Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet LongLinks-4-AIMDs (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : TERMINATED

Cardiovascular diseases, neuronal conditions, and metabolic disorders together cause 22 million deaths each year worldwide. Fortunately, those conditions can often be addressed through local sensing and treatments using for example active implantable medical systems (AIMDs) or transcutaneous bioelectronic devices. To be “invisible” to the patients, those devices should have the smallest volume possible, which means they pack only limited data and energy storage, relying on a wireless link to get recharged and to transfer data. Improvement in this link is urgently needed, as today’s poor transfer distance (few centimeters) leads to discomfort, cognitive overload, induces stress, reduces quality of life, and is associated with several suboptimal treatment outcomes. Because of this drawback, many medical solutions already validated in the lab cannot be implemented on patients. My aim is to achieve a major advance in the way energy and data are transferred, and to gain an order of magnitude in the wireless transfer distance over existing technologies, through the development of a novel time-modulated magnetic coupling strategy. The approach will consist of: (WP1) developing a “smart Q-modulation”, which operates in a manner similar to regenerative braking systems, where energy is temporary saved when the quality factor of the resonator has to be reduced for data transmission, and later reused to increase the quality factor for power transmission; (WP2) maintaining the system in energy-efficient operation against the body changing environment, and (WP3) guaranteeing a safe operation of the power transfer link. By enabling new wireless scenarios, this project will enable a whole set of new medical devices to reach the market, providing autonomously and imperceptibly operation to the user, thus alleviating their cognitive burden. The technology will also be transferable to many other applications, such as industrial sensing, reinforcing the European leadership on the field


Participants :
- Université de Bordeaux (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195914.88 €
Projet ENDOWINE (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Grapes are the largest fruit crop worldwide and in 2023, 15.9 billion litres of wine was produced in the European Union alone. Many challenges exist in the process of converting grapes into wine, including those associated with the resident wine microbiota. This microbiota consists of several micro-organisms, including Oenococcus oeni and a variety of other lactic acid bacteria. Some members, such as O. oeni, contribute mainly positively to the final product. However, there are certain species that are responsible for organoleptic defects. Therefore, protection measures are in place to target spoiling bacteria, of which the use of sulphites is one of the most common tactics. As reduction of chemical preservatives is a relevant theme in recent years, the search for alternatives is ongoing. Microbial-based alternatives are increasingly attractive and meet the demands for chemical-free food products. One such promising alternative involves the use of endolysins, which are phage-encoded hydrolytic enzymes used by phages to degrade the peptidoglycan layer of the host bacterium at the end of their lytic replication cycle. ENDOWINE will strive to exploit phage-derived endolysins as antimicrobials in wine. With rapid activity and high specificity among the many reasons, endolysins are particularly promising. Very few experiments using endolysins in food products have been performed, but their potential has already been demonstrated in the medical and veterinary setting. Furthermore, egg white lysozyme is already applied by the wine industry.  Using a multidisciplinary approach, we will first determine the diversity of endolysins in phages infecting wine LAB through in silico analysis. Candidate endolysins will be chosen, cloned, overexpressed and purified in Escherichia coli, after which their enzymatic activities and their antimicrobial spectra will be determined. Finally, their impact on wine will be examined in small and large scale fermentation experiments.

