Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : KleptoSlug (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : University of Aveiro — Pays : Portugal — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2255461.0 €

Rationale: Photosynthesis is almost exclusively restricted to algae and plants, with the exception of some protozoans, flatworms and marine slugs that acquire chloroplasts from algae. In metazoans, the capacity to incorporate functional chloroplasts (kleptoplasty) for long periods of time has only been described in sacoglossan sea slugs. Some species retain kleptoplasts photosynthetically active for several months that persist without access to algal gene products and despite the release of potentially dangerous metabolites, including reactive oxygen species (ROS). While kleptoplasty is intriguing from an evolutionary perspective, there are many unresolved questions on how the algal organelle is incorporated into the metabolism of an animal cell and what the host-associated benefits are. Aim: This proposal will unravel the cellular mechanisms supporting the sequestration and maintenance of functional chloroplasts inside metazoan cells and determine the host benefits of harboring kleptoplasts. Approach: The expertise in keeping a variety of species will form the backbone of my state-of-the-art experimental strategy, comparing a wide range of different animal-alga associations in their response to chloroplast incorporation and variable ability to functionally maintain them. Lipidomic and transcriptomic analyses will unravel in a comparative approach the species-specific maintenance strategies underlying kleptoplasty. In addition, the impact of cytotoxic compounds produced by active kleptoplasts and in particular ROS production and scavenging will be explore. Finally, I will determine the fate of inorganic carbon and nitrogen to explore the contribution of photosynthesis-derived compounds to the physiology of the host. Impact: This analysis will resolve some of the long-standing questions regarding the maintenance of photosynthetically active chloroplasts in animal cells and produce crucial insights about long-term kleptoplasty in sacoglossan sea slugs.

Mots-clés : kleptoplasty,lipidomics,nanosims,photosynthesis,symbiosis,reactive oxygen species,sacoglossa,stable isotopes
Projet ERC : NMR4CO2 (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : University of Aveiro — Pays : Portugal — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999793.0 €

Reaching a historic high of 3Reaching a historic high of 32.5 gigatonnes in 2017, global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels combustion continue to increase. CO2 removal technologies are part of the solution to tackle this crucial environmental challenge. Because of their lower regeneration cost, amine-modified porous silicas (AMPS) are the most promising CO2-adsorbents for replacing the decades-old liquid amine scrubbing technology. AMPS are “moisture-tolerant” and selectively chemisorb CO2 from low-concentration mixtures, important features for operating under large-point CO2 emission source conditions. The nature of CO2 species formed on AMPS surfaces determines the gas adsorption capacity/kinetics, selectivity, stability, and regenerability. However, a molecular-scale understanding of the CO2-AMPS adsorption process remains elusive, hindering our ability to design improved sorbents. NMR4CO2 aims to fill in this gap, engaging for the first time state-of-the-art surface-enhanced ex- and in-situ solid-state NMR (SSNMR) to study the chemistry of acidic gases (mainly CO2) adsorbed on AMPS, and the gas-solid interfaces, using simulated industrial gas mixtures. The project combines the expertise of spectroscopists, chemists, and engineers to tackle these challenges. NMR4CO2 encompasses the design of novel SSNMR methods to study the kinetically- and thermodynamically-driven CO2-AMPS adsorption process, comprising in-situ flow NMR, dynamic nuclear polarization NMR, and isotopically-labeled gas mixtures. Important outcomes include: i) identification of competing CO2 chemisorption pathways; ii) effect on CO2 speciation of textural properties, amine type, inter-amine spacing, and amine-support cooperative effects; iii) real-time monitoring of acid gas speciation in multiple adsorption/desorption cycles; iv) identification of sorbent deactivation species; v) effect of pressure on CO2 speciation and vi) improvement of AMPS sorbent properties by synthetic modification.

