Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet RISE-ARBB (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Arboviruses such as dengue, Zika, and chikungunya, are experiencing a rapid surge in incidence and geographical distribution, representing a global public health threat. Improved risk assessment tools for arboviral diseases are urgently needed to enhance clinical management, since current risk stratification is based on algorithms with limited prognostic accuracy. Strong evidence suggests that immune and endothelial activation markers can reliably identify infections likely to progress to severe outcomes; however, data on specific arboviruses are scarce and conflicting.  The main aim of RISE-ARBB is to enhance early identification of severe arboviral diseases. The specific objectives are to: (1) evaluate head-to-head a wide panel of host-response biomarkers for early identification of severe arboviral diseases, using a large prospective cohort study and Luminex platform; (2) assess the prognostic performance of two novel point-of-care rapid triaging tests based on the quantification of sTREM1 and Angpt2 markers; (3) develop an evidence-based algorithm integrating the best performing marker(s) with clinical severity indicators to improve clinical guidelines; and (4) develop an exploitation strategy, including regulatory and go-to-market plan.  Such objectives will be addressed through a prospective cohort study involving ~2,000 individuals over 1 year-old presenting with symptomatic arbovirus infection at emergency departments of 3 hospitals in Brazil, the global epicenter of arbovirus epidemics. The results have the ground-breaking potential to avoid preventable deaths and decrease health system costs during future arbovirus outbreaks and epidemics globally. This fellowship will enable me to upgrade my training in translational research on arboviral diseases in endemic settings and prognostic strategies for their management, while establishing a global network and laying the foundation for a successful ERC application and independent academic career.

Mots clés : arbovirus epidemics host response biomarkers prognostic strategies risk stratification novel point of care tests brazil

Participants :
- Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Brésil) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
- Bioeclosion sl (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- CERCA Institution (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 333204.36 €
- Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (Suisse) — Partner, associated partner, Autres, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet ENDEAVOR (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Computer vision, leveraging deep learning in the last decade, has achieved unprecedented progress. However, it is largely relying on datasets of still images, thus using "passive vision". On the contrary, biological vision is a fundamentally active process of exploration to disambiguate objects, and yet, the potential of active vision for robotics remains underexplored.  The ENDEAVOR project seeks to redefine traditional static image analysis within fast online robotic applications. This project integrates the computational models of Sensorimotor Contingency Theory (O'Regan and Noe, 2001) with event-driven perception and neuromorphic computing. Sensorimotor contingency represents the dynamic relationship between an agent's sensory inputs and motor actions in the environment. Active sensory data generation naturally aligns with event-driven perception, tracking moving objects via agent-generated events, while neuromorphic computing minimises latency and energy use.  The humanoid robot iCub will hold objects and examine them from various perspectives through eye and wrist movements. The project capitalises on bioinspired hardware and software solutions, ultimately aiming to reduce computational demands, power consumption, and latency in intelligent systems.  ENDEAVOR offers three significant contributions to computer vision and robotics: (1) It introduces active vision strategies that enhance object perception. (2) It integrates event-based visual sensing with rapid and efficient parallel computation, leveraging neuromorphic computing principles. (3) The project establishes a benchmark that allows for both qualitative and quantitative evaluations, fostering comparisons among various approaches, including frame-based, event-based, and spiking-based systems. The importance of this approach lies in the effort to reduce the storage of massive amounts of data while aiming for mW of power consumption.

