Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet OBESOGENS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Obesity is a serious health risk that has reached epidemic proportions worldwide. Obesity is traditionally considered a as disorder of energy imbalance imposed on a background of genetic disposition. In addition to risk factors such as diet and genetics, chemicals in our environment have emerged as contributing factors associated with an increased risk for obesity (i.e. obesogens). Phthalate esters, a ubiquitous class of chemicals used as plasticizers in products such as toys and hospital supplies, are suspected of being obesogens. Despite studies demonstrating that phthalate urine levels are associated with increased risk to obesity in children, meta-analyses report that current data are insufficient for determining whether phthalates do in fact increase the prevalence of obesity. Moreover, data are sparse on how obesogens affect metabolism and the feeding axis and there are fundamental gaps in our understanding of the precise mechanisms by which environmental chemicals exacerbate this human disease. The central hypothesis of this proposal is that exposures to phthalates will exacerbate molecular responses in the hypothalamus and gut that are observed during a regime of over-feeding. Further, the modification of the gut microbiota may be a relevant consequence of obesogens. The zebrafish (ZF) is one of the most important models in environmental toxicology and developmental biology, and is rapidly becoming a major model for studies in human health and metabolic diseases. ZF will be used to determine mechanisms that are associated to diet and chemical induced obesity, novel regulatory pathways in the hypothalamus and gut will be identified; this is important as these two tissues communicate via the endocrine system and there is direct innervation of the gut by the central nervous system. To be in line with 3R principles, high throughput screen method using ZF embryo will be developed to test environmental chemicals for their “obesogenic” potential.

Mots clés : obesogens, obesity, phthalates, zebrafish, hypothalamus, gut microbiota

Participants :
- State University System of Florida (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Masaryk University (Rép. Tchèque) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 249490.8 €
Projet Debrasa (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Objective: The overarching goal of proposed project is to provide necessary knowledge about neurobiology of Major Depression Disorder (MDD), which would lead to higher efficacy in treatment of this affective disorder. The research objectives of the action are 1) identification of electrophysiological biomarkers of functional brain abnormities in treatment resistant depression (TRD) and 2) suggestion of novel targets for neurostimulation in patients with TRD. Methods: Twenty patients with major Depression Disorder (MDD) and 20 healthy controls will undergo a resting-state high-density EEG recording (HD-EEG). Microstate analysis will be performed to identify possible biomarkers of functional brain abnormity in MDD. Source activity will be obtained for regions of interest (ROI) using individual head model and a distributed linear inverse solution. Directed functional connectivity using Granger causal modelling will be applied to the source signals of ROI to identify abnormally interconnected nodes. Relevance: If new biomarkers of functional brain abnormity in MDD are identified, better characterisation of pathophysiology of depression will be made. If abnormal nodes of large-scale brain neuronal network are identified, new and individually specific targets for deep brain stimulation (DBS) will be suggested. These findings will support future implementation of highly individualised DBS treatment of TRD.

Mots clés : high density electroencephalography, directed functional connectivity, microstate analysis, electrical source imaging, major depression disorder, treatment resistant depression, deep brain stimulation

Participants :
- University of Geneva (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 187419.6 €
Projet Neuroheart (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Objectives of the proposal: Heart Failure (HF) is estimated to cost the EU economy €196 billion a year. Currently, patients are treated with the highest pharmaceutical doses of antiRAS agents, which cause severe side effects and reduce the patients’ quality of life. Moreover, treatment responses are highly variable. This study aims to enable imaging-guided treatment optimization by using a radiolabelled novel angiotensin 1 receptor (AT1) blocker analogue in a small animal model of myocardial infarction (MI). Positron emission tomography (PET) as a cutting-edge method of evaluating HF pathophysiology at a molecular level will be employed to optimize treatment. How the objectives will be achieved: MI will be obtained by ligation of the coronary artery in Wistar rats. Subsequently, PET imaging with a dedicated small animal system (mciroPET) will be performed. A multiple set of cardioneuronal PET tracers provided by the partner institution at Johns Hopkins University will be used to measure the extent of global and regional neurohumoral abnormalities in rat hearts following different degrees of ischemic insult. The relationship between neurohumoral system alterations and subsequent left ventricular remodelling will be determined by microPET and Magnetic Resonance Imaging to assess deterioration of ventricular geometric parameters. Using the novel AT1-ligand, imaging-guided dose-derived therapeutic concepts for Wistar rats will be established in vivo with the aim to transfer this technique to the clinic in a long term perspective. Relevance to the Work Programme: I envisage that in the future a single cardiac PET scan prior to treatment initiation will be sufficient to estimate the appropriate drug dose in any given HF patient. This new concept of individualized drug dose determination has the potential to lead to personalized treatment for one of the most frequent fatal and expensive diseases and thereby contributes to the reduction of the economic burden of the EU.

