Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : DIADEPH (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : Day one societa a responsabilita limitata — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : Day one
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 30000.0 €

The goal of the DIADEPH project is to develop a “Business Proposition Package” that could enable our group to eventually bring a new non-invasive gynaecological device to market. The device holds promise to reduce the number of biopsies that are currently carried out to rule out cervical cancer, thus mitigating the pain, anxiety, and financial costs that the shortcomings of the diagnosis pathway brings today on patients, their families, and our society. Every year, more than half-a-million women are diagnosed with cervical cancer: for half of them, the diagnosis is a death sentence. This terrible disease often affects young lives: in Europe, it represents the 2nd most common form of cancer among women aged 15-44. The diagnostic evaluation starts if, during a periodical screening, the patient is found positive to high-risk Human Papilloma Virus. The patient is then primarily referred to colposcopy to look for possible signs of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). Unfortunately, this exam leaves much to be desired: even for high grade leasions (CIN3), colposcopy gives a false negative in almost one case in three. To address the shortcomings of colposcopy, we propose a new transvaginal probe that obtains two independent neoplasia indicators: (1) a high-resolution 3D subsurface image, and (2) a quantitative assessment of its mechanical properties. The data are collected during a procedure that does not generate discomfort and is expected to provide a better diagnosis in a few minutes. We already developed a prototype for dermatological analysis, and tested it on volunteers; with this grant, we will convert the current form factor to enable transvaginal measurements. Supported by a team of physicists, engineers, medical doctors, and business developers, we will analyze the business opportunity and align all the stakeholders that are needed to go from a proof-of-concept to a market-ready product.

Mots-clés : optical coherence tomography,elastography,cervical cancer,colposcopy,gynecology,technology transfer
Projet ERC : Umem4QC (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Nanocenter — Pays : Slovénie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 64454.0 €

The goal of the PoC is to take a newly discovered phenomenon in quantum electronic materials into a potentially disruptive memory technology offering unprecedented high speed, low energy consumption combined with low temperature operation. With the PoC grant we aim to establish (i) viability of such memory devices within the scope of ultrafast low-temperature quantum computing and clarify the most important outstanding technical issues for implementation (ii) generate a business plan and asses the timescale for exploitation, and (iii) establish an intellectual property portfolio with an exploitation strategy. The PoC will define key activities, build a value proposition for a startup company and identify customer segments with industry partners. The PoC would also prepare the ground, and establish vital parameters for a next stage of funding within the Quant-ERA-net project and the upcoming Quantum Technology Flagship. This proposal should be viewed against the backdrop of stalled Moore's law, remarkably fast increases in energy consumption of the information technology sector and overall direction of High Performance Computing (HPC) evolving into quantum technology. The successful completion of the PoC would an important contribution to the upcoming EU Quantum Technology Flagship, demonstrating leadership in competition with US, Japanese, and Chinese developments in HPC. The outcome of the project would be a breakthrough technology showcase opening the way to large strides in the development of future high-performance cryogenic computing.

Mots-clés : memory devisec,non volatile memory,ultrafast memory,low temperature memory,memristor,optical memory
Projet ERC : PLANETESYS (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : University of Copenhagen — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UCPH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499187.25 €

The goal of this ERC Consolidator Grant proposal is to make significant contributions to our understanding of the formation of planetary systems and the chemical composition of planets. I will achieve this by developing a planet formation model that integrates the most relevant physical processes and combines the newly discovered pebble accretion mechanism with gravitational interaction between a high number of growing embryos. Exploiting the results of the computer simulations will allow me to address three major, outstanding research questions in the study of planets and their formation: * What are the dominant physical processes that shape planetary systems? * How are solids flash-heated in protoplanetary discs? * What are the conditions for forming habitable planets? I will follow the chemical composition of solid bodies in a protoplanetary disc as they grow from dust grains to fully fledged planets. This will shed light on the formation pathways of all major planetary classes – from terrestrial planets, over super-Earths to ice giants and gas giants – in orbital configurations acquired under the combined effects of planetary growth, migration and gravitational interaction between the developing planets. I will examine the role of the CO iceline as a nursery for planetary embryos that grow and migrate to form cold gas giants akin to Jupiter and Saturn in our Solar System. I will also explore the formation of the mysterious chondrules – widespread in primitive meteorites – by lightning discharge during planetesimal formation and address the role of chondrules for planet formation. Finally, I will simulate the delivery of life-essential volatiles to terrestrial planets and super-Earths in the habitable zone, considering the simultaneous growth of rocky and icy planetary embryos and gravitational stirring by migrating giant planets, for a wide range of planetary system architectures.

