Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : MorLo (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Institut de recherche pour le développement — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IRD
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499105.0 €

Loiasis, an infectious disease caused by the parasitic worm Loa loa, affects more than 15 million individuals in central Africa, and more than 100 million people are potentially exposed to infection. Since its first description in 1770, the international scientific community has considered this filarial disease as benign. I recently demonstrated that loiasis significantly reduces the life expectancy of infected people. I aim to definitively shift the prevailing paradigm of “benign loiasis” by showing that it can induce severe complications in various organs. I will conduct the first population-wide evaluation of morbidity in rural areas of Central Africa by performing systematic examinations on 4,900 selected individuals. This sample size will enable accurate estimation of prevalences of cardiovascular and renal diseases and of functional asplenia. Our results may lead to the recognition of loiasis as a significant public health problem. Such recognition could motivate integration of loiasis into the WHO’s list of Neglected Tropical Diseases. In addition, should loiasis be found to induce a functional asplenia, combating this disease could have a huge impact on the incidence and severity of other severe and common infections favoured by asplenia, such as malaria and pneumonia. Incidentally, specific recommendations regarding pneumococcal vaccination in loiasis-endemic areas could be made. Another possible consequence of our findings is changes in the management of people identified as having high levels of Loa loa infection during routine surveys or onchocerciasis elimination activities. Presently, these people are excluded from ivermectin treatment (because of the risk of post-treatment encephalopathy), and little is done to lower their level of infection. Confirmation that loiasis can cause serious complications would motivate an ethical obligation to develop strategies to manage these cases in order to lower their burden of the disease.

Mots-clés : loiasis,africa,morbidity,burden,endomyocardial fibrosis,asplenia
Projet ERC : CIVILSPACE (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : University of Turin — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UNITO
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 135873.75 €

Long considered a problem of ‘third countries’, concerns about ‘shrinking civil society space’ have moved to the heart of the European Union: confronted with the challenges of domestic terrorism, financial crisis and populist government numerous member states have passed legislation constraining civil society organizations (CSOs) (e.g. EC 2018; CoE 2018; FRA 2018). Indeed, since the early 2000s, government control over and repression of civil society increased in 2/3rds of member states. This project proposes the first theoretization and comprehensive assessment of the drivers and repercussions of the ‘shrinking of legal space’ for CSOs in the EU. It asks: How and why have EU member states altered the legal environments of CSOs over the last two decades? How do legal differences shape CSO activities central to assuring legal and political equality within organized civil society? The theoretical framework on the drivers and organizational repercussions of ‘legally defined’ civil society space will be examined through a sophisticated, interdisciplinary, mixed-methods design. Work package 1 examines the impact on CSO law of major challenges (domestic terrorism, financial crises, populist governments) as mediated by member states’ historically grown dispositions towards or against restricting civil society. This is done through the first comprehensive statistical assessment of the changing legal restrictiveness in both framework legislation and ‘organization-specific legal regimes’ tailored to six CSO types (e.g. unions, religious, pro-immigrant CSOs) in 12 EU member states (2000-22). On that basis, Work package 2 examines in a subset of six countries through qualitative case studies how public authorities implement CSO legislation and through large-scale CSO surveys with an in-built experiment CSOs’ political engagement and their resistance against government through public contestation and legal action considering law-conforming and chilling effects of regulation.

Mots-clés : civil society restrictions,cross national research,legislative reform,organizational response
Projet ERC : HYPOXIMMUNO (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : École nationale supérieure de chimie de Montpellier — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : ENS Chimie Montpellier
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 96900.0 €

