Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : SiCMetabol (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Polish Academy of Sciences — Pays : Pologne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : PAN
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 457181.96 €

Over 380 million people suffer from diabetes worldwide, with majority of cases being attributed to type 2 diabetes (T2D). Obesity is a major risk factor predisposing to the development of this disease. T2D is characterized by peripheral insulin resistance in combination with relative insulin deficiency that results in hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia. Liver and adipose tissue are central for regulation of glucose and lipids levels. However, during T2D the hepatic glucose uptake is reduced while rates of gluconeogenesis and lipogenesis are increased. In the adipose tissue, T2D leads to decreased glucose uptake, perturbations in secretion of adipokines and increased lipolysis. Importantly, dysfunction of the liver and the adipose tissue during T2D is caused by defective phosphorylation signaling cascades and normalization of these pathways was shown to attenuate the course of T2D. However, the specific roles of different classes of signaling molecules in these organs remain poorly characterized. We hypothesize that the cross-talk of different classes of signaling molecules determines regulation of metabolism. Thus, we aim to identify the signaling networks regulating metabolism. The results generated in my own laboratory suggest that the Pkd family kinases are the crucial regulators of metabolic homeostasis. Specifically, Pkd1 and Pkd2 promote obesity and diabetes while Pkd3 controls liver function. Thus, we plan to characterize the molecular mechanisms controlling Pkds signaling. In parallel, we will utilize screening approaches to identify novel, non-canonical signaling modules (phosphatases and components of the ubiquitin system) regulating abundance, localization and phosphorylation of targets of Pkds and, in the long term, also other kinases implicated in T2D. By identifying and characterizing the essential signaling networks in liver and adipose tissue the project will contribute to more targeted pharmacological strategies for the treatment of T2D.
Projet ERC : PanScales (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : University of London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : U. London
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 347205.0 €

Over the coming years, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will search for new physics at ever higher energies, firmly establish many facets of the Standard Model that relate to the Higgs boson, and carry out a broad range of precision measurements. A tool that is central to this endeavour is the parton shower. Parton showers are immensely flexible tools, which simulate the strong-interaction physics that occurs between the TeV energy scales that the LHC was designed to probe, and the GeV mass scale of the protons and other hadrons that the LHC collides and detects. They are used in almost every LHC experimental analysis. Of all the first-principles theoretical methods used at the LHC, the parton shower is the only one that has not seen substantial advances in its underlying precision in the past 20 years. As a result, parton showers are becoming the critical weak link in LHC physics. This project will radically transform the way in which parton showers are conceived, by introducing innovative methods that establish the relation with another field of research called resummation, to which the PI has made ground-breaking contributions. The main outcome of the project will be a novel parton shower with accuracies up to an order of magnitude higher than in current approaches. This will be essential for reliably exploiting the information that is present across the full range of energy scales at high-energy colliders.

Mots-clés : higgs physics,quantum chromodynamics  qcd,monte carlo simulation,parton shower
Projet ERC : DECCA (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ETH Zurich
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1454258.0 €

Over the last decade, cold atomic gases have become one of the best controlled quantum system. This novel, synthetic material can be shaped at the microscopic level to mimic a wide range of models, and simulate the universal physics that these models describe. This project pioneers a new approach to quantum simulations, jumping from cold atoms materials into the realm of devices: systems carved out of cold gases, separated by interfaces, connected to each other and allowing for a controlled driving. At the heart of this approach is the study of transport of atoms at the quantum level. Our devices will allow for the measurement of the universal conductance of quantum critical systems or other many-body states. They will feature interfaces and contacts where new types of localized states emerge, such as the one proposed to explain the long-standing question of the “0.7 anomaly” in quantum point contacts. They will also allow for a new type of engineering, where currents of particles, spin or entropy can be controlled and directed in order to perform operations such as cooling. This research will be possible thanks to the development of a new apparatus, capable of detecting in a non-destructive way tiny atomic currents, such as the one driven through single mode quantum conductors. It will combine an optical cavity for high efficiency optical detection, and high optical resolution optics allowing for manipulations and patterning at the scale of the wave function of individual particles.

Mots-clés : strongly interacting fermions,quantum transport
Projet ERC : LightCrypt (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Bar-Ilan University — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : BIU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1487500.0 €

Over the next five years, fifty billion new smart devices will be connected to the Internet of Things (IoT), creating a revolution in the way we interact with our environment. Such resource constrained devices will require lightweight cryptography to protect them and us from bad actors. Unfortunately, such schemes can be highly vulnerable: Two notable examples are the encryption schemes used in GSM cellular phones and in car remote controls - both broken by the PI. We claim that it is not sufficient to adjust the current design and analysis tools to the constrained environment. Instead, we must establish a new research methodology, aiming directly at the problems arising in the 'lightweight realm'. We plan to concentrate on four main directions. First, we will go 'a level up' to study the security of generic lightweight building blocks in order to find the minimal number of operations required to transition from insecure to secure designs. Second, when considering specific ciphers we will pursue practical low complexity attacks, which are more relevant to the lightweight realm than standard theoretical attacks. Third, we will pursue new directions toward establishing 'white-box cryptography' – a central challenge in IoT cryptography. Finally, we will explore further applications of discrete analysis to lightweight cryptography, trying to establish rigorous conditions under which the standard cryptanalytic techniques apply in order to avoid unnecessarily pessimistic security estimates. For the near future, we hope that our research will make it possible to detect and fix weaknesses in existing lightweight ciphers before they can be exploited by the 'bad guys'. Looking forward farther, we hope to understand how to design new secure lightweight ciphers for the billions of IoT devices to come.

