Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : GERACLE (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université d'Oulu — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2005711.25 €

The intensity of Earth’s magnetic field, which forms an important shield for our habitat, drops dramatically during geomagnetic excursions and reversals (termed GERs). The Laschamps excursion (~41 000 years ago) occurred during profound climatic changes, possibly leading to drastic effects on the biosphere. While impacts of GERs on the atmosphere can be expected, the magnitude, time scales, and even the direction/sign of effects on our habitat are unknown. The significantly weakened magnetic field shrinks the magnetosphere, enhancing energetic particle fluxes from outer space to the middle and lower atmosphere and even ground. The impact of GERs on the energetic particle precipitation from the magnetosphere is also unknown. The dynamics of near-Earth space and the atmosphere during GERs and their potential impacts have not yet been addressed in full complexity, due to a lack of reliable data, precise models and interdisciplinary approaches. We will unravel key dynamics and connect physical processes during GERs and establish their environmental consequences by synergistically bringing together expertise from palaeomagnetism, magnetospheric, solar, heliospheric, atmospheric physics and climate. We will combine new data-based geomagnetic field models with state-of-the-art magnetospheric, atmospheric, and global Earth-system models for a complete process view. Expected breakthroughs will include new knowledge on the very existence and structure of the magnetosphere and radiation belts, radiation fields and ionization patterns in the atmosphere, and induced physical, chemical and dynamical effects and climate responses during GERs. Further emphasis will be put on potential hazards for our technological society during a potential future GER. GERACLE will go far beyond the current state–of–the–art, provide ground-breaking advances, and form a new paradigm of the consequences of past and yet unexplored GER events for our habitat and the impacts of possible future GERs.

Mots-clés : solar terrestrial relations magnetospheric physics
Projet ERC : Custom-Made (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université de Lund — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2500000.0 €

The rising incidence of age-associated neurodegenerative diseases, due to increased life expectancy, poses a challenge to the brain's limited regenerative capabilities. Stem cell-based therapies offer promise for addressing crucial neuron loss, particularly in Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases (PD and HD). Ongoing first-generation stem cell trials, replacing damaged neurons with healthy ones, represent a notable advancement. However, their impact is constrained by a ‘one-cell-fits-all’ generic therapy that does not take in account the diverse clinical needs due to variations in disease etiology, stage, patient heterogeneity, and daily fluctuations in graft requirements. CUSTOM-MADE is a transformative initiative advancing knowledge and crafting a tailored portfolio of stem cell products for individual patients or patient subgroups, notably targeting PD and HD. Integrating stem cell technologies, genomics and bioengineering, CUSTOM-MADE develops rational graft composites of therapeutic neurons and complementary cells to meet the clinical needs of individual patients. Moving into preclinical animal models, the project refines graft connectivity and functional recovery post-transplantation. A groundbreaking leap involves modeling circuitry reconstruction in a fully humanized 3D in-vitro bioengineered system - the connectoids, allowing detailed studies at cellular and molecular levels for defining factors controlling correct and functional graft integration. For increased translatability, CUSTOM-MADE pioneers the generation of cell products whose activity can be self-regulated or tuned to the patients’ individual requirements. The project implements strategic measures to shield grafts from pathology and introduces the innovative concept of grafted cells exhibiting disease-modifying activity. In essence, CUSTOM-MADE drives the field toward customized stem-cell therapies for PD and HD, marking a paradigm shift in the treatment landscape of neurodegenerative diseases.

Mots-clés : connectoids,biosensors,chemogenetics,activity regulators,parkinson s disease,huntington s disease
Projet ERC : BEMOSAIC (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Fundación Josep Carreras Contra la Leucemia — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : CO-PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 3507418.0 €

