Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : VocEmoApI (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Audeering gmbh — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Audeering
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149937.5 €

The automated sensing of human emotions has gained a lot of commercial attention lately. For facial and physiological sensing many companies offer first professional products. Recently, voice analytics has become a hot topic, too, with first companies emerging for the telecom, entertainment, and robot markets (e.g. Sympalog, Aldebaran, etc.). Current vocal emotion detection approaches rely on machine learning where emotions are identified based on a reference set of expression clips. The drawback of this method is the need to rely on a small set of basic, highly prototypical emotions. Real life emotion detection application fields such as clinical diagnosis, marketing research, media impact analysis, and forensics and security, require subtle differentiations of feeling states. VocEmoApI will develop a first-of-its-kind proof-of-concept software for vocal emotion detection based on a fundamentally different approach: Focusing on vocal nonverbal behavior and sophisticated acoustic voice analysis, it will exploit the building blocks of emotional processes. This approach will infer not only basic emotion categories but also much finer distinctions such as subcategories of emotion families and subtle emotions. The development of VocEmoApI draw’s extensively on the results of the applicant’s Advanced Grant, providing a solid theoretical basis. Market analysis through marketing research partners will be conducted and the prototype software will be utilized to promote the technology and estimate a product value based on feedback from industry contacts. Strong impact of VocEmoApI on large markets such as household robotics, public security, clinical diagnosis and therapy, call analytics, and marketing research can expected.

Mots-clés : affective computing,vocal communication,emotion recognition,appraisal,component process model,acoustic parameters,bayesian inference,speech
Projet ERC : DANCE (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : University of Regensburg — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1863750.0 €

The band structure of solids is mainly determined by the orbital overlap between neighboring atoms. Therefore, electronic properties are commonly controlled via the chemical composition that determines the relevant structural parameters such as bond angles and lengths. DANCE will use a radically different approach where control of the effective orbital overlap is achieved by periodic modulation of the solid with strong mid-infrared and terahertz light fields. In this way, DANCE will control the band structure including topology, many-body-interactions, and spin. The induced band structure changes will be investigated with time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. I will implement two different driving schemes that either coherently modulate the atomic positions or the momentum of the Bloch electrons. Resonant excitation of infrared-active phonon modes results in a periodic modulation of the band structure at twice the driving frequency and, thus, a modified average band structure. In addition, non-linear coupling to Raman-active phonons leads to new quasi-static crystal and band structures. Coherent modulation of the Bloch electron’s momentum becomes possible if the scattering time is bigger than the inverse driving frequency and is predicted to result in various topological phase transitions as well as dynamical localization of carriers. I will apply this approach to different low-dimensional solids with strong electron-phonon coupling and Dirac materials with long scattering times. DANCE will address the following key questions: Can we switch between metallic, insulating and topological phases? Can we shape the potential energy surface of the solid to stabilize symmetry-broken ground states? Can we generate artificial magnetic fields to control the electron spin? The success of DANCE will establish dynamical band structure engineering as a new method for electronic structure control and pave the way for novel optoelectronic and optospintronic devices.

Mots-clés : dynamical materials design,time  and angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy,resonant coherent phonon excitation,floquet bloch states,ultrafast dynamics
Projet ERC : CoordinatedDopamine (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Amsterdam University Medical Centers — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 812500.0 €

The basal ganglia consist of a set of neuroanatomical structures that participate in the representation and execution of action sequences. Dopamine neurotransmission in the striatum, the main input nucleus of the basal ganglia, is a fundamental mechanism involved in learning and regulation of such actions. The striatum has multiple functional units, where the limbic striatum is thought to mediate motivational aspects of actions (e.g., goal-directedness) and the sensorimotor striatum their automation (e.g., habit formation). A long-standing question in the field is how limbic and sensorimotor domains communicate with each other, and specifically if they do so during the automation of action sequences. It has been suggested that such coordination is implemented by reciprocal loop connections between striatal projection neurons and the dopaminergic midbrain. Although very influential in theory the effectiveness of this limbic-sensorimotor “bridging” principle has yet to be verified. I hypothesize that during the automation of behaviour regional dopamine signalling is governed by a striatal hierarchy and that dysregulation of this coordination leads to compulsive execution of automatic actions characteristic of several psychiatric disorders. To test this hypothesis, we will conduct electrochemical measurements with real-time resolution simultaneously in limbic and sensorimotor striatum to assess the regional coordination of dopamine release in behaving animals. We developed novel chronically implantable electrodes to enable monitoring of dopamine dynamics throughout the development of habitual behaviour and its compulsive execution in transgenic rats - a species suitable for our complex behavioural assays. Novel rabies virus-mediated gene delivery for in vivo optogenetics in these rats will give us the unique opportunity to test whether specific loop pathways govern striatal dopamine transmission and are causally involved in habit formation and compulsive behaviour.

