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

PIGYVAX aims to create pig vaccine candidates against PEDV, a pathogen of swine causing significant challenges to the swine industry globally. This project will utilize yeast-based vaccine carrying nanoparticles of measles ribonucleoprotein (RNP) fused with PEDV spike protein (S1). The multimerization of monomeric S1 antigen through RNP will increase immunogenicity due to better recognition of antigen presenting cells. As the yeast delivery system has strong auto-adjuvant properties, the vaccine does not require complementation with accessory adjuvant, which reduces the cost of vaccine production. Moreover, P. pastoris yeast, commonly present on fruits, is a certified safe microorganism for animal feeds rendering it a most practical and convenient way to deliver vaccines to large-scale farms. Therefore, we aim to use this vaccine platform to express S1 antigen of PEDV and deliver it orally to stimulate a protective immune response against PEDV in sows, which will be passively transferred to fully protect piglets from succumbing to the disease. In this project, Dr. Phanramphoei Frantz will utilize her knowledge on pathogenesis of PEDV and the yeast-RNP platform while gaining expertise on vaccine study and development from the host institute. This will initiate a successful collaboration project between Institut Pasteur and BIOTEC (Thailand) to where the experienced researcher will return after the project.


Participants :
- Institut Pasteur (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 185076.0 €
Projet PLASTIC TERN (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

PLASTIC TERN is an interdisciplinary project using an ecological and evolutionary framework to integrate the study of physiological, behavioural and life-history traits to elucidate multi-dimensional patterns of phenotypic plasticity in the wild. We will focus on the evolutionary genetics of plasticity in a natural population of a relatively long-lived seabird under long-term investigation, the common tern (Sterna hirundo). More specifically, we will investigate how genetic variation in, and selection on, plasticity are shaped by internal factors, such as age, and external factors, such as temperature, breeding density and food availability; we will be using multiple labile traits (annual number of fledglings, body mass and spatial colony use) and studying multiple levels of variation. The long-lived nature of our study species and the natural annual fluctuations of food availability, temperature and density that characterise the study area and population provide a unique opportunity to study plastic responses driven simultaneously by intrinsic factors, such as age, and/or ecological factors. Additionally, the exceptional dataset collected on this population allows us to study how selection (via annual survival and reproductive success, as well as Lifetime Reproductive Success) acts on the previously described plastic responses. Despite the explicit evolutionary relevance of the question, the consequences of environmental changes for the action of natural selection on plasticity have remained largely unexplored.

Mots clés : animal model, climate change, natural selection, plasticity, reaction norm

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 173076.0 €
Projet PLATON (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

PLATON brings together a highly-experienced researcher in the field of the theory of concurrent and distributed computing with a hosting group which has world-leading expertise on data series management, indexing, and analysis to harness the difficulties of large-scale data series processing by realising the data series processing performance and scalability goals. Specifically, PLATON aspires to build the necessary methods, algorithms and tools for highly-scalable and fault-tolerant processing of huge collections of data series by exploiting, for the first time, the full computational capacity (multiple nodes, multiple cores, accelerators) of modern heterogeneous computing platforms. The proposed research project, named PLATON (Platform-aware LArge-scale Time-Series prOcessiNg), has the potential of great economic and social impact in Europe as multiple scientific and industrial fields are currently in need of the right tools, in order to handle their massive collections of data series.

Mots clés : data processing, large scale data series processing, big data, data series, multi node processing, multi threaded processing, accelerators, fault tolerance, scalability, high performance

Participants :
- Université Paris Cité (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 92353.92 €
Projet POLONEZ (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Cofund Postdoctoral programme
Statut du projet : CLOSED

POLONEZ is a Fellowship Programme supporting international incoming researchers working in the broad field of research regardless of their nationality. It will be implemented by the National Science Centre (NCN), a government agency funding basic research in Poland. The NCN has already designed 11 funding schemes supporting researchers on every stage of their research career and regularly announces calls for proposals. The Centre is also involved in international funding initiatives, e.g. ERA-nets, JPIs. It follows a strictly bottom-up approach, allowing researchers to freely choose their research topic and host institution. POLONEZ, planned for 69 months, enables the NCN to implement 3 calls for proposals in order to select 90 fellows. It is targeted at experienced researchers who may apply for 12-24-month-fellowships in host institutions in Poland, both academic and non-academic, public or private. Apart from living, mobility and family allowances, they are offered a research grant which amounts to ca. € 4 200 per month, to cover the costs of a research project in a discipline freely chosen by the applicant. The fellows are also given an opportunity to participate in a variety of research and non-research trainings provided by the NCN and the host institution. One of the main goals of POLONEZ is to enhance incoming mobility in Poland. Although Polish host institutions offer an attractive research setting and high quality resources, fellowships in Poland attract fewer researchers. Also, many Polish researchers still seek temporary and permanent positions outside of Poland and Europe. Therefore, in order to counteract “brain drain,” build up a positive image of Polish research institutions and encourage foreign researchers to develop their careers in Poland, we offer them the opportunity to collaborate with the best Polish research organisations. POLONEZ thus paves the way for stronger international mobility in research and the integration of research communities.

Mots clés : incoming mobility, experienced researchers, poland

Participants :
- National Science Center (Pologne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Organismes publics (hors enseignement & recherche), subvention : 5841000.0 €
Projet POLYCOMP (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

POLYmer-COntrolled Mesocrystal Production (POLYCOMP) aims to develop an intimate understanding of the underlying mechanisms of mesocrystal formation. This in turn will lead to the development of new mesocrystals with controlled morphologies and thus optimised properties. Mesocrystals have only very recently been described and are best viewed as an entirely new class of material. As such these unique substances have the potential to revolutionise materials/devices containing inorganic components. Applications are myriad and include building materials, such as concrete, with vastly greater compression strengths (in theory at least, the heights of concrete buildings could be increased from 500m to 15km!), solar cells with far higher solar harvesting efficiencies, new biomimetic materials, e.g. for use in joint replacement procedures, and electronic devices where size-dependent nanoparticle-like properties, e.g. superparamagnetism, are retained in macroscopic-sized materials enabling easier manufacture of components such as computer memory, quantum dot-based LEDs, etc. Currently approaches to mesocrystal formation are somewhat ad hoc and these kinds of application remain largely unachievable. The principle underlying reason for this is that mesocrystal formation processes are often still too poorly understood. POLYCOMP will remove this bottleneck to mesocrystal exploitation by focusing directly on developing a generic understanding of mesocrystal formation processes. Such an approach is thus clearly directly relevant to the EU’s mission to advance knowledge and technology in areas such as construction, electronics and energy.


Participants :
- Aston University (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet CENTR-ALL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Paediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (pALL) still accounts for most cancer-related deaths in children. Although high hyperdiploidy (HHD) is the most frequent pattern, its pathomechanism remains poorly understood. Recently, Experienced Researcher (ER) et al showed that sequential chromosomal gains and chromosomal instability (CIN) are critical features in HHD-pALL evolvement. The most common cause of CIN is centrosome amplification (CA) and recent findings indicate that inhibiting centrosome clustering (mechanism by which tumour cells control CA to retain viability) is a promising therapeutic avenue. Opposed to most solid and hematologic malignancies, the role of CA in HHDpALL has not been clarified thus far. Primary goal of ER is to illuminate this issue, which is expected to result in new diagnostic- and screening methodologies, as well as novel therapeutics. ER will join a leading group in the field of ‘cancer associated centrosome abnormalities’ (headed by Professor Alwin Krämer), in one of Europe’s largest cancer research institutes (DKFZ, Germany), applying state-of the art technologies in genomics and functional cell biology. Centrosomes are mostly visualized by immunocytochemistry, but precise evaluation is error prone and featured with inter-personal/-laboratory variance. A diagnostic and high-throughput screening methodology thus is highly desirable. Accordingly, second aim is to develop a novel automated fluorescence light microscopy (aFLM) application for centrosome analysis, building on ER's previous experience, but in a cross-sector collaboration with a non-academic world leader in image analysis (MetaSystems, Germany). To gain ultrastructural information as well, ER will also align aFLM with scanning electron microscopy for the first time, in collaboration with the Schwab Group (EMBL, Germany) creating high-capacity correlative light electron microscopy (hcCLEM). Commercial potentials of above original developments will also be investigated.

Mots clés : childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, chromosomal instability, centrosome aberration, automated microscopy, high throughput image analysis, clem

Participants :
- German Cancer Research Center (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 171460.8 €
Projet Coevolution (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Parasites infect nearly all forms of metazoan life, and act to shape the evolution of host populations and drive the dynamics of entire biological communities. Parasitism also acts a 2-way street: As host populations evolve in response to selection imposed by their parasites, so too does the parasite evolve in response to its host. This antagonistic coevolution between host and parasite may generate much of the genetic diversity found in natural populations, and is likely a strong driver of local adaptation and population differentiation. Host-parasite coevolution is also of enormous practical concern for human society, as parasites impose considerable costs in respect to agriculture, livestock production, aquaculture, and human health. Unfortunately though, very little empirical evidence is available to evaluate some of the most fundamental predictions of coevolutionary theory, especially in respect to the genomic basis of coevolution, as past studies of antagonistic coevolution have typically been conducted at the phenotypic level, or using simplified host-parasite systems in a laboratory setting. I therefore propose to conduct a direct genome-level investigation of antagonistic coevolution between wild populations of a host (Daphnia magna) and its bacterial parasite (Pasteuria ramosa). This research will capitalize upon recent technical and theoretical advances in the D. magna / P. ramosa system, and will center upon the measurement of interspecies linkage disequilibrium across the genomes of both species. This investigation will be conducted across multiple timescales: A single point in time, across the course of one year, and across a 50-year sediment core time-series. I expect that these experiments will yield direct genomic evidence of antagonistic coevolution in a natural population, a clear test of Red Queen coevolutionary dynamics, and the first genetic time-series of such resolution and duration.

Mots clés : antagonistic coevolution, aquatic ecology, host parasite interactions, genomic basis of infection, red queen

Participants :
- University of Basel (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 203149.44 €
Projet THERAPE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease characterized by the progressive loss of midbrain dopamine neurons that leads to the severe movement disorders and several non-motor symptoms. Available PD treatments do not provide long-lasting relief from the symptoms and do not slow down or stop the neurodegeneration. Cerebral dopamine neurotrophic factor (CDNF) was shown to reverse the PD-associated neurodegeneration in vitro and in vivo in animal models. Currently, CDNF is tested in the phase I-II clinical trials in PD patients. Despite of the promising results, CDNF doesn’t pass through the blood brain barrier (BBB) and should be delivered to the brain of PD patients through the risky microsurgery. Thus, there is a great need for the CDNF variants that can penetrate through the BBB avoiding intracranial surgery. In addition, systemic delivery of BBB permeable CDNF would offer a possibility to treat non-motor symptoms. Current proposal combines the cutting-edge molecular neurobiology and nanomedicine to develop the next generation CDNF-derived peptides that will be able to penetrate the BBB. For that 1) the length of CDNF will be reduced to enable penetration through the BBB, 2) CDNF fragment will be mutated to improve its stability in the blood and tissues and 3) CDNF fragment will be conjugated to nanoparticles to increase its stability and ability to penetrate the BBB. Our preliminary data showed the feasibility of this approach and holds great promises for the breakthrough in the treatment of PD. In addition, during the project applicant will be trained into independent group leader through the hands-on training in the top scientific laboratories and by managing the highly innovative research at the interface of different disciplines connecting three excellent scientists: Prof. Saarma, the world leading molecular neurobiology researcher, Prof. Laakkonen, the expert in homing peptides and Prof. Santos, the master of nanomedicine.

Mots clés : parkinson s disease, cerebral dopamine neurotrophic factor  cdnf, blood brain barrier, neuroregeneration

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

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects about 1% of the population over 55. After more than 50 years, dopaminergic treatment is still the gold standard in PD therapy, although, as the disease progresses, several motor complications may arise. One of the most common and debilitating are known as L-DOPA-induced dyskinesias (LIDs), a condition that is observed in up to 80% of patients within five years of L-DOPA or dopaminergic agonists treatment. Although the exact neural mechanisms are still unclear, recent studies suggested that LIDs might be a consequence of an abnormal control of synaptic plasticity at cortico-striatal synapses. The target of this research project is to investigate the presence of cortical markers underlying the development of LIDs. This is a topic of critical relevance: if LIDs development would be predictable from previous cortical dysfunction, it will be possible to adjust the DA therapy, in terms of dose and duration, basing on the grade of LID risk. To this aim, we will use a novel multimodal approach consisting in combining different techniques of non-invasive brain stimulation with electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG), behavioral task and clinical evaluations. Specifically, the present project encompasses three studies that will investigate cortical dysfunctions at three levels: at a local level, by testing M1 reactivity and inhibitory circuits; at a network level, by testing M1 connectivity with the areas involved in LID development; and at a dynamic level, by testing M1 plasticity mechanisms. Two groups of PD patients, with and without LIDs, will be investigated and monitored with two clinical follow-ups to evaluate the presence/grade of LIDs. An age-matched group of healthy volunteers will be tested as control. The present project potentially have important clinical implications in understanding the cortical dysfunction underlying the development of LIDs.

Mots clés : parkinson s disease, l dopa induced dyskinesia, plasticity, transcranial magnetic stimulation

Participants :
- University of London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet NEUROCURE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder that is characterised by progressive loss of dopamine neurons and abnormal intra-neuronal accumulation of protein α-synuclein (αS). None of the available treatments have shown ability to slow down the progression of the neurodegeneration. One of the therapeutically potent approaches to combat PD is neurotrophic factor (NTF)-based therapies. Delivery of NTFs to the brain shows a notable therapeutic potential due to the ability to stop and reverse neurodegeneration in animal models. The most potent NTFs for PD therapy so far are CDNF and GDNF that have been recently studied in clinical trials on PD patients. Despite of the promising results, CDNF and GDNF does not pass through the blood brain barrier (BBB) and should be delivered to the brain through a risky microsurgery. Thus, there is a great need for an effective method that can deliver CDNF/GDNF through the BBB avoiding intracranial surgery. Another promising strategy for curing PD is based on αS clearance and control of its pathological aggregation and propagation. Our preliminary results showed that beta-casein coated AuNPs have great capacity to reduce αS aggregation and can be used to deliver NTFs to the brain. This proposal combines nanomedicine and molecular neurobiology to develop multi-functional AuNP-based medicine against PD that will positively impact the disease progression through mitigation of the parthenogenesis associated with αS and support the survival of dopamine neurons by CDNF/GDNF delivery to the brain. The applicant will get training needed for his future independent research career through hands-on training in the top scientific laboratories and by managing the highly innovative research at the interface of different disciplines connecting two excellent scientists: Prof. Saarma, a world leading molecular neurobiologist and Prof. Teesalu, an expert in homing peptides.

Mots clés : parkinson s disease, nanoparticles, drug delivery, cerebral dopamine neurotrophic factor  cdnf, glial cell derived neurotrophic factor  gdnf, blood brain barrier, neuroregeneration

Participants :
- University of Helsinki (Finlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 190680.96 €
Projet PartialDischarge (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Partial discharge (PD) may lead to the degradation of insulating materials and affect the lifetime of high voltage (HV) equipment. Thus, the detection of PD is an efficient and practical method to evaluate dielectric defects at an initial stage. Given the importance of PD detection, this proposal will address the development of a new generation of MEMS-based low cost, electrodynamic (or inductive) microsensor to be used to accurately detect the presence of a PD in costly electrical conductors and MV/HV equipment. The innovative idea in this proposed method lies in exploiting both electromagnetic radiation emissions, in the form of radiofrequency waves, as well as the acoustic emissions, in the form of ultrasonic waves, which mark discharge phenomena in high electric voltage cables, as an example. Besides the high sensitivity guaranteed by the use of MEMS technology, this novel method will allow us to benefit from the advantages of both electrical and acoustic methods, and overcome their weaknesses.

Mots clés : partial discharge, mems based technology, electrodynamic microsensor, ultrasonic microphone

Participants :
- Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 178320.0 €