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

Advanced nanotechnology-based materials offer new solutions to the challenges associated with the non-specific delivery of therapeutics that leads to ineffective treatments, especially in oncology. Currently, both therapeutic and diagnostic molecules are administered systemically, increasing the likelihood of unwanted side effects. THERAGEL will develop a novel delivery system that enables selective, targeted local delivery of therapeutics and imaging agents. Specifically, I will use this delivery system to design a therapy for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive form of brain cancer. THERAGEL will comprise a unique combination of advanced injectable polymeric depots and targeted nanoparticles with both chemotherapeutic and imaging agent payloads (‘theranostic’ nanoparticle). The polymeric depots will provide a continuous release of free chemotherapeutic drug, with a tunable profile depending on the polymer composition, and cancer-targeted nanoparticles that will release the theranostic cargo only after selective uptake by cancer cells. THERAGEL will advance the state of the art in nanomedicines through advances to the individual components of the developed delivery system. This proposal represents a unique opportunity in the context of nanotheranostics for tailored chemotherapy, and means a significant step towards its clinical translation. The technologies developed will address three out of the six Horizon 2020 Key Enabling Technologies themes, which are a key part of the programme funding strategy: Nanotechnology, Advanced Biomaterials and Advanced Manufacturing technologies. This research constitutes a highly multidisciplinary approach with large impact in near future advanced therapies and with a great chance for collaboration and networking between European research groups and industrial partners. Combining my expertise in gated-materials with the host PI’s delivery systems development experience will make this new direction possible

Mots clés : drug delivery systems, hydrogels, glioblastoma multiorme, mesoporous materials

Participants :
- Trinity College Dublin (Irlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 87933.0 €
- Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (Irlande) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 87933.0 €
Projet InsiliCardio (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Mathematics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Advances in medical imaging have enabled unprecedented ability to image cardiac anatomy and function. So far these technologies have had relatively modest clinical impact as the analysis of such rich multi-modal datasets has proven challenging. In silico models hold vast potential to better harness such datasets by enabling their integration into quantitative frameworks that can aid in gaining better mechanistic insight into cardiac function in health and disease, and thus paving the way towards optimal therapeutic strategies. Our objective is to develop the most advanced biophysically detailed in-silico model of total electro-mechano-fluidic function of the heart. This model will be parametrized, verified and used to study cause-effect relationships between flow and pressure and their impact upon pumping performance. A novel set of features such as combined models of both heart and attached outflow vessels and the computational efficiency will provide a unique platform for translational research. This ambitious endeavor is feasible only by combining the expertise of the applicant in modeling soft tissue mechanics and his supervisors in modeling electrophysiology (Gernot Plank, MUG) and blood flow (Shawn Shadden, UC Berkeley). Clinical input and datasets for model parametrization and validation are provided by Titus Kühne (DHZ Berlin) and by clinical collaborators of Prof. Shadden at UCSF. During the return-phase, the applicant will use the infrastructure of Prof. Plank’s lab and the large network of academic and industrial collaborations as an incubator for building up his own research group in computational hemodynamics. This is ideal in many regards, as the expertise of the applicant's group will be entirely orthogonal to the expertise in Prof. Plank's lab, thus promoting a fast pathway towards full indepence, and core expertise necessary for further developing and maintaining a highly complex computing environment is synergistically shared between the labs.

Mots clés : whole heart model, parallel high performance computing, image based validation studies, anatomically accurate high resolution models, multiphysics simulations

Participants :
- Medical University of Graz (Autriche) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 218176.2 €
- University of California System (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet EnAct (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Aesthetic behaviours and expressive activities carry out a crucial role in human cultural evolution. Aesthetic cognition is important for intersubjective attunement already in early childhood, and attends to cultural emergence and transmission of ideas, practices and norms. However, anthropological scholars haven't ever investigated the cognitive dynamics whereby aesthetic behaviours shape the symbolic processes of constitution and re-enactment of cultural heritage. The proposed research project seeks to address this lacuna by dealing with key issues relating to the role of aesthetic behaviours in cultural transmission. The study focuses on how aesthetic and expressive elements are mobilized in the course of social interaction creatively transforming and communicating knowledge. The originality of the proposed approach lies in the interdisciplinary methodology that has not been used in previous studies of the subject matter. For the first time, a naturalistic and cross-cultural model of aesthetic behaviour will be applied to the context of cultural evolution. Existing naturalistic studies of aesthetics are characterized by a reductionist approach, whereas research on cultural transmission suffers due to the divide between cultural and evolutionary perspectives. This project aims to overcome the traditional opposition of “evolutionary psychology versus ethnography” through an interdisciplinary study of the multimodal, expressive, symbolic, and non-verbal practices whereby human beings collectively perform and share knowledge. The principal result of the project will be the first systematic and comparative analysis of aesthetic behaviours as operative components of cultural transmission. This result will be of interest to a broad scientific audience and will enhance several branches of European research and education, including aesthetics, cultural evolution, anthropology of art, and cultural heritage, by combining research methods derived from different disciplines.

Mots clés : aesthetics, cultural transmission, cognitive anthropology, comparative anthropology

Participants :
- École des hautes études en sciences sociales (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 185076.0 €
Projet LEAS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Affective abilities are crucial for social interactions, as understanding, predicting and responding to emotional signals is necessary for the optimal functioning of daily life. Of note, emotion recognition relies on the detection of salient information, a task chiefly accomplished through vision. As a matter of fact, affective signals are largely conveyed through nonverbal communication, and can be perceived exclusively through sight, as the redness on the cheeks when feeling embarrassed. Indeed, previous behavioral evidence and functional brain data point to the crucial role of sight in emotional processing. Therefore, a question naturally arises: how emotions are experienced/perceived in absence of vision? Specifically, how do congenitally blind individuals describe emotions through language? Is their representation of affective states in the body different from a sighted subject? Do they retain the same mechanisms of emotional coding in the brain? To answer these questions, the proposal (1) will explore the emotion ontology of sighted and congenitally blind individuals, revealing to what extent emotion semantics develops independently from the sense of vision; (2) will study how much the representation of emotional bodily sensations depends on sight; (3) will investigate whether the stream of affect is differently encoded in the brain of sighted and blind individuals. The action will adopt an interdisciplinary approach, exploiting methods ranging from computational linguistics to psychological assessment, as well as from behavioral to neuroimaging investigations. The innovative framework here proposed will advance our knowledge of sensory deprivation and emotion by mapping affective states in language, body and brain. Importantly, the current action will highlight factors influencing the psychological wellbeing of visually impaired subjects and provide new insights to foster their inclusion in a society which strongly depends on sight.

Mots clés : sensory deprivation, emotions, blindness, computational linguistics, affective experience, fmri

Participants :
- Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 166320.0 €
Projet OSCA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Africa will experience rapid population and economic growth this century. Without pollution controls, the increased demand for fossil fuels, agricultural intensification, and industrial expansion will result in increased emissions of the atmospheric precursors that form ground-level ozone. Ozone is phytotoxic to plants and so reduces crop yields. Global losses in yields are estimated at over $10 billion. Africa will be particularly vulnerable as malnourishment is rampant and already ground-level ozone far exceeds levels safe for plant growth. Deleterious effects of ozone on crops are not included in crop yield forecasts for Africa, so future crop yields are likely overestimated. The overarching aim of this project is to get a data-driven estimate of current and future (2050) effects of ozone pollution on crop yields in Africa with Africa-specific crops and cultivars not yet considered in global studies. Project objectives will be achieved with (1) ozone exposure measurements at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH, UK) where the fellowship will be based; (2) ozone and crop physiology measurements at field sites in Kenya; (3) simulation of surface ozone with an atmospheric chemistry model to be evaluated in this work; and (4) crop productivity forecasts for Africa at the University of Leeds as secondment. Data collected will be used to quantify current and 2050 food security threats of surface ozone in Africa. Results will be reported to relevant air quality and agricultural policymakers to emphasise the need for crop adaptation and ozone pollution control in Africa. New skill sets include ozone exposure experiments, physiological modelling, and crop forecasting; career development will be in project, person and data management; and placement at CEH and University of Leeds will facilitate extensive global networking. CEH will benefit from the candidate’s skills in global atmospheric modelling and a new focus on Africa as part of the ozone impacts team.

Mots clés : africa, food security, crop yields, ozone pollution, air quality

Participants :
- UK Research and Innovation (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet AFROEUROPOLITANS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

African literatures attest not only to the diversity of mobilities typical of the global era, but also to the fact that Europe continues to occupy a special place in the African literary imaginary. This study analyses the ways in which African Franco- and Anglophone diasporic literatures address the idea(l) of a cosmopolitan world citizenry in varied Afro-European contexts of mobility. In order to do so, the study critically revisits the concept of cosmopolitanism and, by drawing on theory and readings of African fiction, develops a new analytical pattern reflecting the privileged, practical and critical dimensions of the concept. The study’s interdisciplinary theoretical framework consists of postcolonial theory, cosmopolitanism, mobility studies and diaspora studies, and it applies a method of contextual close-reading which is motivated by a transnational impulse. By focusing on Afro-European mobilities, the study contributes to the topical scholarly endeavour of analysing the intertwinement of the two continents in a way that exceeds national boundaries. Studying fictional African cosmopolitanisms enhances our understanding of Europe in a changing global setting in terms of cultural encounters viewed from an Afro-European perspective, providing a literary articulation of the social exclusion that people with African origins often face in their attempt to claim cosmopolitan world citizenry in Europe. Fictive African mobile narratives are informed by such intersecting markers of difference as class, gender, nationality, and race. The study draws attention to how the universalising tendencies of traditional cosmopolitanisms and the elitism of some recently formulated Afropolitanisms are challenged in this setting. By developing and applying an analytical pattern of cosmopolitanisms, the study responds to the urgent call to revisit the slippery concept of cosmopolitanism by exploring its limits and potentials within the African literary context.

Mots clés : cosmopolitanism, afropolitanism, africa, europe, mobility, african literature, diaspora, transnational, postcolonial

Participants :
- University of Liège (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 172800.0 €
Projet scTRYPseq (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

African trypanosomes are flagellated parasitic protozoans that cause the devastating, lethal disease sleeping sickness, as well as causing economically damaging livestock infections across sub-Saharan Africa. Trypanosomiasis was targeted for elimination by the WHO and others in the London declaration by 2020. Trypanosomes are transmitted by the bite of an infected tsetse fly, which restricts their geographic distribution. In the salivary gland of the fly, parasites coat their surface with approximately 10 million copies of a single variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) in a single layer which is protective against the mammalian immune system and prepares trypanosomes for infectivity. This VSG is expressed in a mono-allelic fashion from a specialized telomeric expression site. VSG coat is an important virulence mechanism; without this coat, parasites are rapidly lysed by mammalian complement. This project will address a fundamental question in trypanosome biology: How do African trypanosomes express a single VSG in its coat? I will address this questions primarily using single cell RNA-seq. First, I will establish an inDrops pipeline at the Institut Pasteur in collaboration with Prof. Andrew Griffiths at ESPCI (Paris) using cultured T. brucei, which will allow me to parameterize this novel single cell RNA-seq pipeline. Then using this protocol, I will generate single cell transcriptomes from tsetse fly derived parasites, constructing a gene expression profile for development of trypanosome infectivity. inDrops is a truly disruptive technology that allows massively parallel indexing of cellular mRNA, allowing transcriptomic analysis of thousands of single cells. These finding will have broad significance in the field; firstly, they will provide the first high-resolution single-cell transcriptome of this pathogen, and they will constitute a significant advance in our understanding of gene expression and the acquisition of infectivity in African trypanosomes.

Mots clés : african trypanosome, virulence gene

Participants :
- Institut Pasteur (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 173076.0 €
Projet MWGRAV (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

After more than 20 years of fundamental research, atom interferometers have reached sensitivity and accuracy levels competing with or beating inertial sensors based on different technologies. Atom interferometers offer interesting applications in geophysics, inertial sensing, metrology and tests of fundamental physics. Recently, a growing interest of the application of atom interferometry to gravitational wave detection and geophysics has been drawn. These applications beyond the pure scope of atomic physics require the development of more performant atomic inertial sensors, particularly for the use of matter-wave interferometers in gravitational wave detectors, where sensitivity levels far beyond the state of the art must be demonstrated. The proposed project aims at contributing filling this gap by studying new atom and optical interferometry techniques, in order to significantly improve the performances of matter -wave gravitation sensors. The proposed MSC action will significantly impact the design of a new class of matter-wave gravitation sensors, which are under study in several countries in the world. In the excellence metrology environment of SYRTE, the MSC applicant will foster challenging developments in atom interferometers, with a high impact on the communities of atomic physics, geophysics and gravitational wave detection. On this path, the Experienced Researcher will benefit from an original and efficient training by the host group through knowledge transfer, acquisition of new scientific and management skills, enlargement of her professional network and development of her track record.

Mots clés : matter wave interferometry, inertial sensors, metrology

Participants :
- Observatoire de Paris (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 185076.0 €
Projet EMPAPOSTDOCS-II (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Cofund Postdoctoral programme
Statut du projet : CLOSED

After successfully applying for a first postdoctoral fellowship programme in 2010, Empa has decided to create a second fellowship programme: It will allow 50 experienced researchers from all over the world to create a research project and get the opportunity to work on their own research idea at one of the 30 research laboratories of Empa, in cooperation with a senior scientist of Empa of his/her choice. The training and mentoring scheme will ensure that the fellows not only enhance their scientific experience but also acquire key long-life skills making them “contributing players” of the research community and society in general. As an interdisciplinary research institution within the Swiss ETH Domain, Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, conducts cutting-edge materials and technology research. Empa’s activities focus on meeting the requirements of industry and the needs of society, and thus link applications-oriented research to the practical implementation of new ideas in the areas of nanostructured, “smart” materials and surfaces, environmental, energy and sustainable building technologies as well as biotechnology and medical technology. Empa’s five research focal areas and three locations offer a large degree of freedom of research topic and destination for the applicants. The close cooperation of Empa with its industry partners ensures that the fellows will gain sufficient cross-sectorial experiences while being at Empa. Empa’s world-leading expertise in the various research fields and the close ties with industry offers a good balance of academic/research and industrial experience. The applicants will be evaluated by an internal and external selection committee of peer-reviewers according to strict selection criteria focusing on the applicants’ professional, personal, social and leadership skills and his or her research potential. The fellows will be offered an Empa contract of two years.

Mots clés : international, interdisciplinary, inter sectoral, postdoctorand, training, mobility

Participants :
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 3540000.0 €
Projet AmyloAge (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

After the age of 30, our muscle strength declines by ~14% per decade. In up to 40% of the elderly, this decline culminates in sarcopenia (SP), critically low muscle mass, causing impaired mobility and longer hospitalizations. Muscle decline rates vary greatly between individuals due to genetic and environmental factors. Yet, our lack of insight into these factors impedes developing effective measures against SP. SP is clinically similar to inclusion body myositis (IBM), the most common myopathy in the elderly, and their molecular phenotypes are very similar. Preliminary data from my host lab, the Laboratory of Integrative Systems Physiology (LISP), show that high-fat diet induces amyloid-containing aggregates in the muscles of aging mice. Such aggregates are hallmarks of muscle proteinopathies such as IBM. Hence, these diseases may be the pathological extremes of natural protein aggregation in the muscle. LISP recently described the protective, therapeutic role of activating mitochondrial stress responses in aggregation diseases. Activating these pathways prevents aggregate formation in cells, worms and transgenic Alzheimer’s mice. I thus hypothesize that mitochondrial dysfunction worsens the pathology of muscle aggregation diseases and SP. My project AmyloAge will explore natural aging in muscle in large, genetically diverse populations of worms, mice and humans. I will use my expertise in proteomics to study the evolution of muscle protein composition and find the genetic determinants associated with unhealthy protein aggregation and muscle decline. With my expertise in biostatistics, I will build an analysis pipeline to find the genes and molecular pathways responsible for protein aggregation and metabolic dysfunction in the muscle. AmyloAge will increase our knowledge of the molecular and physiological variability in muscle aging. This will lay the groundwork for preventive interventions against SP and protein aggregation diseases like IBM.

Mots clés : muscle proteinopathies, genetic reference populations, systems genetics

Participants :
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 203149.44 €