Mots-clés : electrochemistry,dopamine,optogenetics,basal ganglia,obsessive compulsive disorder,addiction
Projet ERC : MagBURST (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CEA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

The birth of a neutron star with an extremely strong magnetic field, called a magnetar, has emerged as a promising scenario to power a variety of outstanding explosive events. This includes gamma-ray bursts, among the most luminous events observed up to high redshift and therefore useful as cosmological probes, but also supernovae with extreme kinetic energies called hypernovae and other classes of super-luminous supernovae. Simple phenomenological models, where the magnetar rotation period and magnetic field are adjusted, can explain many of these observations but lack a sound theoretical basis. The goal of this proposal is to develop an ab initio description of magnetar powered explosions in order to delineate the role they play for the production of gamma-ray bursts and super-luminous supernovae. This is urgently needed to interpret the growing diversity of explosions observed with ongoing transient surveys (iPTF, CRTS, Pan-STARRS) and in the perspective of future programs of observations such as SVOM and LSST. By using state-of-the-art numerical simulations, the following outstanding questions will be addressed: 1) What is the origin of the gigantic magnetic field observed in magnetars? The physics of the magnetic field amplification in a fast-rotating nascent neutron star will be investigated thoroughly from first principles. By developing the first global protoneutron star simulations of this amplification process, the magnetic field strength and geometry will be determined for varying rotation rates. 2) What variety of explosion paths can be explained by the birth of fast-rotating magnetars? Numerical simulations of the launch of a hypernova explosion and a relativistic GRB jet will provide the first self-consistent description of both events from a millisecond magnetar. Furthermore, the new understanding of magnetic field amplification will be used to improve the realism of these simulations.

Mots-clés : gamma ray bursts,supernovae,neutron star,magnetar,magnetohydrodynamics,dynamo
Projet ERC : ELIMINATE (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Universität Hamburg — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UHH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 753375.0 €

The bone marrow (BM) represents the prime location in which cancer cells survive aggressive treatments. This poses a major health challenge because the mortality rate of patients with curable cancer doubles if tumor cells persist in the BM. One unresolved question is why the immune system fails to eradicate cancer cells from this microenvironment even though it represents a lymphatic organ. Surprisingly, despite the ongoing revolution in immune oncology, the regulation and potential therapeutic activation of the immune response in the BM still remains largely unexplored. In this grant application a new line of research is proposed with the overall objective of understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms, which control anti-cancer immune responses in the BM. The originality of this proposal relates to the hypothesis that innate and adaptive immune cells are suppressed by stroma cells in the BM. Therefore, we will conduct a comprehensive phenotypic and functional profiling of immune and stroma cells in the BM of cancer patients with and without persisting tumor cells. Based on these insights we will develop novel strategies to harness the immune system to eliminate malignant cells from the BM. The ground-breaking nature of the project is that it will shed light on the unappreciated immune microenvironment in the BM. Its specific strength lies in the multidisciplinary design encompassing informative patient cohorts, state-of-the-art mouse models and cutting-edge technologies including Next-Generation-Sequencing as well as innovative drug candidates. Hereby I can build on my internationally recognized expertise in the BM microenvironment field, which has already led to the successful development of a clinical-stage drug. Novel strategies to eliminate malignant cells from the bone marrow are of utmost medical importance because they would increase the cure rate of cancer patients.

