Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet MigrantVoices (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

While linguistic diversity is promoted at the supranational level by the European Union policies, standardization and homogenization still prevail at the national level in most European countries in alignment with the one state - one language nationalistic ideology. In this context, any speaker who deviates from the standard norm, in particular, migrants and their descendants are often misrecognized as linguistically deficient. A discriminatory process that entails social, economic, and political consequences. The case of Spain is paradigmatic, given the attested pressure towards normativity in the dominant variety of Castilian Spanish, especially in monolingual regions like Madrid. Drawing on interdisciplinarity, this project, MigrantVoices, aims to address this issue and open paths for social transformation. The project will provide and analyze examples of instances in which migrant voices – usually unheard– have reached domains of public influence in society and have managed to challenge and transform the linguistic prejudices that affect them. These instances of speaking out against linguistic discrimination coming from migrant communities have been deeply analyzed in the US but have not yet been studied in the European context. To analyze these initiatives, this action proposes an innovative change in perspective by focusing on artistic and cultural spaces which influence social practices and beliefs, and which have yet to be explored. Drawing on ethnography and participatory methods, this project will provide an analyzed corpus of successful experiences. This will contribute to generating public knowledge on the possibilities to foster immigrants’ inclusion and participation in European societies, which is one of the EU’s political priorities for 2021-2027. In doing so, MigrantVoices will also raise awareness of the role of language in discriminative processes, and promote fairer individual, social and institutional approaches to language.

Mots clés : linguistic discrimination migrants agency language and inequality raciolinguistics

Participants :
- Université autonome de Madrid (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 165312.96 €
Projet ZIKVMosTransmit (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The public health response to emerging mosquito-borne viral diseases is often inefficient, because the causative agents are recognized and the prevention measures are deployed, only after the disease has spread. To predict which viruses and mosquitoes have the highest potential to cause future outbreaks, understanding the mechanisms determining the virus susceptibility of mosquitoes and the mosquito transmissibility of viruses is needed. In this study, I propose a two-pronged approach to identify both the viral and mosquito factors involved in molecular compatibility between the human pathogenic Zika virus and its main vector Aedes aegypti by combining my skills in molecular virology with the host lab’s expertise in mosquito experimental infections in vivo. First, I will examine the mosquito-virus protein interactome by a proteomics strategy based on cross-linking, immunoaffinity purification and mass spectrometry. Mosquito factors regulating virus susceptibility will be identified by subtractive comparison of virus-binding mosquito proteins between two mosquito strains displaying different levels of Zika virus susceptibility. The correlation between virus susceptibility and the identified proteins will be validated by gene-knockdown assays and expression surveys using a collection of mosquito strains. Second, I will use an innovative reverse genetics system to create chimeric Zika viruses from two parental virus strains with different levels of mosquito transmissibility. The viral genes required for efficient transmission by mosquitoes will be identified by comparing transmissibility between chimeric constructs. Together, this project will provide important new insights into vector-virus specificity and significantly improve our understanding of mosquito-borne virus emergence.

Mots clés : arthropod borne virus, zika virus, aedes aegypti, virus susceptibility, mosquito transmissibility, virus mosquito interaction, system biology