Endothelial cells (ECs) form a dynamic monolayer lining the lumen of vessels. While single-cell data have revealed high degrees of heterogeneity amongst ECs at the inter- and intra-organ levels, the prevailing notion has long been that vessels themselves are composed of largely similar ECs. Instead, data from our labs challenge this view by showing that vessels are built of highly diverse ECs displaying different behavioral properties, a feature we term intravessel EC behavioral mosaicism. While these findings are promising, there is still much to learn about the range of behavioral variability among ECs within vessels and how this intricate mosaic of behaviors is orchestrated to optimize vascular function. Building on our past achievements, we now aim towards novel directions- to push forward a fresh conception of vessels, as mosaic composites of specialized ECs. Here, we will integrate our synergistic expertise in live imaging, sophisticated genetic approaches, and spatial omics to map EC behaviors in zebrafish and mice. In addition, we will harness oncogenic mutations causing vascular malformations in humans to investigate how they alter the behavioral map. Finally, we will decode mechanisms of vessel tolerance and co-optation in response to stochastic expression of mutations to understand how vessels cope with EC mosaic behaviors. The important and unique aspects of our approach are the focus on in vivo dynamics and the cross-animal and organ comparisons, which will provide much needed knowledge on vessel architecture and function, making substantial advances at the frontier of vascular biology. Overall, we envision that shifting the paradigm of vessel heterogeneity to behavioral mosaicism will provide a better understanding of vascular-related pathologies and will lay the foundation for improving vascular therapies by targeting specific EC subsets. Moreover, we expect to offer means to understand other diseases involving mosaic responses, including cancer.

Mots-clés : endothelial cells,vessels,vascular malformations,live imaging
Projet ERC : RevLogRedux (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université de Bari — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 192540.0 €

Bad arguments have never been in short supply. The same holds for the scholarly interest they have elicited both in their own right and as a cautionary tale about everything that can go amiss when we argue. This is hardly surprising. Asking what is wrong with flawed arguments is tantamount to investigating the very rules and principles of argumentation – only in reverse. Fallacy Studies have flourished in recent years (especially under the label of «critical thinking»). Without notable exception, the ever-growing literature on argumentative failures suffers from a conspicuous lack of interest in medieval fallacy theory – arguably one of the most creative stages in the whole history of argumentation theories. The standard story is that after Aristotle got off to a tentative start, the study of fallacies lay dormant until people at Port Royal and John Locke revived it. RevLog Redux will show that this narrative is misleading and will replace it with a new account which will bring to bear the full resources of medieval treatments of illegitimate argumentative moves within and across the Latin West and the Greek East, as well as in the Arabic and the Hebrew traditions. In an unprecedented attempt to explore how medieval authors discussed fallacies, RevLog Redux will lay the groundwork for more conscious and historically sound ways to describe, classify and theoretically assess the laws and flaws of argumentation. To that end, RevLog Redux will develop an integrated computational infrastructure to manage the wealth and complexity of data, information and knowledge the project is expected to produce: namely, AskSten (as in «Ask Sten Ebbesen»), a multi-layered virtual research environment whose digital archive, knowledge base, Semantic Web architecture and on-line deployment will dramatically enhance the formal expressivness and coherence of the project’s findings. AskSten will also include a curated open access Encyclopaedia of Illegitimate Argumentative Moves.

Mots-clés : medieval philosophy,history and analysis of logic and argumentation,cross cultural medieval intellectual history
Projet ERC : D2Smell (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Institut Karolinska — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2860220.0 €

This proposal is framed by a technological goal: We aim to digitize smell. Achieving this is currently prevented by gaps in basic science. We aim to fill these gaps, culminating in a proof of concept for our model. The primary gap we identify is lack of data on what humans typically smell. Phrased conceptually, in Aim 1 we ask what are the natural statistics of human olfactory perceptual space. We address this in a series of three experiments, highlighted by one where we equip participants with a wearable sampling apparatus we designed and built for this proposal. The apparatus measures sniffing behaviour to identify odor sampling, measures neural activity to verify olfactory perception, takes video of the visual scene, analyses total levels of volatile organic compounds in real time, and collects odor samples for detailed analysis off line. In other words, we generate an olfactory equivalent of Google Street View, with the addition of chemical, perceptual and neural data. Using this we will characterise the natural statistics of human olfactory perceptual space. Moreover, a major contribution of this proposal will be in posting this massive data as a publicly available recourse. Next, in Aim 2 we will use this data to digitize human olfactory perceptual space. We build on a model that allows us to recreate odors using a restricted set of odor primaries. We will test our model in two frameworks: One we call SmelloVision, where we develop the algorithmic framework to generate an odor to match any digital image, and one we call TelleSmell, where we develop a device to sense the environment, the algorithmic framework to transfer the data, and a device to generate the corresponding odor remotely. We provide pilot data for Aim 2 where we sensed an odor in Mainz (Germany), transmitted the data over IP to Rehovot (Israel), where we successfully recreated the smell. This was, as far as we know, the first transmission of odor over IP.