Mots-clés : tumor stroma interactions,bone marrow stroma,minimal residual disease,breast cancer,acute myeloid leukemia,immune oncology
Projet ERC : ELIMINATE (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : German Cancer Research Center — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : DKFZ
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 737450.0 €

The bone marrow (BM) represents the prime location in which cancer cells survive aggressive treatments. This poses a major health challenge because the mortality rate of patients with curable cancer doubles if tumor cells persist in the BM. One unresolved question is why the immune system fails to eradicate cancer cells from this microenvironment even though it represents a lymphatic organ. Surprisingly, despite the ongoing revolution in immune oncology, the regulation and potential therapeutic activation of the immune response in the BM still remains largely unexplored. In this grant application a new line of research is proposed with the overall objective of understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms, which control anti-cancer immune responses in the BM. The originality of this proposal relates to the hypothesis that innate and adaptive immune cells are suppressed by stroma cells in the BM. Therefore, we will conduct a comprehensive phenotypic and functional profiling of immune and stroma cells in the BM of cancer patients with and without persisting tumor cells. Based on these insights we will develop novel strategies to harness the immune system to eliminate malignant cells from the BM. The ground-breaking nature of the project is that it will shed light on the unappreciated immune microenvironment in the BM. Its specific strength lies in the multidisciplinary design encompassing informative patient cohorts, state-of-the-art mouse models and cutting-edge technologies including Next-Generation-Sequencing as well as innovative drug candidates. Hereby I can build on my internationally recognized expertise in the BM microenvironment field, which has already led to the successful development of a clinical-stage drug. Novel strategies to eliminate malignant cells from the bone marrow are of utmost medical importance because they would increase the cure rate of cancer patients.

Mots-clés : tumor stroma interactions,bone marrow stroma,minimal residual disease,breast cancer,acute myeloid leukemia,immune oncology
Projet ERC : MICRO-COPS (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2500000.0 €

The brain controls all body functions. At the base of this 'catholic' role are the neurons, cells that generate electrical signals, communicate via synapses and form circuits that execute computing tasks and control behaviour. The electrical signalling pattern of neurons is the information code of the brain and the synapse connectivity determines circuit function. This is, in brief, what most textbooks emphasise, but such a neuron-centred brain view is precariously short-sighted. Apart from neurons, the brain contains three glia cell types (from Greek 'γλία' for 'glue'): astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and microglia. But far from being mere 'glue', astrocytes and oligodendrocytes have multiple critical functions in the brain, accordingly affect many brain processes - even genuine computing tasks - and have therefore become a major focus of modern neuroscience. Microglia are the 'odd one out'. They are brain-resident immune cells, act as defence against pathological insults and have a housekeeping function as phagocytes. Aside from these functions, microglia seem to play an as yet unrecognized role by engaging in reciprocal signalling with neurons. It is this Microglia Control of Physiological Brain States we will study in MICRO-COPS, based on the hypothesis that microglia purposively control neuronal function. We will combine mouse genetics with cutting-edge gene expression analysis and cell biological, electrophysiological, and imaging technologies to define the reciprocal microglia-neuron signalling pathways, the signalling molecules involved, the biological consequences for microglia and neurons, and the role of the corresponding signalling processes in synapse physiology, neuronal integration, circuit dynamics, and behaviour. We expect that the mechanistic description of reciprocal microglia-neuron interactions - from synapses to circuits - will establish a new and critically important brain regulatory process and provide key insights into brain pathology.

Mots-clés : reciprocal microglia neuron signalling,synapses,circuits,microglia electrophysiology,microglia secretion
Projet ERC : BRAINSTRUCT (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Sorbonne Université — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Sorbonne U
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1365765.5 €

The brain is an extraordinary complex assembly of neuronal and glial cells that underpins cognitive functions. How adequate numbers of these cells are generated by neural stem cells in embryonic and early postnatal development and how they distribute and interconnect within brain tissue is still debated. In particular, the potentialities of individual neural stem cells, their potential heterogeneity and the mechanisms regulating their function are still poorly characterized in situ; likewise, the clonal architecture of mature brain tissue and its influence on neural circuitry are only partially explored. Deciphering these aspects is essential to link neural circuit development, structure and function, and to understand the aetiology of neurodevelopmental disorders. We have recently established transgenic strategies to simultaneously track the lineage of multiple individual neural stem cells in the intact developing brain and experimentally perturb their development. We will use these approaches in combination with recent large-volume imaging methods for high-throughput analysis of individual neural and glial clones in the mouse cortex. This will allow us to assay neural progenitor potentialities and equivalence, characterize developmental changes occurring in the neurogenic niche, describe the clonal organization of the mature cortex and study its link with neural connectivity. To decipher intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms regulating neural progenitor activity and understand how they produce appropriate numbers of cells, we will assay the outcome of functional perturbations targeting key steps of neural development, introduced in precursors or in their local environment. These experiments will reveal how neural stem cell output might be regulated by cell interactions and intercellular signals. This multidisciplinary project will set the basis for quantitative analysis of brain development with single-cell resolution in normal and pathological conditions.

Mots-clés : lineage tracing,genetic engineering,large volume imaging,fluorescence microscopy
Projet ERC : MuBoEx (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : University of Bristol — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1135628.1 €

The brain plays a central role in the production of adaptive behaviour. It must extract and integrate the most relevant sensory cues from the environment, and combine this information with memories of past experience to trigger appropriate behavioural responses. To fully understand the origins of behavioural novelty we need a detailed understanding of how behavioural differences are generated, both across evolutionary time and during development. This requires the integration of behavioural and neuroanatomical variation, and their genomic and developmental bases. Mushroom bodies (MBs) are the most enigmatic structures in the insect brain. They have ‘higher order’ functions, integrating sensory information and storing memories of past experience. MBs share a conserved ground plan, but their size and structure varies extensively across species. MB morphology is determined by the number of MB neurons, and the nature and extent of connections they make with other brain regions. As such, they provide a model for asking fundamental questions about how selection, development and functional constraints shape brain evolution. This project will establish a new study system in evolutionary neuroscience, Heliconius butterflies. MB volume in Heliconius is among the highest across insects, 3-4 times larger than typical for Lepidoptera, including closely related genera. The proposal represents a synthesis of four key objectives that will provide a cohesive understanding of MB expansion in Heliconius, encompassing both proximate and ultimate causes. Specifically, I will ask: i) How does MB expansion enhance behavioural function? ii) How do volumetric changes relate to differences in neuron number, density and connectivity? iii) What developmental mechanisms control region specific changes in neural proliferation? And iv) what is the genetic basis of MB expansion? Addressing these questions will provide profound advances in our understanding of brain evolution.

Mots-clés : brain evolution,learning and memory,mushroom body,neurogenesis
Projet ERC : DynaSens (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : University of Glasgow — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 495482.25 €

The brain’s multisensory faculty provides considerable benefits for perception, as the adaptive weighting of multiple inputs increases perceptual reliability and flexibility. However, failure of this process results in an impoverished percept, and links to perceptual deficits that occur along our life span and in disorders such as Autism. While the brain efficiently handles multiple sensory inputs, we still have a limited understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms. To advance our knowledge of how the brain processes its environment I propose a pioneering agenda that departs from previous descriptive work by linking the underlying brain mechanisms with specific multisensory computations and perception. Precisely, I propose a programme that combines computational models of multisensory interactions with high-density neuroimaging and perceptual tasks. This interdisciplinary research builds on my pioneering multisensory work but will provide a qualitatively new and principled understanding of the neural processes that implement the well-known perceptual benefits of multisensory information. The proposed programme advances our knowledge by addressing the following timely questions: What are the neural processes transforming multiple sensory inputs to a unified representation guiding behaviour? How does the brain control the dynamic weighting of multiple inputs and assigns these to either a single or multiple causes? Which perceptual and neural processes are affected in the multisensory deficits seen in autistic individuals or the elderly? This agenda, by its innovative methods and deliverables, will offer a principled and comprehensive understanding of how the brain handles and merges multiple sensory inputs, and provides a framework for addressing continuing and pressing problems associated with multisensory processing deficits seen in cognitive disorders and during our life span.

Mots-clés : multisensory perception,cross modal,neuroimaging