Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet INIMUD (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2) are critical players in mucosal defense, tissue homeostasis and inflammation. ILC2 development and function have been widely perceived to be programmed. Nevertheless, how ILC2 perceive, integrate and respond to environmental cues remains mostly unexplored. Here we hypothesize that ILC2 sense their environment and exert their function as part of a novel neuronal-ILC2 unit orchestrated by neuromedin U (NmU) signaling. We propose to employ genetic, cellular and molecular approaches to decipher how NmU and its receptor Neuromedin Receptor 1 (Nmu-R1) set ILC2 function and preserve tissue homeostasis at mucosal barriers. To this end, ILC2-specific loss and gain of function mutant mice for Nmu-R1 will be used. Strikingly, preliminary data demonstrate that NmU is a major regulator driving ILC2 cytokine production. Under this Marie-Curie fellowship, we aim to establish a novel molecular interplay between neuron derived peptides and ILC2 function in mucosal homeostasis. Finally, this proposal will reveal new pathways with potential therapeutic value in mucosal disorders that are major public health concerns.

Mots clés : neuromedin u, neurons, type 2 innate lymphoid cells, mucosal immunity

Participants :
- Champalimaud Foundation (Portugal) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 148635.6 €
Projet SOCIAL COST (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Group living is a common phenomenon in nature in a wide range of taxa. Studies in natural systems are central to understanding the evolution of social behaviour and systems. While benefits, such as reduced predation risk, and costs, such as increased pathogen transmission, are well documented for some species, many other effects of group living are poorly understood in natural populations. In particular, group size and composition, and individual social status might affect the level of social stress. Social stress can cause physiological stress in group living animals, including humans, leading to poor health or fitness reduction. The level of costs and benefits, as well as the optimum resolution of the resulting trade-offs, is likely to vary with social status and sex, but the nature of these differences is poorly understood. In this project, I propose to test in a free living sciurid rodent, the Cape ground squirrel (Xerus inauris), whether the costs of group living vary with social status, and whether this can be explained by physiological and molecular changes that influence longevity. To address these questions, I will use biomarkers of aging, involving hormone levels, oxidative damage and telomere loss. Combining the latest methods in measuring such parameters will provide a new understanding of how sociality influences stress responses in free-living mammals of different social status.

Mots clés : biochemistry, oxidative stress, telomere, sociality, social status

Participants :
- University of Glasgow (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet Goal Attribution in Groups (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Group work has become increasingly important for many tasks and services in organisations, and organisations thus depend on successful team function. The entire group’s performance may depend on the lowest performer (weakest link), but groups’ reactions to low performers are not well understood. We suggest that goal attributions are a neglected but potentially powerful factor: Did the low performer try to outperform others (individual goal) or contribute to the group (collective goal)? In the next step, groups should evaluate whether low performers were trying to succeed (but had insufficient abilities) or were not trying (i.e., had low goal commitment). Failing despite trying will lead to excluding competitive low performers (individual goal) but lead to training cooperative low performers (collective goal). Vice-versa, lack of commitment to the collective goal to cooperate should lead to exclusion, but in attempts to change the individual goal of a competitive low performer (socialisation). These hypotheses will be tested in a series of four experiments to attain the objectives of complementing Dr. Thürmer’s skillset in (1) small group theory, (2) small group laboratory experiments, (3) transformative multilevel statistics, and (4) to advance the translational transfer to organizational settings. Publications in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals will disseminate the research results widely. The proposed action will open up the immediate career opportunity to establish his independent research group, will substantially advance his research program, and is a crucial step towards becoming a full professor in Germany. Acquired start-up funding enables extensive pre-testing and will ensure the success of this action. This trans-disciplinary research project will contribute to motivation science, small group research, and organizational science and the findings will help European organisations that rely on group work to improve team functioning.

