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

Ceramic pots are an enduring and resilient document of ancient culture. Often specific to time and place, they are a valuable record which can enlighten our understanding of ancient chronologies, aesthetics, technologies, trade networks and cultural ties. The Maltese islands have a particularly rich, diverse and dynamic ceramic assemblage covering the entire prehistoric period. While the later ceramic assemblages of Bronze Age Malta have received considerable study over the past decade, little archaeometric research has been conducted on the earlier ceramic phases. MaltaPot will address this by exploring the emergence of the earliest prehistoric ceramic phases (namely Għar Dalam, Skorba and Żebbuġ 5000-3800BC) through a series of multi-disciplinary laboratory-based methods including typological analysis (3D laser scanning and digital classification software) and material studies (optical microscopy, LIBS, XRF and XRD). Findings from this project will dramatically increase understanding of the earliest settlers on the Maltese islands and it will also have wider implications for our understanding of Mediterranean archaeology during this important period of Neolithic colonisation by exploring cultural links through typological, technological and material studies. MaltaPot will develop new methodologies for the archival and analysis of prehistoric ceramic assemblages and also advance new methods of displaying and dissemination of results to both the wider public and academics. The fellowship will contribute to the researcher’s career development through the acquisition of advanced skills in archaeometric approaches to ceramic analysis as well as developing skills within the heritage sector through a series of events designed to disseminate her results to the wider public. The project will also serve to consolidate and extend the researchers network of professional contacts within Europe and beyond.

Mots clés : malta, ceramics, prehistory, archaeometric, archaeology

Participants :
- University of Malta (Malte) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 161193.6 €
Projet REHIPRE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Changes in rainfall characteristics over the Maritime Continent affect a rapidly increasing population of 275 million people through effects on agriculture, forest fires, floods and vector-borne diseases. However, current atmospheric models fail to represent most features of precipitation in the region, such as its distinctive strong diurnal cycle. Therefore, our knowledge of the physical processes initiating and propagating convective systems that generate precipitation in the Maritime Continent is very limited. In addition, the Maritime Continent is at a centre of interactions across scales, hence global model errors in this region propagate through the entire earth system and affect model estimates in remote regions too. This project is aimed at exploring our ability to simulate realistic precipitation by incorporating explicit convection and fine-scale ocean-atmosphere interactions in regional models. We will quantify the interplay between sea breeze circulation, ocean-atmosphere processes and convective systems to produce precipitation in the Maritime Continent and how it could change in the future. As such, this project will also advance our understanding of sea breeze and convective processes that are of major importance to a breadth of locations globally.

Mots clés : regional climate, climate modeling, convection, sea breeze, precipitation, convection permitting, ocean atmosphere coupled regional models, regional earth system models

Participants :
- Universitat de les Illes Balears (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 170121.6 €
Projet PACE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Characterizing the frequency of future precipitation extremes is a fundamental task in order to understand and mitigate their effects under future climate conditions. However, predicting these changes is a challenging task as intense rainfall is poorly represented in climate models, and extrapolations based on historical data are highly uncertain. The objective of the PACE project is bridging this disconnection by developing an innovative physically-informed statistical model for rainfall extremes. The proposed methodology explicitly accounts for the interannual variability of atmospheric moisture fluxes and their future predicted changes. PACE will achieve this objective by using an innovative precipitationshed perspective. Precipitationsheds - the regions of Earth from which most precipitable water originates before reaching a target site – will be computed using a moisture tracking technique. By including in the statistical representation of rainfall extreme key physical information integrated over a precipitationshed, PACE will provide a novel representation of how dynamic and thermodynamic changing conditions in upwind areas affect the frequency and probability distribution of downwind precipitation. By learning rainfall statistical properties from historical data and relying on climate model predictions only for large scale climate features, the PACE action will improve probabilistic rainfall predictions under future climate scenarios. The Candidate, recently graduated from Duke University (Durham, NC) will join the Host at TU Delft (Delft, The Netherlands) to achieve this research objective, and to continue his postgraduate professional development aimed at creating an independent research program in hydroclimatology.

