Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet DOGMITE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Detoxification of poisonous xenobiotics in animals is typically performed by multi-gene enzyme families. Within arthropods, only insect genomes have been studied in detail where these families are well characterized. I recently uncovered a new enzyme family in the genome of a non-insect arthropod, the extremely polyphagous plant-feeding mite Tetranychus urticae and showed that this proliferated family was acquired via horizontal gene transfer from a fungal donor. The family codes for intradiol ring cleaving dioxygenases which cleave a particular set of aromatic structures, commonly found in pesticides and plant metabolites. Here, I propose to functionally characterize this exciting new gene family and to elucidate its role in xenobiotic detoxification, with a focus on plant secondary metabolites. First, to create a general picture, I will map the in situ expression of dioxygenases and time their responses to plant-derived secondary defense metabolites. Second, guided by preliminary results, I plan to study how these new herbivore enzymes counteract polyphenol oxidases, well-known plant defense enzymes that act against herbivores and target the same class of substrates. State-of-the-art plant transformation experiments will be performed in order to meticulously dissect their counterplay. Finally, by means of an unbiased multi-layered strategy, I will functionally characterize these new dioxygenases. Dioxygenases will be introduced into biological systems by functional expression in E. coli or insect cells, and by genetically transforming Drosophila. Cutting-edge differential metabolomics will identify the substrates and reaction products. By means of this project, I expect to unravel the selective advantage of this new family for phytophagous mites and open up avenues to exciting biotechnological applications which I expect to extend well beyond agriculture.

Mots clés : mites, xenobiotic metabolism, tomato defenses, phytophagy, arthropod physiology, herbivore plant interactions

Participants :
- University of Amsterdam (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 165598.8 €
Projet BARREL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Development of resistance by bacteria to antibiotics makes design of novel antimicrobial compounds increasingly important. As persistent cells often become slow-growing or dormant, strategies targeting their membrane are becoming more relevant. For several natural antimicrobial peptides function can be coupled to scaffolds with high sheet content. Toxic oligomers may assemble into hydrophilic or lipophilic sheet rich barrel constructs. However, this mechanism is not understood, greatly hindering rational development of similar compounds. My main research goal is to reach insight into the structure-function relationships of the barrel molecular scaffold and to gain understanding of how its ability to protect internal parts from the environment may contribute to toxicity. To approach this problem, I aim to design and study foldamer oligomer assemblies. I hope to define the fundamentals of how peptide - lipid bilayer interactions govern formation of potentially toxic oligomers at a molecular level. This may be exploited for developing new antimicrobial compounds. Foldamers are highly similar to natural peptides in terms of structural diversity, thus they are ideal model systems, in several cases showing antibiotic activity and enzyme resistance. The computationally designed, structures will be studied with experimental methods in model membranes. I have experience with theoretical (QM&MD) and experimental tools (polarized light spectroscopy). However, characterisation of solution phase membrane systems requires use of additional techniques and I aim to learn more into X-ray scattering methods (SAXS,WAXS). In the lab of Prof. Attila Bota, I will have optimal conditions to gain expertise with these. The Host Institute will also provide a professionally organized and equipped environment, where I would have excellent chances to be offered a tenured position. I expect that the results and the planned outreach activities will have a positive impact on EU research.

Mots clés : computational biophysics, foldamer, peptide lipid interactions, x ray scattering, barrel, structure, computer aided design

Participants :
- Hungarian Research Network (Hongrie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 146239.2 €
Projet ALDing (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Different from chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and physical vapor deposition (PVD), atomic layer deposition (ALD) is based on saturated surface reactions. In this case, the thin films are grown in a layer-by-layer fashion allowing sub-nanometer thickness control, low temperature depositions, good uniformity and superior step coverage on high specific surface area components compared to CVD and PVD. These advantages of ALD over other thin film deposition processes have been conventionally applied mainly in semiconductor electronic industry on the preparation of layers of outstanding High-K dielectric materials. But, due to the advances in tool design and recipe development, the importance of ALD is rapidly expanding for producing innovative nanoscale materials. ALD new applications are highly multidisciplinar. It has an emerging potential on photovoltaic cells, flexible electronics, enhanced performance glass, paper and textiles, new generation transistors, sensors, and advanced energy materials technology. Innovations brought by nanotechnology to biosciences and biosensors are also proving to be good candidates to benefit from these potentialities and its surface funcionalization. Under this scenario, this proposal intends to built up an outstanding Research and Development department at a recently created SME (CTECHnano) that will be focused on extending the applications of ALD technique to all the emerging and/or unexplored industrial areas mentioned above. This action will contribute to enhance european industry competitiveness on the surface modification manufacture.