Mots-clés : co2 capture,adsorbent materials,solid state nmr spectroscopy,dynamic nuclear polarization,modeling,acid gases,co2 speciation
Projet ERC : FARE (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
Entité participante : Laboratory of Instrumentation and Experimental Particles Physics — Pays : Portugal — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LIP
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499844.0 €

Recent events, from the anti-vaccination movement, to Brexit and even to mob killings, have raised serious concerns about the influence of the so-called fake news (FN). False information is not new in human history, but the recent surge in online activity, coupled with poor digital literacy, consumer profiling, and large profits from ad revenues, created a perfect storm for the FN epidemic, with still unimaginable consequences. This challenge is interdisciplinary and requires academic research to guide current calls for action issued by academics, governmental and non-governmental agencies, and the social network platforms themselves. FARE will enrich current efforts, which mostly confront FN spreading from an applied perspective, by offering a theoretical framework that allows to make testable predictions. FARE argues that sharing of FN is a deviation from pure rationality and brings together 1) state of the art knowledge in behavioural psychology, to assess the role that cognitive biases play in susceptibility to FN, and 2) current models in network science and epidemiology, to test whether FN spread more like simple or complex contagions. Finally, fully recognizing that these novel big-data approaches carry great risks, FARE will develop a new strategy, mostly based on distributed computing, and guidelines to the ethical handling of human-related big-data. Together, FARE will offer a comprehensive model to ask questions such as: 1) What role(s) cognitive biases play in FN spreading? 2) How does network architecture affect FNs spread? 3) How do biases and position on networks build on each other to impact propagation? 4) What monitoring and mitigation interventions are likely to be more efficient? Moreover, the study of FN from such a conceptual perspective has the potential to profoundly increase our knowledge on human behaviour and information spread, beyond specific problems, with implications for communication (science, political), economics, and psychology.

Mots-clés : cognitive biases,information spread,fake news,contagion,ethics,big data,data analytics
Projet ERC : BRCA-ERC (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : Universität Innsbruck — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1115793.0 €

Recent evidence demonstrates that cancer is overtaking cardiovascular disease as the number one cause of mortality in Europe. This is largely due to the lack of preventative measures for common (e.g. breast) or highly fatal (e.g. ovarian) human cancers. Most cancers are multifactorial in origin. The core hypothesis of this research programme is that the extremely high risk of BRCA1/2 germline mutation carriers to develop breast and ovarian cancer is a net consequence of cell-autonomous (direct effect of BRCA mutation in cells at risk) and cell non-autonomous (produced in distant organs and affecting organs at risk) factors which both trigger epigenetic, cancer-initiating effects. The project’s aims are centered around the principles of systems medicine and built on a large cohort of BRCA mutation carriers and controls who will be offered newly established cancer screening programmes. We will uncover how ‘cell non-autonomous’ factors work, provide detail on the epigenetic changes in at-risk tissues and investigate whether these changes are mechanistically linked to cancer, study whether we can neutralise this process and measure success in the organs at risk, and ideally in easy to access samples such as blood, buccal and cervical cells. In my Department for Women’s Cancer we have assembled a powerful interdisciplinary team including computational biologists, functionalists, immunologists and clinician scientists linked to leading patient advocacy groups which is extremely well placed to lead this pioneering project to develop the fundamental understanding of cancer development in women with BRCA mutations. To reset the epigenome, re-establishing normal cell identity and consequently reducing cancer risk without the need for surgery and being able to monitor the efficacy using multicellular epigenetic outcome predictors will be a major scientific and medical breakthrough and possibly applicable to other chronic diseases.

Mots-clés : cancer and its biological basis,women s cancers,breast cancer,ovarian cancer,brca1,2 mutation,cell non autonomous,hormones,prevention,early diagnosis,surrogate markers
Projet ERC : BRCA-ERC (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : Karolinska Institutet — Pays : Suède — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : KI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 212000.0 €