Mots-clés : olfaction odor sniffing perceptual space chemical space
Projet ERC : Horsepower (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Leibniz-Gemeinschaft — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : WLG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2586761.25 €

Horse Power will examine the complex interactions between the eastern steppe and China from the second millennium BCE to the formation of the Xiongnu empire in Mongolia and the Qin state in China after 300 BCE. From the second millennium BCE two great worlds formed, traded and fought across Eurasia. From Mongolia to the European steppe great horse and herding cultures coalesced across thousands of kilometres of grassland. To the south, a string of states existed from Egypt to the Chinese Central Plains, some already ancient and others newly created. Interaction between these worlds was constant and profoundly formative for all parties, a fact we are only starting to fully appreciate. To examine the connections between the steppe, Mongolia and China’s Central Plains we will combine the latest scientific techniques in genetics and metallurgical analysis with theory concerning politics and power within and between China and its northern neighbours. Three principal empirical elements underpin the project: ancient DNA from horses; the characterization of bronzes to throw light on their movement and recycling; the structure and contents of archaeological sites (mainly graves) in China, Mongolia and the steppe. We will develop theory on the nature of leadership and power, particularly in mobile societies. Science will meet social science in a mutually informative manner and we will work across linguistic boundaries (Chinese, Mongolian, Russian, English) in a spirit of the co-production of knowledge with important partners including The Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum in China and Mongolian universities. We will reflect on our working practices, engaging a broader public in how a complex research project works. An innovative artistic programme will engage a range of local communities, horse enthusiasts and local artists in the work and results of the project. Working together we will create a picture of this complex region impossible if we had worked alone.

Mots-clés : cosmology,horse genetics
Projet ERC : LAST NEANDERTHALS (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université de Haïfa — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 3550400.0 €

Our closest relatives, the Neanderthals, abruptly disappeared 40 thousand years ago (ka) after having endured for 350 thousand years in a territory ranging from the Iberian Peninsula to southern Siberia. Decades-long research attempted to address the cultural aspects and the demographic and environmental factors that triggered their demise. Yet, there are no widely accepted scenarios that satisfactorily explain the extinction of the Neanderthal. These shortcomings are in part because the data available originated from a limited number of sites mainly in western and central Europe, which we now know were peripheral to the range of the last Neanderthals. To compellingly reconstruct the chain of events that led to Neanderthal’s extinction, the scientific community needs new extensive archaeological data, possibly from the core regions of the last Neanderthals’ range. Areas of western and central Asia and eastern and southeastern Europe were at the core of this range, served as gateways to marginal areas, and witnessed Neanderthals’ bio-cultural interactions with Sapiens and Denisovans. For the first time, three PIs with vast expertise on Neanderthals’ culture, biology, and paleoenvironments will synergistically attempt to bridge the knowledge gap between the core and the periphery of their range at the time of their decline between 60-40ka. Project LAST NEANDERTHALS will 1) accurately collect, date, integrate, and model new high-resolution cultural, bio-genetic, and environmental data from understudied areas in western and central Asia and eastern and southeastern Europe; 2) provide an unprecedented perspective on the last Neanderthals’ population dynamics; 3) offer a comprehensive and compelling explanation of the mechanisms that led to their extinction by integrating data from their entire range and formulating and testing nuanced hypotheses using new models and simulations; 4) serve as a proxy for the fate shared by all archaic human groups.

Mots-clés : middle paleolithic,early upper paleolithic,homo sapiens,ancient dna,neanderthal,western and central asia,eastern and southeastern europe
Projet ERC : PROTOS (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz de Hanovre — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2428970.0 €

