Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet VoPAD (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

As some Arab states are moving towards more open political processes, diasporas have become an increasingly important electoral factor. They contribute to political discourse, and possess the capacity to inject ideas, norms and expectations informed by their host societies into the political sphere of their country of origin. In the European context, these phenomena have been elaborately discussed with respect to the Turkish diaspora among others. However, due to its relative novelty and much greater complexity, Europe’s Arab diasporas, and their ability to influence parliamentary outcomes in their states of origin has comparatively been understudied. VoPAD will fill gaps in current research by examining the influence of diasporic voting on Arab parliaments with a specific focus on the diaspora hailing from Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia. This will provide new insight into Europe’s Arab diasporas’ role in the post-Arab Spring parliamentary development – and importantly, shed new light on the potential and limitations for transnational forces from Europe - in the form of external voting - to influence parliaments and parliamentary activity in Arab states. As a case- and country-based, comparative investigation, VoPAD is organised around three, interrelated objectives: (1) Mapping the design, procedures and institutional integration of diasporic voting, and how these influence parliamentary composition, and subsequent outcomes; (2) Identifying the voting preferences of the Europe-based diasporas, and whether residence (or citizenship) in Europe influences voting decisions; and (3) Investigating the competition over diasporas and their political engagement – i.e. how home-countries’ try to solicit support from diaspora communities abroad, and the response this solicits in the public sphere of their countries of residence.

Mots clés : arab diasporas elections parliaments citizenship transnationalism

Participants :
- Université de Copenhague (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 230774.4 €
Projet DNANOMETAL (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

DNA nanotechnology can provide breakthroughs in various fields such as catalysis, nanofabrication, computation, bioimaging, drug delivery or cancer treatment. This approach is based on the idea that if single-stranded DNA sequences are not perfectly complementary, branched-stranded DNAs can be formed, from which complex 2D or 3D structures can be constructed with near-atomic precision by proper sequence design. Although DNA nanomaterials seem to be promising, the biomedical application is significantly challenged by the fact that current DNA - and especially RNA - nanostructures are unstable under physiological conditions, sensitive towards nucleases and oxidative damage as well. Therefore my main goal is to develop more stable DNA nanostructures that can later be used to stabilize vaccines or drug carriers. For this purpose I will use metal-mediated base pairing in addition to the classical Watson-Crick hydrogen base pairing. During the project I will design, purify and analyse oligonucleotides that stabilize silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) in the small size regime with mixed Ag0/AgI composition in order to achieve AgNC-oligonucleotide systems (nanoconstructs), that can remain stable even in the conditions of the human plasma, thus can be used later as vaccines or drug carriers. This approach is beyond state of the art since it was not even mentioned as a possible application of metal-incorporated DNA nanoconstructs in the most recent reviews of the field, although already existing data combined suggests, it could eliminate many of the issues of previous concepts. I will use modern separation, spectroscopy and structure quantification methods, as well as cellular studies, to design and characterise the system that best meets the criteria.

Mots clés : dna origami, mass spectrometry, spectroscopic and spectrometric techniques, molecular biology

Participants :
- Université de Copenhague (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 214934.4 €
Projet NIR-emitting Ag-DNAs (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The interest in atomically precise metal cluster systems has grown over the last decades due to the physicochemical properties that emerge at the nanoscale compared to the bulk regime. Despite promising features, stability often hinders their use in real-life applications. Since stabilization is critical, DNA has been proven to be a functional and versatile scaffold for luminescent silver clusters. DNA oligomers are intrinsically biocompatible and are able to tune the emission color and promote high photoluminescence efficiencies. Near-infrared emitting DNA-stabilized silver nanoclusters (NIR-emitting Ag-DNAs) are promising candidates for several potential applications, such as bioimaging and sensing, due to improved cell and tissue penetration of NIR light. The development of NIR emissive Ag-DNAs currently needs to be improved by three main challenges: extremely limited structural information (only one is available), absence of a rationale for designing NIR-emitting Ag-DNAs with high luminescence yield, and poor understanding of This project aims to address these gaps by first synthesizing and screening a wealth of NIR-emitting Ag-DNAs and then employing state-of-the-art techniques, such as pair distribution function analysis and X-ray absorption spectroscopy, to characterize the best-performing candidates structurally. Establishing a structure-luminescence rationale for NIR-emitting Ag-DNAs will be the ultimate goal of the project. Such findings are paramount to performing electronic structure calculations, and it is the needed input for machine learning algorithms to predict NIR-emitting Ag-DNAs with tailored optical properties. The results of this proposal will thus pave the way for a myriad of different applications.

Mots clés : dna metal clusters x ray absorption spectroscopy, pair distribution function analysis

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

Quantum Memories are crucial technologies in Quantum Communications infrastructures. The ability to store and retrieve quantum information can simplify a complex process and increase the flexibility of current communication networks. For this reason, different quantum systems are currently being investigated to produce stable and reliable quantum memories(CITE). Despite their potential, the practical application of these technologies is hindered by intrinsic limitations in their read/write process which is generally based on an optical link. This coupling depends on the specific phenomenon used to store the quantum information, and it imposes stringent requirements on the optical wavelengths used as interface. As a result, two issues arise: Firstly, it's not feasible to connect quantum memories with incompatible wavelengths, and secondly, most quantum memories cannot be integrated with standard communication channels. Thus, implementing Quantum Memories in real-case applications requires developing a new writing/reading approach to overcome this constraint.  In this project, I will demonstrate that unconditional quantum teleportation can overcome the wavelenght requirement. This communication protocol uses both a quantum and classical channel to transfer quantum information between two distinct systems. By employing a two-colour Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) vacuum-squeezed entangled state as the quantum channel, we can restrict the quantum memory's constraints to just one side of the connection, enabling us to choose the second wavelength based on the external device. I will carry out this project in collaboration with the Danish Center for Quantum Optics (Quantop) led by Prof. Eugene Polzik at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH).

Mots clés : quantum communication multicolor unconditional quantum teleportation quantum memories atomic spin ensemble matter light interaction hybrid system

Participants :
- Université de Copenhague (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 161200.8 €
Projet LpTarget (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Antimicrobial resistance is a global public health threat and a top priority concern in Europe with estimated 1,27 million annual deaths worldwide and 35,000 in Europe. Many of these deadly infections are caused by resistant Gram-negative bacteria which are undermining our therapeutic options because antibiotics are no longer effective. These bacteria are coated by two membranes where the one exposed to the environment is made of lipopolysaccharide—a toxic glycolipid which forms a barrier hampering the penetration of compounds, including antibiotics. These bacteria possess the Lpt multiple protein complex that bridges the two membranes and transports this essential glycolipid from the inner to the outer membrane. Target the Lpt to weaken the Gram-negative barrier, enhances antimicrobial permeability and is a viable approach to fight resistance.  In this project, we will employ an interdisciplinary biophysical and computational approach to advance the currently limited knowledge of the Lpt functional mechanism, necessary for effective targeting. We will uncover how lipopolysaccharide is inserted into the machinery and squeezed out from protein to protein along the bridge. The project will integrate cutting-edge computational techniques with structural biology in a native membrane environment to bridge the knowledge gap of Lpt structure and function at the molecular level. Molecular dynamics simulations will complement Lpt cryo-EM structures by exploring the complex dynamics and regulations of the transport machinery. The project will create new research avenues to weaken the Gram-negative bacterial barrier and advance progress in Lpt-based drug discovery. Its findings will establish a knowledge framework transferable across ESKAPEs, serving as an agile resource to prevent future global outbreaks of antimicrobial resistance.