Mots clés : thin films, surface modification, functional materials, transfer to industry

Participants :
- Coating technologies sl (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 158121.6 €
Projet Biosensor Design (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Directional movement of cells in response to environmental cues (e.g. chemotaxis) is essential throughout biology, and the membrane receptors that initiate cell migration offer a key opportunity for modulation by synthetic biologists. The design of chemotactic receptor biosensors for metastatic markers has the potential to expand the immune system’s spectrum of actions. Metastatic cancers are extremely lethal, and tumor cells that escape to seed a secondary tumor in a distant organ often escape immunosurveillance. Extensive studies on metastasis have identified soluble secreted factors that promote the initial escape of tumor cells, their intravasation into circulation, and extravasation into metastatic niches where they can proliferate and form new malignant tumors. We will employ a host of computational design techniques developed in the Barth Lab to build novel biosensors that will elicit chemotactic responses towards molecular indicators of metastatic cells at various key points during their journey to secondary sites when they are vulnerable to engineered cytotoxic immune (T and NK) cells. By harnessing the migratory potency of a chemokine receptor scaffold, we will design several novel chemotactic receptors sensing molecules of increasing complexity to ultimately build and validate a general computation-based platform for rational biosensor design. At a fundamental level, engineering membrane receptors that can respond to a diversity of molecules is a stringent test of our biophysical understanding of protein structure and function, but also has far-reaching applications in basic and translational research with immediate relevance and impact for cancer therapeutics.

Mots clés : computational membrane protein design, g protein coupled receptors, chemotaxis, cancer metastasis, cell engineering, cancer immunotherapy

Participants :
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191149.44 €
Projet FEM1970 (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Discussion of female sexuality in the West during the 1900s was usually centred on the aspects of maternity and reproduction. As the liberalisation narrative in recent historiography has argued, female sexuality ceased to be tied to procreation and marriage sometime during the second half of the 20th century, partly due to the affirmation of a new form of sexuality more oriented towards experimentation and self fulfilment. Female erotic experience started to be valued in itself and to serve the individualisation of women. This development needs to be integrated with the theory of an unprecedented change in values in industrialised Western Europe towards post-materialism and individualism (Ronald Inglehart et al.). My project will explore the transformation of female sexuality in West Germany and Italy from the 1970s onwards. It aims to reconstruct the shifts in public morality, social practices, and value changes in these two West European countries. It questions whether the development of values and sexuality in these countries was post-materialist and individualistic in nature. Other European examples will be considered as valuable references. An experience in the British academic system represents an opportunity for expanding my professional competence in terms of historiographic skills and for developing new academic contacts, which I consider very important for the positive development of my career.