Mots-clés : exoplanets,protoplanetary discs,cosmochemistry,planetary habitability
Projet ERC : NORTH (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Ghent University — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UGent
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1491250.0 €

The goal of this project is to develop novel types of multifunctional nanoparticles combining temperature diagnostics and therapy. More specifically we aim at combining thermometry in the physiological range with either drug delivery or photodynamic therapy (PDT) all in a single hybrid nanoparticle constructed from Periodic Mesoporous Organosilica (PMO) with lanthanide inorganic nanoparticles grown inside the pores and/or voids of (hollow) PMO particles. For diagnostic purposes temperature measurements in biomedicine are of key importance, as temperature plays an essential role in biological systems. For biomedical applications measurements in the temperature range 20-50 ºC are essential (the so-called physiological range). Although detecting the temperature can be done employing robust, and already commercially available techniques, such as thermocouples or infrared imaging, optical temperature measurements at the nanoscale allow to reveal and study phenomena otherwise inaccessible to traditional thermometers such as measuring temperature of cells and even the organelles within them. Theranostics is a recently emerging field of interest, which combines diagnostics with therapy. In this regard, the use of nanomaterials, which allow combining multiple functions in just a single particle, would be able to change the entire healthcare scene and the way certain diseases are treated. However, with the reported up to date nanothermometer materials there is very little room to expand towards multifunctional thermometric materials. We propose a rational design where hollow, porous, biocompatible, multifunctional materials would combine temperature sensing and drug delivery or PDT in a single particle, where the temperature measurements as well as drug delivery/PDT are all controlled through separate wavelength light excitation when the nanoparticles reach the desired location (e.g. cancer cells).

Mots-clés : nanothermometers,lanthanides,luminescence,periodic mesoporous organosilica,hybrid materials,biomedical applications
Projet ERC : AUTOMOLD (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Institute of Science and Technology Austria — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ISTA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149829.0 €

The goal of this project is to develop the proof of concept for a novel injection-molding design workflow, making mold design accessible to a new, semi-professional user base of designers, engineers, and artists. It will provide a more more cost-efficient way of bringing lower-volume and customized products to the market. Recently, the related Materializable ERC Starting Grant has lead to the invention of novel computational tools for mold design, where the decomposition of a general 3D shape into moldable parts - together with the generation of the corresponding mold geometry - is performed fully automatically. The three main advantages of our method are (i) a drastic reduction of the time requirements of mold design (from hours/days down to minutes) and (ii) the discovery of highly efficient shape decompositions with curved part boundaries, which are very hard to design manually due to their counterintuitive nature. Furthermore, our method allows (iii) a non-expert to refine the aesthetics of the decomposition without being aware of the specifics of molding; these are enforced in the background. In order to evaluate the industrial and commercial potential of this invention, we propose the development of a software prototype for automatized mold design.

Mots-clés : computational fabrication,computer graphics,computer aided design,injection molding,mold design
Projet ERC : MCS-MD (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cellular, Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Entité participante : University of Fribourg — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1497719.0 €

The goal of this project is to obtain an atomistic structural and dynamical characterization of the inner workings of membrane contact sites (MCS) between intracellular organelles, in order to understand how molecular processes such as non-vesicular lipid transport at MCS might modulate lipid homeostatic processes at the whole-cell scale. Investigation of the mechanisms taking place at MCS has emerged as a central topic in cellular biology in the last few years, and it has led to a large amount of novel cellular, biochemical and structural data that has drastically revolutionized our general understanding of lipid homeostasis in the cell. Yet, due to limitations of experimental methods, a high-resolution understanding of how MCS proteins work is still limited, and the specific molecular details of these mechanisms are still under intense debate, and especially concerning the specificity of lipid transport or the discrimination between lipid sensing and lipid transport. To understand these processes with unprecedented molecular detail, I will develop high-throughput protocols based on atomistic and coarse-grain molecular dynamics simulations that leverage and take advantage of all the available, yet often scattered, experimental data. With these approaches, that have not been used so far to investigate MCS because of the extreme complexity of these cellular machineries, I will obtain a detailed understanding of key molecular processes taking place at MCS, including the specificity of membrane binding, the mechanism of lipid uptake and release, the influence of confinement on protein activity, and the role of membrane lipid composition in the regulation of lipid transport. This approach will drive forward our perception of the limits of structure-based in-silico methods, and it will contribute to our mechanistic understanding of key cellular biology processes by providing new quantitative results that are beyond the current possibilities of experimental approaches.

Mots-clés : membrane biology,molecular dynamics,lipid transport,protein dynamics
Projet ERC : BinD (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cellular, Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Entité participante : Institut Pasteur — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1900843.75 €

The goal of this proposal is to deliver a new theoretical framework to understand how transcription factors (TFs) sustain cell identity during developmental processes. Recognised as key drivers of cell fate acquisition, TFs are currently not considered to directly contribute to the mitotic inheritance of chromatin states. Instead, these are passively propagated through cell division by a variety of epigenetic marks. Recent discoveries, including by our lab, challenge this view: developmental TFs may impact the propagation of regulatory information from mother to daughter cells through a process known as mitotic bookmarking. This hypothesis, largely overlooked by mainstream epigenetic research during the last two decades, will be investigated in embryo-derived stem cells and during early mouse development. Indeed, these immature cell identities are largely independent from canonical epigenetic repression; hence, current models cannot account for their properties. We will comprehensively identify mitotic bookmarking factors in stem cells and early embryos, establish their function in stem cell self-renewal, cell fate acquisition and dissect how they contribute to chromatin regulation in mitosis. This will allow us to study the relationships between bookmarking factors and other mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance. To achieve this, unique techniques to modulate protein activity and histone modifications specifically in mitotic cells will be established. Thus, a mechanistic understanding of how mitosis influences gene regulation and of how mitotic bookmarking contributes to the propagation of immature cell identities will be delivered. Based on robust preliminary data, we anticipate the discovery of new functions for TFs in several genetic and epigenetic processes. This knowledge should have a wide impact on chromatin biology and cell fate studies as well as in other fields studying processes dominated by TFs and cell proliferation.

Mots-clés : transcription factor,mitotic inheritance,gene regulatory network,pluripotency
Projet ERC : MetResistance (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : University of Edinburgh — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1498176.0 €

The goal of this proposal is to investigate the role of tumor microenvironment in metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer (mHRPC). Prostate Cancer (PC) is the most common malignancy in men in Europe while mHRPC is the most lethal form of the disease, causing over 95% of PC related deaths. Extensive clinical and preclinical research using state-of-the-art tumour models has led to the development of several new therapeutics that, unfortunately, provide only marginal patient benefit. One key element missing in standard preclinical models is the relevant metastasis microenvironment associated with mHRPC that may dramatically affect disease outcome. Here, I plan to significantly advance our understanding in mHRPC associated microenvironment with the first androgen dependent PC bone metastasis model I developed that mimics both the pathology and disease progression in patients. My preliminary data indicate that metastasis associated stromal cells may form a unique bone metastasis microenvironment that promotes mHRPC. I aim to identify the underlying molecular mechanisms using a multidisciplinary approach combining intra-vital microscopy, dynamic ADT resistance reporter system, innovative adoptive transfer approach and genetic tools of lineage specific knockout. This work is also designed to translate findings made in mouse models into human disease using innovative humanized in vivo models of mHRPC. The findings generated in this project will lead to innovative therapeutic approaches that can effectively treat mHRPC thus relieve this lethal threat on European societies. MetResistance will make a step change in the field of cancer medicine research by providing new standards to study therapy resistance of metastatic cancer an area representing the number one challenge in cancer research and patient care.

Mots-clés : tumour microenvironment,macrophage,mesenchymal stem cell
Projet ERC : SALAMANDRA (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Karolinska Institutet — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : KI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 3386425.0 €

The goals of this project are to decipher how the interplay between central and peripheral mechanisms controls locomotion in four legged animals (tetrapods) and to the delineate the reorganization of motor circuits linked to functional regeneration after spinal cord lesion. We will take advantage of the evolutionarily conserved traits of neural structures in vertebrates to address these two fundamental questions by using salamanders as model organisms. Salamanders are best suited to these aims for two main reasons: First, because they have an anatomically simplified nervous system, which yet possesses the main features of all tetrapods; second, because they have unique regeneration abilities among vertebrates and can functionally repair their spinal cord after full transection. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, we will investigate the dynamic interactions between the nervous system, the body, and its environment before and after spinal cord lesion. We will combine numerical models of locomotor neural circuits, robotics, and advanced functional analyses in genetically modified salamanders in a way that will allow us to test biological data in neuromechanical models (simulations and robots) and, conversely, to validate model-based predictions in animals. Through the concerted and tightly collaborative activities in our laboratories, implementing state of the art assays ranging from the molecular to the organism level, we expect to create a blueprint of tetrapod locomotion control: how appropriate movements are generated in response to various environmental or intrinsic stimuli, and how such function can be recovered after injury. The synergy between our groups of complementary expertise will boost scientific research at multiple levels, not only in the field of neuroscience but also in regeneration research, robotics, and numerical modeling.

Mots-clés : salamander,locomotion,regeneration,spinal cord,descending pathways,transgenic newts,musculoskeletal system,biorobotics
Projet ERC : GREYZONE (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : University of Edinburgh — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1349481.0 €

The grey zone of bystanders, collaborators and beneficiaries of violence escapes the scope of main Transitional Justice (TJ) institutions and poses tough questions for scholars and architects of post-conflict societies. This interdisciplinary project shifts the focus of academic and political debates by pursuing three objectives: conceptually, it departs from the dominant victim-perpetrator paradigm and theorises the many faces in the grey zone by analysing the interplay between structure and agency; normatively, it argues that no account of TJ is complete without engaging the grey zone; empirically, it tests if, in tackling the grey zone, cinematographic and literary representations can supplement typical TJ mechanisms (trials, truth commissions, lustration). Four cases are analysed: authoritarianism plus military occupation (Vichy France), apartheid (South Africa), totalitarianism (Romania 1945–1989) and military dictatorship (Argentina 1976–1983). The cases provide a variety of contexts of complicity and feature the most frequently used TJ mechanisms. They serve to a) examine the relationship between the official story emerging from state-orchestrated TJ mechanisms and artistic narratives of complicity; b) contextually distinguish disclosive from obscuring artistic representations of the grey zone; c) explore the contribution of these representations to TJ efforts by studying their effect on public debates about—and institutional responses to—the past. Working at the frontiers between political science, philosophy, history, law, literature and cinema, this pioneering project has critical and institutional impact. Critically, it discloses the limits of current TJ theory and practice by emphasising the negative political effects of ignoring general complicity in violence. Institutionally, it seeks to enrich the toolkit of scholars and practitioners by pointing to the potential use of cinema and literature in civic education aimed at deterrence and reconciliation.

Mots-clés : transitional justice,complicity in political injustice,political role of art
Projet ERC : Drug the bug (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : University of Gothenburg — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149700.75 €

The gut microbiota has been associated with metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. In my ERC consolidator award we demonstrated that the gut microbiota is altered following bariatric surgery and that the altered microbiota may be directly linked to some of the metabolic improvements observed following surgery. Interestingly, improved metabolism was associated with altered metabolite production capacity from the microbiota and we observed that a metabolite, imidazole propionate, was reduced after surgery. In associated projects we have demonstrated that imidazole propionate is associated with type 2 diabetes in humans and induce insulin resistance in primary hepatocytes and when injected into mice. Imidazole propionate is synthesized by the microbial enzyme UrdA from histidine. This POC will explore the potential of identifying inhibitors of UrdA to reduce production of imidazole propionate and thereby improve insulin sensitivity. If successful we envision a new class of diabetes medication based on the concept of drug the bug.

Mots-clés : gut microbiota,imidazole propionate,enzyme inhibitors,urda,type 2 diabetes,insulin resistance