Recent evidence demonstrates that cancer is overtaking cardiovascular disease as the number one cause of mortality in Europe. This is largely due to the lack of preventative measures for common (e.g. breast) or highly fatal (e.g. ovarian) human cancers. Most cancers are multifactorial in origin. The core hypothesis of this research programme is that the extremely high risk of BRCA1/2 germline mutation carriers to develop breast and ovarian cancer is a net consequence of cell-autonomous (direct effect of BRCA mutation in cells at risk) and cell non-autonomous (produced in distant organs and affecting organs at risk) factors which both trigger epigenetic, cancer-initiating effects. The project’s aims are centered around the principles of systems medicine and built on a large cohort of BRCA mutation carriers and controls who will be offered newly established cancer screening programmes. We will uncover how ‘cell non-autonomous’ factors work, provide detail on the epigenetic changes in at-risk tissues and investigate whether these changes are mechanistically linked to cancer, study whether we can neutralise this process and measure success in the organs at risk, and ideally in easy to access samples such as blood, buccal and cervical cells. In my Department for Women’s Cancer we have assembled a powerful interdisciplinary team including computational biologists, functionalists, immunologists and clinician scientists linked to leading patient advocacy groups which is extremely well placed to lead this pioneering project to develop the fundamental understanding of cancer development in women with BRCA mutations. To reset the epigenome, re-establishing normal cell identity and consequently reducing cancer risk without the need for surgery and being able to monitor the efficacy using multicellular epigenetic outcome predictors will be a major scientific and medical breakthrough and possibly applicable to other chronic diseases.

Mots-clés : cancer and its biological basis,women s cancers,breast cancer,ovarian cancer,brca1,2 mutation,cell non autonomous,hormones,prevention,early diagnosis,surrogate markers
Projet ERC : BRCA-ERC (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : University of London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : U. London
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 856796.75 €

Recent evidence demonstrates that cancer is overtaking cardiovascular disease as the number one cause of mortality in Europe. This is largely due to the lack of preventative measures for common (e.g. breast) or highly fatal (e.g. ovarian) human cancers. Most cancers are multifactorial in origin. The core hypothesis of this research programme is that the extremely high risk of BRCA1/2 germline mutation carriers to develop breast and ovarian cancer is a net consequence of cell-autonomous (direct effect of BRCA mutation in cells at risk) and cell non-autonomous (produced in distant organs and affecting organs at risk) factors which both trigger epigenetic, cancer-initiating effects. The project’s aims are centered around the principles of systems medicine and built on a large cohort of BRCA mutation carriers and controls who will be offered newly established cancer screening programmes. We will uncover how ‘cell non-autonomous’ factors work, provide detail on the epigenetic changes in at-risk tissues and investigate whether these changes are mechanistically linked to cancer, study whether we can neutralise this process and measure success in the organs at risk, and ideally in easy to access samples such as blood, buccal and cervical cells. In my Department for Women’s Cancer we have assembled a powerful interdisciplinary team including computational biologists, functionalists, immunologists and clinician scientists linked to leading patient advocacy groups which is extremely well placed to lead this pioneering project to develop the fundamental understanding of cancer development in women with BRCA mutations. To reset the epigenome, re-establishing normal cell identity and consequently reducing cancer risk without the need for surgery and being able to monitor the efficacy using multicellular epigenetic outcome predictors will be a major scientific and medical breakthrough and possibly applicable to other chronic diseases.

Mots-clés : cancer and its biological basis,women s cancers,breast cancer,ovarian cancer,brca1,2 mutation,cell non autonomous,hormones,prevention,early diagnosis,surrogate markers
Projet ERC : TANQ (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : University of Geneva — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNIGE
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1850000.0 €

Recent experimental breakthroughs led to realization of tunable, synthetic quantum systems that allow one to probe and manipulate highly non-equilibrium quantum matter. Driving a system ouf-of-equilibrium changes its properties in unexpected ways, opening opportunities for realizing new states of matter. The central goal of this project is to develop a fundamental theoretical understanding of non-equilibrium dynamics and highly excited eigenstates in quantum many-body systems. The conventional wisdom tells that a non-equilibrium system thermalizes, and can then be described by statistical-mechanics. However, recent breakthroughs revealed an experimentally relevant class of systems, the prime example being disordered, many-body localized (MBL) systems, which defy this wisdom, avoiding thermalization. Ergodicity-breaking systems open new avenues for protecting quantum coherence, and for realizing new non-equilibrium phases of matter. We will study the fundamental mechanisms of ergodicity breaking using a multi-disciplinary approach, which builds on techniques from quantum information, condensed matter physics, quantum optics and mathematical physics. We aim to establish universality classes of quantum dynamics, by studying disordered systems with symmetries, and by characterizing entirely new mechanisms of ergodicity breaking, such as quantum many-body scars. In order to overcome the exponential growth of the many-body Hilbert space, new efficient renormalization and tensor-network methods based on quantum entanglement will be developed. Finally, approaches for manipulating quantum matter and realizing new non-equilibrium phases in ongoing experiments will be developed. The completion of this project will lead to a universal theoretical framework for non-equilibrium quantum dynamics, complementing statistical-mechanics in ergodic systems. Such a framework will enable engineering quantum-coherent many-body states with novel properties and functionalities.

Mots-clés : non equilibrium quantum many body physics,thermalization,many body localization,periodically driven systems,non equilibrium phases of matter,tensor networks
Projet ERC : WACSWAIN (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : University of Cambridge — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. Cambridge
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1302035.25 €

Recent papers predict the loss of most of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) by 2500 if CO2 emissions and rising global temperatures are not controlled. It is critical to test whether the models making such worrying predictions are realistic. I will do this by obtaining new data from the last interglacial (LIG, 130,000-115,000 years ago) to assess the response of the WAIS to comparable warmth. During the LIG, sea level reached 6-9 m higher than today. It is inferred that Antarctic ice sheets contributed several metres of sea level rise, under a climate similar to the one we could be committing ourselves to in the next few centuries. Most authors assume that the lost ice came mainly from the WAIS. Models that predict large ice loss in the future also produce a very significant retreat of the WAIS and loss of the Ross and Ronne ice shelves under LIG conditions. Were the WAIS and Ronne Ice Shelf significantly smaller in the LIG? If so, what was the time course of their retreat and regrowth? This project will remedy the surprising lack of direct evidence about these questions. I will examine data from ice cores that reach the LIG, drilled on the periphery of the WAIS. I will include retrieval of one new strategically-placed bedrock core, and obtain an isotope profile that will test the potential of another site. The loss of much of the WAIS would have several effects on peripheral ice caps: glacio-isostatic (GI) uplift and a change in atmospheric circulation would cause a recognisable spatial and temporal pattern of symptoms. The retreat of the Ronne Ice Shelf would leave a clear signature in marine aerosol concentrations in the ice. By examining changes in water isotopes, sea salt, air content and other proxies in all the cores, in comparison with different model outputs, I will estimate the timing and extent of WAIS retreat and regrowth during the LIG. This will support or question the use of sensitive models to predict future change in the WAIS.

Mots-clés : ice cores,antarctica
Projet ERC : CancerCirculome (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1498888.0 €

Recent reports describe the highly unexpected observation that cancer cells have the intrinsic ability to create and chromosomally re-incorporate extrachromosomal circular DNAs. We could show that these genomic phenomena are more frequent than expected in primary human neuroblastomas, a common childhood tumor, suggesting that DNA circularization represents a major driver of neuroblastoma genome remodeling. We aim with CancerCirculome to uncover new principles of pediatric cancer genome remodeling through an intensified study of the underlying mechanisms and functional consequences of extrachromosomal DNA circularization and chromosomal re-integration. Our long-term goal is to exploit these cancer cell-specific traits to improve cancer therapy, diagnosis and/or clinical risk stratification. Our work program will develop and establish new single-cell CRISPR-based methodologies with the aim to reveal molecular factors contributing to circular DNA generation. Furthermore, we will genetically engineer circular DNAs in human cells, assess their functional impact on cancer cell fitness and track their presence and chromosomal integration during therapy on a single-cell level. This aims to uncover the oncogenic functions of circular DNA and reveal the determinants of their chromosomal re-integration. The principles uncovered in CancerCirculome will be dissected to identify novel diagnostic and predictive markers for clinical application to improve personalized diagnosis, risk assessment and treatment of neuroblastoma, as our test case pediatric tumor. The work outlined in CancerCirculome promises to provide key insights into a fundamental biological and clinical problem and stongly impact the understanding of childhood solid tumors. CancerCirculome addresses fundamental questions about how cancer cells could arise and evolve at the roots of clonal evolution in tumors and at the mechanistic level of cellular genetics.

Mots-clés : pediatric oncology,neuroblastoma,extrachromosomal circular dna,genomic instability,single cell sequencing technologies