Mots clés : sexuality, value change, transformation, individualisation, identity

Participants :
- University of London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet RIGM (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Disease tolerance is pivotal for host survival in malaria. In particular, Heme/iron metabolism in parenchymal tissues, such as liver, kidney, implicates in tissue damage and metabolic reprogram during infection diseases including malaria and sepsis, etc. Therefore, heme/iron metabolism is potential target for disease tolerance modulation in treating malaria and sepsis. In support of this notion, the host lab previously found that Ho-1 and ferritin heavy chain in the kidney are important in mice fighting against malaria. Meanwhile, the underlying mechanism of heme/iron affecting organ metabolism and host homeostasis is not well understood. Studies indicated that ferroptosis cascade involves in heme/iron-driven tissue damage and other metabolic alterations. Accordingly, we intend to address the interface of ferroptosis and glucose metabolism in kidney during malaria. Malaria iwill be applied to iron exporter, Ferroportin (Slc40a1) deletion specific in renal proximal tubule epithelial cells(RPTEC) (Slc40a1 PepckΔ/Δ ). Basic disease trajectory phenotype and ferroptosis parameters will be collected to demonstrate the impact of RPTEC iron export on kidney injury and systematic homeostatic status during malaria. Based on our preliminary data, Slc40a1 PepckΔ/Δ mice are sensitive to malaria due to disease tolerance collapse which displays as lethal hypoglycaemia and temperature drop. We propose to manipulate ferroptosis cascade to ameliorate tissue damage and re-establish disease tolerance in Slc40a1 PepckΔ/Δ mice. Furthermore, we aim to investigate to interface between ferroptosis cascade and glucose metabolism. Not only will a pivotal role of renal glucose production fine-tuned by heme/iron metabolism be uncovered. Transcriptome and metabolomics will be employed to identify novel pathway/metabolites that tackle both ferroptosis and glucose metabolism. The future potency of this study, is to provide therapeutic target in treating malaria.

Mots clés : renal iron homeostasis, glucose metabolism, malaria

Participants :
- Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Portugal) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 147815.04 €
Projet EDSP (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Dissipation is fundamental to physical systems. In quantum mechanics, this manifests itself as energy decay and dephasing also known as quantum decoherence. In the field of quantum computing, decoherence is often relegated as a non-ideality of the physical system. However, dissipation and decoherence are a necessary for quantum information processing; allowing measurement, state preparation, and quantum error correction. I propose to explore engineered multi-photon dissipation processes using superconducting circuits. By extending the well-established ‘transmon qubit’ platform, this work will investigate the use of symmetry to prevent single-photon decay while allowing two-photon and four-photon decay events. Such a mechanism has immediate applications akin to trapped-ion technology for qubit state reset and resonance fluorescence readout. In addition, possible multi-mode dissipative processes provide a rich physics to explore more complex quantum phenomena in larger systems. This includes entanglement stabilization and the generation of decoherence-free subspaces.

Mots clés : quantum computing, superconducting circuits

Participants :
- University of Oxford (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 224933.76 €
Projet DoMiCoP (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : TERMINATED

DoMiCoP develops new understandings and perspectives to study migration control in practice in the European Union by asking one main question: how and why do communities of practice develop and diffuse the knowledge required to put migration control into action? Unlike the nexus between expert knowledge, epistemic communities and policy formulation, the nexus between everyday knowledge, communities of practice and policy implementation has not yet received systematic scholarly attention. My project bridges that gap by focusing on intermediate arenas in which communities of practice take shape most notably the meetings and trainings that gather state and non-state actors involved in putting asylum, detention and removal into practice. By building on field-based methodologies (interviews and participant observations), DoMiCoP sheds ethnographic light on the role that ‘learning from abroad’ plays in the implementation of migration control in the EU. My project’s aim is threefold: 1) Identifying arenas at intermediate levels in which communities of practice take shape; 2) Analysing the communities of practice by focusing on the configurations of actors and organizations involved, the motivations underlying their involvement, the process of knowledge development in interaction, the conflicts and negotiations; 3) Revealing the role of non-state organizations (private for profit and not-for-profit). From a theoretical point of view, this project goes beyond the classical view of the implementation as a test to assess the effectiveness of policy transfers towards an analysis of policy transfer at that level of policy-making. From an empirical point of view, the project expands knowledge about less-studied venues of policy-making and provides original thick descriptions. From a methodological point of view, the project engages with qualitative methods for the study of policy diffusion and aims at responding to their main challenges through participant observation.

