Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : LEON (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1998596.0 €

The ambition of this project is to open new horizons in the field of graphene-based devices for THz technology. The major objective is to develop compact THz amplifiers and lasers operating at room temperature, analogous to the concept of semiconductor lasers in the visible and telecom wavelength range. THz radiation is extremely attractive for fundamental investigations of matter and emerging applications including, for example, security screening, medical imaging and spectroscopy. However, the THz spectral range remains one of the least exploited spectral regions, mainly due to the lack of compact powerful sources. The development of the typical semiconductor-laser scheme emitting at THz frequencies has been seriously hampered by the absence of an appropriate material with a sufficiently small bandgap. The LEON project addresses this technological and scientific blocking point with new semiconductor-laser schemes for THz emission centered on the integration of graphene-based materials. Indeed, graphene is potentially an excellent candidate for a THz semiconductor-laser model owing to its ‘zero’ bandgap. However, non-radiative recombination mechanisms, especially Auger recombination, reduce the lifetime of the optical gain to few hundreds of femtoseconds. This phenomenon drastically limits the feasibility of a THz laser. In order to suppress these detrimental non-radiative processes, a new concept is needed. The project proposes to exploit the full discretization of electronic states in graphene quantum dots. This high-risk high-gain project will provide important and far-reaching scientific advances, which cannot be achieved with the current state-of-the-art approaches. This project has three major cornerstones: i) the demonstration of THz amplifiers based on graphene quantum dots, ii) the demonstration of THz lasers based on graphene quantum dots in a microcavity, iii) the exploitation of these THz amplifiers/lasers for security and communication applications.

Mots-clés : graphene quantum dot,terahertz
Projet ERC : UltraPal (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
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 : 2435000.0 €

The ambition with this proposal is to create ultimate paleo-environmental records for the oceans. This is a fundamental scientific challenge and the motivation is simple: The oceans take up 70% of the Earth’s surface area and represent an immense sink/source of, e.g., heat and CO2, which makes them key to the evolution of Earth’s climate. Assessing and understanding anthropogenic global climate change requires that role of the oceans is understood in detail. Proxies are needed to establish past ocean conditions with high accuracy. Calcite has played a fundamental role in these efforts because isotopic and trace element compositions of limestone and calcitic fossils are related to ocean conditions at the time of their formation. Geochemical studies of calcite in the ocean sediment record have therefore contributed enormously to the understanding of Earth’s climatic evolution over the last several hundred million years. However, our recent work (Bernard et al., Nature Communications, 2017) identifies a fundamental problem: Visually imperceptible, ultrastructure-level processes that occur during sediment diagenesis can introduce a very strong bias in these records, in particular those based on biogenic calcite; i.e., structures produced by living organisms such as foraminifera and brachiopods. Previously not investigated or taken into account, such ultrastructure-level diagenesis will (and does) create large errors in ocean paleo-environmental reconstructions, even under the close-to-ambient pressure and temperature conditions characterizing shallow sediment burial. This proposal offers a solution: An entirely new, interdisciplinary approach, including ultra-high-resolution isotopic imaging (NanoSIMS), is developed here to quantify these effects in a broad range of biogenic calcites, permitting genuinely non-biased, calcite-based paleo-ocean reconstructions to be created. The impact of this work on climate change research will be dramatic and immediate.

Mots-clés : biogenic calcite,diagenesis,diffusion,pseudomorphic replacement,coupled dissolution and reprecipitation,stable isotopes,nanosims,fossils,ultrastructure,sediments,foraminifera,paleo ocean
Projet ERC : LTCSEI (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
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 : 152782.5 €

The analogy-based expectation equilibrium (Jehiel, 2005) has been introduced to cope with strategic environments in which agents form their expectations by bundling data that come from different sources (see also the valuation equilibrium defined in Jehiel and Samet, 2007). An essential next step is to make progress on when and how subjects bundle data to facilitate learning. Various principles are proposed to discipline the choices of analogy partitions in ABEE and of similarity classes in VE: the observation-based principle views the bundling as a consequence of a lack of accessibility to missing information in past interactions, the psychologically-based principle views categorizations as the consequence of observed similarity in early interactions, the culturally-based principle views the bundling of actions into similarity classes either as a consequence of a common labelling of actions or as a consequence of ethical considerations that lead us to think of different actions as having similar consequences. The impact of such principles will be studied both theoretically and experimentally with the goals of explaining a number of new phenomena and shifting the conventional wisdom in behavioural economics that has pointed out a number of anomalies in behaviors without systematically relating them to imperfections in the learning process. In addition, I will be concerned with the aggregation of different types of feedback such as data on one own performance or data on others’ attitudes in multi-context environments, as well as putting the proposed approach of learning through categories in the broader perspective of the literature on bounded rationality

