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

How do new species arise and how do closely related species maintain their integrity despite hybridization? Notwithstanding the central position of these questions in the fields of evolutionary and conservation biology, few biologists have provided answers. Here, I will address these questions using a multidisciplinary approach combining genomics, lab experiments and field work. The key objectives of this project is to determine the factors that lead to genomic divergence between closely related and hybridizing species and characterise DNA sequence changes that are associated with pre- and postzygotic barriers to species exchange with emphasis on the role of the X chromosome. Training-through-research includes a secondment to another lab to improve skills in animal breeding and experiments. This action will also generate new resources to the scientific community (a damselfly genomics toolkit), and efficiently disseminate knowledge to the public. Due to its multidisciplinary approach and many opportunities for collaboration, executing this research program will provide new avenues of research for my future career as independent researcher within the EU. The excellent supervision and state of art infrastructure at the host lab will ensure the successful execution of this project.

Mots clés : speciat, hybridization, sex chromosome, damselfly

Participants :
- Lund University (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 173857.2 €
Projet DIVISION BELL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : TERMINATED

How do plant cells decide in which direction to divide? Despite many years of research, we still do not know. This is remarkable, because the selection of the division plane is one of the most important developmental decisions a plant cell has to make throughout its growth. My host lab recently identified the transcriptional pathway that regulates the switch from anticlinal to periclinal cell divisions in the developing Arabidopsis root vascular tissues. However, the executors that translate this transcriptional program into division plane selection remain elusive. By overlap analysis of unpublished bulk- and single-cell-RNA-sequencing datasets generated recently in my host lab, I found that the TETRASPANIN (TET) genes are prime candidates for such executors of cell division orientation. The TET family is conserved throughout eukaryotes, and in animals, TETs act as molecular scaffolds at the plasma membrane and play important roles in the regulation of membrane trafficking, signaling, cell morphogenesis and other vital processes. In contrast, in plants, the molecular functions of TETs are not known, but their putative scaffolding function provides a plausible mechanism for the regulation of cell division orientation through organizing proteins at the cortical division zone. In DIVISION BELL, I will unravel the molecular function of plant TETs and validate their role in the regulation of cell division orientation during root vascular development. To reach this goal, I will combine my expertise in cell biology and bioimaging with state of the art genome-editing techniques, cutting-edge proteomics and top-notch imaging approaches available at the host institute. This innovative approach will allow me to shed light on the mechanism of cell division orientation regulation by the TETRASPANIN proteins, with the potential to make major conceptual advances in this thrilling field of plant science.

Mots clés : vascular development, cell division orientation, plasma membrane, cell polarity, live cell imaging

Participants :
- Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 178320.0 €
Projet CONSCBRAIN (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

How does the structure of the brain give rise to its function? We will address this longstanding neuroscience question through an interdisciplinary research project, by using computational modelling to study the neuronal dynamics which underlies the specific brain function of consciousness. More precisely we propose to investigate the differences in neuronal dynamics between conscious and unconscious brain states, and how conscious experience is shared across subjects watching a movie. The project capitalizes on using whole brain models that are constrained by anatomical and functional connectivity data from humans and non-human primates. In a first study, we will test whether differentiation of brain activity, as indicated by homogeneity differences of functional connectivity patterns across the modelled brain areas, can serve as a marker of consciousness. In a second study we will construct a whole brain model of experiments in which subjects synchronize their brain activity when watching a natural stimulus such as a movie. Through external stimulation of the model we will determine the set of brain areas that is causally involved in driving this synchronization of conscious experience. The results will give new theoretical insights on how neuronal interactions at an entire brain’s scale are informative of consciousness and shared conscious experience across subjects.

Mots clés : consciousness, whole brain modeling, neuronal network dynamics, synchronization and desynchronization

Participants :
- Pompeu Fabra University (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 170121.6 €
Projet TEEPI (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

How genome give rise to novel phenotypes is a major question in Biosciences. Transposable Elements (TEs) have co-evolved with host and are a major process by which organisms adapt to novel environments. Despite the discovery of the role of TEs in phenotypic innovations, the mechanisms and categories of TEs favoring their role in adaptive radiation remains elusive due to their repetitive nature. To palliate such lack of knowledge, I will take advantage of the new sequencing methodology providing chromosome length contigs, allowing to map precisely the different type of TEs, to sequence several cockroach species. Blattodea insect order is incredibly diverse and previous studies suggest the determinant role of TEs during Blattodea diversification, making it a perfect model to understand how and which TEs favor phenotypic innovations. I am particularly interested to investigate the role of TEs in the adaptation to wood feeding and sociality which led to the adaptive radiation of Blattodea species. My expertise in social evolution, its molecular basis and next-generation sequencing techniques, along with the computational expertise of Prof. Bornberg-Bauer lab will allow to detect the TE families responsible for the adaptation of specific phenotypes and as well by which mechanisms such phenotypes arise (e.g. chromosome rearrangement, gene duplication, regulation of gene expression). TEEPI will advance knowledge on the incredible role of TEs in the organismal adaptation to rapidly changing environments and may also provide a way to tame the expansion of cockroaches and termites, common pests that are on a rise with global warming. During TEEPI, I will gain scientific knowledge and transferable skills in computational biology such as genome assembly, and also on project management and outreach. This new skills are key to reach my career goal, which is to create my own research group on Insect Genomics, and also broaden my career perspective towards positions in industry.

Mots clés : adaptive radiation, blattodea evolution, evolution of sociality, molecular basis of ecological adaptation

Participants :
- University of Münster (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 174806.4 €
Projet BrainInformationFlow (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

How information is processed and flows through the brain to generate motor behaviours and cognitive functions is a paramount question in neurosciences. Donald Hebb proposed that individual neurons cooperate to form larger functional structures (neuronal assemblies) that communicate between them through phase sequences. Recent experiments support the existence of assemblies but how does the information flow between these neuronal assemblies, across the entire brain, remains elusive. I propose to use the zebrafish larva as the experimental model that in combination with optogenetics and light-sheet microscopy, enables monitoring whole-brain dynamics, with single-neuron resolution in an intact behaving vertebrate. Taking advantage of a multidisciplinary approach involving cutting-edge optical techniques, genetics, optogenetics, and mathematical methods from graph theory and statistical mutual information, I intend to shed light on basic principles underlying the flow of information across the entire brain. Specifically, I will study the following aims: * Description of the connectivity structure and organization across the whole brain. * Testing the existence of bottlenecks and surrogate connectivity between neuronal assemblies. * Network connectivity robustness: circuit and physiological compensations following flow of information interruption. In recent years, zebrafish became an important model for human diseases (e.g. Parkinson's, Rett's syndrome, or autism). Thus, my findings may contribute to the understanding of information flow anomalies associated with neurological disorders, and therefore open new doors for the design of novel treatments, still impossible to envision using more complex animal models.

Mots clés : zebrafish, light sheet imaging, calcium imaging, behaviour, graph theory, neuronal circuit dynamics, optogenetics, two photon microscopy, computational neuroscience, spontaneous activity

Participants :
- École normale supérieure PSL (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 196707.84 €
Projet MICMAC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

How is biodiversity generated? What are the main factors affecting the emergence of biodiversity and its evolution? To answer these questions, since more than one century, evolutionary biologists have been studying life with two separated approaches: either population biologists tend to study evolution of individuals and divergence of populations below the species level (microevolution), or paleontologists and phylogeneticists are studying the diversification and the extinction of species at a much coarser scale (macroevolution). Only extremely rare studies have permitted to make the link between micro and macroevolution and an integrative approach bridging the two scales is currently lacking. In this project, I propose to study the factors affecting the diversification process (speciation and extinction) and phenotypic evolution (morphology and ecological niche) at the two different evolutionary scales using two datasets: (i) a completely new dataset of 300 three- spined stickleback genomes distributed in more than 100 populations in North America and (ii) a much broader dataset encompassing genomes for each species of the Gasterosteidae family (including sticklebacks) permitting to reconstruct the relationships between species. This project will be composed by two distinct phases: the first phase consists in generating genomic sequences with Next Generation Sequencing and running microevolution analyses with D. Schluter in University of British Colombia (Vancouver, Canada); and the second phase will permit to build a new theoretical integrative framework permitting to explain the bridges between micro and macroevolution with N. Salamin in University of Lausanne (Switzerland). My aim is to strongly stimulate the interactions between the different communities of researchers in evolution, and to promote evolutionary research to a broader audience through public talks in museums and primary/secondary schools.

Mots clés : ecology, evolution, diversity, diversification, speciation, extinction, phenotypic evolution, stickelbacks

Participants :
- University of British Columbia (Canada) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Lausanne (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 251332.2 €
Projet NeuralCoding (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

How is information encoded in the brain? Sensory neurons transform information from the outside world into electrical signals which are transmitted via the sensory pathway into the neocortex. In the neocortex, the area crucially involved in higher cognitive functions, neurons form networks that exhibit complex time-varying patterns of activity. The nature of the neural code that is used by these neuronal networks to encode and pass on information by means of spatiotemporal activity patterns is largely unknown. I will combine large-scale neuronal recordings, advanced analysis tools and targeted manipulation of neuronal activity in the context of behaviour to extract population activity patterns that encode stimulus information and most crucially identify their functional relevance in the behaving animal. Specifically, I will establish a fine-tuned texture discrimination task in head-fixed mice that depends on information processing in layer 2/3 of barrel cortex. I will use two-photon calcium imaging to detect activity in large populations of neurons during task performance. I will apply advanced analysis tools including dimensionality reduction methods, dynamical systems approaches, and network simulations to extract and characterise stimulus and task-specific population activity patterns. In order to establish behavioural relevance I will perturb neural activity during two-photon imaging in the behaving mouse by using time-varying patterned optogenetic manipulation. This will allow me to directly probe the functional relevance of neural activity patterns and establish a causal link between identified population activity patterns and behaviour. This project will provide unprecedented insights into the nature of neural dynamics in neocortex as well as constraints for computational models of neocortical function that will be used to provide a mechanistic understanding of the neural code.

Mots clés : neural coding, sensory processing, two photon calcium imaging, optogenetics, computational neuroscience

Participants :
- University of London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet WAGETRANS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Economic Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

How much information about the wage structure should a company provide to its employees? Existing research in economics does not provide clear recommendations in this respect. Transparent information about the wages within a company may have a positive impact on employee satisfaction and motivation, because wage secrecy creates distrust and favours discriminatory practices. Yet, it is unclear whether the benefits of wage transparency are larger than the potential harm: Unequal wage profiles, if made transparent, trigger social comparisons among employees that may destroy work motivation and increase the likelihood of leaving the firm. So far, there is little systematic research on the impact of wage transparency as an element for incentive system design. The goal of this project is to significantly enhance the understanding of the role of wage transparency in two work packages that focus on the question how employers and employees manipulate and respond to the wage information in the company environment. In work package 1 (NEGOTIATION), I will analyse how transparency affects the wage negotiation process between employers and employees, the resulting wage profiles and subsequent working performance. In work package 2 (NORMS), I will study how the prevailing social norm within the firm changes the impact of transparency on the wage structure and working motivation. My project contributes to the emerging field of economic design, combining insights and methods from behavioural and experimental economics, social psychology and management research. The results from my project will yield important new insights for fundamental research, in particular concerning the emergence and importance of relative comparisons at the workplace and their interaction with social norms. Also, the results will have direct implications for incentive system design in practice and for policy measures against discriminatory remuneration practices in the EU and on the national level.

Mots clés : wage transparency, economic design, economic experiments, incentive systems, negotiations, social comparisons, social norms, working performance

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

How tetrapods (vertebrates with digit-bearing limbs) became terrestrial is one of the most transformative yet enigmatic events in vertebrate history that set the stage for the diversification of tetrapods thereafter. Being on land imposes physical demands on the musculoskeletal system and weak bones can severely limit the capabilities of animals, yet the importance of bone strength in the evolution of terrestrial locomotion is not well understood. The proposed research integrates innovative approaches on the limbs of an early stem tetrapod, Ichthyostega, in order to: 1) quantify how well the limb bones in an early stem tetrapod could support locomotion on land, 2) compare the differences between the fore- and hindlimb bone mechanics, and 3) test the prevailing hypothesis that early stem tetrapods walked like extant salamanders. An interdisciplinary synthesis of cutting-edge techniques in engineering, 3D biomedical imaging, palaeontology, and biomechanics will be used to test the structural integrity of fossil limb bones in silico. Bone strength will be quantified with high-resolution μ-CT scans and finite element analysis, an engineering approach to estimate stresses and deformations in complex structures in response to physical demands. This novel dataset will address the ability of Ichthyostega to move on land, and what types of locomotor behaviours were not possible for an early stem tetrapod on land. Simultaneously, training and research activities in state-of-the-art engineering and 3D technology, evolutionary biomechanics, and public outreach will foster the development of the Experienced Researcher (ER) into an innovative and broadly trained researcher and science communicator. At a broader scale, tracing back the evolutionary steps to becoming terrestrial yields powerful insights into the tetrapod body plan, informing how ecological transitions influence functional innovation and how human anatomy is influenced by our ancestry from aquatic tetrapods.

Mots clés : biomechanics, bone, evolution, limb, morphology, palaeontology, terrestrial locomotion, tetrapod, finite element analysis

Participants :
- University of London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet SPECTACLECONOMICS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

How were court and civic festivities funded in the early modern period? This innovative, interdisciplinary project aims to shed light on an often disregarded aspect of the history of theatre and music: the economic realities of the production of public and private ceremonial and entertainment in early modern France. Scholars have tended to examine multiple aspects of such festivities (their allegorical meanings, political function, the artists involved, the birth of new theatrical and musical genres, etc.), but there is still no specific, systematic research that has dealt with quantifying the expenditure on such ephemeral cultural activities that could themselves be the subject of both blame (as a wasteful use of time and money) and praise (propaganda in favour of the sovereign, the state, and civic communities). The conventional view of festivities as a case of lavish conspicuous consumption is often supported by one set of sources reporting on it, such as printed descriptions, diary entries, letters, and so forth. But the information contained within these documents is usually determined by their function (official propaganda) or its sources (hearsay and gossip). Financial accounts of these festivities themselves, however, often present a different picture wherein expenses are carefully controlled and subject to prudent budget management. The gap between these “real” expenses and “fictional” expenditures is akin to the gap between reality and theatrical illusion; it also forces consideration of the professional world of artists and artisans—and the opportunities available to them—who created these festivities under taut economic and other constraints. The results of this pioneering survey, alongside with those already conducted by the ER on Florentine festival expenses, will make a further step towards a comprehensive study of the economics of spectacle at a transnational and european level.

Mots clés : theatre, music, economics, festivals, court, civic communities, conflict, fiction, female patronage

Participants :
- Université de Tours (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 196707.84 €