Mots clés : active vision, event driven sensing, neuromorphic computing, robotics, embodiment

Participants :
- Université technique de Prague (Rép. Tchèque) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 150438.72 €
- Italian Institute of Technology (Italie) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet INTUIT (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

INTUIT project aims to pioneer the development of photonic-based spectroscopy and thermometry methods, namely Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) and optical sensing with Fibre Bragg Gratings (FBG), into clinical solutions to visualize and differentiate tissue experiencing coagulative necrosis and/or hyperthermia from normal healthy tissue during tumor removal involving thermal ablation. This technology will improve surgical guidance, minimizing the destruction of surrounding healthy tissue while achieving a complete tumor resection. Four Work Packages (WPs) will be implemented throughout the Action: WP1 to study endogenous concentrations of optical biomarkers useful to differentiate the ablation margins. WP2 to develop a tissue phantom to recreate the thermal gradients and optical properties of the main tissue ablation zones (this phantom will be used to calibrate and validate the HSI and FBG systems). WP3 to conduct observational animal studies and collect data in-situ on animals undergoing oncology treatment with laser ablation; and WP4 in synergy with all WPs above, dedicated to data processing and development of algorithms for margin detection and to guarantee appropriate data collection, processing and storing. The work plan will bring HSI and FBG technologies to TRL 4 by month 24 of the Action. The next 6 months, involve work at a non-academic host to advance towards TRL 5, and further plan strategies and partnerships to push the proposed technologies towards commercialization with the ultimate goal of improving veterinary and human healthcare. WP1 and WP2 will be conducted at the Politecnico di Milano under the supervision of Prof. Saccomandi who has expertise in thermometry. The animal studies from WP3 will be supervised by Dr. Vajdovich (expert in veterinary pathology and oncology) at the University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest. The data processing will be supervised by Dr. Bocklitz from Leibniz-IPHT whos research is dedicated to photonic data life-cycle.

Mots clés : photonic based thermometry hyperspectral imaging fiber bragg grating optical and thermal tissue phantom

Participants :
- École polytechnique de Milan (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 235737.6 €
- Boston scientific cork limited (Irlande) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Veterinary Medicine (Hongrie) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Leibniz-Gemeinschaft (Allemagne) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet ECORISC (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Global biodiversity loss is disproportionately rapid on islands, which despite being hotspots of biodiversity, comprise ~ 80% of world’s species extinctions. The vulnerability of insular ecosystems to global change has been historically related to the introduction of invasive species. Yet, we still lack a quantitative understanding of how other major threats such as climate change will jeopardise, not only species, but pivotal ecosystem functions derived from trophic interactions such as animal-mediated seed dispersal. To date, the scarce data and methodological limitations have entailed a lack of studies on the effect of climate change on seed dispersal in entire island communities. ECORISC implies a major step ahead previous work with its integration of a new global dataset on ~65 insular seed-dispersal networks, alongside methodological approaches from the fields of interaction networks, ecological niche modelling and future climate change projections. The combination of empirical knowledge on the structure and vulnerability of current insular communities with future climate, species extinctions and interaction rewiring simulations will provide an integrated understanding of the resilience of seed dispersal in insular systems to climate change. The main outcome of ECORISC (i.e. the quantification of structural and functional consequences derived from climate-driven biodiversity loss) will provide essential knowledge needed to restore Europe’s ecosystems and biodiversity, one of the main issue mainstreamed in the first Horizon Europe strategic plan. During the course of this project, I will receive essential training by world leading experts of the fields of island ecology, niche modelling and complex systems at three outstanding institutes from the disciplines of Ecology and Physics, thus paving my way towards establishing an independent and distinct research profile in the fields of global change and community ecology.

Mots clés : island ecology, global change forecasting, functional traits, ecological modelling, frugivory and seed dispersal

Participants :
- University College de Londres (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Conseil supérieur de la recherche scientifique (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 170856.96 €
Projet MaDLED (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

As a key advancing technology, near-infrared light-emitting diodes (NIR-LEDs) cover nearly all aspects of our daily life due to their supported large applications, such as biomedical imaging, optical communication, security, and data storage. With extensive efforts, the efficiencies of LEDs have been improved by over 20% in the emission range below 800 nm. However, the development of NIR-LEDs over 800 nm is modest due to the fundamental limitation of emitters. Recently, tin-halide perovskites (THPs) have emerged as one of the most promising candidates for NIR-LED application. Through easy composition engineering, the emission of THPs can be readily tuned from 680 nm to 1000 nm. Meanwhile, the low-toxic Sn-based perovskites follow the requirements of the European Green Deal, which ask for reducing pollution to enhance the protection of human life, animals, and plants. However, the excessively high p-type doping in THPs, which reduce the carrier injection efficiency and radiative recombination efficiency, currently limits the development of THP-based NIR-LEDs. This project (MaDLED) will promote the development of NIR-LEDs by developing novel strategies to increase carrier injection and recombination efficiency. The results of this project will advance the knowledge about NIR emissive semiconductors, and be of value in other fields, such as solar cells, detects, transistors, etc. This will be achieved by integrating deep knowledge of materials science with expertise in advanced optical-electronic spectroscopies in the host (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy). Besides, a secondment (Helio Display Materials, United Kingdom) is planned to define a suitable route to industrialization. After training in this project, I will have an increased set of research and transferable skills and competencies, which is critical to enhancing my employability and career prospects.

Mots clés : near infrared, light emitting diodes, spectroscopy, thin film, device architecture

Participants :
- Helio display materials limited (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Italian Institute of Technology (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 188590.08 €
Projet FaBriCATion (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Multiple human diseases ranging from neurodegenerative disorders (such as Alzheimer´s disease) to cancer have been found to be linked with biomolecular mechanical properties change (phase transitions PTs). While these diseases have impacted many human beings (50 million for only AD), the causes of most of these diseases are still mysterious, and there is yet no effective treatment. To understand the pathological role of PTs and their corresponding potential as a therapeutic target for these diseases, it is crucial to probe the mechanical properties of live cells. Current standard approaches to measuring the mechanical properties have important limitations: requirement of contact force (atomic force microscopy and optical coherence elastography) and lack of cellular resolution (ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging). An emerging tool, Brillouin microscopy (BM), provides the capability of “imaging” the mechanical properties through probing the so-called Brillouin scattering spectrum in a non-invasive manner with 3D sub-cellular resolution. Its advent has led to a wide range of biological applications. However, the acquisition time for a standard confocal microscope size image is in the order of tens of minutes, owing to the trade-off between the measurement speed and the spectral resolution. Thus, it prevents the BMs from studying the kinetics of phase transitions in live cells. FaBriCATion is to substantially investigate in-vivo Brillouin microscopy, pushing the acquisition time to a sub-millisecond scale per spectrum while maintaining the high spectral resolution, therefore permitting the measurements of the dynamic changes in mechanical properties of the living cells and tissues in sub-cellular resolution. It will enable direct observations of biomolecular phase transitions and reveal their relationship with the pathological effects in cells. The project will advance the research in understanding biomolecular PTs, thus bringing economic and societal benefits.

Mots clés : brillouin scattering, biomechanics, brillouin microscopy, phase transition, in vivo imaging

Participants :
- Italian Institute of Technology (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 188590.08 €
Projet NEW MONO 2D FUN GER (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The use of novel two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials for energy storage and conversion applications has nowadays become a hot research topic in material science. In particular, with the development of electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage stations, the traditional lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have encountered a plethora of challenges due to the huge demands of key markets (e.g. higher energy and power densities). Accordingly, a suitable approach to address these issues is to achieve the development of new electrode materials and alternative batteries (sodium-ion batteries, SIBs). In this context, one of the particularly promising candidate materials is functionalized germanane, which is expected to provide a high-capacity framework for sodium storage, since it possesses several attractive characteristics: to name a few, chemically and electronically active 2D structures, high mechanical flexibility, as well as fast electron mobility and conductivity. With the help of characterization techniques like X-Ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, this project aims to explore the structural and morphological features of functionalized germanane. The gained knowledge will extend our in depth understanding of the electrochemical activity of functionalized germanane. Aiming to achieve the production of high-capacity electrodes for applications in SIBs, the functionalized germanane materials will be further modified by carbon coating and exfoliation steps. The electrochemical performance of selected electrode materials will be evaluated by cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and galvanostatic discharge/charge measurements.

Mots clés : sodium ion batteries, anode material, 2d materials, exfoliation, functionalized germananes, chemical modification

Participants :
- Institut de technologie chimique de Prague (Rép. Tchèque) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 150438.72 €
Projet LIFE_M_OTHER (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

At the frontier of research in assistive reproduction technologies (ARTs) and organ transplantation, motherhood is being reconceived. Uterus transplantation (UTx), pioneered in Sweden in 2014 and now in clinical trials in 16 countries including the United States (US), is among the newest experimental ARTs for people pursuing gestational and genetic motherhood. As UTx moves across borders into different sociopolitical conceptions, and contentions, of gender, reproduction, and motherhood, it becomes a prism for exploring the stakes, practices, and meaning attributed to gender and reproductive rights in different societies. Ultimately, this technoscientific frontier is relevant to everyone, representing the pursuit of not only reproduction but also of a particular form of gendered embodiment by way of a thoroughly gendered organ. LIFE(M)OTHER examines how the technological pursuit of mothering life via UTx moves across borders and into different healthcare systems and lifeworlds, opening to other arrangements of gender, the body, motherhood and reproductive rights. The overall aim of LIFE(M)OTHER is to develop a person-centered theoretical framework for understanding the interplay of three elements: (1) frontier technoscience (2) cultural politics of the body, reproduction, and gender, and (3) lived phenomenological experience. This aim embeds methodological contributions for studying the social impacts of frontier experimental science. I ground this framework in an interdisciplinary, comparative ethnographic study of clinical and domestic (home) sites of four UTx clinical trials in the US and Sweden, tracing the technological development alongside its lived experience by studying the practices and discourses of healthcare practitioners, advocacy groups, patients, donors, and families. I supplement this with archival research to map, compare, and contextualize shifting cultural politics surrounding the uterus, reproduction, gender and the body in the US and Sweden.

Mots clés : medical anthropology assisted reproductive technology organ transplantation feminist studies of science and technology clinical trials biomedicine gender and sexuality studies

Participants :
- Université de Copenhague (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 309951.36 €
- Université Yale (Etats-Unis) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Göteborg (Suède) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet FluZoBa (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Avian influenza viruses (AIV) pose a constant socio-economic threat to humanity due to their potential to cause novel pandemics. This risk is underscored by recent reports of mammalian species infected with highly pathogenic strains of AIV. To develop effective drugs and improve risk assessment, a detailed understanding of the molecular mechanisms of AIV infection is crucial.  AIV are typical emerging zoonotic pathogens capable of crossing into new species. This depends on two factors: i) the new host must support viral replication, and ii) restrictive factors that inhibit infection must be evaded. One significant barrier to AIV infections in humans is the limited activity of avian-adapted viral ribonucleoprotein complexes. These complexes consist of one genomic RNA segment, nucleoproteins, and a viral polymerase. Recently, the host factor BTN3A3 was identified as a critical restriction element for zoonotic AIV, influencing cross-species viral evolution. However, the exact mechanisms through which BTN3A3 restricts the virus, and how the virus evades this restriction, remain unclear.  This study involves structural investigations conducted directly within infected cells at nanometer resolution by in situ cryo-electron tomography, an approach that is significantly pushing beyond the current state-of-the-art thereby setting new paradigms in the understanding of molecular infection mechanisms. The primary objective is to elucidate how viral host-adaptation mutations evade BTN3A3 restriction with the overarching goals to i) improve pandemic risk assessment tools, ii) reveal new drug targets, and iii) serve as a proof-of-principle for studying restriction factors during infection with other zoonotic viruses.  This research will be conducted under the supervision of Dr. Petr Chlanda at Heidelberg University, where I will have access to world-class facilities and training opportunities, supporting my growth as an independent researcher.

Mots clés : influenza a virus, zoonosis, cryoem, cryoet

Participants :
- University Hospital Heidelberg (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 202125.12 €