Lung cancer is the most common cause of death from cancer worldwide with 1.59 million deaths annually and it places the highest economic burden of all cancers on the EU at €18.8billion. These figures call for a major transformation of the therapeutic management of lung cancer. The recent developments in immunotherapy give new hope. At present a significant minority of patients benefit from immune therapy, which remains not curative when delivered alone. It is thus clear that improving the efficacy of immune therapy is needed as well as the identification of predictive biomarkers. Combining immunotherapy with radiotherapy improves effectiveness, but resistance is still common, most probably because of hypoxia. In HYPOXIMMUNO, we will open up a new paradigm in treating metastatic NSCLC. I will provide for the first time (pre)clinical proof of concept of (i) highly innovative CT-based radiomics and PET-hypoxia imaging patient stratification tools and (ii) a tri-modal curative hypoxia-targeting treatment strategy that complements current immunotherapy and radiotherapy approaches. This tri-modal curative treatment strategy is based on (1) high precision Stereotactic Radiotherapy (SABR) to kill cancer cells and trigger the immune system, combined with (2) a hypoxia-activated prodrug to target the hypoxic tumour cells resistant to immunotherapy and (3) a promising and innovative tumour specific antibody (Ab)-based immunotherapy (immunocytokine L19-IL2 to “push the accelerator” with or without a checkpoint inhibitor to “release the break”) to form a powerful synergistic immuno-oncology strategy. In HYPOXIMMUNO, I envision to lay the foundation for the next breakthrough in oncology, by improving patient selection and developing highly innovative cancer therapies that target hypoxia, to improve the quality of life and prolong survival of cancer patients, in particular patients with metastatic NSCLC (watch the animation summarising the project: https://youtu.be/oP9Gp4a0b_Q).

Mots-clés : hypoxia,radiation,immunotherapy,lung cancer,metastatic disease,stereotactic ablative radiotherapy,hypoxia activated prodrug,biomarker,patient stratification,radiomics,immunocytokines
Projet ERC : LNEXPANDS (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy
Entité participante : University of London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. London
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Lymph node swelling is a classical hallmark of immunity. This expansion is observed by doctors, researchers and patients, yet as obvious as this process is, our understanding of the remodelling mechanisms involved are in their infancy. Lymph node remodelling is rapid and yet completely reversible, occurring countless times throughout our lifetimes. The purpose of this proposal is to understand how lymph node remodelling occurs and is resolved, repeatedly; to understand immunity in a whole organ context. The architecture of lymphoid organs is key to the effective operation of our immune system and is dictated by structures formed by non-haematopoetic stromal cells, including endothelial cells, and fibroblasts. Beyond their structural roles, stromal cells play an active role in immune responses, and the field of stromal immunology has become one of the most dynamic and exciting areas of immunology research. In this proposal I focus on the changing behaviour of fibroblastic reticular cells (FRCs) throughout cycles of lymph node remodelling. Fibroblastic reticular cells (FRCs) are the most abundant lymphoid stromal cell population, and form an interconnected network spanning the full volume of the tissue. FRCs are highly contractile and are able to relax and stretch during early phases of lymph node remodelling. FRCs proliferate during later phases of lymph node growth but are then removed as homeostasis is restored. Throughout this proposal I will use an extensive range of systems, ranging from proteomics and biochemistry to intravital imaging. I aim to: 1) To discover how spreading and stretching of the existing fibroblastic reticular network is directed in the acute phase of expansion: 2) To discover the cellular cues inducing the switch from stretching to proliferation and growth of the fibroblastic reticular network and 3) understand how homeostasis is regained as immune responses are resolved.

Mots-clés : lymphoid tissue,fibroblastic reticular cell,dendritic cell
Projet ERC : LYMPHORG (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Uppsala University — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2368439.0 €

Lymphatic vasculature maintains tissue fluid homeostasis and has important emerging roles in inflammation, immunity, lipid metabolism, blood pressure regulation and cancer metastasis. Lymphatic vessels are specialised to fulfil the functional needs of different organs while diseases associated with lymphatic dysfunction frequently affect vessels of specific tissues. How functional specialisation of vessels is achieved and what underlies tissue-specific vessel failure is not understood. I hypothesise that organ-specific manifestation of lymphatic dysfunction in disease is due to vascular bed-specific differences in vessel formation. In this project my aim is to identify genes and mechanisms required for organ-specific lymphatic development. Building on our recent discovery of a previously unknown progenitor cell type that is required for lymphatic development in an organ-specific manner I set out to identify the origin and function of lymphatic endothelial progenitor cells (LEPC) during development and assess their potential for therapeutic lymphatic regeneration. Towards this aim, we will identify organ-specific origins of lymphatic vasculature using lineage tracing and determine genetic signatures of lymphatic endothelial progenitors by mRNA sequencing. Cells and tissues from normal and mutant mice that show organ-specific lymphatic defects will be analysed. To identify molecular and cellular mechanisms of LEPC derived vessel formation, we will functionally characterise LEPC signature genes using mouse models and visualise vessel development by in vivo two-photon microscopy. The function and therapeutic potential of LEPCs and LEPC derived vessels will be assessed using mouse models of tolerance, inflammation, obesity and lymphoedema. This work will provide novel insights into organ-specific mechanisms of vascular morphogenesis and identify a progenitor cell that may be expoited to restore lymphatic function in disorders associated with lymphatic vessel failure.

