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

One of the central research problems in theoretical physics is the dynamics of quantum many-body systems. A challenging open problem is the numerical simulation of out-of-equilibrium dynamics in continuous strongly-interacting models of quantum field theory, which in contrast to lattice models remain hard to study. This has recently become a pressing task, due to rapid advances in ultra-cold atom experiments that have achieved a realisation of the sine-Gordon model, a one-dimensional quantum field theory exhibiting topological excitations. The proposed research aims at: 1. The development of a new numerical technique to be named “Tensor Network Truncated Conformal Space Approach” (TNTCSA) for the numerical simulation of quantum dynamics in continuous one-dimensional and strongly-interacting models of significant experimental interest. The method will be built upon the standard TCSA method optimised by using an efficient adaptive truncation scheme, based on Tensor Network techniques also used in the Density Matrix Renormalisation Group and Matrix Product State methods. 2. The application of the new method for the simulation of the above mentioned ultra-cold atom experiments, both in and out of equilibrium. We will compute theoretical predictions for equilibrium and dynamical correlations of the quantum sine-Gordon model and compare with experimental data to obtain a precise modelling of the experimental system. 3. Building upon this, we will devise a blueprint for experimentally realising a quantum field thermal machine, whose operation will be based on the application of controllable space and time dependent external potentials. The new method is expected to have applications in a broad range of physics areas from particle physics to statistical mechanics and atomic physics.

Mots clés : computational, numerical methods, quantum many body dynamics, out of equilibrium quantum field theory, continuous one dimensional systems, ultracold atom gases, quantum thermodynamics

Participants :
- Freie Universität Berlin (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 174806.4 €
Projet MV for radiotherapy (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

One of the greatest challenges for modern radiotherapy is ventilation causing motion of tumours and surrounding healthy structures. Technically, modern radiation delivery systems enable in principle very accurate radiation targeting of the tumour and avoiding radiation damage to healthy tissue. However, to deliver sufficient dose to a continuously and irregularly moving tumour, it is necessary to irradiate the tumour with a large margin. Currently such a large margin means irradiating a volume of healthy tissue that is about equal to that of the tumour itself. The healthy tissue damage is itself problematic. But it also prohibits further raising the radiation dose to the tumour to enhance the probability of tumour destruction and thus patient survival. I have invented the use of non-invasive mechanical ventilators to revolutionise radiotherapy delivery, by prolonging breath-hold duration beyond 5 minutes and by reducing and regularising breathing movements. I have demonstrated this works with breast cancer patients. To support its clinical adoption it is now necessary to train other staff to use mechanical ventilation, demonstrate it works with other cancer patient groups, measure the reductions in internal movement of tumours and healthy structures, show how these would produce superior treatment plans and that all this works in another European hospital. My career goal is for me to use the evidence derived from the fellowship to fund the introduction of non-invasive mechanical ventilators first back in our own department (Birmingham, UK), then for me to lead a multi-centre evaluation trial across Europe and finally to lead its introduction into radiotherapy practice throughout Europe.

Mots clés : prolonged breath holds, mechanical ventilation, radiotherapy, mri imaging, treatment planning

Participants :
- Amsterdam University Medical Centers (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 187572.48 €
Projet SPIR (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

One of the important directions of modern medicine is noninvasive diagnostics. The urgency of the problem is determined by the search of safe methods of examination and sparing techniques of collection of material for medical analysis when the patient does not feel pain, physical and emotional discomfort. Spaser (surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation), also called nanolaser is a quantum generator providing unprecedented efficiency as a versatile tool in nanotechnology or biomedical research and applications. The spasers can generate in a single mode with a very high spectral density and intensity. This makes the spasers, arguably, the best multifunctional, super-contrast, low-toxic optical probes in biomedical research. For investigating spaser generation in a living organism it is imperative that their generation line should be located in the transparency window of biological tissues, namely in near infrared (IR) range of spectra. Hence, the main objectives of this project are development of an approach for the spasers synthesis (for IR range) in biocompatible aqueous solution as well as investigation of their the optical characteristics. A successful proof of concept will open the prospects of using spasers not only in medicine, but also for many other areas. Examples include the creation of high-precision sensors, fabrication of ultra-fast photonic nanocircuits, heavy-duty laser creation, etc. The multidisciplinary nature of the project is strong, involving a combination of inorganic, physical, colloidal chemistry, as well as optics and laser physics. This proposal includes both the transfer of knowledge to the host institution and the training of the candidate in new advanced techniques. Successful implementation of the project will make a significant contribution to the nano- and biotechnological industry of the European Union and improve European competitiveness.

