TRANSACT is to re-conceptualize the dimensions of dynamic accountability processes. Leveraging these dimensions to conduct a large-scale survey aimed at mapping various accountability systems across cities empirically, TRANSACT uncovers how accountability systems are positioned to tackle the climate crisis. Finally, in collaboration with Climate-KIC during my placement/secondment, this project will develop actionable policy papers, and a set of protocols and an open source sustainability dashboard, to identify the accountability capacities needed to realize system innovation. The mixed methods approach will ensure that different cities, with their inherent diversity in socio- demographic features, level of resources, and governance systems, can learn from each other in the pursuit of their common CO2 targets.

Mots clés : accountability, sustainable transitions, mission oriented policies, public management, organizational studies, transformative innovation policy

Participants :
- École de commerce de Copenhague (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 329241.6 €
- Climate-kic holding b.v. (Allemagne) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
Projet GIFT (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Iron (Fe) is one of the most common metals in the Earth's crust, but plants are often unable to absorb it as it forms insoluble complexes, especially in alkaline soils. This unavailability leads to poor crop yields and low nutritional quality. As Fe fertilization is rather ineffective and costly, around half of the world's crops suffer from iron deficiency. To mitigate Fe deficiency symptoms and maintain nutrient homeostasis, plants rely on a protein called Iron-Regulated Transporter 1 (IRT1) to take up iron from the soil. However, IRT1 also absorbs other metals that are more easily available in Fe-deficient soils. These metals can be harmful to plants if absorbed in excess, causing damage to cellular compounds through the formation of reactive oxygen species. To limit this toxicity, IRT1 is able to sense metal excess, leading to its degradation to avoid further uptake. To better understand this feedback loop, previous work from the host laboratory uncovered interactants of IRT1 under non-Fe metal excess, including General Regulatory Factors (GRFs) which are known to modulate the functions of their targets by controlling their subcellular localization or cell polarity, preventing their degradation or allowing their interaction with additional partners. The GIFT project aims to uncover how plants balance iron uptake and protect themselves from excess of harmful metals to eventually improve crops development and reach better yields. To this avail, I will (1) investigate the involvement of IRT1-interacting GRFs in plant metal homeostasis through molecular and physiological analyses of plant metal excess responses; (2) decipher the molecular mechanisms governing the association of GRFs to IRT1; (3) and elucidate their putative role in the control of IRT1 subcellular localization and cell polarity. This multidisciplinary research will expand my expertise in plant physiology and cellular biology. It will help me to consolidate my position as an independent researcher.

Mots clés : plant biology, iron nutrition, membrane transporter polarity, arabidopsis

Participants :
- Université de Toulouse (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 226420.56 €
Projet MuST (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) caused 4 million deaths worldwide in 2019. CRD treatments are often administered by inhalation in particulate formulations. However, mucociliary clearance (MCC) acts as an effective physical barrier that prevents drugs from reaching the target cells. This mechanism relies on the beating of cilia on the bronchi surface, which allows the displacement of the overlying mucus layer. Inhaled drugs are thus trapped by the mucus and quickly evacuated from the airways. The objective of the MuST project is to model the mechanism of MCC using a microfluidic chip, to assess drug penetration through the moving mucus and thus provide a screening platform for new drug formulations. Our main objective can be subdivided into three research objectives: 1) Develop an adequate synthetic mucus model; 2) Reproduce the mucociliary clearance mechanism on a microfluidic chip; 3) Screen innovative drug formulations using our chip. In this project, we combine expertise in biophysics, physical chemistry, soft condensed matter, and nanomedicine. The originality of our approach lies in 3 key aspects: 1) We will develop a synthetic mucus model that reproduces all the properties of native human mucus; 2) We choose to design a non-cellular MCC model, which will provide an easy, quick, cheap, and reproducible alternative to cell-based MCC models; 3) We will apply an original technique called differential dynamic microscopy (DDM) to characterize the drug behaviour in the chip. DDM is perfectly adapted to measure particle diffusion in biological hydrogels under flowing conditions. Our innovative screening platform will pave the way to design more efficient formulations to treat CRDs, with higher delivery rates, thereby improving the available treatments and lowering their costs. This project is in line with the United Nations’ aim “to reduce by 2030 by one-third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases [including CRDs] through prevention and treatment”.

Mots clés : nanomedicine nanoparticles lung microfluidics mucus

Participants :
- Université Paris Cité (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195914.88 €
Projet CoDSABA (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Mathematics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

This project will investigate timely questions on composition operators acting on Banach spaces of Dirichlet series, and on hypercyclic algebras. These topics are currently the subject of great mathematical interest, however fundamental questions remain unresolved in the respective fields. The first objective is to advance the theory of Banach spaces of Dirichlet series by employing operator theoretic function theory to understand the topological structure of the set of composition operators acting on these spaces. An effective method of achieving this is to study approximation numbers of differences of composition operators. This project will determine the rates of decay of approximation numbers of differences of composition operators acting on spaces of Dirichlet series, and characterise the linear combinations of composition operators acting on general Banach spaces of Dirichlet series. The second objective is to investigate the algebraic structure contained in the set of hypercyclic vectors of multiplication operators acting on the Banach algebra of compact operators. Hitherto work in this area has mostly been in the setting of Fréchet algebras, so this project will advance the theory for Banach algebras, and ultimately to identify whether every Banach algebra supports a hypercyclic algebra. Interest among the wider mathematical community in the findings of this project stems from its natural connections to some of the most important open questions in mathematics. In particular the study of Hardy spaces of Dirichlet series is related to the Riemann zeta function, and the investigation of hypercyclic algebras has a natural connection to the Invariant Subspace Problem. The scientific breakthroughs resulting from this project will also impact on a wide scientific community, where the results and methods will potentially find applications in dynamical systems, mathematical physics, physics, computer science and quantum information theory.

Mots clés : dirichlet series, linear dynamics, composition operators, hardy spaces of dirichlet series, hypercyclicity, approximation numbers, algebrability, banach algebras of operators, hypercyclic algebras

Participants :
- Université Clermont Auvergne (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 124957.44 €
Projet Virobe (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Chronic viral diseases are of significant concern to the public health due to lack of effective vaccines and paucity of potent anti-viral medication. Notably, individuals with obesity exhibit higher morbidity and mortality due to viral diseases. However, what specific mechanisms underlie the confounding effects of obesity on the overt outcome of viral infections remains poorly understood. In pre-clinical studies, I found that obese mice developed profound and progressive loss of fat and muscle in response to chronic viral infection, while metabolically healthy animals showed only transient and significantly milder manifestation of tissue wasting in response to the virus. In this proposal, I aim to identify the mechanisms driving this marked and progressive tissue wasting in infected obese mice. Inflammation and disrupted glucose homeostasis have been implicated to play a role in tissue wasting. I hypothesize that the profound tissue wasting during viral infection results from uncontrolled glucose homeostasis, perturbations in macrophage functions and from abnormal cytokine profiles observed in the context of obesity. I will test my hypothesis using high-fat diet-induced mouse model of obesity infected with chronic strain of the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus. I will test the involvement of cytokines, macrophages as well as of glucose homeostasis in the progressive wasting in infected obese animals and evaluate if there is a crosstalk between these three factors during infection in an obese host. This project will generate critical knowledge to address why host response to virus is disrupted in the context of obesity and identify potential therapeutic strategies for improving the outcome of viral diseases such as tissue wasting in this metabolic disease. Moreover, this study will highlight the crosstalk between the immune system and body metabolism during infection and will help to better understand the processes underlying immunity to pathogens.

Mots clés : viral infection, obesity, metabolism, immunology

Participants :
- Université de Copenhague (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 214934.4 €
Projet AB-Biofilm (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In recent years, Acinetobacter baumannii has been recognized as a serious threat to human health due to its high rates of infection and resistance to various antibiotics. Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have announced A. baumannii as an urgent threat with a priority to find novel antimicrobials against it. Various diseases have been attributed to biofilms of A. baumannii, and since biofilms are inherently tolerant to antibiotics the treatment procedures are challenged. The nucleotide signaling molecule c-di-GMP has been shown to regulate biofilm formation in a variety of bacterial species. Previous studies have shown a role of c-di-GMP signaling in biofilm formation by A. baumannii, but the underlying mechanisms still remain unclear. Understanding the mechanisms of c-di-GMP signaling systems potentially contribute to identification of new drug targets. Therefore, this research proposal intends to obtain knowledge on how c-di-GMP signaling regulates key components involved in biofilm formation by A. baumannii through a multidisciplinary approach by employing biochemical, molecular and microbiological techniques. The project is in line with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) request and EU Action on antibacterial resistance. The proposed project will establish a research platform based on A. baumannii in the host institute. The candidate will gain knowledge about c-di-GMP signaling system and the methods needed to elucidate the function of proteins which are associated with specific microbial traits. The acquired techniques along with the transferable skills obtained during the implementation of this project will greatly increase the candidate’s competency to find a job in positions related to molecular and pharmaceutical microbiology.

Mots clés : acinetobacter baumannii, c di gmp signaling, biofilm formation, adhesins, exopolysaccharides

Participants :
- Université de Copenhague (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 230774.4 €