Mots clés : communities of practice, policy implementation, practical knowledge, asylum, immigration detention, removal, non state actors, europe

Participants :
- European University Institute (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 163673.28 €
Projet BiLamVesicles (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Double membranes are ubiquitous throughout the domains of life, accommodating remarkable protein machineries which are fundamental to the cellular activity. However, the study of these proteins is restricted by the lack of a suitable membrane model to accommodate them. Within the framework of BiLamVesicles I will develop a novel bi-lamellar lipid vesicle as a tool for hosting and studying proteins which naturally span across double membranes such as the nucleus and Gram-negative bacteria envelopes. To integrate the protein of choice within the vesicle envelope I will design and employ a highly regulated layer-by-layer assembly in a microfluidic chip. This approach will combine the host’s expertise in microfluidics and biophysics with my expertise in surface interactions and surface chemistry to allow an exquisite control over the membrane composition of bi-lamellar vesicles and the protein insertion process. Once assembled, I will use these vesicles to study the activity of the entire Gram-negative bacterial transporter system AcrAB-TolC, an archetype multidrug efflux pump of Escherichia coli. I will spatially isolate vesicles in a microfluidic chip and directly quantify transport rates through a full efflux pump system at the single-vesicle-level for the first time, using an advanced optofluidic system. The synergy between microfluidics and the proposed double membrane vesicles will produce a ground-breaking biotechnological technique for studying the activity of as yet inaccessible proteins in a biologically-relevant environment. This research will stretch the existing boundaries set by current membrane models and will pave the way for developing advanced techniques for drug screening assays.

Mots clés : bi lamellar lipid vesicles, microfluidics, protein reconstitution, multidrug efflux pump, active transport

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 224933.76 €
Projet CSP-CPS-A-ICA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Dr Kangkang Zhang will carry out a project to concern cybersecurity protection for cyber-physical systems against integrity cyberattacks (CSP-CPS-A-ICA) by revealing the stealthiness of integrity attacks and then developing detection and distinction methodologies and schemes from control perspectives. This research aims to provide effective, efficient and reliable cybersecurity protections for industrial control systems (ICSs). The project will be carried out in the Control and Power (CAP) research group, within the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE), at the Imperial College London (Imperial), under the supervision of Prof. Thomas Parisini. As a part of the project, I will carry out two 3-month secondments in the KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence (KIOS CoE), at the University of Cyprus (UCY). The expected benefits of this project are to achieve the above research aims and enable me to make a leap in my career as well as to create a close collaboration between Imperial and UCY in the cybersecurity-related research areas.

Mots clés : cybersecurity, cyber physical systems, attack detection, risk distinguishing

Participants :
- Imperial College London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet HOARDEVOL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Dr Lindsay Henderson will move from the University of California Davis, US to Newcastle University in the UK to undertake a project investigating the physiological and neural mechanisms that regulate avian hoarding behaviour and how the social environment influences them. Some species have evolved to store rather than consume food while availability is high, for consumption when food is scarce. This behaviour is called food hoarding and is evident in a range of taxa. Little is known about the mechanisms that underpin the motivation to hoard food. Research shows that energetically demanding conditions are linked to an increase in food hoarding. In addition, there is evidence in social species, that social rank influences hoarding behaviour. Key physiological and neurological mechanisms have also been shown to underpin an animal’s motivation to hoard food, including the stress hormone corticosterone (cort) and consumption regulating neuropeptides, neuropeptide Y (NPY) and agouti-related protein (AgRP). However, whether variation in cort, NPY and AgRP, or an interaction between them regulates hoarding behaviour is yet to be examined. In this project I will experimentally address these knowledge gaps using two closely related bird species that live in social groups during winter when hoarding motivation is high; the food hoarding coal tit (Periparus ater), and the non-hoarding great tit (Parus major). I will use wild-caught captive birds to; i) investigate the influence of the social environment upon hoarding and food consumption under contrasting energy budgets, ii) examine the role of cort as a mediator of hoarding motivation, iii) identify the hypothalamic regions activated during high hoarding motivation between hoarding and non-hoarding species, and iv) examine whether cort, NPY and AgRP receptor density, and NPY/AgRP expression within these regions is linked to hoarding behaviour. I will acquire expertise in neuroscience, neuroanatomy and gene expression analysis.

Mots clés : social behaviour, stress physiology

Participants :
- Newcastle University (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €