Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet SupraPhoCat (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Organic synthesis is still one of the main limiting factors in drug-discovery projects. Traditionally, the generation of compounds libraries requires tedious synthetic routes to introduce modifications into the lead compound, thus the implementation of new methodologies to modify drugs in a selective way in the late stages of their synthesis is highly attractive. In SupraPhoCat project, several supramolecular receptors will be provided with catalytic activity and combined with photoredox catalysis to achieve unprecedent asymmetric C-H funtionalization reactions with exquisite selectivity, using CO2 as non-toxic abundant C1 building block. This ambitious project will establish new methodologies for C-H Late-Stage Functionalization of drugs, which is a key point towards the development of libraries of compounds according to EU green chemistry insights. This Marie Sklodowska Curie action will merge the expertise of the host group (Prof. Luca Dell’Amico, NanoMolCat group from University of Padova) in CO2 valorisation methods and photoredox catalysis with the expertise of the fellow on supramolecular chemistry, molecular recognition and organocatalysis. Also, this project has been designed to augment and complement the research and transferable skills sets of the fellow and will greatly enhance his career prospects to become a mature and independent scientist. Through the training and the research results arising, the fellowship will be beneficial to the candidate, the host institution and European scientific and social environment. This research will allow a great improvement of the state-of-the-art in the construction of active organic molecules through a new, powerful, and impacting synthetic methodology, raising the standing of EU chemistry within this field at a global level. Hence, SupraPhoCat will constitute a significant contribution to the field, and will suppose a benefit for synthetic organic chemists, pharma-, agro- and fine-chemicals industries in EU.

Mots clés : photoredox catalysis, molecular recognition, co2 fixation, c h activation, late stage functionalization

Participants :
- Université de Padoue (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 188590.08 €
Projet CO2FOREARM (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Large-scale implementation of geological carbon sequestration is considered as a key strategy to limit anthropogenic warming to 1.5 – 2 °C, as set out in the Paris Agreement. I am interested in a viable alternative represented by injecting CO2 into reactive rock formations, e.g. basalts, to facilitate rapid carbon mineralization, and therefore increase storage security. My particular interest lies in microbially enhanced carbon mineralization: biological catalysts are utilized to alter reaction rates and further enhance carbon mineralization. The overarching aim of this project’s research is to provide the fundamental understanding and simulation technology required to assess the large-scale deployment of CO2 storage through microbially enhanced carbon mineralization, and hence contribute to climate change mitigation. The project brings together engineers, biologists and environmental scientists from Spain and Italy to undertake a comprehensive research programme comprising combined experimental, computational and theoretical investigations. I will derive models (both at the conceptual and the numerical level) necessary to understand the dominant processes and develop a suitable simulation framework. The computational studies will employ various numerical techniques, combining multi-scale modelling and conventional CFD to investigate the flow physics and CO2-rock-biomass interactions at sub-pore levels. Complementary experiments on flow and mineral-biomass-fluid interactions will be conducted at POLIMI aiming at characterizing biofilm growth in porous microstructures using microfluidic devices that can capture spatial flow heterogeneities and chemical gradients at the pore-scale. The ultimate aim of the investigations is to use the new experimental and computational data to produce correlations/relationships for use with large scale simulations as well as developing further fundamental understanding of phenomena of CO2/biomass reactive flow in porous media.

Mots clés : computational geosciences, microfluidic, biofilm growth, reactive flow, subsurface, upscaling