Mots clés : self regulation, goals, motivation, small groups, teams, performance, deviance

Participants :
- University of Konstanz (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 171795.6 €
- University of Pittsburgh (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet SocialBrain (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Growing and maintaining a large brain entails substantial energetic costs. A large brain can evolve if costs are compensated by benefits from associated cognitive abilities. Leading hypotheses for brain evolution consider benefits arising from the solution of ecological and social problems. However, progress has been hindered by the unavailability of mathematical theory generating testable hypotheses from known causes. I will develop testable mathematical models that yield quantitative predictions for brain mass through ontogeny when individuals evolve under social pressures. The goal is to assess the relative role of the social and ecological hypotheses in brain evolution, particularly in humans. I will formulate the models using elements of metabolic theory and life history theory, and the analysis will require methods from optimal control and differential game theory. This is a strongly interdisciplinary research project, and I will ensure its success by working with leaders in the respective fields of social evolution theory (Dr Andy Gardner, St Andrews), cognition (the world-class multi-departmental team at St Andrews), and differential game theory (Prof Maurizio Falcone, Sapienza). This work thus brings together a diversity of state-of-the-art elements and proposes an innovative, challenging, and important project, to produce a novel and readily usable tool to study brain evolution.

Mots clés : brain evolution, evolutionary biology, life history, mathematical modelling, differential games, metabolic theory of ecology

Participants :
- University of St Andrews (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet MAGI (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Gut microbiota support intestinal tract development, immune system maturation, and protection against pathogens. Imbalanced microbiota (dysbiosis) has a role in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). To control inflammation, patients take antibiotics, exacerbating dysbiosis, leading to loss of colonization resistance against pathogens and proliferation of pathobionts, disease development and progression. Microbiota composition has, therefore, a very important role in host health, and strategies to manipulate this composition are lacking. Microbiota-produced molecules, like quorum sensing (QS) signal autoinducer-2, can influence gut composition. Bacteria use QS to regulate populational gene expression. We intend to take advantage of microbial interactions mediated by QS to tackle IBD dysbiosis. We will design biotherapies to attenuate the detrimental dysbiotic effects on host health, focusing on gut QS in IBD. The microbiota imbalance observed in IBD leads to high inflammation, expansion of pathobionts, and loss of protection against infections. In previous work, we have shown that by committing the gut microbiota to inter-species QS we could increase members of the microbiota affected by antibiotics, highlighting the potential of QS manipulation to counteract dysbiosis. We propose to manipulate QS of native gut microbes to counteract IBD-associated dysbiosis, and thus inflammation and loss of protection associated with it, rescuing normal microbiota functions. We will tackle dysbiosis by manipulating QS signalling and by fostering specific beneficial interactions amongst microbes. The potential of this therapy, as an alternative or complement to antibiotics, is centred on bypassing the worsening of dysbiosis, like loss of protection against the expansion of inflammation-driving pathobionts and infections, as well as the attenuation of inflammation.

Mots clés : quorum sensing, inflammatory bowel disease, microbiota, microbial interactions, disease

Participants :
- Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Portugal) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 147815.04 €
Projet HYMADE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Staff Exchanges
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

HYMADE focuses on the development of capsules and engineered colloidal particles for drug delivery combining mesoporous colloids, the Layer by Layer (LbL) technique and virosomes. The capsules and particles have potential applications in cancer and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and uveitis. The project is based on the secondments of Early Stage Researchers and Experienced Researchers and networking and training activities between European and non European academic institutions. HYMADE aims to profit from the combination of hybrid materials to fabricate advanced drug delivery systems with controlled release and targeting efficiency of biological entities. The project also aims to gain understanding of the self assembly process of hybrid materials and the transport properties of the drug delivery systems.The biological fate, drug release, degradation and therapeutical efficiency of the drug delivery systems will be studied in vitro and in vivo with state of the art imaging techniques. To achieve these goals we have gathered an international multidisciplinary team with scientists at the forefront of Material Science, Self assembly, Physics, Chemistry, Biophysics and Imaging from Germany, Austria, France and Spain on the European side and from United States of America, Argentina and Armenia on the non European side.

Mots clés : drug delivery, polyelectrolytes, virus like nanoparticles, transport, imaging, hybrid materials

Participants :
- Yerevan State University (Arménie) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Leipzig University (Allemagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 157500.0 €
- Austrian Institute of Technology (Autriche) — Partner, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 243000.0 €
- University of Michigan–Ann Arbor (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- National University of General San Martín (Argentine) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (Argentine) — Partner, organization partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
- CIC biomaGUNE (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 747000.0 €
- Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica (Argentine) — Partner, organization partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
- Sorbonne Université (France) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 72000.0 €
Projet HYPER TOWER (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

HYPER TOWER is a very promising project that will lead to a radical increase in the wind turbine tower height and consequently to an increase in the energy potential harvested by wind structures. The project reaches its aims of constructing taller, more robust and economical towers by realizing 6 work packages that are formulated and developed in 2 years. In approaching the "20-20-20" targets, more and more energy has to come from sustainable energy sources and since "The taller the wind tower is, the greener the energy is", a constant trend of taller wind energy structures is observed. The civil engineers' challenge of constructing taller structures, with heavier machinery hanging at greater heights has led to the need of evolution of a new tower configuration that can reassure the structure's robustness along with a feasible construction schedule. Hyper Tower proposes the elaboration of a new-age tower cross-section and construction methodology, which are elaborated within the project's work packages. Assessment of existing tower configuration is performed, the proposal of a new-age tower section is elaborated, numerical and experimental results are assessed and compared to traditional tower configuration results and the final tower configuration is formulated.

Mots clés : structural engineering, civil engineering, wind energy structures, wind turbine tower design, sustainable energy production, economical design

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

Haloalkane dehalogenases (HLDs) catalyse the cleavage of the carbon-halogen bond of industrial organohalogen compounds and are interesting subjects to study molecular evolution. Strikingly, HLDs display remarkable sequence and structural similarity with luciferase from the marine invertebrate Renilla reniformis (RLuc), which reflects their common evolutionary history. Unlike HLDs, which are α/β hydrolases (EC 3.8.1.5), the RLuc luciferase is cofactor-independent monooxygenase (EC 1.13.12.5) that converts coelenterazine into coelenteramide and carbon dioxide, followed by an emission of blue light. Yet, the evolutionary steps driving their functional divergence remain poorly understood. Our proof-of-concept data show the feasibility of the reconstruction of an ancestral enzyme, which existed prior to the functional divergence of the modern-day HLD and RLuc homologues, and that this in-lab resurrected enzyme exhibits so-far unobserved dual dehalogenase/luciferase activity. This project aims to dissect structural and biochemical basis of this unusual biocatalytic behaviour of the ancestral enzyme. Specifically, X-ray crystallography, including time-resolved studies with photo-switchable substrate analogues, and advanced mass spectrometry techniques will be employed to probe enzyme-substrate complexes in order to get molecular insights into the inner organization and workings of the catalytically promiscuous enzyme. Complementary site-directed mutagenesis and molecular dynamics simulations will explore the contributions of individual amino acid residues to the dual-function activity. The gained knowledge will extend our in-depth understanding of the evolution of underlying biocatalytic reaction mechanisms. Furthermore, it will pave the way for the development of novel software tools for the rational engineering of next-generation biocatalysts for specific uses in biotechnology and biomedicine.

Mots clés : haloalkane dehalogenase, renilla luciferase, molecular evolution, ancestral sequence reconstruction, promiscuous catalysis, structural biology, crystallography, protein engineering

Participants :
- Masaryk University (Rép. Tchèque) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 142720.8 €
Projet HAMA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Halogens (F, Cl, Br and I) are involved in key processes of the Earth and Planetary sciences. However, some crucial challenges of halogens’ geochemistry are unsolved. They include (i) halogen abundances in the Earth’s primitive mantle (PM) with implications on their origin and evolution during Earth formation and early differentiation; (ii) their behaviour during subduction to the Earth’s mantle; and (iii), their magmatic-volcanogenic fluxes from the mantle to the crust at subduction zones (SZ). Halogen geochemistry is currently hampered by analytical and sampling limitations. The suitability of reference halogen values in glass standards for in situ analysis is disputed. It has been also shown that indirect inferences from the whole-rock compositions of magmas are limited for fully assessing the chemical geodynamics of halogens. Technique and methodology leaps are needed to allow the in situ analysis (i.e. in minerals) of mantle and crust rocks, and to address fundamental questions in halogen geochemistry. I propose to analyse halogens in the minerals of meteorites, and unique PM-like intraplate, SZ and cratonic mantle rocks. This research will enable to define new benchmark values for meteorites and PM and determine how halogens are recycled to SZ magmas and to the deeper mantle. I will produce new standards, which in combination with analytical developments, will provide unique data about the volumetrically important mantle reservoir. In the final phase of the project, I will study halogens in the mineral-hosted melt inclusions of magma-percolated mantle and crust rocks to derive partitioning coefficients and model their SZ magmatic-volcanogenic fluxes. The research will settle in an interdisciplinary, collaborative network to stimulate breakthrough outcomes in geochemistry, cosmochemistry, volcanology and economic geology. It will significant upgrade my technical and scientific capabilities and will allow me to reach a leading position in volatile geochemistry.