Mots clés : heart failure, heart, sympathetic nerve, imaging, personalized treatment, radionuclide, positron emission tomography, myocardial infarction, ischemia

Participants :
- University Hospital Würzburg (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 239860.8 €
- Johns Hopkins University (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet NUTBIO-DIAB (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Objectives: There is an unabated rise in the burden of type 2 diabetes (T2D) with associated premature morbidity, mortality and cost to individuals and society. There is an urgent need to identify modifiable factors that can prevent T2D. This Fellowship aims to use objectively measured nutritional biomarkers to improve the precision of dietary assessment for investigating the association between dietary factors and T2D risk. The use of biomarkers opens the possibility to investigate gene/diet interactions, which can lay the foundation for future stratified or personalised nutrition, and to address causality of associations using genetic-based approaches. Method: Measurement of plasma vitamin C, six carotenoids and 25-hydroxyvitamin D is now complete in the EPIC-InterAct study across 26 centres within 8 European countries in the world’s largest study of T2D incidence with 12,403 new-onset T2D cases, and a random sub-cohort of 16,835 individuals. We will examine the distribution and determinants of these nutritional biomarkers within European populations and investigate the association between biomarkers and T2D, and biomarker-gene interaction on T2D. Combining these data with other studies, we will use Mendelian randomisation to examine potential causal association of biomarkers with T2D. Relevance: Diet and nutrition are crucial for the prevention of non-communicable disease including T2D, but measurement error in self-report dietary assessment has posed a major challenge in identifying specific dietary components that elevate or mitigate disease risk. The systematic use of nutritional biomarkers on an unprecedented scale opens up an important new frontier to advance diet/health research. Specifically, this proposal will clarify the distribution and determinants of important biomarkers within European populations and as well as increasing aetiological understanding, will enable the estimation of the population impact of dietary factors on avoiding new cases of T2D

Mots clés : nutritional biomarker, epidemiology, type 2 diabetes, mendelian randomisation, gene nutrient interaction, population impact

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet DESTINY (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Ocean wave energy is a massive and untapped resource, which can make a valuable contribution towards a sustainable, global, energy mix. Despite the fact that ocean waves are a vast resource, wave energy converters (WECs) have yet to make significant progress towards commercialisation. A fundamental stepping stone to achieve this objective is the availability of appropriate optimal control technology, such that energy conversion is performed as economically as possible, minimising the delivered energy cost, and operating across a wide range of ocean conditions. This project will greatly advance WEC control technology by providing a novel and reliable nonlinear optimal control framework for WECs, based on the mathematical concept of moments. Such a framework will feature an accurate nonlinear description of the physics associated with the wave energy extraction process, optimally maximising energy absorption for single devices and array configurations, and exhibiting real-time capabilities. This will provide all stakeholders in the ocean engineering and wave energy fields with a fundamental and easily-accessible tool to facilitate reaching economic viability of wave energy technology. This project is comprised of 4 scientific work packages, which accomplish: (1) generalisation of the control framework for a large class of nonlinear control- and wave-dependent effects, (2) experimental validation of the control strategy, (3) extension to WEC arrays, and (4) release of an open-source software. In addition, this fellowship will expand the career horizons of the fellow through a highly multidisciplinary plan, building upon and extending beyond his current competencies. The fellow is well-positioned to undertake this project, allowing him to fully develop innovative concepts from his PhD research. This fellowship will provide the fellow with an unparalleled opportunity to grow as a scientist and engineer, launching him on a trajectory to a productive scientific career.

Mots clés : wave energy, ocean engineering, nonlinear control, optimal control, moment matching

Participants :
- Polytechnic University of Turin (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183473.28 €
Projet FOROIL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Economic Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Oil price volatility forecasting is of major importance due to the financialisation of the oil market and the fact that the oil market participants’ decisions are based on such forecasting (e.g. oil-intensive industries, policy makers, portfolio traders, etc). Currently, forecasters predict oil price volatility using GARCH and HAR models and evaluate the performance of these models using statistical loss-functions, such as the Mean Absolute Predictive Error. Even more, the literature concentrates mainly its attention on two measures of volatility, namely the conditional volatility and the realized volatility. Nevertheless, oil price volatility users are faced with multiple volatility measures, multiple forecasting models and different reasons for which they use oil price volatility forecasts (e.g. policy making, portfolio allocation, risk management). Thus, in order for oil volatility users to make informed decisions, they need to know what the most appropriate volatility measure is and what the most accurate forecasting model is. This innovative project aims to lay the foundations for an advanced econometric model framework for the evaluation of the best oil volatility measures along with the best forecasting models, using objective-based loss functions. The outcome of this fellowship will be a toolbox, containing the aforementioned framework. The project will have a great impact on the fellow as it will allow him to advance his existing scientific skills through the cutting-edge training in the state-of-the-art oil volatility forecasting techniques, in energy finance and in the field of consulting. Overall, the research training will allow the fellow to develop a pioneering research agenda in energy finance and will position him as an internationally recognised scholar that contributes further to the research excellence in Europe. Even more, this fellowship will have a great impact on the supervisor, the host institution and the European Research Area.

Mots clés : energy economics, oil price volatility, volatility forecasting, objective based loss functions

Participants :
- Bournemouth University (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet ULTRA-OLEO (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Oleogels are lipid-based materials that contain 85–99.5% of liquid oil whereas the rest is structuring molecules called oleogelators. They were introduced as saturated and hydrogenated fat substitutes to fight the adverse effects of excessive fat consumption in the diet such as obesity. Obesity is a global problem that nowadays involves billion of adults and millions of children. The annual healthcare costs related to treating diseases caused by/related to obesity is 60 billion euro in Europe and 210 billion dollars in USA. Oleogels can be used to reduce obesity outbreaks by substituting saturated fats. Unfortunately, oleogel storage instability impedes these materials from becoming the “fat of the future”. Much effort has been directed to explore strategies to improve oleogel performance such as formulation and processing. The proposed strategies are not able to precisely control the forming crystal network and can also lead to oxidized oleogels. To obtain oleogels with long storage stability it is necessary to carefully control the forming crystalline network without inducing adverse effects such as oxidation. To this aim, I will develop a new, economic, and environmentally friendly technology that can modify the structure of oleogels to prolong oleogel storage stability, bringing together food science, acoustic physics and engineering. To create such a technology, three goals are set: (i) develop a treatment chamber, (ii) optimize treatment of monoglyceride-containing oleogel, (iii) optimize treatment of wax-containing and phytosterol-containing oleogels. To identify the effect of the treatments, nano and microstructure, oil retention ability, and oxidation mechanisms are studied during and soon after the treatment, and during storage. The outcome of this proposal is a technology that can finely and precisely direct the crystallization process orienting lipid crystals in controllable shapes/patterns with the final aim to prolong oleogel storage stability.

Mots clés : oleogel, ultrasound, stability, nanostructure, microstructure, oil release, oxidation

Participants :
- University of Helsinki (Finlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 202680.96 €
Projet OliveFlyBacteria (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Olive oil production is of strategic importance for most economies around the Mediterranean. One of the main pests threatening olive cultivation is the olive fly. Related insects as the Mediterranean fruit fly and the invasive fly Drosophila suzukii are mayor problems in fruti- and viticulture. Given increasing limitations to the use of chemical insecticides, innovative biological control agents and IPM strategies for these pests are highly solicited. The applicant has previously established PCR tools for the specific identification of three bacterial insect pathogens that have recently been found associated with the olive fly. During his solicited research stay at CNR-IPSP Portici and planned secondments and short stays, these tools will be employed to explore olive fly populations across Southern Italy for new potential biocontrol resources. Targeted identification will be complemented by novelty-open exploration of olive fly microbiomes. The biocontrol potential of identified bacteria will be evaluated, and transposon mutagenesis together with PTR-MS and FISH will be used to identify virulence factors as toxins or chemical attractants. This research agenda can only be implemented in a cooperation of the applicant with an infrastructurally well established partner in a Mediterranean country as CNR-IPSP. It is the scientific-technical objective of the action to develop innovative biocontrol or IPM concepts based on the experimental results obtained. It is the strategic objective of the action: i) to identify new biocontrol strains not subject to property rights of third parties, ii) to create a regional network of biocontrol researchers, bio-insecticide producing SMEs, and olive cultivators to facilitate subsequent product development for a regional market, and iii) to increase public visibility of the action and social acceptance for alternative, not only more ecosystem-friendly and sustainable, but also economically successful plant protection strategies.

Mots clés : biological plant protection, microbial control, olive fly, bactrocera oleae, medfly, ceratitis capitata, drosophila suzukii, pseudomonas, providencia, rickettsiella, transposon mutagenesis, ptr ms

Participants :
- National Research Council (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 180277.2 €
Projet SynBiol-DynHet (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

One key problem in the investigation of living systems is their complexity. Synthetic biologists can create artificially designed biological systems, whose design reduces the complexity, and can thus address simplified and specific questions. Theoretical investigations of these systems help to understand these questions, for example by evaluating whether a simple model already predicts the features shown in experiments. This proposal provides a step towards understanding living systems by theoretically studying diversity in microbial populations. The aim is to investigate both spatial diversity, such as barriers, as well as agents with different traits within a population. This will be done with the goal of answering important ecological as well as microbiological questions. In terms of the ecology, this work will address how spatial barriers, or the presence of diverse agents, can influence the formation of biodiversity and cooperation. In its engagement with microbiology, it will investigate a microbial population's reactions to randomly distributed antibiotic drugs, and the ability to tolerate these antibiotics. With the development of new experimental procedures that allow closer investigations of both these issues, an improved theoretical description is now required alongside such advances. I will investigate all questions in close collaboration with synthetic biology experiments. This project will allow me to combine my background in the theory of condensed matter and chemistry to work on living systems research, before obtaining an independent researcher position in the field of biological physics.

Mots clés : biological physics, population dynamics

Participants :
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 159460.8 €
Projet MAFRI (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

One main issue facing fisheries management is uncertainty regarding how fish populations will respond to changes in fishers’ behaviour or the environment. With fish resources under increasing pressure, accurate, cumulative histories of anthropogenic and environmental change are a key tool in developing effective management policies. Archaeology can help overcome this issue by providing detailed, long-range histories of local inshore fisheries and their exploitation by humans, but only if techniques for the identification and analysis of fishbone are refined. Fishbones are underrepresented in the archaeological literature because they are less stable than other taxa. Identification to species is often difficult or impossible. During my MSc I developed an identification system for fishbone: ZooMS (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry), based upon protein barcoding. As proteins can be cleaved enzymatically and analyzed by mass spectrometry in a repeatable way, protein barcoding is used widely for quick and inexpensive protein identification. Mass spectra reflect the differences in protein sequence and can therefore be reproducibly linked to a particular protein or fragment. Since I left the lab, this method for fish identification has stalled, despite earnest requests from the community for a robust method. ZooMS uses peptide fingerprinting of collagen as a method for rapid identification of archaeological bone. Identifying masses to peptides of known sequence is required. For mammals, sufficient sequence information is available, but, for freshwater fish, species are highly diverse and few sequences are available. This project will develop biomolecular techniques to overcome these hurdles, creating a database of fish collagen sequences and testing the method at several archaeological sites. With these new techniques archaeologists can provide more accurate histories of fisheries. The results will enhance our knowledge of part of our diet inform fisheries management.

Mots clés : archaeology, fish, freshwater ecosystem, protein identification, mass spectrometry, biomolecules, archaeozoology, ancient proteins, ancient dna, zooms, fisheries management, climate change

Participants :
- University of York (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €