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

Future sea level rise threatens infrastructure worth trillions of euros and the livelihoods of millions of people. The magnitude and rapidity of this rise heavily relies on how the mass balance of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) responds to a warming climate, as a net loss of just 1% mass will increase sea level by ~0.7 m. However, any increased ice loss and resulting sea level rise may be partly offset if warming also increases snow accumulation on the EAIS. Currently, our understanding of exactly how EAIS accumulation rates respond to climate change is uncertain as modern records are sparse and the deuterium ratios used as an accumulation proxy in ice cores are affected by several other climate variables. This project aims to fully develop and apply an independent methodology to infer past snow accumulation rates using the fractionation of nitrogen isotopes in nitrate (NO3-). After NO3- is naturally deposited on the Antarctic snow surface, exposure to sunlight promotes photolytic loss of nitrate that favors 14NO3- over 15NO3-. As a result, the 15N/14N ratio (δ15N) of remaining NO3- steadily increases until enough snow accumulates to bury the NO3- below the photic zone and stop the process. Accumulation rate changes can thus extend or reduce the NO3-exposure time and degree of δ15N change. Through a suite of newly collected and archived snow/ice samples that cover a wide range of modern EAIS accumulation rates, the empirical relationship between δ15N and snow accumulation will be quantified and applied to 160 ka of data from the Vostok and EPICA Dome C ice cores. These new δ15N analyses will independently estimate how snow accumulation at the sites responded to the dramatic global climate changes of the past two glacial cycles, including two periods of rapid deglacial warming. In turn, this will produce a clearer understanding of Antarctic climate dynamics and mass balance responses during abrupt climate change and help reduce sea level projection uncertainty.

Mots clés : antarctica, nitrate, ice core, mass balance, sea level

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 196707.84 €
Projet signalling dynamics (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are a class of membrane receptors that transmits extracellular signals into the cell. They can be activated by a diverse set of ligands including small molecules, hormones, neurotransmitters or photons and are targeted by a third of currently marketed drugs. Endogenous ligands and drugs may exhibit different efficacy profiles, ranging from full activation to complete inactivation of a signalling pathway. The key to the selective interaction with signalling partners in response to ligand binding lies in the conformational flexibility of the membrane receptors. Previous research has extensively studied the three-dimensional structures of GPCRs and their signalling. However, the link between active conformations and signalling is still missing. In the proposed project, first I will use exhaustive single-point mutagenesis coupled to functional assays to determine how the sequence and secondary structure of GPCRs contribute to signaling. Second, biophysical techniques studying protein conformations will help us to understand the connection between conformations and signalling outcome. These techniques give insights into the conformational fingerprints of the receptor. The link to signalling will be achieved by biasing the receptor towards a selected signalling partner either though addition of the selected signalling partner or the insertion of specific mutations tested in the first part of the project. Finally, I will use computational techniques to compare the activation of signalling partners in different GPCRs. With my research I hope to improve our understanding of the molecular basis of membrane protein function and contribute to the development of strategies for the design of more specific drugs with fewer side effects.


Participants :
- UK Research and Innovation (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 271732.8 €
- Stanford University (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet GABAARComp (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

GABA(A)Rs are the principal neurotransmitter receptors at the inhibitory synapses. The majority of these receptors are anchored at the inhibitory postsynaptic compartment by the central scaffolding function of gephyrin. A dysfunctional receptor clustering by gephyrin leads to abnormal neurotransmission and neurodevelopmental disorders, including anxiety disorders and epilepsy. Recent advances in the structural studies, most recently by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), have elucidated several heteropentameric GABA(A)R structures. All of these illustrate receptors in isolation. However, in a physiological synaptic context, GABAARs exist and function in close association the auxiliary protein LFPLH4 as well as with anchoring proteins including gephyrin, collybistin (CB) and the adhesion molecule neuroligin 2 (NL2). To understand the architecture and function of this fundamental complex, I will work on the structural elucidation of the human GABA(A)R-gephyrin-CB-NL2 supramolecular complex by single-particle cryo-EM. Structural studies will be followed by validation using additional biochemical, biophysical and electrophysiological analysis of mutant constructs. These data will not only provide the first insights into the supra-molecular organization of a major human neurotransmitter receptor. As the dysfunctional GABAergic neurotransmission manifest itself in lethal neurodevelopmental disorders such as Alzheimer’s and also epilepsy, structural insight into the central complex will also help to understand the molecular basis of these disorders.

Mots clés : gaba a  receptor, gephyrin, cryo em, collybistin, neuroligin, inhibitory postsynapses

Participants :
- UK Research and Innovation (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet GELNANODEP (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

GELNANODEP aims at inserting in the background of the advance drug delivery systems an innovative clinical treatment for skin cancer diseases as melanoma. The main goal of GELNANODEP system is to exploit a synergic therapeutic anticancer approach by using a gel depot loaded natural bacteriophages and a natural bio compound encapsulated with surface engineering nanoparticles. This project intends to propose a novel and alternative approach to avoid the usual severe side-effects affected by the systemic administration of the anticancer pharmaceuticals (e.g., intravenous injections or oral). So, the transdermal drug delivery system is proposed as alternatives that offer promising strategies for the treatment of skin tumours. Melanoma is a skin cancer which can become metastatic, drug-refractory, and lethal if managed late or inappropriately. Besides these already complicated conditions, it is largely known how the depletion of the immunological defence system of the cancer patient can induce infections by opportunist microbial pathogens such as bacteria and fungi. Pathogenic microorganisms with cancers have been reported frequently associated with chronic inflammation in skin malignancies, which can promote skin carcinogenesis inducing the ulceration of cutaneous lesions, and last but not list increasing patient mortality. The GELNANODEP system provides a depot based on a thermosensitive biodegradable and biocompatible triblock copolymer carrying: (I) surface engineered nanoparticles to specific target alpha 2-beta-3 integrin expressed on tumour cells and selective release sulforaphane which is a natural dietary isothiocyanate mostly characterized by its potent anticancer activity, and (II) naturally bacteriophages inducing the death of pathogenic bacteria. This proposal will be pursued by a highly interdisciplinary skills, composed of pharmaceutics, polymer chemistry, biology, molecular biology, oncology, clinicals and microbiology.

Mots clés : trasdermal delivery, thermosensitive gel, nanoparticles, naturally bacteriophages, anticancer activity, natural bioactive compound

Participants :
- Percuros (Netherlands) (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 187572.48 €
Projet GETUI (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

GETUI investigates through user studies the use of gestures in interaction with Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) in the context of technology-based assessment (TBA) of collaborative and complex problem solving skills. Collaborative problem solving is defined as the capacity to recognise the perspective of other people in a group, participate, contribute knowledge, recognise the need for contributions and build knowledge and understanding as member on a collaborative setting (Ras et al. 2013). Most of the research in TBA of collaborative problem solving skills dealt with the improvement of assessment of traditional skills. However, the focus should be on the so-called 21st Century skills: CPS, creativity, critical thinking, learning to learn, decision-making. Ras et al. (2013) state that for many challenges in TBA, ICT are the solution to assess 21st Century skills, but also the problem, as scientific knowledge about how assessment models need to be adapted as well as practical knowledge about how to create more authentic problem situations with future assessment tools are lacking. Until now there is no TUI that has been systematically used and evaluated in the context of TBA. Moreover, in TBA, gestures on TUIs have not been yet explored. Thus not only is the research of TUI as an assessment construct a new research field, but also the dimension of gestures makes GETUI an innovative and timely project. This interdisciplenary research will not only fill the gap of scientific knowledge, but will also have an impact at a European level creating new instruments for assessing 21st Century skills based on capturing behavioural indices of human-computer and human-human interactions in collaborative TBA situations. Ras E, Maquil V, Foulonneau M, Latour T (2013) Empirical studies on a Tangible user interface for technology-based assessment: Insights and emerging challenges. Pedagogy and Technology: Harmony and Tensions International Journal of e-Assessment, 3(1).

Mots clés : cognitive tasks, gestures, gesture taxonomy, interaction design guidelines, tangible user interfaces, speech gesture alignment, technology based assessment, user studies

Participants :
- Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (Luxembourg) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 172800.0 €
Projet GRAPHIL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

GRAPHIL aims at generating a detailed picture of the lateral nanostructure of the ionic liquid (IL)-graphene interface. A special focus will be given to the understanding of the IL-graphene interactions that generate the interfacial structure and to the influence of IL on graphene electronic structure. This understanding will greatly benefit the research on IL/graphene based energy storage devices. State-of-the-art amplitude-modulated atomic force microscopy (AM-AFM) will be employed to visualize the lateral arrangement of cations and anions for a series of ionic liquids in order to establish the correlation between the constituent ions and the interfacial structure of IL on graphene. The structure will be compared for biased as well as unbiased graphene substrates. Raman spectroscopy will be used to establish the dependence of IL structure on the electronic structure of graphene. This highly interdisciplinary research that lies at the interface of chemistry, material science and surface science will be carried out at KU Leuven-University of Leuven (experimental work, in the group of Prof. Steven De Feyter) and will be complemented by theoretical simulations carried out at University of Mons (in group of Prof. Roberto Lazzaroni) and University of Antwerp (in the group of Prof. Francois Peters)

Mots clés : graphene, ionic liquids, scanning probe microscopy, raman spectroscopy, dft theory

Participants :
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 172800.0 €
Projet GainGrain (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

GainGrain addresses grain (fruit) production in rice, which is one of the most important cereals species, a major staple food and the most important model plant for the wide and important phylogenetic group of monocots. GainGrain intends to improve yield by dissecting the regulatory mechanisms that control the branched inflorescence architecture of rice, aiming to both identify new functions and analyze the regulatory networks of conserved transcription factors. This will enable us to determine, and eventually optimize, rice inflorescence morphogenesis. Nevertheless, GainGrain is designed to transfer the knowledge and molecular tools obtained in rice to other crops, not just other cereals but even eudicot crops. Identifying and understanding the role of molecular networks, their direct targets and interactors, and their involvement in regulating the number of inflorescence branches and flowers in each species, would provide evolutionary and developmental insights and new major targets for crop yield improvement.

Mots clés : oryza sativa, crops, branching, inflorescence, inflorescence meristem, evo devo, monocots, eudicots, crispr, dcas9

Participants :
- Spanish National Research Council (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 160932.48 €
Projet GaNSpector (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Gallium Nitride (GaN) and Silicon Carbide (SiC), in particular the 4H hexagonal polytype of SiC (4H-SiC), are wide bandgap semiconductors with significantly superior electrical and thermal characteristics compared to Silicon. Both materials are key enablers for ongoing changes in electric utility and transportation infrastructures. Commercial products that significantly benefit from GaN and SiC semiconductors include solid-state energy converters, power management electronics, power amplifiers, light-emitting diodes, displays, solar cells, lasers, and environmental sensors. Recently, the development of GaN and SiC-based devices has highly accelerated because of their potential for 5G technology. The high defectiveness of produced crystals is one of the principal obstacles to expanding GaN and 4H-SiC use. Therefore, tools for more efficient GaN and 4H-SiC production are highly requested. The Swiss company Scientific Visual has already developed quality inspection tools for raw Sapphire industrial crystals and is expanding its technology to GaN and 4H-SiC. This project aims to develop an automated non-destructive inspection tool to help semiconductor manufacturers to get insight into raw GaN and 4H-SiC crystal quality. Such a scanner will help improving the growth process and assessing the defectiveness of GaN and 4H-SiC crystals before processing. It will save resources on slicing and polishing initially defective crystals, and thereby time and costs to fabricate epi-ready wafers.

Mots clés : gallium nitride, crystal inspection, defects visualization tool, tomography, semiconductors, optics

Participants :
- Scientific visual sa (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 191149.44 €
Projet Yeast H2S Signalling (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Gaseous mediators are ubiquitous in biology. For example, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) signalling leads to cardioprotective effects in humans and is believed to be beneficial for the mammalian gut microbiome. However, gaseous mediators in microbiology are under-explored because quantification of volatiles is challenging. Here, I will investigate how the volatile metabolite H2S can mediate cell-cell interactions and trigger a hitherto unknown sulfur metabolism pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Conventionally, Met17 is believed to be the only enzyme that can assimilate H2S (generated from inorganic sulfate) into organic compounds, and hence essential for growth on inorganic sulfur sources. However, I observed that the met17 deletion mutant can in fact grow on inorganic sulfate, albeit only at sufficiently high initial cell densities. My preliminary analyses suggest that H2S accumulates in met17- cultures, and when it reaches a threshold, enables cell growth by triggering an alternative sulfur metabolism pathway. In this proposal, I will 1) quantitatively understand how the alternative pathway responds to H2S by developing a mathematical model of density-dependent growth in met17- populations; 2) uncover the novel sulfur metabolism pathway in yeast by using transcriptomics and genetics; and 3) investigate the contribution of this H2S-responsive pathway to the fitness of wildtype yeast using population dynamics analyses. My research will not only offer mechanistic insights into how hidden aspects of yeast sulfur metabolism may contribute to cell-cell interactions and fitness, but also provide quantitative tools for studying gas-mediated microbial interactions from an interdisciplinary perspective. Finally, the project will extensively train me in the synergistic interplay between experiments and mathematical modelling — a style I hope to establish in my future, independent research.

Mots clés : hydrogen sulfide, yeast sulfur metabolism, gaseous mediator, microbial interactions, density dependent growth, mathematical modelling, volatile metabolites

Participants :
- University of London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet GLARE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Gender equality remains a critical societal challenge. But how does one ‘learn’ gender? Children’s literature presents one early source of cultural norms, values and assumptions about gender. Language use in these texts is a crucial means by which children learn about gendered concepts and behaviours. To understand this formative influence more deeply, the innovative GLARE project will examine the discursive construction of gender in corpora of English children’s literature drawing on a novel cognitive corpus stylistic approach to characterization to conceptualise the notion of gender. GLARE will further take a diachronic perspective to the development of gender representation over time. The ‘cognitive corpus stylistics’ links together corpus linguistics (CL) and Cognitive Poetics (CP). CL methods combine qualitative and quantitative approaches to text analysis while CP offers a theoretical framework to account for the creation of meaning in the mind of the reader. The approach adopted by GLARE stresses that the representation of real and fictional people is related – in terms of the background knowledge that readers bring to texts and in terms of the patterns used in a text. Hence, relationships between the representation of fictional characters and real people are to some extent a reflection of links between patterns in fictional and non-fictional texts. To investigate this relationship, the project draws on complementary data from the Times Digital Archive. Through the description and analysis of linguistic patterns GLARE will provide novel insights into the way in which children’s literature can influence the creation of gendered concepts and behaviours. GLARE will be situated at the University of Birmingham and supervised by Prof. Michaela Mahlberg, a world-leading expert in corpus stylistics. A secondment at Oxford University Press will allow the unique opportunity to access the largest electronic collection of children’s books, the Oxford Children’s Corpus.

Mots clés : corpus linguistics, children s literature, gender, cognitive poetics

Participants :
- University of Birmingham (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet DamBuckler (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

General structural stability theories have been hitherto restricted to elastic systems. This constitutes a significant weakness in current structural stability analysis techniques particularly owing to the increasing use of composite structures in lightweight construction. The DamBuckler project aims for this to be resolved by developing a novel generalized theory that unifies the concepts of structural stability and material damage. Hence, a novel variational principle will be developed that is capable of determining the deformation path, its stability and the damage growth behaviour of mechanical systems. The variational principle will be based on an energy functional, depending on the configuration only, which will be derived by analysing the behaviour of the energies related to elastic and inelastic deformation with respect to variations of the damage state. With the aid of the novel general structural stability theory, the effect of material damage and its propagation will be considered and analysed in the stability analysis of structures. The theory will be applied to an application example which is particularly relevant for aircraft structures: the modelling of the compressive behaviour of composite panels with barely visible impact damage. Hitherto, detailed mechanical insight into the structural stability behaviour of these structures is restricted since analytical models are confined to non-growing damage. Moreover, comprehensive finite element models, although consider damage growth, are related to certain structural configurations and damage locations. The novel general theory will enable the formulation of semi-analytical modelling approaches that will provide insight into the influence on the structural stability from varying material parameters, laminate layup, layer thickness, delamination depth and geometry, alongside the effect of multiple and distinct damage parameters such that they can be understood comprehensively and predicted with accuracy.

Mots clés : structural stability, damage growth, general theory, composite structures, nonlinear buckling, barely visible impact damage

Participants :
- Imperial College London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 224933.76 €