Mots clés : halogens, fluorine, chlorine, bromine, earth s mantle, earth s crust, earth formation, earth s mantle differentiation, meteorite, primitive mantle, intraplate mantle, subduction zone mantle, arc magma

Participants :
- University of Lausanne (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 304724.16 €
Projet Harmony on the Edge (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Harmony on the Edge investigates how notions of music and sound were deployed during early modern global encounters to describe, categorise, and evaluate different types of human. Focusing on the territory covered by the Viceroyalty of Perú in Spanish South America, this project addresses a wide range of European authors, travellers, and missionaries who inquired into the musical customs and musical aptitudes of indigenes during the 17th and 18th centuries. It asks i) how Europeans experienced and understood the sounds and musicality of indigene South Americans, ii) how these musical experiences fitted into European scientific, political or religious agendas, and iii) which kinds of musical exchange took place between Europeans and locals. It pays special attention to the ways cross-cultural appropriations were materially expressed in the manufacture and collection of musical instruments and the physical bodies of performers and dancers. The project suggests that conceptualising the music and sound of locals was crucial in the experience of otherness, at the same time it followed a broader inquiry into the common and defining features of humankind. Building a new interdisciplinary dialogue between intellectual and colonial history, history of the human sciences, history of science, ethnomusicology, historical anthropology and material culture studies, this project proposes a novel methodology for the study of early modern encounters, and a new conceptual approach to music as a field of inquiry into the nature of human beings. This action takes place in Chile and France and involves exhaustive archival research (written, visual and material sources), academic publications, a museum exhibition, training and dissemination activities, and a secondment in the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle.

Mots clés : enlightenment, early modern encounters, history of knowledge, music, sound, history of human sciences, material culture, history of collecting, musical instruments, history of the body, south america

Participants :
- Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Chili) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- École des hautes études en sciences sociales (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 210537.6 €
Projet CO2SPLITTING (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Harvesting solar energy to convert carbon dioxide into fuels such as syngas or alcohols is a promising strategy to curtail the growing carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere and overcome the global dependence on fossil fuels. However, carbon dioxide is one of the most stable and chemically inert molecules and the reduction of carbon dioxide can lead to a large variety of products. Hence, the overall efficiency and selectivity of carbon dioxide reduction remains a key scientific challenge. The overall objective of the proposal is to develop novel hybrid photocatalysts-based sheets capable of splitting carbon dioxide into energy-rich chemicals with high solar-to-fuel conversion efficiency and selectivity. To this end, semiconductors with relatively negative conduction bands, such as tantalum nitride, will be modified with various water-tolerant molecular catalysts for selective carbon dioxide reduction, and combined with a water oxidation photocatalyst (bismuth vanadate) to construct sheet systems. Because of the efficient electron transfer through the underlying conductive layer, the obtained sheets are expected to provide the most effective means of achieving efficient and scalable carbon dioxide conversion to produce solar fuels. This project will involve extending the device created as part of the applicant’s current research for water splitting to carbon dioxide splitting. The applicant and the host group possess complementary skills and experiences, which match the necessity for the proposed project. Therefore, they are likely to deliver the desired outcomes in a synergistic manner. The outcomes and results in the present project will strengthen the European advances already made in carbon dioxide conversion and European knowledge. This project approaches the subject from a different scientific angle and focuses on renewable solar fuel generation to access a sustainable carbon-based economy, dovetailing with the overall objective of Horizon 2020 work programme.

Mots clés : carbon dioxide conversion, artificial photosynthesis, solar fuel, molecular catalyst, semiconductor

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €