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

Bacteriophages (phages) drive the evolution of bacteria by antagonistic coevolution and by promoting transfer of genetic material between bacteria. Phages are intimately involved in a range of biological processes from carbon cycling to the maintenance of human health. Despite their global importance the coevolution between natural phage communities and their bacterial hosts remains poorly understood. This project seeks to understand the mechanism behind a Phage-Induced High-Cell-Density (PIHCD) phenotype using a droplet-based microfluidic device termed the Evolution Machine, developed at the proposed institution (ESPCI Paris). Work Package 1 (WP1) will use the Evolution Machine to determine and characterize the phage(s) responsible for the PIHCD phenotype through coinfection with their Pseudomonas fluorescens host. WP2 will determine the mechanistic basis of the PIHCD phenotype using transcriptomics and genetic manipulation. Finally, in WP3 the long term coevolution between phage(s) and host will be investigated using the droplet-level selection capabilities of the Evolution Machine combined with comparative genomic analysis. Through this fellowship ESPCI Paris will gain from my expertise in molecular biology and bioinformatics while I will develop new skills in microbiology (phage-host coevolution and genetic manipulation) and microfluidic technology (Evolution Machine).

Mots clés : phage, coevolution, evolution, millifluidics

Participants :
- École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 173076.0 €
Projet CO-DEfENDENCE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Bacteriophages (phages) infecting Propionibacterium freudenreichii, a bacterium known for production of active vitamin B12 and for causing well-documented benefits to human health, are more diverse than those identified for closely related genera. At the same time, the defence mechanisms protecting the bacterial strains (hosts) from phage attacks are more diverse as well. These two phenomena suggest that P. freudenreichii strains and their phages have experienced complex interactions in phage-bacterium arms race. However, both phages attacking, and the defence mechanisms that this important food-grade Actinobacterium uses to protect itself from phage attacks are currently severely understudied. In CO-DEfENDENCE, I will use an innovative approach of systematic study of the defence mechanisms not only from the perspective of the bacterium, but also from the perspective of the phage. The use of strains and phages isolated from samples of different origin will ensure diversity of material subjected to analyses by a combination of phenotypic, genomic, proteomic and imaging methods. This multidisciplinary approach is possible due to guidance offered by world-class phage specialists at one of the world’s top universities, the University of Copenhagen. The expected result of CO-DEfENDENCE is elucidation of complex interactions between P. freudenreichii and its phages, which led to the high diversity of the phages and the multitude of defence mechanisms employed by the strains. As an added benefit, these results have a great potential for being translated into novel genetic tools and to aid the development of phage therapies, especially those aimed at pathogenic Actinobacteria.

Mots clés : bacteriophage, propionibacterium, page host interactions, probiotics

Participants :
- University of Copenhagen (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 219312.0 €
Projet INDICANTS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Bananas are major staple in developing countries and the most eaten fruit in Europe. Global banana production is constrained by several diseases that are responsible for yield losses and low productivity of bananas and severely compromise food security. Particularly banana production is seriously threatened by four vascular diseases, Fusarium wilt disease of banana caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense (Foc), Moko and banana blood diseases, caused by Ralstonia solanacearum and R. syzygii subsp. celebesensis, respectively) and Xanthomonas wilt of banana caused by Xanthomonas vasicola pv. musacearum. Efficiency of surveillance and plant disease management requires the availability of Point of care (POC) diagnostics that can be operated directly on site. INDICANTS project focuses on (i) the development of a low-cost multi-pathogens LAMP (Loop-mediated isothermal amplification) detection kit, and its validation via an interlaboratory test and field surveys. (ii) the evaluation of an emergent technology (CRISPR/Cas12a) for the diagnosis of Foc. (iii) the test of an innovative microneedle patch for DNA extraction from plant. This project relies on a two-way transfer of knowledge and expertise between the applicant and Stellenbosch University: the applicant will access to areas where the diseases are present, will acquire through hands-on training and training-through-research, new expertise and skills in genetics/biotechnology, thereby strengthening the future career prospects. The partner organisation will gain experience and knowledge on bacterial banana diseases and LAMP method. Actions of protection and exploitation of the outputs will be set up, with the involvement of an industrial partner. Besides the scientific publications and conferences, the results will be disseminated to different audiences: the general public (website, press and TV), plant protection services (workshops) MSc students (lectures), schoolchildren (Platform visits).

Mots clés : banana  phytopathogenic bacteria and fungi  fusarium oxysporum f sp  cubense  ralstonia spp  xanthomonas vasicola pv  musacearum  point of care diagnostics  lamp  crispr, cas12a  field survey

Participants :
- Stellenbosch University (Afrique du Sud) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 219050.88 €
Projet BaTEx (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Basalt is one of the most common raw materials used for tool manufacture in many prehistoric sites. As a result, it is often the most important-and sometimes the only- source of information about the life and behaviour of early hominins. While studies related to the other aspects (i.e. knapping processes, tool variability) of these assemblages progress, systematic studies on how and what basalt tools were used for remain inexistent. This seriously limits the behavioural, evolutionary and cognitive interpretations of basalt assemblages. BaTEx aims to fill in this existing void by providing the necessary methodological framework using multiple macro- and microscopic techniques and experimentation to permit the functional analysis of basalt tools, and by understanding past exploitation strategies of basalt, its functional significance and its interaction with other raw materials at specific archaeological sites where basalt is important. To achieve this, the project will focus on: 1) Systematic experimentation for developing a reference collection; 2) Adaptation of standardized use-wear analytical methods to basalt; 3) Blind test to assess the robustness of the experimental corpus; 4) Evaluation of the impact of taphonomic processes on trace preservation; 5) Test the potential of use-wear quantification on basalt using surface morphometry and spatial analysis of rough surfaces; and 6) Use the experimental results in archaeological case-studies by means of a traceological study on a selection of archaeological tools hereby demonstrating the validity and the potential of the method. The expected impact of the project is that it will provide functional data on basalt tools allowing, for the first time, to fully study and interpret human activities at key archaeological sites and to properly address technological issues, subsistence patterns and even behavioural and cognitive aspects of basalt assemblages, which cannot yet be faced in the current stage of research.

Mots clés : basalt, stone tool use wear, post depositional modification, microscopy, wear quantification, experimental archaeology, pleistocene

Participants :
- University of Liège (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 178320.0 €
Projet CONGO (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Based on anthropological fieldwork in the Eastern Congo, this study investigate ‘hybrid political orders’ e.g. state and non-state groups, such as militias, police, military, local criminal gangs and local authorities such as village chiefs or warlords whose operations transcend the boundaries of what we normally know as state and nonstate and how such actors exercise power through alternative ways of governance and authority. To do so, I apply the concept of ‘violent exchange’ (Jensen 2013). This concept is fruitful in explaining how violence opens up a space in which people are forced to engage with armed networks. In this way, it enables an exploration of bottom-up relations and the how authority yields profits through violent interactions. The study has a strong comparative and interdisciplinary approach as it will contribute to critical inquires that questions the western assumption of state power. The study will be part of a wider research project located at the Danish Institute against torture in Copenhagen, Denmark, where a group of senior researchers are carrying out fieldwork and examining violent exchanges in the Global South. In this way, it will contribute to social science and anthropological theory, to develop the concept of ‘violent exchange’ through fieldwork and bring new empirical data. The results of this study will help to find new methods to monitor violence and to improve human rights work in fragile states.

Mots clés : hybrid political orders, violent exchanges, authority, governance

Participants :
- Dignity-dansk institut mod tortur forening (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 200194.8 €
Projet GABACODEV (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Because of its function in brain wiring and in the generation of early correlated activity patterns, the maturation of GABAergic transmission plays a key role in enabling brain complexity in higher mammals. Indeed, disruption of GABAergic circuitry at several time points can contribute to the generation of developmental disorders such as schizophrenia, autism or epilepsy (Le Maguerise and Moyner, 2013). Both in the murine hippocampus and neocortex, GABAergic interneurons have been shown to participate in the emergence of a precise temporal sequence of distinct correlated neuronal activity patterns during early postnatal development (Crepel et al., 2007; Allene et al., 2008). In particular, GABAergic cells with an extended and divergent axonal connectivity (operational “hub” neurons) (Bonifazi et al., 2009; Picardo et al., 2011; Cossart, 2013) have been described to be capable of synchronizing single-handedly populations of cells in developing hippocampal slices (Bonifazi et al., 2009). This project builds up on a solid ground of unpublished in vitro data from the host lab indicating that a specific, but diverse functional subpopulation of GABA neurons could also operate as hub cells in the developing neocortex. Experimentally, it will benefit from recent technical developments from the host lab aiming at manipulating and visualizing the activity of single neurons in the awake mouse combining genetic and microscopy tools. Indeed, if operational hub neurons have been described in vitro, it remains unknown how they integrate into functional networks in vivo, and more generally how GABAergic activity shapes early cortical network dynamicsThis proposal aims at translating from the in vitro to the in vivo situation a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the functional contribution of specific microcircuits to the emergence of network dynamics during development.

Mots clés : development  gaba neurons  neocortical dynamics

Participants :
- Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 173076.0 €
Projet MixedAnionDEMO (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Because the Earth’s atmosphere contains mainly reactive oxygen (and inert nitrogen), conventional inorganic synthetic materials are mostly oxides. From the research point of view, the 20th century was a prosperous era in the field of solid-state chemistry with discoveries of many inorganic oxide compounds that laid strong foundations of materials synthesis and characterization. The impressive development of oxides followed by other single-anion compounds, such as fluorides, nitrides, and chlorides is mainly due to their stability and ease of synthesis. Nevertheless, after a century of intensive research both conventional solid-state techniques and numerous combinations of metals (or cations) are reaching a point where they have been exhausted, which makes further development of new single-anion inorganic materials more and more difficult. Consequently, today, compounds with multiple anions beyond the single-oxide ion composition, offer a new playground for materials development where greater functionality can be found. Besides, unlike oxides, which exhibit chemistry and structures often known from mineralogy, the structures of most mixed-anion compounds are yet less explored with much more to learn. The aim of this project it to show how the mixed-anion approach will be beneficial to many fields of solid-state chemistry and how the candidate and the host researcher will apply it to the topics tackled by the host group: materials with optical properties and selective ionic conductivity. On the one hand, the candidate experience in oxide-derived materials and on the other hand, the host researcher expertise in the fluorine-derived materials will allow a broad prospection of new compounds and consequently functional materials with new properties. Finally, the combined efforts of the candidate and the host researcher is to expand the whole group topic from "chemistry and photonic of oxide and fluoride materials" to "chemistry and photonic of mixed-anion materials".

Mots clés : solid state chemistry, mixed anion materials, oxides, fluorides, band gap, ionic conductivity

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 196707.84 €
Projet NanoCap (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Biodegradable and biocompatible nanoparticles have high potential as viable carriers of active compounds in a broad range of applications for example for cosmetic ingredients as well as therapeutically active compounds such as vaccines, genes, drugs and other biomolecules (drug delivery). To advance current polymer nanoparticle technology we propose a novel nanomaterial platform based on synthetic polypeptide only comprising amino acid building blocks. The proposed system amalgamates the advantages of natural polymers (polypeptides) with the advantages of synthetic polymer chemistry, i.e. molecular weight and composition control. This will result in an innovative biodegradable nanomaterials platform highly adaptable to different cargoes and applications in the attractive Life Science sector. Feasibility will be investigated by loading and release studies of therapeutics for example small molecule drugs as well as hard-to-deliver next generation biopharmaceuticals. This highly interdisciplinary project between polymer, materials and pharmaceutical science will contribute to the advancement of this field addressing industry informed needs i.e. adaptable, nature-inspired nano-delivery systems at the forefront of fundamental and applied research. The applicants diverse experience in academic and industrially informed projects makes him an ideal match for this project. It provides a unique environment for the researcher to develop his skills supported by unique scientific and complementary training and accelerate his academic career in applied medicinal and biomaterial science. The dissemination of research results will target the professional audience as well the general public through outreach activities.

Mots clés : nanoparticles, drug delivery

Participants :
- Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (Irlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175866.0 €
Projet GENDANGERED (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Biodiversity is declining at alarming rates mostly due to anthropogenic impacts, such as climate and land-use change. This in turn generates reductions in the genomic diversity that species require to persist and adapt in the face of future environmental change. Thus, a thorough understanding of how genomic diversity changes in the face of species’ declines is essential for planning conservation actions. The use of genetics in conservation biology has been extremely valuable in recent decades, and the quick adoption of cutting-edge genomics tools offer new and powerful insights, however, important challenges are yet to be tackled. Crucially, the conditions that lead to genomic diversity decline, and the details of how exactly genomic diversity is lost in response to population decline are currently unknown. Current approaches focusing on reduced portions of the genome, and/or limited to the use of contemporary samples, are not enough. To fill these gaps in knowledge, I propose a plan that combines computer modelling with empirical genomic data to unveil signatures of genomic diversity change over time after recent global environmental change. The proposal consists of three complementary steps. (1) Simulate how genomic diversity declines across the genome according to different demographic models. (2) Obtain the first directly observed estimates of the pace, amount and type of genomic diversity change using whole-genome sequencing from historical (i.e. pre-decline) and contemporary (i.e. post-decline) avian samples. (3) Simulate common conservation practices to develop a predictive modelling tool capable of guiding conservation management in light of future environmental change. Altogether, this approach will allow me to dissect how genetic diversity is lost across the genome after population declines, estimate the pace at which this happens over recent time-scale and generate predictions for the efficacy of conservation actions into future environmental conditions.

Mots clés : evolutionary genomics, biodiversity, population genetics, conservation, conservation genetics, climate change, adaptation, biological collections

Participants :
- University of Copenhagen (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 219312.0 €
Projet AIRDNA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Biodiversity is in decline due to human land use, exploitation, and climate change. To be able to counteract this alarming trend it is paramount to closely follow the state and trends of biodiversity at global scales. Because this is impossible with traditional monitoring, the last decade has seen a strong push for solutions to solve this challenge. In aquatic ecosystems the monitoring of species from the DNA they leave behind, so called ‘environmental DNA’ (eDNA) has emerged as one of the most powerful tools at our disposal. In terrestrial ecosystems, however, the power of eDNA for monitoring has so far been hampered by the local scale of the samples. In this action, I address this shortcoming and propose to test the potential of airborne eDNA for the biodiversity monitoring of terrestrial animal communities. I have previously shown, that airborne animal DNA can be captured with air samplers, revealing the traces of over 200 species of arthropods and 16 species of vertebrates. Here, I will explore the full potential of this method by: (1) comparing the results from airborne eDNA sampling with the data from a long-term biodiversity monitoring program (2) test if an existing network of air filter stations used for particulate matter can be co-opted for biodiversity monitoring and if the decade long filter archive contains an archive of biodiversity information and (3) experimentally characterize airborne particles released by economically important insect species and pilot their targeted detection in environmental samples. I will conduct this work in the research group of Prof. Deiner who has pioneered the use of aquatic eDNA for monitoring and in interdisciplinary collaboration with aerosol scientists from ETH Zurich and Lund University. If successful, this project will demonstrate the foundation for a new way of monitoring terrestrial biodiversity that could be deployed at a global scale with already existing infrastructure.

Mots clés : environmental dna, bioaerosols

Participants :
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 203149.44 €