Mots clés : rainfall extremes, precipitationsheds, climate change, frequency analysis

Participants :
- Delft University of Technology (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175572.48 €
Projet TCDL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Charged colloidal suspensions consist of charged micron-sized particles dispersed in a solvent with nanometer-sized ions, and they find ample applications in material science, food industry and drug development. The particle charge, together with a diffuse ion cloud that screens this particle charge, is called the electric double layer and it is pivotal in understanding the phase behaviour and interactions in these suspensions. However, no attention has been paid to the topological properties of the electric double layer. While drawing heavily on recent advances in liquid crystalline systems with topologically non-trivial orientational ordering, we propose to explore the topology of electric double layers, which could ultimately lead to enhanced stability of charged colloidal crystals. Specifically, we will focus on particles with topologically non-trivial shapes and explore the coupling between the topological invariants of the particle (such as genus) with the emergent electric double layer, and how this affects interparticle interactions and the phase behaviour. Finally, the goal of this proposal is to obtain a precise control over charged colloidal suspensions that are protected by topological, rather than only energetic binding, opening a fundamental and applied route to a new class of topological soft matter.

Mots clés : topology, colloids, electric double layers, topological defects, charge regulation, colloidal crystals

Participants :
- University of Ljubljana (Slovénie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 145287.6 €
Projet EnSurf (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Chiral surfaces have received considerable attention in the recent past since they play an important role as substrates for chiral separations and enantioselective heterogeneous catalysis. One of the most frequently used approaches to design and fabricate chiral surfaces is the adsorption and self-assembly of chiral or prochiral molecules on surfaces, which can be studied with sub-molecular resolution by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Thereby, the fabrication of homochiral surfaces is of particular interest. However, a major drawback of this approach is, in particular in view of potential applications, the lack of stability of physisorbed molecules. Therefore, EnSurf aims to use covalent surface modifications as chiral surface modifiers and new experimental approach for the creation of homochirality and enantioselectivity in self-assembling molecular structures at the solid/liquid interface. This interdisciplinary project takes place in the field of surface and interface science and involves aspects of supramolecular chemistry, synthetic chemistry, analytical chemistry and theoretical chemistry. Ultimately, this project will allow the fellow to attain professional independence and a position at the frontier of future academic or industrial research by a combination of hands-on experience in diverse research areas and training in complementary skills.

Mots clés : chirality, scanning probe microscopy, enantioselectivity

Participants :
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 160800.0 €
Projet UCHIRAL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Chirality, describing the “handedness” of a system, is a fundamental property of physical entities such as magnets, spins, the DNA double-helix, or circularly and elliptically polarized light. This proposal aims at employing intense ultrashort laser fields to control the chirality of two physical entities: photons of extreme-UV high harmonics, and free-flying electrons in a coherent pulsed beam. Specifically, the proposal “UCHIRAL” entails two main objectives: First, we develop a bright ultrafast source of circularly polarized extreme-UV high harmonics with optically controlled helicity (left vs. right) by combining the applicant's expertise with chiral harmonics with the host's efficient source. We will then use these chiral extreme-UV pulses for imaging of nanoscale magnetic features in ferromagnetic metals, which is currently inaccessible for high harmonics. The difference between images acquired with left- vs. right-circularly polarized extreme-UV radiation can isolate magnetic effects from a non-magnetic background. In a second system, we will coherently convert the chirality of optical near-fields into orbital angular momentum of a beam of free electrons. This interaction will be mediated by designed nanostructures exhibiting surface plasmon-polariton excitations with optically-controlled chirality. The envisaged mechanism relies on optical phase control of free electron wave functions in an ultrafast transmission electron microscope, which was recently established in the host institute. Both aspects of the proposal address fundamental interactions of chiral light with matter, currently at different levels of maturity, with expected scientific and potentially industrial applications. In particular, ultrafast chiral microscopy based on photons (first objective) and electrons (second objective) may enable future technologies by tracking chiral dynamics in nanosystems with intrinsic handedness, ranging from magnetic storage materials to biomolecules.