Mots clés : lpt, lipopolysaccharide, membrane, lipid, transport, gram negative bacteria, molecular modelling

Participants :
- Université Grenoble Alpes (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 226420.56 €
Projet EPiC-VFG (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Pluripotent stem cell differentiation to disease targeted cell types has historically produced poor or inconsistent outcomes. The Brickman lab recently suggested that pausing differentiation, allowing cells to grow, and catch up at the level of the enhancer network, leads to improved differentiation. In particular, the Brickman lab has demonstrated that expansion of endoderm at the ventral foregut stage (VFG) increases the efficiency and efficacy of pancreatic endocrine differentiation. The mechanism by which this occurs is unknown, but it involves the re-equilibration of enhancer networks and rearrangements in the cell cycle. I hypothesise that these two processes are tightly connected and to address cause and effects and understand the nature of this link, I will focus on how FOXA1, a factor required for expansion-specific pancreatic enhancer reorganization, acts to couple growth to genome rearrangement, how it interacts with the REST/CoREST/KBTBD4 complex to facilitate enhancer commissioning/decommissioning and finally whether proliferation-induced alterations to specific cell cycles phases drive this enhancer reconfiguration. The results of this project will significantly impact on regenerative medicine research as they will help formulating a differentiation protocol that produces in a more efficient way pancreatic endoderm and pancreatic endocrine cells. Although this fellowship exploits pancreatic differentiation as a model, its implications are broad, as a role of proliferation in preparing appropriate transcriptional responses for differentiating cells would represent a new paradigm for the link between growth and lineage specification.

Mots clés : enhancer priming, ventral foregut stem cells, transcription factors, pancreas differentiation

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

Children have vulnerability to morbidity and mortality, which in turn influence the social structures around these especially susceptible periods. The study of past childhood frailty and survival is still very much relevant today, especially for children from the “edges”. This project examines the health status of the Sarmatian children from the Barbaricum—the area beyond the Roman frontier. The written sources of classical antiquity paint the Sarmatians as nomadic people of the steppes between the Ural Mountains and Don River who migrated west and settled in the Carpathian Basin and on the Great Hungarian Plain, occupying parts of modern Romania and Hungary for over four hundred years. While the Greek and Roman authors described these populations as skilled equestrian warriors, hostile and destructive, caught in a cycle of war and peace with the Roman Empire, little is known about the biocultural challenges their children had to face living in the Barbaricum during the Roman Age. By utilizing interdisciplinary investigations, this project integrates data, models, and theories from bioarchaeology, archaeology, palaeoproteomics, growth and development, and ethnohistory in order to: deliver a life course approach to children’s health; offer a bio-culturally informed perspective on gendered differences in direct and structural violence; and reconstruct dietary habits at different life stages, as children transition into socially adult roles with the onset of puberty. According to the WHO, “Of the 5.2 million deaths that still occurred among children < 5 years of age in 2020, many were concentrated in vulnerable populations […]”. By adopting a life course approach within a biosocial framework, the project hopes to highlight how the past can inform the present and hopes to show how work carried on precious, ancient, tiny bones and teeth could contribute to the global efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents today.

Mots clés : bioarchaeology palaeopathology diet late antiquity sarmatians

Participants :
- Université de Copenhague (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 230774.4 €
Projet PROMISE (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Palaeoproteomics has the potential to resolve some of the big questions in palaeoanthropology and human evolution, as proteins have been found to preserve over long time periods in the archaeological record, and contain phylogenetically relevant information. However, as this is a relatively new field of research, method optimization and gaining further understanding of ancient proteomes is necessary, to gain robust and reliable results with minimal destruction to rare ancient fossils. To this end, PROMISE (PRoteomic Optimization of Methods for ancIent Skeletal Elements) aims to improve palaeoproteomic analyses by developing and thoroughly assessing methods for removing modern contamination from ancient specimens, releasing proteins from the mineral matrix of bones and teeth, and understanding the effect that postmortem microbial bioerosion has on ancient skeletal proteomes. Finally, these optimised methods will be applied to study Middle and Late Pleistocene Levantine hominins. The Levant is essential for understanding human migration out of Africa, as well as interactions between different contemporaneous hominin populations, but is a challenging area of study for ancient DNA, warranting further palaeoproteomic method development. PROMISE will advance methods for the entire field of palaeoproteomics, as well as the study of human evolution. PROMISE will be conducted in a dynamic international research environment, providing the fellow with essential skills setting them up for a successful future career as a researcher in archaeological science.

