Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet FBIimaging (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The sensory cortex plays a crucial role in detecting and interpreting environmental stimuli. Tactile inputs from the peripheral organs are transmitted through the thalamus to the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), where they are integrated with long-range projections from higher-order brain regions, defined as feedback (top-down) inputs. Top-down control has been proposed to mediate contextual or attentional modulation of sensory processing. The host laboratory has shown that layer 5 pyramidal neurons (L5-PNs) in S1 exhibited dendritic regenerative potentials, so-called calcium spikes, when mice detect tactile stimuli, and their manipulation altered the mouse’s perception threshold. Interestingly, the L5-PN’s distal-apical dendrites, where calcium spikes originate, are extensively innervated by axonal projections from higher-order cortical and thalamic areas. In light of this evidence, I hypothesize that long-range inputs to S1 modulate tactile detection via facilitating dendritic calcium spikes in L5-PNs. To test this hypothesis, I will determine the localization and timing of the long-range feedback inputs reaching the apical dendrites of S1 L5-PNs, which covary with the tactile detection sensitivity. Furthermore, I will test the context dependence of the long-range inputs. I will employ a whisker detection paradigm, where mice are trained to detect single whisker deflections to obtain water rewards. I will combine one-photon wide-field imaging and state-of-the-art genetic tools to visualize the glutamatergic inputs in distal dendrites or the axonal calcium activity in long-range projections. My study will provide new insights into the neuronal mechanisms underlying contextual modulation of perception by shedding light on the integrative properties of cortical pyramidal neuron dendrites.

Mots clés : somatosensory cortex dendrite long range projection in vivo imaging tactile detection dendritic spines synapses

Participants :
- Université de Bordeaux (France) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 195914.88 €
Projet MindTheGAP (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Pathogenic SYNGAP gene mutations generally lead to haploinsufficiency and account for up to 1% of intellectual disability cases. SynGAP is one of the most abundant postsynaptic proteins that maintains a low basal activity in excitatory synapses. It acts through AMPA type glutamate receptors (AMPAR) that mediate most fast excitatory neurotransmission in the brain. In SynGAP haplodeficiency, AMPAR trafficking and surface expression are dysregulated, and synaptic plasticity is impaired. In our project, we aim to 1) study how SynGAP regulates the surface nano-organization of AMPAR subunits, 2) validate a novel strategy to stabilize SynGAP in the postsynaptic region using innovative molecular tools, 3) exploit our strategy as well as pharmacological approaches to restore normal synaptic transmission and plasticity in SynGAP+/- neurons. We will use recently developed and validated antibody fragments against each AMPAR subunit with 4-color dSTORM/U-PAINT microscopy to uncover their specific nanoscale co-organization. Furthermore, we will test novel synthetic nanobodies specific to calcium permeable receptors to provide the first direct microscopy evidence on their synaptic distribution, in relation to SynGAP haplodeficiency. We will test a newly engineered family of proteins created in our group that aims to stabilize the complex of PSD95 and SynGAP to counter the loss of half the SynGAP protein in haplodeficient neurons, at different time windows as SynGAP affects neuronal maturation and synaptic development. We will also aim to reverse the upregulation of calcium permeable AMPARs observed in SynGAP haploinsufficiency by selectively blocking them with NASPM. Together, our expected results will provide unprecedented insight to the regulation of excitatory synapses, as well as novel strategies to experimentally correct SynGAP haplodeficiency.

Mots clés : syngap, ampar, synaptic plasticity, dendritic spines, cellular neuroscience, 