Mots clés : ultrafast physics, high harmonic generation, chirality, lens less imaging, utem, vortex beams

Participants :
- University of Göttingen (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 171460.8 €
Projet CTL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Choline is an essential nutrient necessary for the synthesis of the membrane lipids phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin that constitute over 50 % of the total lipid content in cellular membranes. It is the precursor for key metabolites such as the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and the osmolyte and methyl donor betaine. Transmembrane uptake of choline is the essential, but still enigmatic, first step in choline metabolism in the cell. Three groups of solute carriers have been identified in the transport of choline; CHT1, OCT and CTL (SLC5A7, SLC22, SLC44 in humans). While CHT1 and OCT perform specialized functions, the choline transporter-like (CTL) family facilitates the majority of choline uptake in all eukaryotes. Despite their clear physiological relevance, our knowledge of CTL family members is very limited, and there are no structures of choline transporters available. For this reason, knowledge on the molecular mechanism of cellular choline uptake is almost non-existent. With this proposal, I will address this lack of data, and provide new and ground-breaking insights into the function of the CTL family members. I will elucidate the molecular mechanisms of substrate recognition and transport in the major eukaryotic choline uptake system through a combination of structural biology (X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM) and biochemical characterization. The project will focus on human CTL family members but will also include other eukaryotic CTL proteins. A structural framework on the CTL family will provide insight into a key metabolic uptake pathway present in all eukaryotes and will be a fundamental resource for further research. Furthermore, CTLs are implicated in several diseases, including cancer, and the proposed work on CTL proteins will allow for future pharmacological studies addressing these with great impact on society.

Mots clés : membrane protein, choline transporter like  ctl, solute carrier 44  slc44, membrane transport, x ray crystallography, cryo em

Participants :
- Aarhus University (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 219312.0 €
Projet E2-CREATE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Choreography is an art form well-known for combining rigorous physical and mental training with the highest degrees of creativity. However, as dance is the most ephemeral of art forms, this extraordinary embodied creativity has been in danger of disappearing without leaving a significant trace. That was until several leading dance artists began over a decade ago to experiment with digital technology as a means to document their unique approaches to choreography. The result today is an impressive accumulation of interdisciplinary research showing how embodied creativity in dance can be systematically studied and documented, how computer-aided design can effectively communicate the outcomes and how digitised recordings can be processed computationally to reveal new information about choreographic principles, processes and methods. Drawing on these developments in dance digitisation and recent progress in computational arts, the Fellowship will focus on fusing artistic skills in dance with artistic skills in computing. The goal is to achieve a new level of sophisticated creative transfer at the intersection of the two fields by taking advantage of significant advances in the fields of computer vision and machine learning combined with the high-level of expertise the Fellow brings from the field of generative computer art. Generative computer art techniques have until now not been integrated fully into the dance digitisation process, but they have extraordinary potential in combination with machine learning to expand the capability of computational systems to learn from and model existing artistic approaches. The Fellow’s extensive experience of working at the intersection between dance technology and computer art and science means he is extremely well placed to facilitate and achieve this encoding of embodied creativity with lasting impact for mixed machine-human collaboration and interdisciplinary art and science research.

Mots clés : embodied creativity, creative coding, dance digitisation, generative methods, computer simulations, interdisciplinary collaboration

Participants :
- Coventry University (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet H2AH2B_Propagation (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Chromatin and its accompanying histone marks are fundamental for correct, cell type-specific gene expression and thus important to ensure cellular identity of each cell. Importantly, this requires that the chromatin landscape is accurately propagated and maintained across DNA replication, a process which is still not well understood. While there have been insights into how histone H3 and H4 marks are transmitted to daughter cells, information on H2A and H2B marks are still missing. Using mouse embryonic stem cells, I will gain first insights into how modifications on H2A and H2B are maintained during DNA replication, and their impact on restoring the parental chromatin landscape on replicated DNA, with the following three specific objectives: (1) I will investigate the propagation principles and kinetics of H2A/H2B modifications during DNA replication using a combination of advanced mass spectrometry and genomic approaches with a focus on ubiquitinated H2A/H2B. (2) I will gain mechanistic insights into the importance of H2A/H2B ubiquitination on chromatin reestablishment with a degron-based depletion approach targeting H2A/H2B ubiquitin ligases. This will allow me to study if, where and how the H2Aub and H2Bub-dependent histone marks are reestablished and hence reveal important features of histone mark crosstalk during DNA replication. (3) I will determine whether H2A-H2B dimers are propagated symmetrically to the two daughter strands by employing a strand-specific sequencing approach, and test mutants wherein symmetric H3-H4 propagation is compromised. This proposal will provide pioneering insights into how histones H2A and H2B are propagated and unveil the epigenetic inheritance of their marks, and also bring seminal understanding of histone mark crosstalk during DNA replication and across cell division. This will open new research avenues in chromatin research and give me an unique opportunity to follow up on these mechanisms as future, independent researcher.

Mots clés : dna replication, chromatin replication, epigenome maintenance, histone h2a and h2b, histone modifications, transcriptional regulation

Participants :
- University of Copenhagen (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 207312.0 €
Projet MultiPan (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Chromatin, the complex structured macromolecule consisting of DNA wrapped around histones, represents the ground where transcription factors, signalling pathways and mechanical stimulations converge to regulate gene expression and determine cellular phenotypes. Epigenetic mechanisms altering these phenotypes without modifying the DNA sequence are extremely pliable and allow for subtle and reversible changes in gene regulation. Consequently, aberrations in chromatin regulation are associated with a wide range of diseases, such as cancer, where they can be pivotal for the fitness and activity of malignant cells. Here we aim to investigate the role played by epigenetic mutations in pancreatic cancer, a dismal disease with poor prognosis and projected to be the second most common cause of cancer-related death in the next decade. The candidate will apply cutting-edge technologies such as parallel single-cell RNA-seq and single-nucleus ATAC-seq to uncover the correlation between changes in chromatin accessibility and gene expression in patient-derived and engineered 3D organoid models. These findings will constitute the basis for functional validations that will involve the combination of epigenomic tools (dCas9-mediated epigenetic modifications) and high-resolution imaging approaches (light-sheet microscopy). Therefore, this project will provide a comprehensive view of the epigenetic lesions occurring during cancer development, shedding light on mechanisms of gene de-regulation and paving the way to novel approaches to cancer treatment.


Participants :
- Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 162806.4 €
Projet DIE_CKD (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, affecting over 10 % of the adult population. Regardless of the primary case, the progressed stage is characterized by scarring of all anatomical elements of the kidney - glomeruli, tubulointerstitium, and vasculature, referred to as renal fibrosis. Tubulointerstitial fibrosis has largely been viewed as a consequence of glomerular scarring, reflecting hypoxia downstream from the scarred glomeruli. Novel data suggest that an ongoing communication between the glomerular and tubular compartments (tubuloglomerular feedback) plays an important role in the progression of renal fibrosis. Particularly, injury to the tubular compartments leads to more pronounced glomerular injury in the future. DIE_CKD is designed to uncover the range and mechanisms of tubular injuries involved in the pathogenic tubuloglomerular feedback. To achieve the project objectives, double/quadruple transgenic mice with the possibility of time-dependent, subsequent injury to different compartments of the kidney will be used. This unique approach will enable a direct study of how the injury to tubular compartments predisposes glomeruli to more severe injury. Detailed analysis of the mechanisms behind these effects will be performed. The experimental data will be further confirmed in human renal biopsies of patients with Fabry disease with progressed CKD and renal fibrosis. Comprehensive histopathological assessment of long-term prognosis of sequential biopsies will be performed to analyze the involvement of individual compartments over time.

Mots clés : chronic kidney disease, renal fibrosis, pai 1, fabry nephropathy

Participants :
- Vanderbilt University (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Bergen (Norvège) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 266345.28 €