Mots-clés : learning through categories,bounded rationality,heuristics
Projet ERC : BiFlowFilter (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Entité participante : Technion – Israel Institute of Technology — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The analysis of extremely small samples is boosting the field of life and medical science, from basic research on single-cell systems, through point-of-care diagnostics, to forensic analysis. Despite great advances made on analytical techniques such as digital immunoassay, nanopore detection and next-generation sequencing, little progress has been made on low-volume sample preparation technologies, which are key for the success of such analytical techniques. To date, despite the availability of a large arsenal of sample preparation methods, current approaches are simply not suitable for volumes below the microliter range. In this proposed ERC proof-of-concept project we aim to develop a device and method for rapid and high-purity extraction of molecules and particles from sub-microliter volumes. The main objectives of this project cover the technical optimization and validation of the technology as well as the establishment of a solid foundation for its commercialization. We believe that this separation technology will be uniquely positioned in the sample preparation market and has the potential to be an important component in the future of point-of-care diagnostics and personalized medicine.

Mots-clés : microfluidics,biomolecular separation,sample preparation,electrokinetics,proteins,electroosmotic flow
Projet ERC : TB-RECONNECT (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Fundacao manhica — Pays : Mozambique — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : Fm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 537308.25 €

The annual decline in tuberculosis (TB) incidence is not greatly different from that of the ‘90s, when no coordinated efforts in global tuberculosis control were in place. The failure of current TB control programmes to accelerate TB elimination has multiple causes, including losses of TB cases at the different steps of the TB care cascade, and a chronic lack of funding hampering innovation. Additionally, we have failed to halt transmission in many settings, as we have failed to incorporate our improved understanding of transmission in TB control programmes. Our current approach to controlling TB is focused on a narrow view of who is transmitting the disease (symptomatically active TB cases), while there is a growing consensus that the traditional latent/active dichotomy is no longer valid, and that asymptomatic individuals with active TB signatures are also likely to be transmitting the disease. There is a critical lack of high-resolution data from different settings on the contribution to the transmission burden of cases with different infection statuses. To fill this evidence gap, I propose synergizing three recent TB research developments; We can now use host blood transcriptomics to discriminate between infection status within the latent pool of individuals. We can now quantify transmission at a resolution not previously available, using pathogen genome sequencing. We can now use phylogenetic and epidemiological models to identify when transmission has happened. Combining these three key developments with TB cohorts from multiple settings, and available tools from bacterial population genetics, high-throughput functional genomics and infection biology, we will be in a key position to answer these burning questions about the nature of TB transmission and the host and pathogen biology behind this. More importantly, we will reconnect transmission to TB control, to inform major shifts in global and local control strategies.

Mots-clés : tuberculosis,epidemiology,global health,infectious diseases,pathogen genomics,host transcriptomics,infection models
Projet ERC : CoordinatedDopamine (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : KNAW
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 687500.0 €

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 : STEM-AGING (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Pompeu Fabra University — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UPF
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1251824.0 €

The basic mechanisms of stem cell malfunction during aging are poorly understood even though they underlie the regenerative decline of most organs and tissues as we age. Based on our recent contributions (Nature 2014, Nature 2016), the fields of tissue regeneration and aging converge on the key role of the quiescent state, the preferred state of stem cells in low turnover tissues such as skeletal muscle. Our unifying hypothesis is that stem-cell quiescence maintenance, which requires active proteostasis (protein homeostasis), lies at the basis of stemness, and that its substitution by a senescence state in aging impairs regeneration. How these variables connect to drive stem cell aging is not known. Crucial experimental systems in this proposal are sensitive reporter mice for proteostasis, senescence and quiescence/fate in aging muscle stem cells. The project is divided as follows: Objective 1. Proteostasis and stem cell quiescence maintenance: tracing proteostasis in quiescent stem cells from autophagy and chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) reporter mice during aging / impact of autophagy/CMA loss on quiescence and regeneration / molecular regulators of proteostasis. Objective 2. Proteostasis and quiescent stem cell heterogeneity and fate: asymmetric segregation of proteotoxic waste as an instructor of stem cell heterogeneity and regenerative fate. Objective 3. The quiescence-to-senescence-switch in aging muscle stem cells: tracing and isolating senescent stem cells in senescence-cell reporter mice during aging / impact of senescent cell ablation on regenerating aged muscle. Objective 4. Circadian regulation in the quiescent stem-cell state: impact of aging on circadian rhythms and consequences for quiescence maintenance and regeneration. We expect that completion of these objectives will provide new fundamental knowledge on stem-cell biology, regeneration and aging.