Participants :
- Institut Pasteur (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 195914.88 €
Projet SupDSB (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) occur frequently during a cell’s lifetime and constitute the most cytotoxic DNA lesion. DSBs compromise genetic integrity and have the potential to trigger cell death and generate pathological mutations. To counteract such threat, cells possess a complex protein network termed DSB response (DSBR) which senses, signals and repairs DSBs. Two predominant mechanisms repair DSBs: homologous recombination (HR) and non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). While loss of DSBR factors such as KU and XRCC4 (i.e. NHEJ proteins) or BRCA1 and BRCA2 (i.e. HR proteins) leads to early embryonic lethality and cell death, inactivating somatic mutations in these very same genes are associated with certain immunological and neurological disorders, premature ageing and cancer. This implies the existence of a suppressive (epi)genetic background that enables diseased cells to tolerate the otherwise lethal loss of essential DSBR factors. This project aims to systematically identify suppressor mutations which rescue viability upon loss of essential HR (BRCA1 and BRCA2) and NHEJ (KU80 and XRCC4) effectors. To reach such goal, I propose to (a.) genetically sensitize wild-type “healthy” mouse embryonic stem cells and B lymphoid cells by introducing mutations using a genome-wide CRISPR KO library. In such diversely sensitized background, I will then (b.) trigger the acute degradation of KU80, XRCC4, BRCA1 and BRCA2 proteins, using the auxin-inducible degron (AID) system. Suppressor mutations will be directly identified by sequencing sgRNA retrieved from survivor cells. (c.) The resulting suppression network maps will be integrated to clinical datasets to identify the relevance of these mutations in disease. Together, this project will unravel the DSBR protein networks that permit cell survival under different DNA repair-deficient conditions, encountered notably in cancer; paving way for personalized disease prevention and treatment strategies.

Mots clés : dna double strand break dsb repair, homologous recombination, nonhomologous end joining, genetic interactions, synthetic viability, auxin indicuble degron, crispr, mouse es cells, b cells

Participants :
- Institut Pasteur (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 211754.88 €
Projet CoKiP (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Targeted killing of pathogenic bacteria without harming beneficial members of the host microbiota holds promise as a strategy to cure disease and limit both imbalances in the microbiota and development of antimicrobial resistance. Recent work from the Unité de Plasticité du Génome Bactérien has demonstrated that genetic modules based on toxin-intein systems delivered by conjugation are highly effective antimicrobials agents, able to selectively kill Vibrio cholerae in mixed populations. In this line of work, the project described in this proposal aims at adapting the aforementioned system to other pathogens of clinical importance (Salmonella spp. Shigella spp and Klebsiella pneumoniae) by including new toxin modules whose expression depends on transcriptional factors that are exclusively present in the targeted bacteria. Additionally, to ensure an efficient dissemination and maintenance across the microbial gut population, we intent to engineer conjugative plasmids to be transferred and maintained between Enterobacteriaceae and Bacteroides, one of the main constituents of the gut microbiome. Once validated under laboratory conditions, the system will be assayed in a Caernorhabditis elegans model, either with the aim of eliminating a specific pathogen causing disease or as a probiotic agent against pathogenic colonization. The results obtained from these preliminary tests will direct the refinements needed for the generation of an effective tool against antimicrobial resistant pathogens in a real scenario.

Mots clés : antimicrobial resistance bacterial toxins inteins plasmid biology conjugation genetic engineering

Participants :
- Institut Pasteur (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 195914.88 €
Projet INDIWOMINT (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Indigenous communities are the main ones facing the direct consequences of climate change due to their intricate relationship with the environment, their culture and their resources. In the case of the Amazon, environmental devastation and exploitation threaten the basic human rights of its native peoples, which, added to the impacts of climate change, threatens the survival of its biodiversity. In this plot, indigenous women play a crucial role in the intergenerational transmission of ancestral knowledge about caring for the land. The growing mobilization of indigenous women's organizations in resource preservation is highlighted in decolonial ecofeminist debates. Intertwining the rights of women and those of nature, seeking alternatives for the preservation of life. Within this framework, this project will examine how a new understanding of what constitutes evidence-based knowledge can become crucial for an ontological turn in forms of sustainable knowledge production and transmission, to halt the destruction of Amazonian biodiversity. We refer specifically to the productive practices of indigenous women in their ways of preserving traditional knowledge. We investigate the connection between the organizational forms of women's collectives in the Amazon regions of Brazil-Colombia and their relationship with nature. At another level, we will conceptualize how indigenous and non-indigenous technologies can be intercepted, for the creation of technologies that contribute to expanding the fields of action and sustainable development, in the mitigation of climate change. We will create a knowledge integration platform, useful for indigenous and scientific communities. By creating an open-access data bank, we will invest in legal frameworks that protect the intellectual and cultural property of communities and can enhance and drive future initiatives.