Participants :
- Université polytechnique de Catalogne (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 165312.96 €
- École polytechnique de Milan (Italie) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet VOLAKE (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The project titled VOLAKE (Volatiles in Lake Ecosystem) aims to investigate the dynamics of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in freshwater environments, specifically focusing on lake ecosystems. VOCs are significant trace gases that play crucial roles in climate and environmental processes, yet their behavior in freshwater settings remains largely unexplored. This research seeks to fill critical knowledge gaps regarding VOCs in lakes, particularly their exchange with the atmosphere, vertical distribution within the water column, and relationship to ecological health indicators. The study will capitalize on advanced measurement technologies and interdisciplinary approaches to enhance understanding VOC dynamics. The objectives are threefold: first, to quantify VOC exchange between the lake and the atmosphere using eddy covariance (EC) methods; second, to map the vertical distribution of VOCs in the water column and analyze how they change over time; and third, to develop a supervised model linking VOC variability to key ecological indicators in Lake Geneva. The project will conduct intensive field measurements over a growing season, employing a platform called LéXPLORE for continuous data collection. The methodology combines direct flux measurements with detailed analyses of water column samples, utilizing state-of-the-art techniques like PTR-TOF-MS (Proton Transfer Reaction – Time of Flight – Mass Spectrometry and machine learning for data interpretation. These models will integrate satellite remote sensing data and lake hydrodynamics to contextualize findings on a broader scale. Ultimately, VOLAKE aims to pioneer continuous monitoring of VOC fluxes and provide a comprehensive understanding of their ecological roles. By bridging physical and biological perspectives, the project seeks to contribute significantly to ecological theories and freshwater management strategies, offering valuable insights into the impacts of environmental change on lake ecosystems.


Participants :
- Université de Copenhague (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 263393.28 €
Projet EDUARDO (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

This proposed research comes to light at such a time when both scholars and policymakers have to face an urgent challenge that the conventional free trade paradigm is being shaken in a polarized world and by the green transition towards climate neutrality, which has been vividly reflected in the EU-China dynamics. How to achieve a paradigm change of green trade is the defining topic of the EU-China relation at our time in a polarized world. The research sheds new light on the potential of a bilateral soft-law paradigm to address environmental and climate concerns within the context of EU-China trade – greening the trade. This project meticulously examines the feasibility, design, and applicability of such a paradigm change in enhancing environmental sustainability in greening trade between the EU and China, focusing particularly on its integration with three new EU flagship trade-related environmental instruments – the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), Deforestation Regulation, and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulations (PPWR). The study aims to offer a nuanced understanding of how this bilateral soft-law paradigm could serve as a strategic legal tool and potentially a “game changer” to balance the intricate trade-environment dynamics between the EU and China, while concurrently addressing the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. It serves as the very first study that integrates hard law measures and soft law paradigm in EU-China bilateral narratives, connecting environmental and trade regimes. The expected impact of the project extends far beyond academia, offering actionable strategies that can be adopted by EU-China policymakers to balance trade and environmental imperatives between the two economic powerhouses. It will even further contribute to a global beacon in the ever-changing game of greening trade coopetition – a real paradigm change to address the triple planetary crisis.

Mots clés : greening trade, eu china relations, environmental law, trade law, eu law, european green deal, free trade agreement, soft law, trade related environmental instrument, climate neutrality, eu, china

Participants :
- Université de Wuhan (Chine) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université catholique de Louvain (Belgique) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Copenhague (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 247553.28 €
Projet TRACE (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

TRACE investigates informal constitutional changes initiated by constitutional courts, utilizing a novel methodological framework that brings together political science, constitutional law, and Natural Language Processing (NLP). Informal constitutional changes occur when a constitutional court quietly adopts new interpretations of constitutional norms, often influenced by political pressures. Traditional approaches in political science and constitutional law are not adequately equipped to explore these subtle shifts. TRACE will employ contextualized word embeddings to track changes in the semantic structure of Turkish Constitutional Court (TCC) case law, with a focus on key topics such as the separation of powers, individual rights, and secularism. Turkish constitutional history, marked by recurring crises and the central role of the TCC, offers an ideal context for examining these implicit constitutional changes. TRACE is organized around three objectives. The first objective is to identify the semantic structure of Turkish constitutional case law. The second is to detect informal semantic changes within this case law, using cosine similarity scores and dynamic visualizations to measure shifts in constitutional interpretation. The third is to analyze the contextual and theoretical implications of these findings, exploring the causal relationship between informal changes and episodes of political pressure on the TCC, re-evaluating theories of constitutional change, and generating insights relevant to other constitutional regimes. Through this comprehensive approach, TRACE aims to enhance our understanding of how constitutional norms evolve under political pressure and how constitutional courts adapt their rulings. Ultimately, the project will contribute to the design of more resilient democratic institutions and provide timely insights into empirical legal studies and the ongoing debates about the populist challenge to the rule of law and judicial independence.