Mots-clés : cryptanalysis,lightweight cryptography,low complexity cryptanalysis,whitebox cryptography
Projet ERC : 3D MAGiC (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 3038511.0 €

Over the past 150 years, many of the greatest questions in physics, spanning astronomical dimensions to quarks, have addressed how particles can emerge in continuous fields. In this highly exploratory project, we will open a window into the behavior and control of some of the least explored and most puzzling objects in nanomagnetism: three-dimensional (3D) magnetic solitons (MSs). These are spatially localized stable magnetization textures that have particle-like properties and are expected to move and interact in 3D in magnetic crystals and heterostructures in a similar manner to ordinary particles. Until now, their theoretical study has been restricted to simple models, while the experimental study of individual 3D MSs is nearly unexplored as a result of their deep-sub-micron size and a current lack of suitable characterization techniques. We bring together four complementary research groups with expertise in theoretical descriptions of magnetism, device physics and magnetic characterization with high spatial and temporal resolution. Methodological breakthroughs by the partners will enable new fundamental theoretical and experimental insights into the nucleation, stability, dynamics and transport of 3D MSs, which are predicted to be influenced strongly by their nontrivial topology. Particular attention will be paid to the manner in which 3D MSs can be controlled and manipulated dynamically. This project will open the field of 3D magnetization textures at the nanoscale to fundamental science,with a view to enabling disruptive applications. 3D MSs are foreseen to play the role of information carriers that can move freely in any spatial direction and to offer a key advance over conventional 2D magnetization textures. Results from the project will provide guidelines for their use in applications that include magnetic storage technology and neuromorphic information processing systems and enable the realization of pervasive new 3D device concepts.

Mots-clés : transmission electron microscopy,off axis electron holography,skyrmions,hopfions
Projet ERC : DeeViSe (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : RWTH Aachen University — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : RWTH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Over the past 5 years, deep learning has exercised a tremendous and transformational effect on the field of computer vision. However, deep neural networks (DNNs) can only realize their full potential when applied in an end-to-end manner, i.e., when every stage of the processing pipeline is differentiable with respect to the network’s parameters, such that all of those parameters can be optimized together. Such end-to-end learning solutions are still rare for computer vision problems, in particular for dynamic visual scene understanding tasks. Moreover, feed-forward processing, as done in most DNN-based vision approaches, is only a tiny fraction of what the human brain can do. Feedback processes, temporal information processing, and memory mechanisms form an important part of our human scene understanding capabilities. Those mechanisms are currently underexplored in computer vision. The goal of this proposal is to remove this bottleneck and to design end-to-end deep learning approaches that can realize the full potential of DNNs for dynamic visual scene understanding. We will make use of the positive interactions and feedback processes between multiple vision modalities and combine them to work towards a common goal. In addition, we will impart deep learning approaches with a notion of what it means to move through a 3D world by incorporating temporal continuity constraints, as well as by developing novel deep associative and spatial memory mechanisms. The results of this research will enable deep neural networks to reach significantly improved dynamic scene understanding capabilities compared to today’s methods. This will have an immediate positive effect for applications in need for such capabilities, most notably for mobile robotics and intelligent vehicles.
Projet ERC : CNIDARIAMICRORNA (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : Hebrew University of Jerusalem — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HUJI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499587.0 €

Over the past decade small RNAs such as microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) have been shown to carry pivotal roles in post-transcriptional regulation and genome protection and to play an important part in various physiological processes in animals. miRNAs can be found in a very wide range of animals yet their functions were studied almost exclusively in members of the Bilateria such as insects, nematodes and vertebrates. Hence studying their function in representatives of non-bilaterian phyla such as Cnidaria (sea anemones, corals, hydras and jellyfish) is crucial for understanding the evolution of miRNAs in animals and can provide important insights into their roles in the ancient ancestor of Cnidaria and Bilateria. The sea anemone Nematostella vectensis is an excellent model for such a study since it can be grown in large numbers throughout its life cycle in the lab and because well-established genetic manipulation techniques are available for this species. Our preliminary results indicate that miRNAs in Nematostella frequently have a nearly perfect match to their messenger RNA (mRNA) targets, resulting in cleavage of the target. This mode of action is common for plant miRNAs, but is very rare in Bilateria. This finding together with my recent discovery of a Nematostella homolog of HYL1, a protein involved in miRNA biogenesis in plants, raises the exciting possibility that the miRNA pathway existed in the common ancestor of plants and animals. Here I suggest to bring together an array of advanced biochemical and genetic methods such as gene knockdown, transgenesis, high throughput sequencing and immunoprecipitation in order to obtain - for the first time - a deep understanding of the biogenesis and mechanism of action of small RNAs in Cnidaria. This will provide a novel way to understand the evolution of this important molecular pathway and to evaluate its age and ancestral form.