Mots clés : decolonization of knowledge gender equality open science intersectional gender equality

Participants :
- Université ouverte de Catalogne (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 165312.96 €
Projet TE-Time (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Mammalian genomes are filled with transposable elements (TEs), whose activity is usually silenced by DNA methylation. However, during the fetal phase of germline development, DNA methylation is naturally lost as part of the epigenetic reprogramming of the future gametes. This leads to the transcriptional activation of transposition-competent TEs, which normally represents a threat to genomic integrity and species fitness. How fetal male germ cells (a.k.a. prospermatogonia) mechanistically cope with TE reactivation and protect the integrity of the genetic material?  Preliminary data from the lab indicates that TEs acquire both permissive H3K4me3 and repressive H3K9me3 marks in mouse prospermatogonia, and may be subject to early transcription termination. I will investigate whether these regulatory patterns may allow prospermatogonia to tolerate active TEs and even integrate them into their own developmental program. Focusing on this unique cellular model provided by prospermatogonia, I will 1) assess the dynamics of H3K4me3-K9me3 marks using single cell multimodal chromatin profiling in relation to prospermatogonia development, 2) analyze TE transcriptional features, 3) study the 3D coordination of TE regulation within the nucleus and 4) investigate whether TEs participate to the prospermatogonia gene expression program by providing regulatory sequences. I believe this project will identify novel principles in TE regulation with immediate relevance for the field of reproductive biology. Knowledge will be gained regarding the origin of infertilities, but also for other pathological contexts such as cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, whereby DNA methylation loss and TE reactivation are commonly observed.

Mots clés : transposable elements germline development epigenetic reprogramming transcriptional regulation chromatin

Participants :
- Institut Curie (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 195914.88 €
Projet POSSIS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Mathematics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Polynomial equations are fundamental across various scientific disciplines, serving as powerful tools for modeling and solving real-world problems. Often, only the positive real solutions of these equations are of interest. The goal of this project is to develop methods within the framework of real algebraic geometry, specifically aimed at solving problems related to the positive solutions of polynomials that arise in scientific applications.  The main focus of this project is a classical problem that arises from the scattering of elementary particles in physics. The primary objective is to develop a method for computing the positive solutions of the Landau equations. These positive solutions are crucial because they lead to singularities in the physical region of Feynman integrals, which correspond to observable phenomena in scattering experiments.  Beyond particle physics, this project aims to extend the applications of real algebraic geometry to the study of Nash equilibria in game theory, steady states of biochemical reaction networks, and statistical models in phylogenetics. In all these fields, the models are given by parametrized polynomial equation systems with parameters that share linear dependencies. While methods from applied algebraic geometry have already proven successful in studying complex solutions, investigating the positive solutions of these polynomials requires a paradigm shift toward real algebraic geometry.

Mots clés : real algebraic geometry applied algebraic geometry a discriminant landau singularities

Participants :
- Université de Leipzig (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 202125.12 €
Projet 2DMAP (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Proton channels in cells and the corresponding transmembrane proton fluxes are critical for many cell activities. Recent studies reveal that expression levels of proton channel Hv1 and its activity are highly associated with the development of many diseases, including cancer spreading, disrupted bone metabolism, and stroke, which makes proton channel an interesting therapeutic target. Yet, the full understanding of the mechanism of proton flux-related disease development is still under development partially due to a lack of direct observation method of the proton fluxes in living cells with high spatiotemporal resolution. To tackle this issue, we propose to develop a high throughput label-free super-resolution imaging method to map proton fluxes in cells by using two-dimensional hexagonal Boron Nitride (hBN) substrate with proton-activated emitters. Very recently, my colleague and I found that surface defects in hBN can be optically activated by protonation in aqueous solutions resulting in intermittent emission that allows single-molecule localization analysis. The high photocounts from the emitters lead to localization with precision as high as 7 nm. Using such surface defects as an array of proton sensors, proton fluxes from proton channels in cell membranes in close proximity can be detected label-free. In this project, we will (1) artificially introduce and characterize defects in hBN that are optimized for proton sensing purposes; (2) test the photophysics of defect emitter in physiological conditions; (3) demonstrate proof-of-the-concept super-resolved mapping of Hv1 proton channel activities in vivo and in vitro. Via this project, I will further develop my core competence in 2D materials, single-molecule sensing, microscopy and more importantly learn to design and handle experiments of the complex biological systems and bio-imaging in the host group. This fellowship will greatly improve my competence to pursue an academic career in the bio-sensing field.