Mots clés : emprical legal studies, democratic backsliding, natural language processing, constitutional change, constitutional judicial review, 

Participants :
- Université de Copenhague (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 263393.28 €
Projet NEUROCOG (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The goal of the proposal is to identify the association of different narrative perseverations features in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) subtypes with their neural oscillatory profiles. MCI patients show moderately impaired performance on neuropsychological tests but relatively intact global cognition and daily functioning. Validated as different from both normal ageing and dementia, MCI is a risk factor for the development of dementia. The evolving profile to dementia of MCI subtypes is a largely debated issue. MCI patients typically show narrative perseverations in conversations, i.e. reiterations of their own previous narrations. According to literature, perseverations have been studied as test responses in the context of dementia but have not been systematically explored as speech of MCI patients. Recent studies suggest that different oscillatory responses can be observed in different MCI subtypes. However, no effort has been attempted so far to relate such oscillation profiles to linguistic patterns in the speech production of MCI patients. The present action is, therefore, to investigate whether different narrative perseveration subtypes can be associated with distinct neural patterns (oscillatory profiles).

Mots clés : formulaic language auto echolalia narrative discourse hypothesis driven linguistic methods

Participants :
- Université de la ville de New York (Etats-Unis) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Padoue (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 265099.2 €
Projet MyoTumour (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Cachexia is a life-threatening condition characterized by a drastic loss in both muscle and adipose tissue, which is associated with several pathologies, including cancer. In cancer patients, its prevalence is of 50-80%, and is the direct cause of at least 20% of cancer-associated deaths. Cachectic patients show lower response rates to chemotherapy and a reduced tolerance to anticancer treatment, being of major clinical relevance. So, while cachexia is clearly of great significance for disease prognosis and survival in general, it is mainly considered a consequence of the presence of the tumour. Tumour-induced muscle wasting is due to the development of “anabolic resistance,” which is the impaired ability of nutrition and exercise to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. There have been results, however, which suggest that prevention or reverting muscle mass can lead to significant improvements of survival and overall well-being of tumour-bearing animals. While these results are suggestive of an important role for skeletal muscle, whether or not this is due to a direct effect on tumour biology is not well-established. The proposed project is based on preliminary results showing that tumour growth and proliferation are affected by activating the anabolic kinase Akt specifically in skeletal muscle in vivo, suggestive of muscle-tumour crosstalk. Follow up experiments performed using a microfluidics system showed that this effect is likely mediated by factors directly released by skeletal muscles, and not through indirect effects, like altering food intake or modulation of the immune system. In the current project, we propose to confirm and further decipher the muscle-tumour crosstalk in vivo. Subsequently, we propose to identify muscle-secreted factors with a microfluidics approach analyzing their effect on multiple tumour cell lines.

Mots clés : cachexia skeletal muscle tumour crosstalk secreted factors microfluidics

Participants :
- Université de Padoue (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 172750.08 €
Projet SMA-RT (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is a debilitating neuromuscular disorder characterised by progressive motoneuron degeneration, which causes muscle atrophy and weakness. By combining pre-clinical studies and a clinical trial, this 36-month Global Fellowship aims to explore the beneficial role of exercise as a therapeutic strategy to support SMA treatment and improve clinical outcomes. During my outgoing phase at Harvard University, I will employ two transgenic SMA mouse models to investigate the skeletal muscle adaptations to overloading, achieved via synergistic ablation, a model historically used to study muscle hypertrophy and mimic human resistance training. In WP1, I will investigate the muscle morphological, functional, and transcriptomic responses to overloading in SMNΔ7 mutant mice, which, similarly to patients, present ubiquitous SMN deficiency and lifespan extension via pharmacological treatment. In WP2, I will perform the same overloading protocol and similar analyses on a mouse model presenting SMN knockout restricted to muscle satellite cells (Pax7:SMN-KO). While ubiquitous SMN deficiency triggers motoneuron degeneration, this model enables to focus on the role of satellite cells in SMA by deleting SMN selectively in these cells. During my incoming phase at the University of Padova, I will assess whether the molecular mechanisms underlying muscle adaptation identified in mice are translatable to humans, examining the response of SMA type III/IV patients, presenting the milder form of SMA, to a resistance training intervention (WP3). I will employ musculoskeletal imaging techniques, advanced EMG methods, and muscle biopsy and blood sample analysis to perform a comprehensive analysis, which is lacking to date. This project aims to propose exercise as a novel strategy to improve the quality of life in patients affected by SMA and other devastating neuromuscular disorders, also reducing the heavy socioeconomic burden associated with these diseases.