Mots clés : spaser, nanolaser, gold nanoparticles, nanoplasmonics

Participants :
- CIC nanoGUNE (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 172932.48 €
Projet HairGen (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

One of the key challenges in human genetics is to understand the genetic architecture of phenotypic traits. Hair comprises a distinct part of one’s physical identity and its form varies across and within populations. Despite the significant progress made by genome-wide association studies (GWAS), much of the human hair variation remains unexplained. Therefore, a comprehensive study focused on uncovering genetic determinants of human hair form is needed. The aims of the present project are three fold. First, to use self-reported hair forms as a paradigm to perform in-depth macroscopic and microscopic analyses focusing on hair dimensions that may vary across major hair forms. Additionally, curliness of hair samples will be quantified. Second, to perform a genome-wide association study to identify loci underlying contemporary variation in hair form. To this end, we have hair samples from ~2,700 participants collected from a diverse set of populations and genotypes for >600,000 SNPs. Third, to select the most promising of the identified variants for functional analysis and use the cutting-edge technology of CRISPR/cas9 genome editing in mice to evaluate the hair phenotypes. This will be further complemented with assessment of their skin via histological methods to study the structural and developmental changes associated with the variants. The project will help to refine the available methods for classification of hair form and identify some of the genes underlying variation in hair form. Most importantly, HairGen will use the novel approach of genome editing in mice to investigate the functional role of the variant, thereby contributing to broader knowledge in the field. This proposal brings together a fellow with relevant background in study of phenotypic trait together with leading experts in the field of anthropology, molecular genetics, and phenotype modeling.

Mots clés : hair, hair form, phenotype, genome editing, mice, crispr, phenotypic trait, human, genetics, curliness, genotype

Participants :
- University of Edinburgh (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet COPE-50 (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

One of the key challenges in the 21st century will be food security. Computer modelling using historical data predicts a climate shift towards combination of increasing temperature, rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and high Ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Such climatic change could negatively affect productivity of the agricultural systems and thus availability of food for the growing world’s population, which is a very serious concern. However, most of the current debate is based on little experimental evidence. Therefore, we aim to address this question by establishing a strong backbone of phenotypic and molecular data in the frame of the proposed project. Our first objective will be to examine the impact of the predicted 2050 climate on the morphological and physiological performance of the model and the crop plants. Adaptation of plants to environmental cues occurs also at the gene transcriptional level and is widely controlled by epigenetic means. Therefore, in the second objective we will study plant chromatin changes in response to predicted climatic change and their effects on plant phenotypes. Our study will act as a resource to framework the phenotypic and molecular mechanism by which these environmental variations affect crop yields and current estimates of future impacts of climate. Hence, the longer term goal of the project is to contribute towards solving the current food security issues by providing valuable resource of data for scientists along with the strategy makers.

