Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet TRAUMOBITA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Traumatic death affects our daily life, but how did traumatic mortality affect human behaviour from an evolutionary perspective? TRAUMOBITA aims to understand how traumatic mortality among prehistoric humans shaped our behaviour during the Late Pleistocene to the Middle Holocene. Confirming that how we died had an enormous influence on our ancestors and represents an enormous change in how we understand human societies. Traumatic mortality has an enormous influence among non-human primate social life and environmental adaptations, but not much effort has been dedicated to the study of how such deaths affected the behavioural development of modern humans. Identifying and understanding how humans died is essential for determining the role of violence in shaping our behaviour and, it seems, an equally important factor among our primate relatives. The goal here is to study these behavioural adaptations on the basis of two analytical sections. The first will comprise analysis of human fossils from different key sites from Lake Turkana (Africa): the region is known as the cradle of humankind and the archaeopaleontological record is an essential one for reconstructing our own evolutionary path. The second will be dedicated to integration of forensic science into taphonomic study of human fossils, in addition to development of new non-invasive methods based on virtual analysis and experimentation. The data obtained from this approach will facilitate identification and characterization of traumatic mortality in the archaeological record, in order to integrate our results into the study of past societies to determine which behavioural changes are related to traumatic mortality. The research is an integrated analysis that guarantees the interdisciplinary and innovative nature of the project. Little is known on the role of traumatic mortality in human behavioural adaptations, and therefore the project will represent a major advance.

Mots clés : taphonomy, bioarchaeology, africa, human evolution

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 224933.76 €
Projet U2FAST (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Travelling at high speeds entails overcoming adverse effects, such as regions of high heat transfer and surface pressures, unsteady shock waves, and fluid-structure interactions. The occurrence of shock boundary layer interaction (SBLI) close to the leading edge is common in high-speed intakes. When accompanied by separation, the interaction adversely affects the performance of the system. The adverse effects are more than just those related to the energy/efficiency budgets; the separation could be unsteady and 3-dimensional which imposes heavy unsteady loads (including thermal loads) on the structure. An understanding of the 3-dimensionality and unsteadiness associated with strong shock-boundary layer interactions thus becomes inevitable in view of controlling them, especially at high-speed Mach numbers, particularly in the context of intakes. The objectives of the propose study are: 1) investigate experimentally the spatio-temporal organization of a shock induced laminar/transitional separation bubble near the leading edge. 2) study in detail, the mechanisms responsible for the unsteadiness using advanced flow diagnostic techniques. 3) propose and demonstrate novel methods of control of the unsteady interactions. The research programme will advance the frontiers of supersonic and hypersonic aerothermodynamics and propulsion and it will firmly establish a UK/European lead in research on shock-boundary layer interactions and their control. This programme will be supported by the excellent research environment provided by the host, Prof Kontis, University of Glasgow UK, with state-of-the-art facilities for research development, testing and training. This programme will also benefit from the strong links between the host group and leading UK and international research groups.

Mots clés : high speed flow, sbli, flow diagnostics, flow and flight control, wind tunnel testing

Participants :
- University of Glasgow (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet CONTACT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Triple Negative Breast Cancer is the most aggressive among breast cancer subtypes. The conventional neo-adjuvant therapy is ineffective in about 50% of cases, with patients presenting a higher risk of recurrence and metastasis. The failure of the currently available chemotherapeutic strategy is also due to the lack of cancer preclinical models that are “close-to-reality” and therefore able to accurately recapitulate the tumor microenvironment, the transcriptional reprogramming and the cancer cells plasticity of patients with poor outcomes. Currently, miRNAs and lncRNAs are believed to be key components in all major adaptation pathways and involved in the transcriptional reprogramming that occurs after TNBC treatment with neo-adjuvant therapy. Moreover, bioengineered preclinical in vitro models permit to study the molecular mechanisms underpinning adaptive responses to chemotherapy by selecting transcriptional phenotypes that somehow make tumor cells tolerant to drugs, without requiring a selection of genetic features. The CONTACT project aims at developing a 3D bioengineered TNBC in vitro model able to shed light on the mechanisms of tumor cells reprogramming that trigger drug-tolerance. The model will include stromal components along with cancer cells and represent an important tool in studying the role of the stroma in transcriptional reprogramming. Bioengineered 3D breast cancer in vitro models will accelerate the establishment of personalized treatment protocols that take into account what exactly, in each patient, leads to transcriptional reprogramming. The CONTACT project will boost the scientific career of the experienced researcher and will lead her to an independent role in research. The project will also broad the expertise of the experienced researcher in the area of cancer genomics. Her expertise in 3D tumor models will pave the way for a new research line in the scientific portfolio of the host institution.