All information humankind has of the ancient past of our planet comes from analyzing the geological record encoded in rocks. There is, however, no rock record of the first 600 million years of Earth’s history. Unlocking the secrets of this earliest period –the Hadean– is a fundamental task for science, as it is key to understanding how the planet became habitable, when the first forms of metabolism and self-replication developed, and life appeared. The lack of a geological record has led scientists to use computational modeling to make inferences about the conditions in Early Earth’s environments. Less common are laboratory experiments specifically targeted to simulating Hadean conditions. Based on ubiquitous carbonaceous chert deposits in the oldest rock record, it is widely accepted that many early Archean aquatic settings were reducing and rich in silica and some basic carbon-based molecules. We reason that such aquatic conditions were already established during the early Hadean, and inevitably led to the existence of a large-scale factory of simple and complex organic compounds, many of them relevant to prebiotic chemistry and to the route to biomimetic hybrid microstructures able to self-organize and catalyze prebiotic reactions relevant to the origin of life. Our project is aimed at understanding the crucial role of silica in directing the geochemical and protobiological processes, creating habitats for early life, and preserving early biomass on Earth’s surface during the first billion years of its history. PROTOS will use an array of laboratory experiments (the Hadean Simulator) to systematically study ab-initio reactions of water and gases with the earliest rock types in order to determine compositions of aquatic habitats and subsequent silica precipitation mechanisms, organic synthesis processes on silica/iron surfaces, and the preservation of the first remnants of life. PROTOS will change our view of the infancy of the planet.

Mots-clés : hadean,early earth,mineral self organization,serpentinization,silica,self organization,prebiotic,chemistry,life detection,origin of life
Projet ERC : EPIC (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Institut Karolinska — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 3308541.0 €

Genomes encode instructions for cells to regulate gene activity in response to their environment. However, and despite its importance for biology, medicine and biotechnology, the underpinning regulatory code remains undeciphered. Gene regulation consists of two major steps. First, genes are transcribed into mRNA. Second, post-transcriptional mechanisms regulate mRNA stability and the rate at which it is translated into proteins. This second step of gene regulation is still poorly understood because relevant parameters such as mRNA half-life, mRNA protein binding and subcellular localization are difficult to assay. The lack of understanding of post-transcriptional regulation implies that we still do not have a complete picture of the regulatory code. In EPIC, we exploit the advantages of the model eukaryote Saccharomyces cerevisiae and other species covering a broad evolutionary range to derive the first comprehensive sequence-based model of eukaryotic gene regulation. EPIC integrates the complementary expertise of 3 teams. It combines innovative high-throughput technologies (Pelechano) to probe post-transcriptional regulation at an unprecedented scale across a broad range of species and conditions with synthetic biology to massively test regulatory sequences (Verstrepen). Deep learning on these data allows us to build predictive models and unravel complex regulatory instructions (Gagneur). Ultimately, EPIC will enable us to decipher the actual language of gene regulation and facilitate (re)writing genomes. EPIC will enable understanding and predicting regulation, and ultimately phenotype, from DNA, closing a major gap in basic biology, while also opening exciting avenues for applications in biotechnology and medicine, from pinpointing disease-causing mutations to rational design of genes, RNAs and cells.

Mots-clés : post transcriptional regulation deep learning rna biology yeast microbiology synthetic biology
Projet ERC : nilomorph (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Wayne State University — Pays : Etats-Unis — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 382950.0 €

NILOMORPH sets out to explain how linguistic evolution took a highly unexpected turn in one family of languages spoken in East Africa. They have evolved a morphological system where multiple grammatical categories are expressed simultaneously within a single syllable, through subtle modulations of its phonological properties. For example, in the Dinka language the word tèm, meaning ‘to cut’, can be made to mean ‘she cuts it for someone’ by lengthening the vowel, changing the low tone to high, and pronouncing it with breathy voice quality: té̤ːm, and more than dozen other contrasts can be generated by similar means. A sin-gle monosyllabic word in language like Dinka attains a degree of information density unparalleled else-where in the languages of the world. Surprisingly, comparative evidence suggests that the West Nilotic lan-guages were once much more conventional, using suffixes to mark grammatical categories. As has hap-pened in many other languages, such as English, these suffixes were lost over time. But rather than simply disappearing, they were transformed into suprasegmental phonological properties pronounced concurrently with the word stem. The aim of NILOMORPH is to reconstruct this evolution. But because of the extreme rarity of this morphological type, we need to explain not just how it happened here, we also have to explain why it did not happen in other language families. It is therefore not enough just to retrace the history of linguistic forms. NILOMORPH proposes a transformative step in historical linguistics: the reconstruction not just of external features, but of the cognitive motivation behind them. This will be achieved through the synergy of three teams, DESCRIPTION, MORPHOLOGY and RECONSTRUCTION, employing a combination of field linguistics, acoustic analysis, experimental linguistics, computational simulation, typology, and the historical-comparative method.

Mots-clés : linguistic morphology,inflection,phonology,nilo saharan languages,africa,language documentation,agent based modelling,artificial language experiments,linguistic reconstruction,digital humanities