Mots clés : human evolution, palaeoanthropology, palaeoproteomics, archaeological science

Participants :
- Université de Tel Aviv (Israël) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Copenhague (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 214934.4 €
Projet MultiModLabPro (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The applications of the integrative imaging approach relying on a unique combination of correlative microscopy methods such as secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) and optical microscopies such as stimulated emission depletion (STED) and electron microscopy (EM) are powered by the development of novel labelling probes for imaging, which play a pivotal role in their progress. There is currently a lack of new probes that can provide a high signal-to-noise ratio and low background in correlative microscopy during the acquisition process by photon counter and mass detector. Therefore, many scientists still cannot apply these advanced microscopy methods to their samples. The unique probe features will result in better contrast and spatio-temporal resolution of the obtained images. Now organic chemists can use the developed organometallic reactions to obtain the target fluorophores for probe construction. This research initiative relying on the tailor-made design and elaborated synthetic strategies will allow obtaining a new class of unique imaging probes with optimized optical properties. The new labelling probes, together with the optimized protocols for sample preparation and image analysis, will help get better image quality, which altogether will provide multi-dimensional information about the studied samples. I will develop new labelling tools for correlative multimodal imaging. Structure-property optimization of such labelling tools requires a tailor-made design of the fluorescent dye, which will not compromise intrinsic photophysical properties responsible for its fluorescence, such as "photon" or quantum yield. I will employ three different biochemical approaches to obtain the labelling probes. The probe design comprising functionalized nanobodies, gold nanoparticles, and fluorophores will be unique. I foresee a broad application of the obtained probes for multimodal bioimaging when they become available to a community of cell biologists and microscopists.

Mots clés : super resolution, sted, sims, nanosims, analytical chemistry, probes, dyes, labelling, fluorophores, labelling probes, gold nanoparticles, mass spectroscopy imaging, electron microscopy, bioimaging

Participants :
- Université de Copenhague (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 206887.68 €
Projet HighGenMem (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Biomembranes are fundamental to our understanding of the cell, the basic building block of all life. An intriguing aspect of membranes is their ability to assume a variety of shapes, which is crucial for cell function. While membranes can bend easily, their surface topology often remains constant. Topology is characterised by topological genus g, which counts the number of handles attached to a sphere. For instance, g=0 for a sphere and g=1 for a mug. Over the past decades, the shape of fluid lipid membranes with spherical topology (g=0) has been extensively explored experimentally, theoretically, and through computer simulations. However, our understanding of membranes of higher genera remains extremely limited. High-genus membranes are of interest for two reasons: (i) organelle membranes, such as the ones found in mitochondria and Golgi apparatus exhibit high-genus shapes, and (ii) these structures allow for a much wider range of membrane conformations, which enables a better design of biomimetic systems, such as vesicles for nanotechnological and biomedical applications. Computer simulations have emerged as an indispensable tool for investigating complex biological systems. I am an expert on membrane biophysics and computer simulation techniques. Since 2012 I have been developing a multiscale computer simulation scheme that is an ideal tool for exploring membrane shapes. In this research proposal, I will expand the multiscale scheme to characterize high-genus membranes. I aim to predict different emerging shape families, understand how to control, and stabilize these shapes, and reveal how proteins organize on these morphologies.  This investigation will yield a plethora of new data on biomembrane shapes, thereby contributing to biomedical developments by providing fundamental theoretical bases for understanding cellular membrane behaviours and for the design of biomimetic systems.

Mots clés : biomembranes, biophysics

Participants :
- Université de Copenhague (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 214934.4 €