Mots clés : climate change, phenotype, epigenetics, crop improvement

Participants :
- Max Planck Society (Allemagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 57153.6 €
- Czech Academy of Sciences (Rép. Tchèque) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 103147.2 €
Projet BIOFERTICELLULASER (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

One of the main challenges for humanity during next decades will be to increase food production while using scarce resources and protecting the environment, being therefore one of the priorities of the European Program “Horizon 2020”. Plant’s productivity can be enhanced by the activity of Plant Growth-Promoting (PGP) bacteria, applied in agricultural fields as biofertilizers or plant probiotics, constituting an environmental friendly manner to increase crop yields. Biofertilizers have been applied in agriculture during decades, but in many cases bacteria which showed great PGP potential in lab conditions, fail when applied in natural soils, probably because they are out-competed by the soil native microbial populations or they are unable to adapt to the new environmental conditions. Based on the model Rhizobium-clover, it is known that bacterial cellulases are crucial in the bacterial entrance into the root. Nevertheless, the implication of these enzymes in the active entrance of bacterial endophytes in non-legume crops has not been studied yet. This project aims to research, using a trascriptomic approach and endophytes mutant strains isolation, the role of cellulases in the capability of endophytes to enter non-legume plant roots, using rapeseed (B. napus) as model plant. If cellulase encoding genes enable active root infection, giving an advantage over passive mechanisms, selection of bacterial strains not only on the base of their PGP capacity, but also on their ability to enter the plant -where they have less competitors and are protected from abiotic stresses-, will allow the design of more efficient bacterial biofertilizers. The ultimate goal of this project is to lay the firm foundations for the development of biological microbial-based fertilizers which shall allow the reduction or even suppression of chemical fertilizers (dangerous for human health and environment and contributing to the climate change) while maintaining or increasing crops production.

Mots clés : biofertilizers, plant probiotics, bacterial endophytes, rapeseed, cellulases, lytic enzymes, root colonization, root infection, transcriptome, microbiome, culturome

Participants :
- Universidad de Salamanca (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 170121.6 €
Projet LEACON (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

One of the main challenges of roboticists is to take robots out of the factories and let them enter into unstructured environments, such as houses, hospitals, small manufacturers and dangerous area. The objective of the project is to take a step towards the presence of robots in such environments. Currently, there are still important obstacles to the massive diffusion of advanced mobile manipulation systems in the fields described above. First of all, programming mobile manipulators with the classical methods is still too expensive and time-consuming due to intrinsic complexity of mobile manipulation tasks. A second limitation is that planning the robot motion completely off-line, as often happens in classical industrial applications, may likely bring to a failure of the assigned task, since a high degree of uncertainty is present and the environment can dynamically change. Such features may cause safety issues for humans potentially present in the workspace and for the external environment itself. In order to tackle these limitations, the LEACON project has the objective to develop a framework that: - allows robots to learn in a real world scenario manipulation skills from human demonstration -exploits multimodal perception (tactile, proximity, visual, force sensors) to increase the robustness to unforeseen events and safety when manipulation tasks are executed. To fulfill such objectives, a multidisciplinary approach that combines machine learning and perception-based control is proposed. The core of the proposed framework will provide two planning levels tightly connected: the high-level and low-level cognitive system. To show the effectiveness of the developed architecture, the main use cases will be constituted by a robot that performs picking, manipulation, and placing operations in a dynamic, unstructured environment in presence of humans in its workspace. At the end of the project, the developed software will be released as open source code.


Participants :
- Technical University of Munich (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 159460.8 €
Projet DGLC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

One of the major discussions in the bilingual literature revolves around whether language control, a process that restricts bilingual language processing to the target language, is domain general. Due to conflicting evidence in the literature, the general assumption is that language control is partially domain general. However, little to no research has examined what that means exactly: Which of the mechanisms underlying language control are domain general? Which functional processing stage(s) are characterized by shared control processes? These two questions will be investigated in the current project by comparing language control against control processes in progressively more dissimilar contexts across four behavioral and two event-related potential experiments. More specifically, control processes will be compared in similar contexts (unimodal vs. bimodal bilingual language control), different contexts within the same domain (bilingual language control vs. monolingual control), and between domains (bilingual language control vs. non-linguistic executive control). This will allow for an investigation of domain generality across an array of contexts and allow us to examine whether a closer relationship in context leads to more similar control processes. More generally, this project will outline the specific ways in which language control is domain general or not.

Mots clés : bilingualism, control, domain generality

Participants :
- California State University System (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Autres, subvention : 0.0 €
- Radboud University Nijmegen (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 253052.16 €
Projet MSCFate (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

One of the most challenging questions in breast cancer biology is to elucidate the origin of tumor heterogeneity and its contribution to therapy failure. Accumulating evidence suggests that the cell-of-origin, the cell that acquires the first oncogenic event, may define the molecular portrait of the resulting tumor. The fate of mammary Stem Cells (MSC) upon oncogenic perturbation has been poorly explored. Moreover, the Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway regulates proliferation/differentiation of MSC and is found hyperactive in breast cancer cells, for example through mutations in PIK3CA, the gene coding for its catalytic subunit. I hypothesize that expression of PIK3CA mutations will perturb mammary tissue homeostasis, initiate mammary cancer and trigger formation of stem-like cancer cells. Using state-of-the-art in situ genetic lineage tracing, I will determine the fate of MSC (identified recently as Procr+ cells) after conditional expression of PIK3CA hotspot mutations (H1047R, E545K). I will also characterize early molecular events responsible for promotion of transformation (Aim 1). When tumors develop, I will determine tumor phenotype and eventual progression to metastasis (Aim 2). Consequently, this study will generate a new mouse model of breast cancer that will be useful for preclinical studies. A panel of PI3K inhibitors is currently under Clinical investigation and clinical reports have shown that the combination of standard chemotherapy with PI3K inhibitors reduces tumor growth but drug-resistance often occurs. To identify resistance mechanisms to PI3K inhibitors, I will generate in vivo models of drug-resistance (Aim 3). My studies will use both hypothesis driven and unbiased approaches, they should: 1. better elucidate transformation of MSC and the resulting tumor heterogeneity, 2. pinpoint novel targets/biomarkers. Ultimately this knew knowledge should result in better therapies for patients.

Mots clés : breast cancer, cell of origin, tumor heterogeneity, lineage tracing, mice models, transformation, mammary stem cells, procr, cancer stem cells, pi3k, pi3k inhibitors, therapy resistance

Participants :
- University of Basel (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175419.6 €
Projet RESOLVE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

One of the most exciting recent discoveries in the field of Planetary Sciences has been the confirmation of the presence of water and other associated volatiles in the Moon. These findings have come via laboratory measurements of returned lunar samples exploiting the latest advancements in analytical instrumentation and in-situ techniques, such as secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). Not only has the latest research revolutionized our understanding of the abundance and distribution of volatiles on the lunar surface and in the lunar interior, but it has also highlighted potential roles of their different sources and processes imparting specific isotopic signatures to lunar volatiles. RESOLVE aims at understanding how the abundance and the distribution of volatile components, as well as their isotopic composition are influenced by the crystal structure of the host mineral. The volatile-bearing minerals – primarily phosphates – respond to pressure increase caused by an impact event through modification of their crystal structures, resulting in not only redistribution of the volatile elements (e.g., H, Cl, F), but also of the stable (e.g., H, D, 37Cl) and radiogenic (e.g., 207Pb) isotopes. Therefore, phosphate minerals have the extraordinary potential to simultaneously provide an opportunity for precise age-determination of an impact event, as well as to track any associated modification in the indigenous isotopic signatures of their volatile components. Once we better understand the crystal-chemical-isotopic behaviour of lunar volatiles by a multi-analytical approach combining in-situ elemental, stable and radiogenic isotope geochemistry with structural characterization, we can then begin to discriminate between different sources (solar wind, cosmic radiation, etc.) of water and other associated volatiles. This allows us to address one of the remaining puzzles in the inner Solar System - the origin of water.

Mots clés : moon, lunar volatiles, hydrogen, chlorine, apatite, stable isotopes, radiogenic isotopes, crystal chemistry, crystallography

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