Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet REPLANT (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Agronomy faces significant global challenges such as coping with climate change, a need for more sustainable practices, and an increasing demand for more food of higher quality due to a growing population. Addressing them will require the adoption of transformative innovations, such as the genetic technologies that underlie Plant Synthetic Biology (SynBio). Plant SynBio, through transgenesis and more recently gene editing, allows us to proactively alter plant DNA to modify their characteristics and address the aforementioned challenges. In addition, plant SynBio can enhance the production of high-value, or new compounds in plants by molecular farming. SynBio requires the generation of complex DNA constructs that comprise several transcriptional units, facilitated by the development of modular cloning toolkits and the Phytobrick Standard Syntax, a recent agreement of the plant SynBio community that systematized the sequence requirements for cloning. The aim of REPLANT is to generate a new plant SynBio toolkit based on the Phytobrick architecture that includes the latest developments in protein production and gene editing techniques. The advantages provided by the REPLANT will be demonstrated by two proof-of-concept experiments with biotechnological applications: enhancing the production of SARS-CoV2 recombinant antibodies in plant leaves, and modification of tomato plant architecture in variants of commercial interest. This toolkit, alongside its dissemination approaches will allow a faster advancement of plant SynBio, accelerating the development of improved crops to help solve the global challenges of sustainability and food security.

Mots clés : plant synthetic biology, crop improvement

Participants :
- Semillas fitó sau (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Conseil supérieur de la recherche scientifique (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 206641.2 €
Projet ARGOT (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Anarchist periodicals worldwide historically offered readers an uncommon and often outlawed experience of world literature. Yet, their countless literary translations, as well as the editors and translators involved in this circulation, have been largely ignored by anarchist, literary and translation studies. Data driven approaches, along with the rise of digital archives, make it possible, for the first time, to carry out a comprehensive, large-scale study of these translations by considering periodicals in multiple languages, a wide geopolitical space (several port cities in the Americas and Southern Europe) and a critical period for both literary and anarchist history, 1890-1910. Thus, ARGOT will unveil the significant contribution of anarchist periodicals to world literature by taking into account the people who enacted this transfer. With a specific focus on women and their role in thriving translation flows, ARGOT pursues three main goals: 1. to identify the literary translations that appeared in anarchist periodicals in Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Río de Janeiro, Havana, New York, Lisbon or Barcelona; 2. to rediscover the cultural mediators involved in these translations (particularly women), and 3. to address the multilingualism of anarchist communities through a spatial approach. These goals will be achieved using an innovative, interdisciplinary methodology that combines data mining and computational science, anarchist, literary and translation history, and women’s and gender studies. By making freely available two open-access reusable databases on translated texts, translators and publishers, ARGOT will shift our understanding of anarchist periodicals in the circulation of world literature and shed light on exciting new connections. From a personal perspective, the MSCA-IF will greatly contribute to my career as a strong and highly skilled researcher in translation, literary, anarchist studies and digital humanities.

Mots clés : history of anarchism translation studies world literature periodical studies multilingualism digital humanities large scale approaches

Participants :
- Université ouverte de Catalogne (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 181152.96 €
- Université d'Anvers (Belgique) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet HybridSpecLBA (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The adaptive radiation of amphipods in Lake Baikal has brought forward more than 340 species (20% of the world’s freshwater amphipods), making it one of the largest species flocks after the famous African cichlid radiations, and one of the only large radiations in temperate climates. Despite this iconic status the radiation has not yet been subject to detailed genomic investigation. During my PhD I was able to demonstrate excessive amounts of parallel adaptation among the transcriptomes of species of this adaptive radiation. In this project, I will use genomic approaches to test whether the previous results could be explained by hybridisation and adaptive introgression. These processes have been shown to occur in other adaptive radiations, but their functional role in rapid diversification is still debated. My preliminary results indicate that hybridization between two independent lineages of Baikalian amphipods emerged in the period when fast speciation started. Furthermore, I found intriguing signals of positive selection on introgressed loci.  Additional data and specific methodology developed in this project will enable me to disentangle the processes governing speciation in this group. Profiting from strong relevant experience of the host laboratory I will re-analyze available transcriptomic datasets together with newly sequenced genomes. I will map precise directions of hybridization at the phylogenetic tree, describe functional associations of introgressed loci, test selection signatures associated with introgression, and estimate the extent to which repeatable ecomorphological traits are underpinned by "reusable" elements of ancestral genomes. This research has groundbreaking potential in providing a direct test of a potential catalysing role of hybridization in fast speciation in this system.

Mots clés : fast speciation, hybridization, evolutionary genomics, lake baikal amphipoda

Participants :
- Université d'Anvers (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175920.0 €
Projet Selective HDO (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The depletion of fossil resources and the requirement to significantly reduce our CO2 footprint made the production of chemicals from non-edible biorenewable feedstocks an intensive contemporary research field. Remarkably, amongst the bioderived chemicals available, bioaromatics are still scarce. A typical feature of biobased platform molecules is their high oxygen content, which is in sharp contrast with current base chemicals obtained via a classical petrochemical approach. While petrochemical industry requires efficient and selective oxidation protocols, biorenewables on the other hand require the reverse, i.e. efficient and selective reduction reactions, necessitating new reaction development. Chemical and (bio)catalytic processes on biorenewable resources (e.g. wood, cloves, gallnuts) deliver a variety of oxygenated arenes (guaiacols, syringols, catechols, pyrogallols). Hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) reactions on these biobased arene building blocks can give access to functional chemicals suitable for the chemical industry. Though extensively researched, selective HDO on these oxygenated arenes is still poorly developed. Therefore, the main objective of this proposal is to develop selective HDO in catechols, guaiacols, pyrogallols, and syringols. Our approach involves sustainable activation of Ar-OH and Ar- (OH)2 with a renewable and cheap reactant, and subsequent reduction with a renewable reductant. As catalysts readily available and cheap base metals will be explored rather than scarce and expensive precious transition metals. Both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis will be evaluated.

Mots clés : biorenewable chemicals, sustainable chemistry, bioaromatics, reduction, phenols, anisoles, carbonate

Participants :
- Université d'Anvers (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 186304.0 €
Projet BIOS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In the field of lighting, a new technology has recently appeared: the bio-LED, which makes use of derivatives of the green Fluorescent Protein (FP) as downcoverting materials. This provides a cheap, green and easy to procure replacement for the currently used rare-earths-based downconverting filters, whose sustainability is hindered by the associated costs and their ecological impact. Despite the encouraging results obtained so far, the bio-LED needs improvements in terms of stability and performances in order to become competitive in the market. BIOS (BIO-led through Simulations) aims at addressing these issues by studying the fundamental structural and electronic properties of the FP-based filter at realistic, working conditions (i.e. high temperature) using a theoretical and computational approach. This will allow us to characterise the interactions that stabilise the FP-polymer matrix mixture, thus providing guidelines for the chemical design of components of the downconverting filters to improve thermal stability. Hybrid approaches that makes use of molecular dynamics, molecular mechanics, quantum mechanics and analytical models will be employed to first characterise the interactions that stabilise FPs in non-physiological conditions while allowing them to maintain their optical activity, and then to study in detail the deactivation paths of the FPs, with a particular focus on thermal dissipation procceses, which currently constitute the main obstacle to the market competitiveness of the bio-LED technology. Through BIOS we will therefore obtain insight in the strategies to adopt to improve the performances of the final device.

Mots clés : biomaterials, biophysics

Participants :
- Conseil supérieur de la recherche scientifique (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 165312.96 €
Projet SMART-NHL (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The tumor microenvironment (TME) plays an essential role in tumor evolution and response to therapy. Understanding the complex network comprising tumor and immune cells is critical for the success of cancer immunotherapy. CLL and MCL are two non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas characterized by accumulating CD5+ small and mature B lymphocytes in peripheral blood, bone marrow, lymph nodes, and extranodal sites. Despite having distinct basic pathogenic mechanisms, they share the cell of origin and molecular alterations, clinical features, and epidemiological characteristics. However, the influence of the crosstalk between tumor cells and the TME on the disease progression and treatment resistance remains poorly understood, hindering the development of novel therapeutic possibilities. This study aims to uncover the intricate interplay between the TME and neoplastic cells in CLL and MCL and exploit its therapeutic use. To achieve this, I will use single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics to analyze the composition of non-tumoral cells in tumor-involved tissues and at different time points of the disease. Next, I will use correlative analyses to identify the molecular and cellular interactions between the tumor cell (epi)genomic configuration and the TME, determining tumor evolution and response to therapy. Finally, I will validate the identified drivers of disease evolution and treatment resistance and examine their potential as a target for treatment using a 3D LN-derived culture system. The findings have the potential to provide a solid basis for establishing new models of patient risk stratification and identify potential therapeutic opportunities targeting interactions between tumor cells and their microenvironment. Conducting this project at the Molecular Pathology of Lymphoid Neoplasms group of Prof. Dr. Elias Campo will provide me an opportunity to acquire essential technical and soft skills vital for advancing my career in research.

Mots clés : preclinical medicine, oncology, leukemia, lymphoma, immunotherapy, tumor microenvironment

Participants :
- Fundació Clínic per a la Recerca Biomèdica (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 181152.96 €
Projet RELOAD (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Species are readjusting their geographical distributions as a response to ongoing environmental change. Thus, predicting species distributions is an urgent conservation endeavour. However, the responses of a species to the environment may vary in space and time (i.e. niche change) as the result of the spatiotemporal context of where and when its different populations occur. Niche changes are expected to have important consequences: (i) they can invalidate niche-based species distribution models, as a widely used predictive conservation tool, due to the limited spatiotemporal context of the underlying species distribution data, and (ii) they can impact the performance of species (e.g. their conservation status and extinction risk) that become decoupled from their optimal environmental conditions. However, we still poorly understand how the magnitude of niche change varies among species, especially within their native distributions and over relatively short time spans under ongoing global change. I will study how and why the magnitude of niche change varies among bird species. More specifically, I will examine how species functional traits and rates of global change within the species' geographical ranges affect the magnitude of niche change, and how niche change may impact the conservation status of species. The ultimate goal is to produce a global synthesis of spatial and temporal niche change to understand the general propensity of bird species to change their realised ecological niches. The project will contribute to estimate species-wise uncertainty of species distribution models and refine their predictions based on species' ecological traits.

Mots clés : niche, species distributions, global change, traits, birds

Participants :
- Conseil supérieur de la recherche scientifique (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 181152.96 €
Projet PathAge (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

What are the structural characteristics of ultrastable metallic glasses?  The recently discovered ultrastable state of metallic glasses (MGs) exhibits a variety of thermodynamic stability levels in combination with an enhanced kinetic stability. As a hypothesis, observed levels of excess enthalpy originate from faster relaxation contributions that are locally embedded in an otherwise stable structure. Such features remind strongly of novel MG-states of structurally heterogeneous glasses that were recently reported by experiments on conventional MGs and molecular dynamics simulations. The aim of the PathAge project is to test the hypothesis in terms of the ultrastable MG’s relation to these novel structural states. This builds on quantifying the evolution of the ultrastable state in response to thermal stimulus by tracing the structural transformation towards the supercooled liquid or eventual crystallization. Three possible mechanistic routes will be considered: First, a front-initiated process as observed for ultrastable molecular glasses. Second, a homogeneous structural evolution triggered by fast relaxation contributions. Third, a transformation involving an underlying phase transition of a heterogeneous glass state. In order to distinguish between the proposed transformation scenarios, the following novel experimental approaches will be used in addition to traditional methods: The so-called single-parameter-ageing formalism known from the field of molecular glasses, which will allow for predicting and testing the homogeneous ageing scenario. Surface sensitive methods that probe nanoscale heterogeneities revealing the formation of structurally heterogeneous glassy states. Spatially resolved electron diffraction combined with atomistic simulations to identify preferred local structural motifs.  In concert, these approaches will significantly enhance the understanding of the unique ultrastable MG-state, thereby unlocking potential for novel applications of MGs.

Mots clés : metallic glass ultrastable glass amorphous materials physical ageing

Participants :
- Federal Institute For Materials Research and Testing (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 189687.36 €
- Institut Paul Scherrer (Suisse) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet LILAC-6G (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Integrated localization and communications (ILAC) is a key feature of the future sixth-generation (6G) network. Benefiting from wide coverage and flexible deployment, operating ILAC in low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite systems is a promising way to provide ubiquitously flexible localization and high-capacity communication. Particularly, in terms of localization, LEO satellite systems can break through limitations of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) and provide superior signal quality for ILAC service. Although the LEO satellite systems are crucial for future 6G networks, they also bring challenges. First, the current signal waveforms for LEO satellite systems are primarily optimized for communication purposes, which may fail to meet the requirements of ILAC in the 6G networks. Second, the high mobility of LEO satellites leads to time-varying channels and significant Doppler shifts in satellite-ground links. Conventional positioning methods, generally tailored for terrestrial signal waveforms and assuming linear time-invariant channels, will be suboptimal in this new scenario. To address these challenges, this research aims to develop novel integrated localization and communication methods tailored for 6G LEO satellite systems with time-varying channels. To this end, three work packages (WPs) are conducted. WP1 is to design advance signal waveforms for integrated localization and communication in 6G LEO satellite systems and conduct a performance analysis considering the time-varying channel. WP2 is to develop advanced LEO satellite-based localization and tracking algorithms for moving targets. WP3 is to develop adaptive resource allocation and satellite handover algorithms for ILAC with multiple LEO satellites. This project aims to develop innovative integrated localization and communications techniques for 6G LEO satellite systems, facilitating precise positioning and high-data-rate communications for moving targets.

Mots clés : 6g localization, integrated localization and communications, low earth orbit leo satellite systems

Participants :
- École polytechnique Chalmers (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 252180.0 €
Projet ProteOOcyte (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Oocytes form during embryonic development and persist in a dormant state for decades, representing some of the longest-lived cells in our body. As oocytes transfer their cytoplasm to the early embryo and the next generation, the regulation of its quality serves as a unique evolutionary strategy to preserve cellular longevity and fertility. Protein turnover is essential for replacing damaged molecules with their functional copies since long lifespans expose proteins to damage accumulation, including age-related post-translational modifications (PTMs). Recent data show that oocytes have low protein turnover rates, suggesting they retain many extremely long-lived proteins (ELLPs). How these ELLPs are stabilized and contribute to oocyte health remains unknown. With this innovative action, I aim to map ELLPs that emerge during oocyte formation and persist throughout its lifetime, characterize the molecular mechanisms by which they are regulated, and functionally assess their role in preserving oocyte quality. I will combine longitudinal labeling-based mass spectrometry with fluorescent imaging to characterize and quantify oocytes’ ELL proteomes and study their regulation by measuring PTMs. I will then combine an oocyte in vitro differentiation protocol with a genetic perturbation screen to investigate ELLP function by selectively and timely perturbing them, determining whether their long-live nature is essential for oocyte quality. Female infertility is one of the biggest societal challenges of our time. Over one in four fertility problems are unexplained, highlighting a significant knowledge gap in female reproduction. This project will provide new insights into the mechanisms by which mammalian oocytes regulate protein homeostasis. Its relevance transcends reproductive biology, filling a critical gap in our understanding of protein quality control mechanisms in non-dividing cells and providing new angles to interpret age-related deterioration and female infertility.

Mots clés : oocyte, long lived proteins, protein homeostasis, cellular aging, fertility

Participants :
- Centro de Regulación Genómica (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 194074.56 €