Mots clés : triple negative breast ca, spheroids, 3d cultures, drug response and, or resistance, microenvironment, extracellular matrix, ecm, stroma

Participants :
- Italian Institute of Technology (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 171473.28 €
Projet THrESholds (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Tropical forest and savanna are home to one-fifth of global human population. With ongoing global change, predicting how these biomes will respond to changing rainfall and relative humidity (RH) is of high priority. The overall aim of this project is to identify thresholds in RH that triggered in the past (last 10,000 years) the transition from forest to savanna and those that made forest resilience possible in Africa. I will use a new RH proxy, recently developed by the host laboratory, which is the triple oxygen isotope composition (17O-excess) of phytoliths. While calibrations were conducted in growth chambers, field applications are needed to precisely evaluate the accuracy of the proxy. I will examine the evolution of the 17O-excess in the water cycle and in grass and tree phytoliths, and quantify the isotopic fractionation at play, at a West African instrumented site. Then 17O-excess bias potentially brought by the contribution of phytoliths from lake shoreline vegetation to bulk sedimentary phytoliths will be quantified. Finally, I will analyse the 17O-excess of phytoliths from four West and Central African Holocene lacustrine sedimentary cores to reconstruct changes in RH. Vegetation structure and fire activity will be reconstructed from the same sediments. The effect of reconstructed RH and fire activity trends will be analyzed using time series cross-correlation and spectral analyses, and thresholds in RH identified using regime shifts analyses. These results will help to better understand the impacts of past climate change on tropical forest resilience. During this project, I will acquire new laboratory skills, develop the use of a new paleoclimate proxy, reinforce my scientific leadership and expand my career prospects in academia. I will bring my expertise in remote sensing analyses and biome management to the host laboratory. This project will also strengthen the European leadership in triple oxygen isotope analyses for paleoclimate reconstructions.

Mots clés : relative humidity, triple oxygen isotope, phytoliths, forest, savanna, resilience, climate change

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 176946.28 €
Projet FORWARD (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Tropical forests host over half of the Earth’s biodiversity and play a critical role in regulating global climate. Water availability is a key driver of tropical forest dynamics and species distribution, making them highly vulnerable to extreme droughts and high-rainfall events. Yet the responses of tropical forest to water availability are still poorly integrated in dynamic vegetation models, leading to large data-model discrepancies, crucially impeding our predictive ability. The development of robust models has been hindered by incomplete knowledge of the physiological mechanisms underlying tree responses to water availability, while computational and data limitations have prevented fine-scale representation of forest structure and biodiversity. High quality models are now urgently needed to support decision-making in the face of climate change and increasingly common droughts and high-rainfall events. FORWARD will combine cutting-edge advances in ecophysiology, individual-based modelling and remote sensing to improve predictive capacity on the responses of tropical forests to water availability variability in space and time. Through a model-data fusion cycle, it will (i) make critical improvements to a novel individual-based forest dynamics model that jointly simulates processes and diversity (recently developed by the candidate), (ii) parameterise it using functional traits for three contrasted tropical forest sites, (iii) validate it against ground and high-resolution remote-sensing data, (iv) apply the model to predict future tropical forest trajectories under scenarios of global changes. FORWARD will thus result in a cutting-edge forest dynamics model and develop novel approaches of data-model integration using up-to-date remote-sensing data. The fellow will benefit from the host’s unique expertise in remote sensing, theoretical and forest ecology, complementing her experience in ecophysiology and modelling, while boosting her transferable skills.

Mots clés : tropical forests, individual based model, functional traits, plant hydraulics, lidar, spatially explicit, climate change, drought, topography, scenario

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet TropDemTrait (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Tropical forests represent key terrestrial ecosystems for carbon stocks and biodiversity. The dynamics of carbon storage in forests are primarily driven by tree performance in terms of mortality and growth. But climate change is rapidly altering tree performance, with important consequences for carbon cycle, climate regulation and biodiversity. Yet, we are still lacking accurate predictions of the response of tropical forest in terms of their composition, dynamics and functions to altered climate. While demographic approaches have traditionally focused on how individual performance vary with ontogeny or size, trait-based approaches have often focused on how morphological or physiological properties of individuals (traits) change with abiotic and biotic factors and links to performance. Though the link between traits and performance influences population dynamics and subsequent community structure and ecosystem functions, we still understand very little about the drivers shaping the trait-performance relationship. With tropical forests facing rapidly changing abiotic and biotic conditions with global changes, we need a better mechanistic understanding of tropical tree growth and mortality response to the interplay of traits with abiotic and biotic factors. The proposed project will yield a major contribution to this goal by using state-of-the-art, powerful modelling approaches with unprecedented demographic data spanning over 40 years and leaf and wood economics and hydraulics traits of over 700 tropical tree species distributed in 74 forest plots along broad soil and climatic gradients on four continents. Our results will bring a mechanistic understanding of how the interplay of species traits, tree size, climate, soil, and biotic interactions impact tree growth and mortality rates in tropical forests, while disentangling region-specific from pantropical effects.

Mots clés : trees growth and mortality, community ecology, functional traits, demography, vital rates, climate change, tropical forests, soil, spatial analyses

Participants :
- Institut de recherche pour le développement (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 196707.84 €
Projet Lac-TB (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major global public health problem in which one-fourth of the world’s population is latently infected. Host-directed therapeutics are a promising approach; however, we require a comprehensive understanding of how host-pathogen interactions impact signalling pathways and cellular responses to dictate disease outcome. Metabolic reprogramming of immune cells has been described during Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) infection, resulting in active glycolysis and lactate production. Lactate is an active signalling molecule and macrophages, the main M.tb cell target, can respond to it through different transporters. The main aim of this project is to investigate the crosstalk between metabolic and immune responses in the context of M.tb infection, with a particular focus on macrophage responses to lactate. This project has the potential of revealing new host immune-metabolic therapeutic targets for TB disease. Birmingham has one of the highest rates of TB in the UK and University of Birmingham (UoB) is a world-reference institution for metabolic and metabolomic studies. Dr Llibre has a strong background in immunology and moving to Dr Mauro’s laboratory at UoB will provide her with a rare opportunity to obtain a unique skillset, allowing her to study cell metabolism in high resolution. The expertise, facilities and supervisory team at the host institution, together with Dr Llibre’s extensive knowledge on immunology and infectious disease ensure the feasibility of this project. UoB will provide Dr Llibre a privileged environment to fully develop all the skills required to lead a successful research group, including training in scientific communication; opportunities for supervising and teaching, for learning how to coordinate a project and protect intellectual property. At the end of the fellowship, Dr Llibre will be at the forefront of the much needed and exciting field of immuno-metabolism, equipped to secure funding as an independent researcher.

Mots clés : immunometabolism, macrophage, tuberculosis, lactate, lactate transporters

Participants :
- University of Birmingham (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 224933.76 €
Projet TRAP-CART (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Two major issues hamper successful treatment of solid cancers with CAR T cells. First, immunosuppression imposed by the tumor microenvironment (TME) can compromise CAR T cell function. Second, CAR T cells require specific antigens for precise tumor recognition to limit/avoid toxicities associated with on-target/off-tumor activity. Initial attempts to overcome these challenges included immune checkpoint blockade and tunable CAR T cells. Here, we propose to develop a conceptually new framework for solid tumor therapy that introduces genetically modified, blood-derived TME cells as Trojan horses to deliver inflammation and broadcast “intratumor” signals that activate programmable CAR T cells. Overall, we will design a hematopoietic stem cell (HSC)-directed strategy for Tumor microenvironment-Regulated Activation of Programmable CAR T (TRAP-CART). This project builds on the host lab’s expertise in high-throughput genomics, bioinformatics, and CAR T cells, and on my own background in HSC engineering. Through epigenome/transcriptome profiling, we will systematically identify gene-regulatory elements that are specific to blood-derived cells in the TME. We will use such regulatory sequences for HSC-directed gene therapy, such that their progeny will express a programmed transgene only in the immediate vicinity of tumor cells. This TME-regulated transgene will induce inflammation (to help overcome the hostile immune environment of many solid tumors) and/or release localized activatory signals for CAR T-cells (making it possible to use weakly specific CARs while avoiding on-target/off-tumor activity elsewhere in the body). We will focus on melanoma as our “model cancer”, which has a high mutational burden, good mouse models and is widely used for testing cutting-edge immunotherapies. Specific Objectives: 1)Develop a promoter/enhancer toolbox for HSC gene therapy targeting the TME 2)Induce a CAR T-supportive TME that activates programmable CAR T-cells in situ

Mots clés : cancer immunotherapy, tumor microenvironment, car t cells, cell engineering, single cell, analysis

Participants :
- Austrian Academy of Sciences (Autriche) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 174167.04 €
Projet AuroraMHD (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Two of Jupiter’s large Galilean moons - Io and Europa - are among the most interesting planetary bodies: Io is the most volcanically active body in our solar system and its neighboring moon Europa harbors a subsurface water ocean and high water vapor plumes were observed at its surface. The moon’s surfaces and atmospheres interact with the surrounded moving magnetized plasma forming a complex plasma interaction. Observations of auroral emissions from the moons’ atmospheres and numerical modeling of the plasma interaction are used to derive plasma physical, geophysical and atmospheric properties, such as the composition and the distribution of the moons’ atmospheres and subsurface oceans. However both approaches, observations and numerical modeling, are mostly treated independently and hence often provide an ambiguous interpretation. The research goal of this project is to combine the two approaches and the different data sets- in-situ measurements from the Galileo spacecraft and the large set of aurora images from the Hubble Space Telescope- in order to advance the understanding of the atmospheres, interiors and magnetic surroundings of Io and Europa and to investigate the influence of induction from a subsurface ocean on the moons’ aurora. This action will be fulfilled by an advanced magnet-hydrodynamic model which self-consistently simulates the plasma interaction and aurora emissions. The results of the project will advance the understanding of the properties of the moons and their plasma interaction, lead to several publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and will provide useful input to the planning of future spacecraft observations such as the Jupiter Icy moon Explorer or the Europa Clipper mission. During the fellowship at the KTH I will greatly expand my expertise in aurora observations and numerical modeling as well as my pedagogical competence which will help me to develop into a leading independent researcher.

Mots clés : europa, aurora, mhd modeling, moon plasma interaction, galilean moons

Participants :
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 173857.2 €
Projet OXWALD (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Two-dimensional (2D) Van der Waals (VdW) materials have started a new era in the physics and chemistry of materials full of exciting challenges in fundamental science and also holding impressive technological promises connected to their atomic scale thickness. However, electrons in current 2D materials, with graphene being the most representative example, do not “feel” each other and their electronic properties are interpreted within single particle models. Correlated 3d transition metal oxides (CCO) are prototype correlated materials where the unscreened Coulomb repulsion between electrons in narrow 3d bands gives rise to a delicate entanglement between electronic attributes: charge, orbital and spin. Their complex interactions is at the bottom of non-trivial entanglements responsible for a wide variety of electronic ground states (superconductivity, multiferroicity, spin or charge order, quantum magnets, etc). Moreover, these electronic phases can be manipulated by external stimuli (electric field, light, magnetic field etc) giving rise to a plethora of coupled responses. Typically these CCOs present broader range of functionalities than conventional 2D materials. In OXWALD the fellow Victor Rouco, will search for new synthesis strategies of 2D CCO freestanding monolayers, and their combinations in multifunctional heterostructures with conventional VdW materials. The main goal will be to imprint electron correlated groundstates into the one-electron states of vdW materials. This fellowship will be carried out at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) under the supervision of Prof. Jacobo Santamaria with a secondment at the Institute of Materials Research ICMM-CSIC also in Madrid.

Mots clés : complex correlated oxides, van der waals, quantum materials

Participants :
- Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 160932.48 €