Mots-clés : microrna,post transcriptional regulation,cnidaria,evolution of gene regulation
Projet ERC : EpiTrack (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : Vilnius University — Pays : Lituanie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499875.0 €

Over the past decade, epigenetic phenomena have taken centre stage in our understanding of gene regulation, cellular differentiation and human disease. DNA methylation is a prevalent epigenetic modification in mammals, which is brought about by enzymatic transfer of methyl groups from the S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) cofactor by three known DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs). The most dramatic epigenomic reprogramming in mammalian development occurs after fertilization, whereby a global loss of DNA methylation is followed by massive reinstatement of new methylation patterns, different for each cell type. Although DNA methylation has been extensively investigated, key mechanistic aspects of these fascinating events remain obscure. The goal of this proposal is to bridge the gap in our understanding of how the genomic methylation patterns are established and how they govern cell plasticity and variability during differentiation and development. These questions could only be answered by precise determination of where and when methylation marks are deposited by the individual DNMTs, and how these methylation marks affect gene expression. To achieve this ambitious goal, we will metabolically engineer mouse cells to permit SAM analog-based chemical pulse-tagging of their methylation sites in vivo. We will then advance profiling of DNA modifications to the single cell level via innovative integration of microdroplet-based barcoding, precise genomic mapping and super-resolution imaging. Using this unique experimental system we will determine, with unprecedented detail and throughput, the dynamics and variability of DNA methylation and gene expression patterns during differentiation of mouse embryonic cells to neural and other lineages. This project will give a comprehensive, time-resolved view of the roles that the DNMTs play in mammalian development, which will open new horizons in epigenomic research and will advance our understanding of human development and disease.

Mots-clés : dna methylation,droplet microfluidics,synthetic cofactor analogs,genome editing,single cell epigenome analysis,metabolic engineering
Projet ERC : LEGA-C (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
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 : 1036658.61 €

Over the past decade, redshift surveys and multi-wavelength imaging campaigns have drawn up an empirical picture of how many stars had formed in which types of galaxies over the history of the universe. However, we have yet to unravel the individual pathways along which galaxies evolve, and the physical processes that drive them. Continuing with the previous approach -- larger and deeper photometric samples -- is not adequate to achieve this goal. A change of focus is required. In this ERC project I will embark on a new way to address the question of galaxy evolution. I will do so as Principle Investigator of the recently approved LEGA-C observing program that has been allocated 128 nights of observation time over the next 4 years with ESO's flagship facility the Very Large Telescope. This new survey will produce for 2500 distant (at z~1) galaxies with, for the first time, sufficient resolution and S/N to measure ages and chemical compositions of their stellar populations as well as internal velocity dispersions and dynamical masses. This will provide an entirely new physical description of the galaxy population 7 Gyr ago, with which I will finally be able solve long-standing questions in galaxy formation that were out of reach before: what is the star-formation history of individual galaxies, why and how is star-formation ``quenched'' in many galaxies, and to what extent do galaxies grow subsequently through merging afterward? LEGA-C is worldwide the largest spectroscopic survey of distant galaxies to date, and ERC funding will be absolutely critical in harvesting this unparallelled database. I am seeking to extend my research group to realize the scientific potential of this substantial investment (6.5M Eur) of observational resources by the European astronomy community. Timing of the execution of the VLT program is perfectly matched with the timeline of this ERC program.
Projet ERC : ERQUAF (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
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 : 1499375.0 €

Over the past fifteen years, the paradigm of quantum entanglement has revolutionised the understanding of strongly correlated lattice systems. Entanglement and closely related concepts originating from quantum information theory are optimally suited for quantifying and characterising quantum correlations and have therefore proven instrumental for the classification of the exotic phases discovered in condensed quantum matter. One groundbreaking development originating from this research is a novel class of variational many body wave functions known as tensor network states. Their explicit local structure and unique entanglement features make them very flexible and extremely powerful both as a numerical simulation method and as a theoretical tool. The goal of this proposal is to lift this “entanglement methodology” into the realm of quantum field theory. In high energy physics, the widespread interest in entanglement has only been triggered recently due to the intriguing connections between entanglement and the structure of spacetime that arise in black hole physics and quantum gravity. During the past few years, direct continuum limits of various tensor network ansätze have been formulated. However, the application thereof is largely unexplored territory and holds promising potential. This proposal formulates several advancements and developments for the theoretical and computational study of continuous quantum systems, gauge theories and exotic quantum phases, but also for establishing the intricate relation between entanglement, renormalisation and geometry in the context of the holographic principle. Ultimately, these developments will radically alter the way in which to approach some of the most challenging questions in physics, ranging from the simulation of cold atom systems to non-equilibrium or high-density situations in quantum chromodynamics and the standard model.

Mots-clés : entanglement,renormalisation,tensor network states,quantum fields,holography