Mots clés : spinal muscular atrophy exercise muscle overloading skeletal muscle, electromyography musculoskeletal imaging

Participants :
- Université Harvard (Etats-Unis) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Padoue (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 396991.08 €
Projet CleanBean (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Faba bean is a high-yielding protein crop well adapted to cold climates. Its seeds contain large amounts of protein, antioxidants, and micronutrients, making it an ideal crop to support the transition toward a plant-based diet. However, faba bean seeds also accumulate high levels of the anti-nutritional alkaloids vicine and convicine. These alkaloids cause hemolytic anemia (favism) in individuals with a genetic deficiency (G6PD deficiency) occurring in ~5% of the world population. Faba bean varieties with reduced levels of vicine and convicine exist, but the residual levels are variable, causing concern for the food industry. The development of varieties devoid of vicine and convicine has been hampered by a lack of genomic resources and insufficient knowledge about their biosynthesis. In the CleanBean project, I will team up with Prof. Fernando Geu-Flores from the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences of the University of Copenhagen. I will use recently generated resources to uncover the full vicine and convicine pathway and create faba bean lines devoid of these anti-nutrients. The proposed work involves gene selection through co-regulation & association strategies, pathway elucidation using in vitro and in vivo assays, and pathway inactivation in faba bean using the recently published FIND-IT technology (non-GMO). The impact of CleanBean will be multifaceted, spanning both fundamental and applied research. On the basic science side, the project will uncover the complete pathway of a nucleotide-derived specialized metabolite from plants for the first time. On the applied side, the project will lead to the creation of a vicine- and convicine-free faba bean, thus enabling the safe consumption of faba beans by all individuals and helping transform the landscape of sustainable food production.

Mots clés : plant metabolism, faba bean, anti nutrients, pathway elucidation, pathway reconstruction, specialized metabolites

Participants :
- Université de Copenhague (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 214934.4 €
Projet u-Arctic (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Isoprene is a volatile organic compound (VOC) that accounts for more than a third of the total VOC emissions from ecosystems into the atmosphere. This VOC, primarily released by plants, is emitted at a rate of ~550 Tg/y and can significantly influence atmospheric chemistry and climate. Despite some knowledge of isoprene degradation in temperate regions, its role in Arctic ecosystems and the impact of global changes such as rising temperatures and drought remain poorly understood. The Microbial Isoprene Cycling Response in the Arctic (µ-Arctic) project, supervised by Professor Riikka Rinnan at the new Center of Excellence, Center for Volatile Interactions (VOLT) at the Department of Biology in the University of Copenhagen, aims to bridge these knowledge gaps. My objectives include isolating and characterizing active isoprene-degrading bacteria from Arctic plant phytobiomes, quantifying isoprene dynamics in Arctic mesocosms, and understanding the influence of elevated temperatures and drought on isoprene cycling rates. This research will leverage my expertise in targeted cultivation-dependent and independent methods, including Stable Isotope Probing (SIP) for DNA sequencing and metagenomics to provide more accurate insights into isoprene degradation. The outcomes of this study are critical for improving our understanding of Arctic isoprene cycling, which is becoming increasingly relevant due to climate change-induced temperature rises and their potential impact on atmospheric VOCs.

Mots clés : environmental microbiology, microbial ecology, dna stable isotope probing, isoprene, volatile organic compounds voc , soluble di iron monooxygenases sdimos , metagenomics, mesocosms, global warming

Participants :
- Université de Copenhague (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 230774.4 €