Mots-clés : vascular biology,lymphangiogenesis,lymphatic vessel,lymphoedema
Projet ERC : RE-STORE (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Telethon Foundation — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 120000.0 €

Lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs) are a family of inherited genetic diseases characterized by lysosomal dysfunction, with a consequent block in the degradative capacity of the cell. The skeleton is one of the most affected organs in LSD patients and current therapies are largely ineffective for the treatment of bone and cartilage manifestations. Thanks to the support of the ERC-starting grant BONEPHAGY we demonstrated that the degradation of the endoplasmic reticulum fragments via lysosome/autophagy pathway (ER-phagy) exerts ER quality control functions that are essential for secretion of procollagens. This process is impaired in LSD chondrocytes and osteoblasts, the cartilage and bone forming cells, respectively and accounts, at least in part, for the skeletal growth retardation observed in LSD mouse models. Prompted by these exciting findings, RE-STORE proposes to develop a novel cell-based integrated screening platform to identify selective ER-phagy inducers to target the skeletal phenotype of LSDs and contribute significantly to their development into innovative therapeutics. The access to proprietary library, through a collaboration with an industrial partner, and the set-up of a rapid hit confirmation in disease animal models will allow RE-STORE to establish a complete drug development pipeline for the selected hits. RE-STORE is an ambitious project that aims to develop an innovative substrate-to-lysosome screening approach for the study of selective autophagy and to identify new therapies for the so-called “ER-storage disorders” characterized by accumulation of misfolded polypeptides in the lumen of the ER.

Mots-clés : er phagy,selective autophagy,lysosome,small molecules,therapy,skeleton,lysosomal storage disorders
Projet ERC : MAMEMS (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1394830.0 €

MAMEMS will constitute the first comprehensive examination of the monastic communities of Mount Athos as independent actors in medieval Eastern Mediterranean Society. This “monastic republic” was intimately connected with the Byzantine Empire, the various Orthodox principalities of the Balkans and Caucasus, South Italy, as well with the Ottoman Empire. By taking advantage of considerable advances in subfields like prosopography, analyzing and making available a set of sources (lists of commemoration) that are either poorly studied or unedited, and by bringing together an interdisciplinary team (a Byzantinist, Slavicist annd Kartvelologist) under the direction of the PI, MAMEMS will transform the way the Holy Mountain is viewed within scholarship and the general public via a triad of leitmotifs: wealth, ethnicity and gender (WEG). The exploration of these topics will be undergirded by the creation of a prosopographical database, Prosopographika Athonika, containing entries for every monk to have resided on the Holy Mountain, every Athonite benefactor and every person to have visited there from ca. 850 to 1550, that is from the time of the first surviving documents in the Athonite archives until the founding of the last of the major Athonite houses, Stavronikita. This database will finally allow a concrete analysis of how medieval Mount Athos was embedded within wider networks of economic interests, church leadership, intellectual exchange and patronage.

Mots-clés : database,mount athos,byzantine studies,prosopography,monasticism
Projet ERC : 4D-BIOMAP (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Carlos III University of Madrid — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499625.0 €

MAPs are polymer-based composites that respond to magnetic fields with large deformation or tuneable mechanical properties. I aim to apply heterogeneous 3D printed MAPs as modifiable substrates to support biological structures which can have their deformation state and stiffness controlled by the external application of magnetic stimuli. Such mechanical stimulation has an important role on biological structures leading to alterations in functional responses, morphological changes and activation of growth or healing processes. Current bottlenecks preventing progress in this field are a lack of: a) appropriate experimental methodologies to enable characterisation of the behaviour of these materials; b) fundamental theoretical underpinnings to support the design and application of these new materials. The first step is to undertake in depth characterisation and assessment of 4D printed MAPs to create a detailed understanding of the underlying physics controlling the interactions between the polymeric matrices and embedded magnetic particles during application of mechanical and/or magnetic loadings. I will then culture biological structures on the novel 4D printed MAPs to create a ‘designed’ biostructure with specified and controllable responses to a given magnetic stimulus. These novel biostructures will be assessed using three applications: a) astrocyte cellular networks, b) neuronal circuits and c) astrocyte-neuronal networks. The evaluation of cellular damage, morphological and physiological alterations will validate the performance of the new biostructures and also contribute new understanding to the effects of deformation and stiffness gradients during glial scarring on physiological functions of central nervous system cells. The resulting deep understanding of magneto-mechanics of MAPs and their further development for controllable stimulation devices, will enable the international consolidation of my research group within the mechanics and bioengineering fields.

Mots-clés : magneto active polymers,constitutive modelling,finite element method,4d printing,biomechanics,mechanical behaviour,biological stimulation,neuron mechanics,magnetoelasticity,solid mechanics
Projet ERC : MESG (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : University of Cambridge — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : U. Cambridge
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1039615.56 €

MESG explores how the notion of a collective European-North African cultural memory has been articulated through music for different sociopolitical ends in colonial and postcolonial contexts. Based on the notion of convivencia (the alleged coexistence between Christians, Jews and Muslims in Islamic Spain), music has been employed as a means of social control and representation during French-Spanish colonialism in North Africa (1912–56) and as a model for multiculturalism among North African communities in Europe today. Current scholarship on musical exchange between Europe and North Africa is fragmented, often focusing on isolated geographical case studies. There is limited understanding of how a collective cultural memory has shaped musical practice and discourse in the colonial past and the postcolonial present. In contrast, MESG offers a comparative study of music and colonialism in the Maghreb. By examining colonial music scholarship, policy and education, and musical encounters between different cultural groups, MESG probes the social dynamics of musical interaction at this time, framed by issues of race, imperialism and cultural memory. Second, MESG explores how the idea of a collective cultural memory is invoked through musical collaboration today, by focusing on various genres such as Arab-Andalusian music and flamenco. Rather than separating these historical periods, however, MESG analyses how modern-day practices of musical exchange in the region are shaped by discourses and networks formed during colonialism. Musical exchange will be read against the wider context of multiculturalism, immigration and cultural diplomacy that underpins postcolonial relations between Europe and North Africa. Combining archival and ethnographic research, this groundbreaking project brings together for the first time different geographical, linguistic and musical specialisms, leading towards a fuller understanding of musical exchange in the region.

Mots-clés : ethnomusicology,music and multiculturalism,music and postcolonial studies,flamenco,arab andalusian music,al andalus,cultural memory,colonialism
Projet ERC : META-LEGO (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : TU Dortmund University — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

META-LEGO will bring the knowledge needed to design metamaterials/classical-materials structures that control elastic waves and recover energy. For this, I will develop, implement and validate a new paradigm for finite-size metamaterials’ modeling, by leveraging the relaxed-micromorphic model that I have contributed to pioneer. The presence of boundaries in metamaterials strongly affects their response when coming in contact with mechanical loads. Yet, we still lack an exhaustive model to predict the static/dynamic response of finite-size metamaterials: current homogenization methods are unsuitable to provide a coherent transition from infinite- to finite-size metamaterials modeling. This prevents us from exploring realistic structures combining metamaterials’ and classical-materials’ bricks of finite size. META-LEGO hypothesizes that the mechanical response of finite-size metamaterials can be explored going beyond classical homogenization. Instead, I will create an elastic- and inertia-augmented micromorphic model with embedded internal lengths to describe the main metamaterials’ fingerprint characteristics, such as anisotropy, dispersion, band-gaps, size-effects, etc. To provide this paradigm shift, I will focus on 4 objectives: 1. Model metamaterials’ response under static/dynamic loads 2. Implement the model on infinite-size metamaterials 3. Validate the model on finite-size metamaterials 4. Design and manufacture metamaterials/classical-materials structures able to control elastic waves and recover energy The reduced model’s structure (free of unnecessary parameters), coupled with well-posed boundary conditions, will allow us to unveil the static/dynamic response of both real and not-yet-existing metamaterials’ bricks of arbitrary size and shape. Playing LEGO with such bricks, we will be able to design and optimize surprising meta-structures, such as noise- and vibration-controlled railway stations, or meta-cities entirely protected from seismic waves.

Mots-clés : enriched continuum models,micromorphic models,mechanical metamaterials,heterogeneities,finite size metamaterials,large scale meta structures