Mots-clés : tissue regeneration,stem cells,skeletal muscle,senescence,proteostasis
Projet ERC : STEM-AGING (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Ministry of Health — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1248125.0 €

The basic mechanisms of stem cell malfunction during aging are poorly understood even though they underlie the regenerative decline of most organs and tissues as we age. Based on our recent contributions (Nature 2014, Nature 2016), the fields of tissue regeneration and aging converge on the key role of the quiescent state, the preferred state of stem cells in low turnover tissues such as skeletal muscle. Our unifying hypothesis is that stem-cell quiescence maintenance, which requires active proteostasis (protein homeostasis), lies at the basis of stemness, and that its substitution by a senescence state in aging impairs regeneration. How these variables connect to drive stem cell aging is not known. Crucial experimental systems in this proposal are sensitive reporter mice for proteostasis, senescence and quiescence/fate in aging muscle stem cells. The project is divided as follows: Objective 1. Proteostasis and stem cell quiescence maintenance: tracing proteostasis in quiescent stem cells from autophagy and chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) reporter mice during aging / impact of autophagy/CMA loss on quiescence and regeneration / molecular regulators of proteostasis. Objective 2. Proteostasis and quiescent stem cell heterogeneity and fate: asymmetric segregation of proteotoxic waste as an instructor of stem cell heterogeneity and regenerative fate. Objective 3. The quiescence-to-senescence-switch in aging muscle stem cells: tracing and isolating senescent stem cells in senescence-cell reporter mice during aging / impact of senescent cell ablation on regenerating aged muscle. Objective 4. Circadian regulation in the quiescent stem-cell state: impact of aging on circadian rhythms and consequences for quiescence maintenance and regeneration. We expect that completion of these objectives will provide new fundamental knowledge on stem-cell biology, regeneration and aging.

Mots-clés : tissue regeneration,stem cells,skeletal muscle,senescence,proteostasis
Projet ERC : SPECTROKIN (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Politecnico di Milano — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : POLIMI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The big challenge facing the chemical and related industries in the 21st century is the transition towards more sustainable manufacturing processes that efficiently use raw materials/energy and eliminate waste. Within this framework, catalysis engineering is recognized as the most important key enabling technology that has a substantial impact on key manufacturing sectors such as petroleum, energy, chemicals, pharma and food industry (about $ 10 trillion of the world’s Gross National Product) and highly contributes to the green deal, by reducing energy intensity for these products by 20% to 40% by 2050. To solve all these issues, an in-depth understanding of the phenomena occurring at the catalyst surface with atomic resolution and their micro-kinetic consequences within the reactor in conditions relevant to the industrial process is of paramount relevance. Currently, a novel operando multi-technique reactor operating under realistic process-relevant conditions is still missing During the ERC “SHAPE” Stg (n. 677423), we have developed a spatially-resolved operando-Raman annular reactor able to provide a detailed real-time local information of the catalyst’ behaviour along the reactor, under strict kinetic control and nearly isothermal conditions for heterogeneous catalysis (80% of the total catalytic processes). The SPECTROKIN project aims to perform the technical-commercial feasibility of our integrated operando annular reactor by moving forward a ready to use equipment for the steam/dry methane reforming reactions on metal catalysts and upgrading the tool for other reactive systems, paving the way for a family of innovative devices.

Mots-clés : heterogeneous catalysis,kinetics,spectroscopy,green chemistry,chemical reactor,chemical reaction engineering
Projet ERC : EMcapsulins (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : Technical University of Munich — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TUM
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1772549.0 €

The biological engineering project EMcapsulins will create the first suite of multiplexed genetic reporters for electron microscopy (EM) to augment today’s merely structural brain circuit diagrams (connectomes) with crucial information on neuronal type and activation history. My team will generate this new toolbox based on genetically encoded nanocompartments of the prokaryotic ‘encapsulin’ family that we have recently shown to enable genetically controlled compartmentalization of multicomponent processes in mammalian cells. By encapsulating metal-organizing cargo proteins in the lumen of the semi-permeable encapsulin nanospheres, they serve as fully genetic EM gene reporters (EMcapsulins) that provide robust and spatially precise contrast by conventional EM in mammalian cells. To enable geometric multiplexing in EM in analogy to multi-color light microscopy, we will explore the large geometrical feature space of EMcapsulins to establish three core Functionalities: ① different shell structures and diameters, ② modular and tunable shell functionalizations, and ③ multiplexed and triggered cargo loading. We will combine these Functionalities to produce geometrically multiplexed EMcapsulin markers of neuronal identity in serial EM (Application ❶). We will also engineer EMcapsulin reporters for activity-dependent gene expression, calcium signaling, and synaptic activity that can ‘write’ geometrically encoded records of neuronal activation history into EM connectomics data (Application ❷). These ‘multi-color’ and modular EMcapsulin markers and reporters deliver the missing bridging technology between time-resolved light microscopy measurements of neuronal activation dynamics and structural EM connectomics data. EMcapsulin technology will convert structural to functional EM connectomes to enable a systematic analysis of how brains write molecular signaling dynamics into structural patterns to store information for later retrieval.

Mots-clés : biological engineering,synthetic biology,gene reporters,protein design,nanocompartments,iron biomineralization,molecular imaging,calcium imaging,electron microscopy,neuronal activity,connectomics