Participants :
- Université de Bordeaux (France) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 195914.88 €
Projet CHIMERA (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Central Nervous System (CNS) tumors encompass over 150 different types of tumors affecting the brain and spinal cord and can be categorized as primary or metastatic. Precise and rapid classification of these tumors is crucial to guide surgical decisions and plan personalized treatment strategies. Although modern imaging techniques can determine whether a CNS tumor is primary or metastatic, surgical resection followed by intraoperative histological analysis is necessary to identify the specific tumor type. Traditional histology, relying on the use of dyes, is time-consuming, lacks chemical specificity, and fails to provide a label-free, rapid, and automated tool for CNS tumor classification. CHIMERA addresses these limitations, providing CNS tumor research with an imaging platform for intraoperative tumor diagnosis and classification that rapidly extracts spectral, morphological, and biochemical features of tumors in a label-free way. CHIMERA will merge the sensitivity of nonlinear multiphoton techniques to endogenous biomarkers with the chemical specificity of vibrational imaging approaches, using sum-frequency generation, two-photon excited fluorescence, and hyperspectral coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering. I will adopt a wide-field random illumination microscopy scheme that provides super-resolution in the transverse directions, z-sectioning capabilities, reduced sample damage, and unprecedented imaging speed over a large field of view. Through data processing and deep-learning classification methods, CHIMERA will offer a highly specific morpho-chemical contrast palette to simplify and accelerate the classification of various CNS tumor types. CHIMERA will advance current nonlinear microscopy technologies, unveil new insights for studying CNS tumors, and serve as a powerful diagnostic tool in biomedical research and clinical settings. Finally, it will provide me with new knowledge in photonics, biochemistry, and data analysis to attain scientific independence.

Mots clés : hyperspectral coherent anti stokes raman scattering and multiphoton microscopy, deep neural networks for image processing and classification, central nervous system tumors

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 195914.88 €
Projet EMMY (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The understanding of our home Galaxy stands at a crossroads. Thanks to the Gaia mission of the European Space Agency, combined with ground-based surveys, previously unexplored portions of the Milky Way have recently been mapped, opening a new era in Galactic Astronomy and Astrophysics. In 2022, Gaia Data Release 3 will publish the largest chemical and radial velocity stellar catalog ever created. For the first time, chemical abundances of stellar atmospheres will be linked to the positions and motions of stars over the entire sky. Taking advantage of the unprecedented wealth of chemo-dynamical data, the EMMY project aims to tackle outstanding questions about the mutual interplay of different evolutionary mechanisms in the Galactic disc, including the influence of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies, along with secular evolutionary processes. Specifically, the EMMY project aims to: 1) map chemo-dynamical inhomogeneities in the Galactic disc; 2) determine the extent to which the observed inhomogeneities can be attributed to internal processes, such as the actions of the spiral arms or the bar; 3) constrain the role of external influences, such as satellite interactions, on the disc evolution. The objectives will be assessed through an optimised Galactic cartography, which will link inhomogeneities in stellar density, velocity, chemistry; observational results will be then compared to cosmological simulations and chemical evolution models, to constrain spiral arms formation scenarios and disc heating processes. The multidisciplinary nature of the project is strong, combining interdisciplinary knowledge of astronomy, physics, statistics, data mining, and big data analysis. The results of the proposed project are expected to give a cohesive, statistically robust, accurate, and informative picture of the physical processes in the Galactic disc, which have the potential to represent an important contribution to our understanding of the Galaxy and its place in the Universe.

Mots clés : galactic astronomy, galactic archaeology, galactic disc, galactic chemo dynamics, gaia satellite

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 211754.88 €
Projet ASYNO2 (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Organic synthesis, the culminating point of many areas, is greatly beneficial to European development of emerging technologies and asymmetric catalysis is amongst the most challenging but very powerful method to access enantiopure molecules. Provide new methods to access enantiopure compounds is of high interest when it comes, for instance, to drug delivery. More than 40% of the new drugs approved by the FDA in 2015 bear chiral amine (20% in 2005). This increasing need to access chiral amines and its precursors resonates as a call to chemists to pave new routes for the elaboration of these derivatives. Despite the versatile nature of the nitro group, readily converted into amines or many other pharmaceutically relevant functionalities, no direct asymmetric nitrative process has been reported to date. Herein, ASYNO2 aims to merge photoredox or electrochemical with asymmetric organo- or acid-catalysis for the development of the first asymmetric nitration reactions. Despite this synthetic challenge, novel and very promising routes, along with the support of computational studies are considered and discussed in details in this research plan. Preliminary results provided proof of concept at the synopsis of this collaborative work between the Laboratory of Catalysis and Organic Synthesis of the University of Fribourg (UniFr, photo- and electrochemistry, asymmetric synthesis expertise, Outgoing phase) and the Institute of Chemistry of Poitiers (IC2MP – UMR CNRS 7285 – France, Superacid and NMR expertise, return phase). Superacid chemistry is only mastered by very few research groups in the world and is a European specificity of the group at Poitiers and will be applied for the first time to asymmetric catalysis. Furthermore, this program will provide a prolific fellow with an internationally competitive training, with the aim of advancing the career of an autonomous scientist in the EU and the next generation of multidisciplinary researchers in pharmaceutical sciences.

Mots clés : asymmetric, nitration, photochemistry, electrochemistry, superacid

Participants :
- Université de Berne (Suisse) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 332506.56 €
Projet SONIETHIO (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The project aims to investigate the role of music and songs in shaping and chronicle cultural encounters within the context of the second Italo-Ethiopian war, here intended as a period of five years including both the invasion of Ethiopia and its military occupation (1936-1941). Therefore, collections of sound archives and ethnographies from that period will be used as prompt to implement a participative research on the role of these cultural productions in the development of performances, personal and collective expressions, social changes. As part of the fascist project of occupation, the Italian military and political leaders as well as scholars and civilians based in Ethiopia showed interest in Ethiopian culture, and specifically in local music. Like many aspects of Italian colonialism, such interest was twofold. On the one hand, Italians understood that music was a form of expression that escaped their control, therefore they persecuted and killed many azmari musicians and other musicians, in particular in 1937, within the infamous reprisal. On the other hand, both musical instruments and sounds were collected. In particular, sound records in the form of 78rpm vinyls were produced, intended for both institutional archive in Italy and commercial distribution. As a result, a significant archive of records as well as an official monography on Ethiopian music in Italian were released within a short period of time. The project aims to deeply analyse the sound collections and the published book in order to: 1) reconstruct both the historical and cultural background in which the collections emerged; 2) compare the material with later features of cultural production; 3) develop a project of restitution of the collections, based on the concept of dignity restitutions, that can make it relevant for local communities.

Mots clés : ethnomusicology cultural studies postcolonial studies, anthropology ethiopian studies italian studies

Participants :
- Forum For Social Studies (Éthiopie) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Padoue (Italie) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université d'Innsbruck (Autriche) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 269412.96 €
Projet ColEMP (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

How do emotional styles develop in colonial settings? What are their roles in the construction of settler identities? Such processes happen both “from below”—in the daily and often casual behavior of ordinary men, women, and children; and “from above”—in discourses about the ideal and actual characteristics of a settler. As the early Zionists, looking to execute their national project in the colonial world, fully realized, a colony, regardless of its function, always provides an opportunity to produce “new people.” In the case of the Yishuv—the Jewish community that coalesced in Mandatory Palestine—the top-down direction of this process can be identified in the extensive Zionist literature about the desired “New Jew” as well as in the attempts to embed his or her traits using printed matter (such as parents’ manuals and children’s literature). Drawing on this feature of the Yishuv, the research analyzes both the Zionist project of top-down emotional transformation and the actual expression and experiences of emotions in the burgeoning settler society. By integrating these two levels, the research goes beyond the existing scholarship, which usually focuses on one or the other, and breaks new ground in understanding how emotions were mobilized and how new emotional styles emerged in a colonial context. The outgoing phase, which will last two years at Harvard University, under the supervision of Prof. Derek Penslar, has two aims: (i) to understand how the colonial context (within which early Zionism operated) impacted ideas about new emotional styles; and (ii) to survey the attempts to bring these ideas into the homes of (the mostly European) settlers at the time. The incoming phase, running one year at Bar-Ilan University, under the supervision of Prof. Hizky Shoham, will assess the impact—or lack thereof—of the emotional transformation studied in the outgoing phase on the everyday emotional practices of families in the mainstream urban sector of the Yishuv.

Mots clés : emotions, history, colonialism, settler colonialism, mandatory palestine, zionism, family, immigration, nationalism, children, parents, generations

Participants :
- Université Harvard (Etats-Unis) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université Bar-Ilan (Israël) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 294833.28 €
Projet Hydro-ALPS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Across middle Europe, the Alps cover four sub-climatic regions and play a major role in accumulating and supplying water to the continent. Famously called as the “water towers of Europe”, they host most of the headwaters of the rivers Danube, Rhine, Po and Rhone. Located in the Mediterranean basin, the southwestern Alps are known to be particularly vulnerable to flood, landslide events and summer droughts. Precipitation is expected to decrease by 20-30 % in the Mediterranean basin by 2100 threatening water resources. However, large uncertainties remain on future precipitation regimes at a local scale. Climate models spatial resolution do not integrate regional climate heterogeneity and models are calibrated on a short temporal “observations” window (the last century mainly). The Hydro-Alps project aims at providing new perspectives on the history of past local hydrological changes that needs to be considered in order to improve climate projections and strategies to water resources issues. Hydrological changes and chemical weathering will be studied in the southwestern Alps for the pre-industrial period and over several millennia. Valuable information can be provided by microalgae called diatoms which are accumulating through time in the sediments of alpine lakes. They build a cell wall in silica (SiO2) which records lake water chemistry during the shell formation. The project will rely on measurements of oxygen and silicon isotopes from diatoms extracted from lacustrine sediments used as tracers of local hydrological conditions and chemical weathering of the crystalline bedrock. This innovative approach will provide new information on mountainous past climate variability by combining isotopic tracers on same sample and new perspective about long-term changes in the Mediterranean climate. Altogether, the Hydro-Alps project will improve our understanding of climate changes at local scale and will help stakeholders to adapt water resource strategies.

Mots clés : lake sediments, diatoms, hydrological changes, chemical weathering, oxygen isotopes, silicon isotopes, southern alps, mediterranean basin

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 195914.88 €
Projet MERMAID (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Endometriosis is characterized by the presence of endometrium-like tissue outside the uterus and chronic inflammation. Worldwide, >10% of reproductive-age women suffer from pain and/or infertility caused by this disease. Recently, cancer driver mutations have been identified in both the eutopic and ectopic endometrium of endometriosis patients. Moreover, it has been shown in cancer studies that cancer driver mutations can alter the local immune microenvironment. Nevertheless, it has never been studied how cancer driver mutations present in the eutopic endometrium of endometriosis patients contribute to the pathogenesis of this disease. Therefore, I propose to investigate how these mutations that are present in the eutopic endometrium alter the local eutopic immune microenvironment and thereby drive endometriosis development. This theory is what the acronym MERMAID in this proposal stands for: Mutations in Endometrial Regions and Microenvironmental Adaptations Influence Disease. To this end, I will analyze cell viability and immune cell signature in the menstrual fluid of people with and without endometriosis and identify which cancer driver mutations are present in their endometrial epithelial cells. In addition, I will create a mouse model to study the role of these mutations on the local immune microenvironment and in early endometriosis development. The outlined proposal will not only improve our understanding about the pathogenesis of endometriosis, but it will also generate potential new diagnostic methods and lead to novel personalized treatment options. Moreover, successfully managing this project will provide me with the additional scientific and translational skills necessary for moving up the career ladder towards a position as assistant professor in academia or senior scientist in industry.

Mots clés : endometriosis endometrium cancer driver mutations immune microenvironment

Participants :
- Radboud University Medical Centre (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 232916.16 €
Projet BRight (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

BRight will investigate alternative right-hemispheric pathways for language development in autism. While language is especially left-lateralized in the typically developing brain, there is increased right-hemispheric involvement in autism. It is unclear whether these right-hemispheric neural pathways contribute to language deficits or if they form a potential compensatory network, facilitating an alternative route for successful language development. This is especially interesting to examine in the preschool age as language abilities are at their most variable and intervention strategies at their most effective. BRight has four objectives: 1) characterize typically developing neural pathways for language in the left and right hemisphere; 2) compare individua neural pathways of autistic preschoolers to the typically developing children; 3) relate right hemisphere variables to a preschool battery of language assessments; 4) longitudinally examine preschool neural variation to school-age language abilities. BRight will achieve this by collaborating with an existing research consortium that studied autistic preschoolers using MRI and by adding a new time point to examine these children now that they are at the school age. BRight will overcome previous limitations like an overreliance on isolated brain measures and a dependence on group-level analyses that cannot capture the heterogeneity of the autism spectrum by employing novel data fusion and normative modeling approaches. By integrating across multiple brain measures (including structural MRI, diffusion MRI and resting-state fMRI). The highly interdisciplinary approach taken in BRight will fundamentally impact our understanding of brain-behavioral correlations and the neural foundation of language in autism. The project will have significant impact on the researcher’s career as she will receive rigorous training in cutting-edge neuroimaging and statistical techniques from leading experts in the field.

Mots clés : autism, language development, data fusion, normative modeling

Participants :
- Radboud University Medical Centre (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 217076.16 €