Mots clés : microbiology, virology, endolysin, oenology, oenococcus oeni

Participants :
- Université de Bordeaux (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195914.88 €
Projet SOIL2GUT (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The biodiversity hypothesis asserts there is a link between the diversity of environmental and host-associated microbes and ‘civilization diseases', such as asthma and allergies, the result of immune dysfunction and chronic inflammation. Using a well-studied rodent model, the bank vole, SOIL2GUT will test for the first time whether exposure to natural communities of soil microbes during development can improve individual health by promoting microbiota function at the host-microbiota interface (ileum and colon mucous layers) and reduce the risk of immune-related diseases. SOIL2GUT will take advantage of tissue samples generated by an ongoing intervention experiment, promoting the 3Rs policy, but also providing a unique opportunity for ‘omics integration (metataxonomics + MTX). Innovatively, this project will focus on the function of gut flora (not merely taxonomical characterization), in both bacteria and fungi (the latter is particularly unusual), using recent developments in metatranscriptonomics (MTX) to explore functional activity, and combining metadata and metatranscriptomes in statistical models to identify critical factors determining health. Since 68% of the human population will be urbanized by 2050, SOIL2GUT will contribute significantly to the WHO OneHealth framework. This project will also provide data that can be used to plan urban greenspaces, enhance rewilding interventions and improve domestic and zoo animal wellbeing. The researcher will build on his previous experiences and solid publications as a PhD/postdoc, receiving advanced personalized training in bioinformatics and soft skills, including writing grant applications for expanding to other tissues (lung, skin), and rendering him highly employable. In exchange, the researcher will bring methods for measuring individual health and immune gene expression to the hosting lab, among others. A synergy of expertise in microbiota research is envisaged, leading to future collaborative endeavors.

Mots clés : microbial ecology, ecosystem microbiota, metatranscriptomics, wild rodent model, conservation omics

Participants :
- Edmund Mach Foundation (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 172750.08 €
Projet SDL-MFHYD (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The fossil fuel sector is projected to emit 200 million tons of CO2 equivalent by 2050. Hydrogen is emerging as a crucial energy carrier, essential for achieving net-zero emissions (NZE) by 2050. The European Commission is actively funding initiatives for decarbonization and green hydrogen production. Green hydrogen can primarily be produced through photocatalytic water splitting, involving either proton reduction or overall water oxidation. While several photocatalysts, predominantly inorganic or noble materials have been reported, recent advances in environmentally friendly nano-covalent organic frameworks (Nano-COFs) catalysts offer tunability and significant synthetic diversity. However, photocatalysts alone are insufficient for substantial hydrogen production. Multiple components must be integrated, such as co-catalyst selection, catalyst-to-co-catalyst ratios, and physicochemical parameters like pH and viscosity, to optimize hydrogen yield. The complexity of optimizing these parameters is challenging for manual testing, especially as the search space expands exponentially. Self-driving laboratories (SDLs) are poised to revolutionize this field by leveraging advancements in robotics, computational power, and artificial intelligence (AI). SDLs can achieve scientific objectives hundreds of times faster than traditional automation, integrating hardware for experiment execution and software for data analysis and subsequent experiment design. Despite these advancements, the time-intensive steps of photolysis and gas analysis remain bottlenecks. This proposal addresses the challenge of accelerating the photolysis process beyond current SDL capabilities. By employing a multi-fidelity Bayesian optimization algorithm, I aim to reduce the frequency of crucial yet time-intensive steps in photocatalysis. This novel approach, untested in real photolysis experiments, has the potential to extend broadly to other areas of electrochemistry, including CO2/N2 electrolysis.

Mots clés : self driving laboratories, automation, clean energy, multi fidelity algorithm

Participants :
- Université de Liverpool (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 260347.92 €
Projet Waste4Bio (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Food waste (FW) is a significant global issue, with around one-third of all food produced wasted annually. FW biorefineries constitutes a green route to valorise the enormous untapped potential of FW via its bioconversion into marketable products and fuels in a circular bioeconomy scheme. However, to date, FW biorefineries have not reached the maturity level needed for full-scale and widespread application. To meet the European Green Deal and Sustainable Development Goals, Waste4Bio project aims at engineering and validating an innovative, cost-competitive FW biorefinery for the cascade production of biohydrogen (bioH2) and biodegradable biopolymers (polyhydroxyalkanoates; PHAs). To this end, Waste4Bio will go beyond of the state-of-the-art of dark fermentation to design advanced mass transfer hydrogen-producing fermenters able to support a high density of biocatalyst and a superior bioH2 production performance. Waste4Bio will also upgrade the acidogenic gas mixture evolved by using well-engineered outdoor algal-bacterial photobioreactors to produce near-pure bioH2 and treat the carbon dioxide into algal biomass, contributing to a net-zero carbon balance for FW valorisation. In addition, the DF broth rich in short-chain carboxylic compounds will be further valorised for highly efficient PHA production with purple phototrophic bacteria (PPB). This action also aims at bringing deeper understanding of the microbiome, and its associated potential functionality and ecological interactions, involved in every fermentative bioH2 production, photosynthetic bioH2 upgrading, and PPB-based PHA production stage. Waste4Bio with transferable skills and a cross-sectoral nature will apply a cross-disciplinary approach involving bioprocess and chemical engineering, environmental biotechnology and microbiology and bioinformatics. A techno-economic model and a market-uptake roadmap will also be created to facilitate the fully exploitation of Waste4Bio.

Mots clés : dark fermentation, biohydrogen upgrading, biopolymers production

Participants :
- Université Roi Juan Carlos (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Valladolid (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 165312.96 €
- Fcc medio ambiente sau (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
Projet DEF-TUBES (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Semiconducting Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (s-SWCNTs) are a unique class of semiconductor.s-SWCNTs hold significant promise for improving next generation optoelectronics because of their chirality dependent band, stability, conductivity and solution-processability. More importantly, unlike the most common bulk semiconductors, s-SWCNT are intrinsically 1D. That means that, films made of aligned tubes can transport energy along a specified direction, allowing potentially to control energy and exciton flow in previously unprecedented ways. However, even if films of aligned s-SWCNT have been experimentally demonstrated, directional charge flow has not yet been measured nor has the absorbed light energy been converted into electricity. The main aim of this project is to fabricate thin-film and devices of aligned SWCNT to investigate directional energy flow and its conversion into electrical current, by leveraging ultrafast spectroscopies. This work is driven by three primary goals:1) isolating s-SWCNTs, depositing thin-films and incorporating them into photovoltaic devices; 2) exploiting two-dimensional electronic and photocurrent spectroscopy to examine the energy flow channels and kinetics, and 3) to explore ultrafast free-charge generation with sub-15 fs time resolution to understand how to enhance device performance. This research methodology involves the development of innovative s-SWCNT device architectures, consisting of layered films with controlled bandgap gradients and aligned tubes, in order to optimize exciton and energy directionality and efficiency. Cutting-edge spectroscopic techniques will enable comprehensive mapping of the of energy and exciton dynamics. Thought the integration of expertise from the hosting institutions; this project will contribute significantly to the understanding and employment of 1D energy flow in semiconducting materials, facilitating the development of more effective electronics and optoelectronics.

Mots clés : material science, carbon nanotubes, ultrafast spectroscopy, two dimensional electronic spectroscopy

Participants :
- École polytechnique de Milan (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 396991.08 €
- Université du Wisconsin (Etats-Unis) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet PrEP-ing (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

PrEP-ing focuses on the implementation of Combination HIV Prevention (CP), the most comprehensive strategy of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in the current global effort to “End AIDS by 2030.” CP targets key populations, whose identification coincides with a higher HIV prevalence. Based on the notion that these groups have not responded to more conventional methods, the preventive use of antiretrovirals is prioritized, making Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) its key component. Following a scale-down in wide-ranging policies and programs (formerly a hallmark of HIV/AIDS governance), this strategy entails a more circumscribed biomedical prevention framework, in which antiretrovirals become the “magic-bullets” that protect communities from HIV and new individuals from getting infected. Against this backdrop, PrEP-ing seeks to re-center subjects and social relations through an ethnographic study of the production of this global HIV/AIDS policy in the specific national setting of Argentina. Drawing on insights from critical medical anthropology and studies on global health governance, the anthropology of policies and science and technology studies (STS), I aim to show how global-local entanglements involving biotechnologies, institutions, policymakers, health professionals, activists and PrEP users, come together in the making of CP. Argentina, a middle-income country situated in the global “South” and considered a model in the Latin American region for its early and sustained response to HIV/AIDS will provide a unique scenario to explore this subject. The main objective of this project is to describe and analyze the production of CP by a variety of actors. Taking the implementation of PrEP as a starting point, I seek to explore the constellation of actors and activities involved in the enactment of such policy: from policymakers situated at national and international levels to local health professionals, activists and users’ situated experiences.

Mots clés : medical anthropology, critical studies on global health, hiv aids, latin america

Participants :
- Université libre de Berlin (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 217965.12 €
Projet ADeHEx (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Heat exchangers (HXs) are at the heart of many energy systems, one example being engine cooling in the aviation industry. Advanced design of HXs is urgent since aircraft systems are becoming smaller and need to become more efficient. Through topology optimisation (TO) and additive manufacturing (AM), custom compact HXs will be designed to cool the engines of tomorrow. Although TO of thermofluidic problems has recently undergone tremendous development, the technology is mostly limited to academic problems, since existing approaches are restricted to macroscopic design with extreme computational cost being prohibitive for industrial applications. The objective of ADeHEx is therefore to propose an integrated design methodology for multi-scale 3D fluid-to-fluid HXs using machine learning-based de-homogenization. Specifically, I will a) construct a homogenized thermohydraulic computational model; b) use convolutional neural networks to recover detailed micro-channel design from homogenization-based TO, reducing computational time by at least two orders of magnitude. Implemented at University of Southern Denmark and at the secondment, Brown University, a two-way transfer of knowledge is guaranteed through my expertise in level-set-based TO and the expertise of the supervisors in complex multiphysics modelling and physics-based machine learning. ADeHEx will a) consolidate my academic excellence and professional maturity through new skills and competences in machine learning, homogenized thermohydraulic models, teaching, supervision, project management, dissemination, industrial engagement, networking; b) harness the complementary expertise of two strong multidisciplinary teams, pushing research to the forefront of design engineering and computer science and informatics; c) revolutionize the design process of HXs and multiphysics system optimisation, while benefiting EU companies in manufacturing, aviation, etc., and raising European economic competitiveness.

Mots clés : simulation based design optimisation, computational engineering and scientific computing, computational fluid dynamics, energy systems and heat exchangers, machine learning

Participants :
- Université du Danemark du Sud (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 230774.4 €
- Université Brown (Etats-Unis) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet MORBIUS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI), also known as brittle bone disease, is a prevalent rare skeletal condition. With limited treatment options available and no known cure, individuals with OI endure numerous bone fractures throughout their lives. To address the urgent need for an OI cure, MORBIUS aims to create a gene therapy: employ a cutting-edge AAV-mediated gene editing, to curatively repair the genetic defect in a model of patient bone tissue (‘mini brittle bone’). Within MORBIUS I will: 1) construct ‘mini brittle bones’ - an OI patient-derived induced stem cell-based bone organoid system, and 2) repair the genetic defect in the ‘mini brittle bones’ with the AAV-based CRISPR/Cas and GeneRide strategy. To this end, with access to one of the largest OI cell line biobanks in the world, I will combine highly innovative induced stem cell development techniques with the existing expertise in fabrication of bone organoids of the hosting team and genome modification competence of secondment host. Specifically, I will optimize a method of OI patient-derived induced mesenchymal stem cells embedding in a decellularized extracellular matrix to promote their natural differentiation and formation of ‘mini brittle bones’. Crafted ‘mini brittle bones’ will be transduced with bone-directed AAV vector carrying CRISPR/Cas and GeneRide systems to correct patient’s genetic defect by targeted insertion of a ‘donor’ sequence. In synergy with gene therapy research, during a non-academic placement with an OI patient organization, an interactive multilingual educational webapp on OI gene therapy and genetics will be developed. This will ensure early knowledge sharing, awareness, building of trust, and encouragement of OI individuals to actively engage in gene therapy advancements. MORBIUS outcomes will enhance the quality of life for individuals with OI and other rare bone disorders, but introduction of effective gene editing, bone organoid modeling, and knowledge sharing methods.

Mots clés : osteogenesis imperfecta, skeletal dysplasia, bone, gene therapy, crispr cas, aav, imsc

Participants :
- Osteogenesis imperfecta federation europe (Pays-Bas) — Partner, associated partner, Autres, subvention : 0.0 €
- Andalusian Public Foundation for Health Research in Biomedicine and Malaga (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 226441.2 €
- Université du Massachusetts (Etats-Unis) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €