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

Long-term population persistence in fragmented landscapes is of interest to evolutionary and conservation biologists. Although the causes of population fragmentation and their effects on genetic structure have been investigated in post-Pleistocene “nutrient-rich” landscapes, pre-Pleistocene nutrient-poor landscapes (paleosurfaces) have seldom been considered by population geneticists. The biotic assemblages of paleosurfaces differ fundamentally in their traits from biotas evolving in post-Pleistocene landscapes. It has been hypothesized that they display more complex population dynamics due to the persistence of old lineages, refugial phenomena, inbreeding, adaptations to resource-limited, highly competitive environments, and high levels of resilience to lower evolutionary potential. In this context, the Pantepui region in the western Guiana Shield is of particular interest as it harbours numerous isolated Precambrian sandstone tabletop mountains (tepuis) reaching up to 3000m and is renowned for its floral and faunal endemism. The “Lost Worlds” of tepui summits face particularly hostile, challenging environmental conditions, and their characteristic vegetation grows on highly acidic, oligotrophic soils. My overarching objective is to determine the extent to which the genetic structure, phenotypic traits, and, ultimately, the evolutionary trajectories of vertebrates are impacted by these environmentally hostile, naturally fragmented, paleosurfaces. I will apply state of the art population genomics and imaging technologies (histology, micro CT scanning) integrated with systems-level ecological data to three tepui summit endemic amphibian and reptile taxa distributed across the summits of four neighbouring isolated tepuis. This will yield new insights into the ecological genomics of this extremely hostile environment, and a basis for addressing fundamental questions by comparing and contrasting with other better known species and their less hostile environments.

Mots clés : evolution, paleosurfaces, amphibians, reptiles, genomics, rad seq, tepuis, micro ct scanning

Participants :
- Natural History Museum (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Organismes publics (hors enseignement & recherche), subvention : 224933.76 €
Projet SHADE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Low-power and compact analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is essential for sensor nodes as a link between the sensor and data processing. In restricted-area and high-speed sensors such as image sensors, each pixel needs a compact ADC for parallel data conversion. CMOS implementations of such ADCs have faced three challenges: 1) the difficulty of integrating ADCs with sensors in every pixel due to the large area of analog circuits exacerbated by poor scaling of analog circuits in CMOS, 2) the high static power of analog data converters, 3) limited resolution of CMOS ADC directly related to the process variations. Enormous effort has been devoted to addressing the challenges in such ADCs. Different types of ADCs from single-slope to delta-sigma have been investigated to achieve this, however, they are still far from the required area, resolution and power-density of the sensors. SHADE proposes a novel breakthrough approach benefiting from the small footprint of spintronics into the current ADC architectures. This has solutions for both voltage- and time-mode ADCs. SHADE will lead to at least three orders of magnitude smaller area in comparison with the state-of-the-art ADCs. The voltage-mode approach eliminates the memory array interfacing between the ADC and processor leading to a significant power-saving. SHADE is a major step towards filling the huge gap between the area of ADCs and the available pitch of pixels. The main objectives of this project are to characterize and model the behavior of the magnetic element containing both switching and oscillation features, design and simulation of both voltage- and time-mode quantizers through a developed model, adapting the quantizer with different types of ADCs usually used in sensors and fabrication and testing of ADCs. My experience in device modeling, integrated circuit design and spintronics together with expertise in the host and the secondment have put me in a unique position to run such a promising project.

Mots clés : spin hall  sh  effect, analog to digital converter  adc, spintronics, magnetic tunnel junction  mtj, device circuit co design, hybrid technology, fabrication

Participants :
- Aarhus University (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 207312.0 €
Projet LuSH Art (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

LuSH Art aims at developing new heterostructured hybrid nanomaterials which are light powered by energy migration and to fabricate new luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) taking inspiration from a tree leaf. Reduction of CO2 level in atmosphere is a crucial problem for the life survival on Earth and most of the countries, included EU, has challenging goals to decrease it in the future decades. The production of solar fuels (e.g. H2, CH4) from water splitting and CO2 reduction by photocatalysis can be a key tool in this direction. Although the progresses in this field have a high pace, both scientific and technical important issues are still opened. In multielectron chemistry, the solar light absorption by the sensitizer is the limiting step. In nature, plants and algae are highly efficient at converting CO2 in fuels working at low light flux thanks to energy transfer. Molecular antennas, transferring energy among them, funnel it to a single catalytic reaction center. This is the inspiring principle of LuSH Art, where heterostructured nanomaterials based on colloidal quantum dots (QDs) and J-aggregates will be applied. New light harvesting antennas based on self-assembly aggregation, either from organic molecules or QDs, will be used to fast deliver energy to reactive centers. By controlling the morphology and the chemical composition, non-toxic core/shell QDs will be applied either as sensitizer or as photocatalyst, in colloidal and in film form. These heterostructures will be integrated in a new LSC for artificial photosynthesis. This project, which involves industrial collaboration, has a multidisciplinary approach and its possible outcomes could impact several other research fields in chemistry and material science. The experience and the skills that I gained during my period abroad will be crucial for this project, which would have a great positive impact on my researcher career, allowing me to start my research field.

Mots clés : artificial photosynthesis, light harvesting antenna, hybrid nanomaterials, energy transfer, qds assemblies, j aggregates, water splitting, co2 reduction

Participants :
- Polytechnic University of Turin (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 171473.28 €
Projet IVORIaN (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most frequent subtype of lung cancer and patients harbour activating mutations in the KRAS gene in approximately 25% of the cases. Unfortunately, regardless of the outcome of recent studies identifying specific KRASG12C inhibitors, so far, oncogenic KRAS is not a druggable target yet. The best-characterized KRAS effector pathway, the ERK cascade consists of RAF, MEK and ERK proteins that can be inhibited with small molecules targeting their kinase activities. As the development of RAF and MEK kinases inhibitors progressed, feedback loop reactivating the ERK cascade have emerged, inducing resistance to treatment. Thus, new innovative strategies are needed to achieve a more long-term inhibition of this signalling pathway, while reducing detrimental side effects due to MAPK inhibition in normal cells. It has been described more than 20 years ago that RAF directly interacts with RAS through its Ras Binding Domain (RBD), and many research groups have been trying to disrupt this interaction developing allosteric inhibitors as a cancer therapy. At the moment, those molecules need to be improved in order to achieve a strong inhibition of this pathway. Surprisingly, no mouse model actually demonstrates the requirement of RAS/RAF interaction during KRAS-induced lung tumourigenesis. Here, we propose to investigate this crucial question using a new mouse model allowing us to conditionally disrupt RAS/RAF interaction in vivo. Using the leading mouse model to study lung cancer (LSL-KrasG12D/+; p53-/- mice), we will take advantage of both Cre/LoxP and FLIPo/Frt technologies to investigate the role of RAS/RAF interaction during lung tumours maintenance, as well as its function in tumour/host crosstalk and normal physiology. All together, these investigations will provide important insights into the clinical relevance of developing RAS interaction inhibitors for the treatment of RAS-driven tumours.

Mots clés : nsclc, lung adenocarcinoma, genetically engineered mouse model  gemm, protein protein interactions, pharmacological target

Participants :
- The Francis Crick Institute (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet FIBROCAN (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Lymph nodes are sites where immune responses are robustly initiated. Paradoxically, they are also very common metastatic sites, where tumour progression is well-tolerated. Robust evidence defines a role for fibroblastic reticular cells (FRCs) in preventing T cells from acquiring effector functions within lymph nodes, and deleting T cells that show self-reactivity. FIBROCAN will test the hypothesis that FRCs systematically shut down anti-tumour T cell responses, testing mechanisms of suppression in vitro and in vivo, and charting tumour antigen presentation by FRCs to T cells for the first time. At the frontier of stromal immunology and cancer biology, FIBROCAN was been designed to inform our fundamental understanding of metastatic cancer progression, particularly relevant to the implementation and design of T cell immunotherapies. This project provides the opportunity for a lasting and multi-disciplinary contribution in the high impact fields of stromal and cancer immunology.

Mots clés : stromal immunology

Participants :
- University of Birmingham (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet PRECISMEDLYM (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Lymphoid leukemias and lymphomas represent frequent areas of the tumour pathology. Recent Integrative clinical and molecular studies allows to identify concrete disorders where a precise recognition leads to a specific treatment with a minimum toxicity and maximum clinical benefit. Even though there have been many progress during last years, there still persist numerous conditions with low survival probability and high side effects of the received treatments. The introduction of the precision medicine in lymphoid neoplasms is new and challenging due to the scarce knowledge about disease pathogenesis, targeted therapies and predictor markers, immunotherapy role and poor experimental models. T-cell lymphoma tumors present a dismal survival probability dismal (25% for Peripheral T-cell lymphoma) in patients, and the molecular mechanism underlying their high rate of lack response to treatments and relapse is poorly understood. Furthermore, patients with lymphoproliferative disorders often have complex (multiclonal) or mixed lymphoproliferative disorders. This project aim the consolidation of the precision medicine in the diagnosis and therapy of these disorders, thus facilitating the treatment of each patient according its disease, with specific therapy according to the integral characterization of its disease, thus reducing toxicity and improving the therapy efficacy. The project focuses on complex lymphoproliferative diseases characterized by clinical aggressiveness with low therapeutic response, tumor heterogeneity and patterns of dependency / interaction with the microenvironment. The success of the project requires in first instance to improve in the knowledge of the molecular basis of the disease and subsequently in the identification of precise tumour types and patient stratification, thus facilitating the identification of markers for targeted therapy, using gene expression and mutational signatures.

Mots clés : lymphoma, precision medicine, microenvironment

Participants :
- Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 160932.48 €
Projet FreeDigital (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Many online services and products are offered ‘free’ of charge but in exchange for personal data. Research shows that consumers overvalue the benefits and undervalue the non-monetary costs of zero-price products. Yet, it remains unknown whether offering ‘free’ digital content in exchange for personal data distorts consumer decisions about 1)entering into a transaction, 2)sharing personal data, and 3)enforcing contractual and data protection rights. These questions are important because digital content, even this for ‘free’, might involve certain hazards. For instance, it might be defective causing detriment to its users or consumers’ personal data might be misused. In this project, I will provide evidence on consumer reactions to digital content offered at a zero price by conducting online experiments, in which individuals will perform a real effort task and decide whether to use an application that can help them solve the task. This application will be offered in a premium and a cheaper basic version supplied in exchange for personal data. In separate treatments, I will manipulate the price of the two versions - decrease the price of the basic version from a small amount to zero and change the price of the premium version accordingly. I will observe whether reducing the price of the basic version to zero influences participants choices on which application to use and whether to provide personal data in exchange. I will further introduce a failure in the basic version and measure whether participants complain and request deletion of their personal data depending on the price of the application. Next, I will test whether interventions proposed by legal scholars (e.g., informing users that their personal data constitute counter-performance) change these decisions. Finally, based on these data I will develop arguments contributing to legal discussions in consumer and data protection law and suggest solutions that will improve consumer welfare and privacy protection.

Mots clés : free digital content, online contracts, online privacy, consumer behavior, online experiment

Participants :
- Maastricht University (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 281358.72 €
Projet DIGEST (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Many plant species produce seeds that are ingested, transported and egested by animals. This dispersal mechanism is known as endozoochory, and plays a crucial role in the persistence of a broad range of plant species worldwide. The importance of endozoochory is today best known for terrestrial plant species producing fleshy-fruits around their seeds to attract animals. However, animals also massively ingest seeds that lack fleshy components in wetland ecosystems, suggesting endozoochory can also impact wetland biodiversity. Current global pressures on wetlands urge a better understanding of the dispersal mechanisms regulating biodiversity in such “islands in a sea of land”. The proposed study aims to generate a mechanistic understanding of endozoochory by studying wetland ecosystems in a novel approach: traditional time-consuming and ethically-challenging experiments with living animals will be replaced by an innovative combination of experiments and biogeographical modelling. Four key objectives are to: (I) identify contrasts and similarities between endozoochory in terrestrial and aquatic habitats in a meta-analysis; (II) modify existing artificial digestion protocols for humans and domestic animals so they simulate digestion by three key vector animal species for wetlands, during a secondment in the food industry; (III) use these protocols to estimate the endozoochorous dispersal potential for a wide range of plant species; (IV) use biogeographical modelling to test relations among the suitability index of plant species for endozoochory, plant distributions and movements of vector animals. This integrated approach will improve our mechanistic understanding of endozoochory, fuse terrestrial and aquatic ecology, exchange knowledge between academia and the industry, inform on an important ecological process in a globally changing world, and will allow me to acquire all necessary competences and contacts to initiate my own research group after this project.

Mots clés : animal physiology, artificial digestion, ecosystem engineers, plant dispersal, plant animal interactions

Participants :
- Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 177598.8 €
Projet EmoPun (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Many researchers have suggested that cooperation is made possible by third party punishment (TPP) of free riders. TPP has its own free riding problem, though; it is costly in itself, and people can be tempted to let others incur the costs of punishing cheaters. Thriving research areas are currently seeking to explain how this second-order free rider problem is resolved – that is, how individuals are sufficiently compensated for engaging in TPP. One proposal suggests that individuals gain reputational benefits by punishing noncooperators. Yet the evidence supporting this proposal is equivocal: punishers are sometimes preferred, but they are also often avoided, perhaps because of uncertainty about their motives underlying TPP. Based on recent theoretical and empirical developments on the functions of disgust and anger, we suggest that the expression of these moral emotions can help explain the inconsistency in how observers perceive third party punishers, because emotions reveal information about the punishers’ motives and intentions. The proposed research aims to test whether disgust expressions increases trustworthiness of punishers whereas anger promotes a reputation for punitiveness and aggression. The research would simultaneously shed light on prominent debates about the differences between these emotions. Methods from behavioural economics, such as the third party punishment game and the trust game, will be integrated with methods from the social psychology of emotions used to test the interpersonal effects of emotion expression. Studies will also employ software that enables the collection of data from real-time behavioural interactions. The proposed research and training will enable the applicant, who has made important contributions to the literature on emotions, to gain crucial new expertise in cooperation and behavioural methods from leading experts at VU Amsterdam.

Mots clés : moral emotions, disgust, anger, interpersonal effects of emotions, third party punishment  tpp, evolution of cooperation

Participants :
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 177598.8 €
Projet G4-PTROs (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Many studies of global gene expression focus solely on studying the transcriptome thereby only assessing mRNA abundance. However, transcription is only a single layer of gene expression and recently, the influence of post-transcriptional regulation has become undeniable. Rather underrepresented players in post-transcriptional control are G-quadruplexes (G4s). These stable structures can form guanine tetrads in DNA and RNA via p-p-stacking of several planar arrangements of four guanine bases stabilized by Hoogsteen hydrogen bonds and a central metal cation. Recent reports have pointed to an important regulatory role of G4 motives in key cellular functions including pre-mRNA processing, RNA turnover, mRNA transport thereby suggesting intriguing links to human diseases as cancer and neurological disorders. G4 structures in mRNAs seem to act as signaling components that constitute an own post-transcriptional operon. Recruitment of G4-specific RBPs then determines the ultimate fate of G4-containing mRNAs. Not many RBPs or upstream regulatory factors of G4s have been identified and the functional consequences of these interactions are not known. In this proposal I will address these questions. First, I will identify mRNAs that are differentially translated and/or stabilized in the presence of the G4 specific ligand pyridostatin (PDS), which stabilizes G4 structures. The resulting comprehensive list of mRNAs will be the first data set that provides a mechanistically link of G4 motive regulation. Secondly, I will identify factors in the G4 regulatory network using a genome wide shRNA assay to determine proteins that modulate the stability and/or the translation of G4 motive containing mRNAs. It is important to understand G4 structure-function relationships and upstream regulatory processes as the emerging link between G4 formation and human disease opens up an exciting research direction that has potential implications for therapeutic intervention.

Mots clés : rna g quadruplexes, post transcriptional control

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