Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet Mammalian MBT (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Early animal embryos undergo a profound reprogramming of cell behaviour at the blastula stage in a major developmental transition known as the mid-blastula transition (MBT). Earlier studies demonstrated that MBT is an essential transition for embryonic development across various species, involving simultaneous changes in key cellular activities: activation of zygotic genome transcription (ZGA), cell cycle elongation, loss of division synchrony, and onset of cell motility. In contrast, little is known for mammalian embryos, which are often viewed as not having an MBT because of their slow initial cell cycle and early ZGA. However, MBT also exhibits a switch in the cell growth mode from reductive cleavage divisions to proliferative growth, and our recent findings suggest that this switch occurs at the blastocyst stage in mouse embryos. This project aims to identify the mammalian MBT, define its fundamental features and investigate the mechanisms that control its timing. Employing light-sheet microscopy to image mouse embryos at high spatiotemporal resolution, automatic cell segmentation and single-cell tracking, I will quantitatively characterise the cell volume dynamics in early embryogenesis. This will allow me to identify the transition from cleavage to proliferative growth and use this time reference to characterise novel MBT features. Specifically, I will focus on 18 hours within the blastocysts stage to test the hypothesis that mammalian MBT entails changes in cell fate, metabolism, spindle assembly and/or cell cycle control. Through temporally controlled perturbations I will determine if there is a causal link between these changes and identify the upstream regulator, the trigger for the mammalian MBT, as well as the mechanism by which the MBT timing is controlled. The identification and characterisation of mammalian MBT may provide a new definition and mechanism regulating this key transition in animal development.

Mots clés : mid blastula transition cleavage cell growth cell cycle dynamics quantitative cell biology

Participants :
- Académie royale néerlandaise des arts et des sciences (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 187624.32 €
Projet MultiSol (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Humanity places large demands on its cultivable soils for specific functions, e.g. food production, at the expense of the capacity of soils to provide multiple functions (carbon storage, biodiversity). However, currently multifunctionality is studied without considering the mechanistic linkages among individual soil functions. All soil functions depend on three key resources: energy, nutrients and water, producing critical trade-offs and synergies among functions. Furthermore, we lack a common measurement framework to assess soil multifunctionality. I propose to address these two challenges by 1) developing a soil multifunctionality assay that combines existing measurement techniques with latent variable models, and 2) causal modelling to test how different soil functions interlink across different soil types. I will sample grasslands across intensive-extensive land use gradients that are representative of NW European edaphic and management conditions as my study system. I will use latent variable models conditioned on multiple indicators per soil function, to develop a standardized testing procedure measuring five key soil functions (plant production, nutrient cycling, carbon and water storage, and habitat provision). Next, I will combine this standardized procedure with structural-causal modelling to test the role of resource division during plant-microbe-soil interactions in determining which functions predominate. My MSCA-project will elucidate the mechanisms underlying trade-offs and synergies among soil functions and reveal how differences among soils drive differences in soil multifunctionality.

Mots clés : soil functioning, plant soil interactions

Participants :
- Académie royale néerlandaise des arts et des sciences (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 203464.32 €
Projet SprayDelivery (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Respiratory diseases are one of the leading causes of death worldwide. The recent global pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) has made us realize that effective and widely acceptable therapies against such diseases are still lacking and urgently needed. Administering drugs through aerosolization directly to the lungs, i.e. pulmonary delivery, enables targeted therapeutic effects while minimizing side effects by reducing systemic drug exposure. However, generically aerosol delivery is not very efficient, with only 5-15% of the initial medication deposited in the lungs. This is primarily linked with a wide aerosol drop size distribution, leading to inefficient aerosol deposition in the upper rather than lower respiratory tract. In addition, degradation of the medication during nebulization is also a challenge. This project aims to bridge the gap between aerosol generation and the deposition and transport of medication into the respiratory tract. We first propose an innovative soft nebulization method that reduces aerosol droplet coalescence by charging aerosols through friction. We will then use this optimized nebulization method to investigate how medication aerosols impact on the mucus in the respiratory tract, and devise strategies to enhance targeted aerosol deposition. In addition, we will investigate the transport of drug formulations within the airways in relation to their different rheological properties related to typical various respiratory diseases. This project will establish transformable and applicable technologies for advancing aerosol drug delivery to the respiratory tract.

Mots clés : aerosols, spray, fluid dynamics, drug delivery, lipid nanoparticles, mucus, respiratory diseases

Participants :
- Université d'Amsterdam (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 237375.04 €
- Medspray b.v. (Pays-Bas) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
Projet STALSUns (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

State-of-the-art investigations of the hydrodynamic stability of flow fields of industrial significance are limited to time-invariant or time-periodic flows. This is due to the lack of a robust and affordable methodology capable of obtaining the stability and sensitivity information of complex aperiodic and chaotic flows. Ground-breaking theoretical and numerical concepts are necessary to provide new insight into the dynamic behaviour of unsteady flow systems and develop models for their physically founded control.  This project aims to develop a theoretical/numerical methodology that enables the effective study of the stability and the sensitivity of aperiodic and chaotic flow systems of industrial relevance. A new computational tool will be developed to perform finite-time Lyapunov exponent analysis in three-dimensional compressible unsteady flows, which will allow to characterize the perturbations producing chaos in a given flow system. This tool will be combined with a novel computational methodology based on adjoint shadowing techniques, which will enable the study of the sensitivity of aperiodic and chaotic flows to long-term averaged objectives.  The developed tools will be applied to two problems of practical interest in the aerospace industry: the unsteady separated flow in a low-pressure turbine blade and the unsteady flow induced by a real wing undergoing fast variations in the pitching angle. These analyses will allow to extract useful dynamical information about the most relevant coherent structures in the studied flow fields and exploit it to exercise flow control. For the first problem, experimental investigations will also be performed at Purdue Experimental Turbine Aerothermal Laboratory to test flow-control concepts devised during the numerical analyses. For the second problem, the investigations will be performed during a placement at Airbus Defence and Space.

Mots clés : hydrodynamic stability, sensitivity, unsteady flows, chaotic systems, coherent structures

Participants :
- Université Purdue (Etats-Unis) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Université polytechnique de Madrid (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 206641.2 €
- Airbus (Spain) (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
Projet MERGE (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The project explores how conservative and progressive Catholic-inspired social movements employ social media transnationally to discuss gender. It is original, first, in analyzing the heterogeneity of Catholicism in supporting or opposing gender equality; second, in focusing on relevant social issues such as reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ rights; third, in exploring social media use within transnational Catholic activism, often overlooked by existing literature. The fellow will focus on two case studies: 1) Conservative Catholic anti-gender movements that oppose LGBTQ+ rights and feminism 2) Progressive movements within the Catholic Church that advocate for the inclusion of women and LGBTQ+ people. The cases are based on the European and North American context. Hence, the fellow will work in the following institutions: for the outgoing phase, the University of Colorado, U.S., under the supervision of Professor Stewart Hoover, who leads a world-renown center for the study of religion and media, and is an expert in gender; for the return phase, the University of Bologna, Italy, under the supervision of Professor Alice Mattoni, who has expertise in transnational social movements and digital media, research ethics, and grant writing. In the two institutions, the fellow will acquire the skills to address these objectives: 1) Explore transnational social media narratives of Catholic movements through big data analysis, a skill acquired in training in both host institutions 2) Compare the online discourses of progressive and conservative Catholic groups through qualitative analysis, helped by the supervisor’s expertise in software for textual analysis 3) Research Catholic actors’ online and offline strategies through interviews and participant observation, a method honed during a secondment at the University of Pittsburgh. The project will produce results useful for the scientific and social understanding of social media use, contemporary religion, and gender equality

Mots clés : religion media gender social movements digital media

Participants :
- Université du Colorado (system) (Etats-Unis) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Bologne (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 288859.2 €
- Université Raymond-Lulle (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet TheranoXome (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The primary objective of this project is to engineer a non-immunogenic cell-membrane mimicking drug delivery vehicle for remote-controlled precision drug delivery. This will be achieved by encapsulating stimuli-responsive & contrast enhancing nanoparticles and drug cargo into endogenous exosomes to develop a therapeutic-cum-diagnostic exosomal system viz; TheranoXome for image-guided stimuli-responsive drug delivery. Such bio-mimetic TheranoXomes if realized will have wide applicability as a universal drug-delivery agent. The project entails three steps: (1) Synthesizing TheranoXomes by template assisted loading of chemotherapeutic drugs, light responsive thermoplasmonic gold nanorods and magnetic nanoparticles as magnetic resonance imaging agents into exosomes; (2) (Bio-)Physicochemical characterization of TheranoXomes including colloidal properties, biomimetics, immuno-compatibility, light-triggered drug release, magnetism (imaging and magnetic guided enrichment) and in vitro studies (2D and 3D cell cultures); (3) Application of TheranoXomes in vivo in a breast tumor bearing mice model. I (the ER) will prepare, characterize and test the materials and application proposed, with the support of a multidisciplinary hub of specialists. The prime training aim of TheranoXome is to provide me with a solid foundation in biomaterials, which will support my future career endeavours, both in the academia or industry, to be an independent researcher, a founder of a start-up company or to become key player in the biomaterials sector. I will be hosted by the Centre for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials (CiQUS) of the University of Santiago de Compostela, a cutting-edge multidisciplinary research centre at the interface of chemistry, biomedicine and molecular materials. The training will be further strengthened by one secondment (6 months) focused on in vivo (drug delivery and imaging) studies (Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela - IDIS).

Mots clés : colloid chemistry theranostics, in vivo bio and medical imaging, nano materials production and properties stem cell biology

Participants :
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 181152.96 €
Projet HOTFUM (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

HOTFUM aims to demonstrate the feasibility of developing an innovative Power-to-Heat & Thermal Energy Storage (P2H & TES) interconnected technology. The main idea is that a novel power-to-heat approach can induce uniform heating in heat transfer fluids (HTFs), which are used for both heat transfer and TES. Electricity can be converted into heat using technologies like resistive heating, which directly heats HTFs. This method can lead to uneven temperature distribution, causing hot spots that may damage the HTF and reduce the lifespan of the heating elements. Both P2H & TES systems, face similar challenges due to non-uniform heating of HTFs. HOTFUM offers a novel approach by exploring the use of nanoparticles (NPs) suspended in different HTFs like water, synthetic oils, ionic liquids, and molten salts. The objective is to demonstrate a novel power-to-heat approach for heating these fluids.  HOTFUM is strategically designed to take advantage of the researcher´s expertise in nanofluids for TES systems, the advanced characterization techniques available at CIIAE, the strong background of the supervisor in the field of TES. The project includes a secondment in a group specialized in nanotechnology and a placement in a SME focused in the development of NPs.

Mots clés : nanomagnetism, magnetism and strongly correlated systems, new materials oxides, alloys, composite, organic inorganic hybrid, nanoparticles, renewable energy sources

Participants :
- FUNDECYT PCTEX (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 262393.2 €
- Nanogap Sub-NM-Powder (Spain) (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet HICoNK (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) blocks HIV replication but cannot eliminate viral reservoirs that originate viral rebound if ART is discontinued. However, the host laboratory originally described some individuals, post-treatment controllers (PTC), capable to durably control viremia after ART discontinuation. More recently, the group has found that HLA B*35 alleles (usually associated with rapid progression in the absence of ART) are paradoxicaly overrepresented in PTCs and are accompanied with an MHC immunogenetic fingerprint (termed Bw4TTC2 by the lab), related to KIR-education of NK cells. The proposed work aims to better characterize transcriptional and functional signatures of NK cells in PTC and other people with HIV (PWH), their evolution since primary infection, during ART, and after ART discontinuation, and in regard of immunogenetic factors. These will be done in three different settings: (i) crossectional analysis in groups of people with well-characterized HIV status; (ii) longitudinal samples from the biobank of the primate-VISCONTI study (pVISCONTI); (iii) prospective study of samples from individuals on ART since primary HIV infection and carrying B*35 Bw4TTC2 , who will undergo ART interruption (ATI) in the context of the ANRS RHIVIERA01 clinical trial. Overall, this proposal should unveil the phenotype and functional activities of NK cell subsets more relevant to post-treatment control, the influence of early ART initiation and of immunogenetic factors. This information may provide important insight for the development of new immunotherapies aiming HIV remission.

Mots clés : nk cells, hiv 1, innate immunity, infection control

Participants :
- Institut Pasteur (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 195914.88 €
Projet MAGNEPHENE (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The development of tailored nanomaterials for quantum technologies is urgently needed.  Currently, polydisperse materials (such as conducting polymers, graphene nanoribbons, carbon nanotubes, etc.), lead the research field of organic electronics, while non-discrete systems based on inorganic solids (as nitrogen–vacancy centers in diamond or certain defects in Si) are ahead in most applications in nanotechnology. These areas of research progress towards the creation of smaller and more functional devices, promoting the invention of more and more sophisticated methods to control them. One of the main barriers of this evolution is the lack of materials that offer reproducibility and scalability, as well as stability and functionality. With that regard, molecular materials provide promising prospects due to their defined chemical structure, high processability, and because they can be tuned in a rational way by chemical design.  The preparation of molecular materials containing magnetic functionality (spin centers) and the ability to transport electrons (a π-conjugated organic framework) is still very limited due to the lack of synthetic protocols. Even though graphene is the most popular platform for organic electronics and magnetism, the insertion of spin centers in graphene-like materials has been scarcely explored. In this project I aim to develop an efficient protocol for the preparation of hybrid nanographenes that compete with non-discrete materials.

Mots clés : nanographene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, quantum technology, magnetism, electrocatalysis

Participants :
- Université de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 181152.96 €
Projet ODASMIR (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Breast cancer (BC) is a prevalent kind of cancer worldwide and it is one of the primary causes of cancer-related deaths in women. The research has shown that early detection of BC could significantly increase the chances of survival for patients. Recently, there has been a growing interest in microRNAs (miRNAs) as potential biomarkers for the early diagnosis of BC. Therefore, the development of new diagnostic tools for the early detection of BC is necessary. Thus, biosensors based on DNA nanotechnology emerge as a novel, versatile, and easily accessible alternative. In this context, the synergy between the fluorescence properties of DNA/AgNCs and the structural properties of DNA-origami will allow the creation of a new generation of hybrid nanomaterials (nanohybrids), which could be conceived as biosensors for the detection of miRNAs associated to BC with high sensitivity, sequence specificity, high throughput, low cost, and easy access. ODASMIR aims to design origami-DNA/AgNCs nanohybrids (ODAs) to develop a biosensor to diagnose BC through the detection of different miRNAs and, it will validate in in vitro models (2D and 3D). ODASMIR presents a multidisciplinary approach, both the objectives and the experimental methodology are on the interface between biology and chemistry. The biosensors obtained and their validation at the clinical level could have a significant impact on the accurate and early diagnosis of BC representing a significant advance in the field of nanomedicine.

Mots clés : dna nanotechnology biosensor mirnas breast cancer fluorescence

Participants :
- Université de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 181152.96 €
Projet SymbioDef (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Many animals acquire new abilities after establishing a symbiotic interaction with a microorganism, and the last decades have revealed the prevalence of defensive symbioses between animals and microorganisms. One of the best-studied cases are aphids that engage in a symbiotic relationship with a facultative bacteria that protect them against parasitic wasps (parasitoids). Parasitoids are small wasps that reproduce by injecting an egg as well as toxic venom compounds into their hosts, ultimately killing the host upon parasitoid development to adulthood. Defensive symbionts, however, can challenge this process and reduce parasitism success, a process that can alter the efficiency of biological control programs against aphids. While aphid defensive symbionts have been well studied in the past two decades, there is still no direct evidence of the defensive mechanisms against parasitism. Particularly, the interaction between aphid symbionts and parasitoid venom remains unexplored. In addition, studies have focused on the direct effects of symbionts on parasitoid populations, but complex indirect effects on the entire community of aphid natural enemies have been largely overlooked. In this multidisciplinary project, I propose to fill these gaps in knowledge by 1) unravelling the interaction between parasitoid venom and aphid symbiont protection, 2) investigating the indirect effects of aphid symbionts on the insect community of natural enemies and 3) regrouping these themes in a meta-analysis of the scientific literature to empirically assess the effects of insect microbial warfare. This proposal will advance our fundamental understanding of the effects of aphid symbionts, and it will be of applied interest to improve aphid biocontrol.

Mots clés : intraguild predator defensive symbiont parasitoid aphid venom

Participants :
- Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 211754.88 €