Mots clés : defects, hbn, proton fluxes, hv1, super resolution microscopy

Participants :
- Université de technologie d'Eindhoven (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 203464.32 €
Projet KNOVV (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

KNOVV aims at directing nephron spatial orientation within renal organoids to mimic in vivo kidney development. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an increasing socio-economic burden, with 100 million people affected in Europe; available treatments are limited to dialysis and transplants. Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM) aims at developing in vivo–like organs, using in vitro three-dimensional (3D) systems as new therapies. Promising TERM therapies involving self-organized renal organoids from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) are being investigated. These kidney organoids contain the appropriate cells although heterogeneity, immature stage and lack of the spatially specific nephron orientation are still major bottlenecks. These limitations impair microphysiological form and function, which limits their research utility and clinical applications. I hypothesize that inducing spatial nephron orientation in kidney organoids will result in improved maturation and function closely mimicking the in vivo organ. To achieve this, I will optimize protocols to generate renal organoids from hiPSC. I will identify molecules to inhibit or induce glomerulogenesis (glomeruli formation), and develop glomerulogenesis-inducing and -inhibiting hydrogels for bioprinting renal organoids. Immunostaining, qPCR, and functional assays will be used to evaluate the morphology and function of the 3D bioprinted renal organoid construct. KNOVV will strengthen my research and academic profiles, broaden my knowledge and experience by combining developmental biology, TERM and biofabrication to improve renal organoids. My ambition is that the bioprinted renal organoid constructs with spatially directed nephrons will enable unprecedented microphysiological maturation and function. This will allow a leap beyond the current organoids state of art and ultimately lead us closer to clinical translation, offering an alternative for the growing CKD population.

Mots clés : kidney development, renal organoids, 3d bioprinting, human induced pluripotent stem cells, 

Participants :
- Université de Maastricht (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 254330.4 €
- Tissueguard gmbh (Allemagne) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
Projet ADAPTIVEISLANDS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

For over 150 years, insular environments have played a key role in biological research, as they provide an explicit spatial and temporal context in which to study the processes behind biodiversity. Traditionally, the origin and maintenance of biodiversity in islands has been studied from the ecological aspects of biogeography such as immigration, colonization and extinction, while microevolutionary processes such as adaptation were ignored. Biodiversity in islands depends not only on colonization, but also on the successful establishment via biological adaptations, and on speciation. The integration of microevolution with Island Biogeography Theory (IBT) is a crucial next step. Here I propose to use marine lakes –islands of seawater surrounded by land– to shed light on the origin and maintenance of fish biodiversity by understanding the interaction between colonization, extinction and adaptation. To achieve this, I will compare marine lakes of similar ages, sizes and environmental conditions, but differing in the level of isolation to the sea, in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. First, I will examine how isolation and fish dispersal-related traits affect species diversity and composition in marine lakes. I will document marine lakes biodiversity patterns using video camera recordings and I will collate information on traits from public data repositories. Second, I will test how isolation affects colonization and extinction by documenting historic colonization-extinction dynamics (750 years before the present) using eDNA from sediment cores. Finally, I will test how isolation affects local adaptation by examining signatures of adaptation in marine lakes with different levels of connectivity to the sea using population genetics. This unique combination of study system, data, and novel analyses to integrate microevolution with IBT, will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the process responsible for the origin and maintenance of biodiversity.

Mots clés : island biogeography theory, marine biodiversity, isolation, dispersal, fish, colonization extinction dynamics, local adaptation, marine lakes, edna, microevolution, islands as model systems

Participants :
- Wageningen University & Research (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 203464.32 €