Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : SINGWAVES (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : University of Cambridge — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. Cambridge
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 92323.75 €

Non linear wave equations are central in the description of many canonical models in physics from nonlinear optics to fluid mechanics. A phenomenon of particular interest is singularity formation which corresponds to the concentration of the energy of the wave packet. The existence and description of such dynamics is still mostly mysterious, but fundamental progress have been made in the past ten years on canonical models like nonlinear wave and Schr\"odinger equations, with in particular the discovery of the fundamental role played by a specific class of nonlinear wave packets: the solitary waves. These very recent works open up a huge field of investigation on problems which were considered out of reach ten years ago. The aim of the SINGWAVES project is to strenghten our research group in the setting of an intense international activity with two main directions of investigation: the construction and classification of singular bubbles for some canonical models like non linear Schr\"odinger equations, the exploration of new deeply nonlinear dynamics in connection with classical models at the frontier of current research.

Mots-clés : singularity formation
Projet ERC : MyeFattyLiver (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy
Entité participante : Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : VIB
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) results from accumulation of excessive fat in the liver. It encompasses simple steatosis (fatty liver) progressing through non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. It is the most common cause of chronic liver disease in western countries and is predicted to be the main cause of liver transplantation by 2030. As such NAFLD represents a significant clinical burden for which to date, there is no effective treatment. Multiple ‘hits’ are thought to contribute to the progression from steatosis to NASH. One of these ‘hits’ is activation of the immune system and the ensuing inflammatory response. Hepatic myeloid cells, including mononuclear phagocytes (MNPs) are thought to play an essential role in this, sensing excess lipids and other danger signals and initiating immune responses. However, MNPs represent a highly heterogeneous population, including multiple subtypes of dendritic cells and macrophages. To date these have been studied as a group rather than as individual cell types, leading to them being ascribed multiple and often contradictory roles depending on the experimental set up. Thus their specific contributions to NAFLD still remain unclear. I hypothesize that by dissecting the phenotypic and functional heterogeneity of hepatic MNPs, we will be able to unravel their roles in NAFLD and in the progression to NASH. Single cell technologies such as single cell RNA sequencing have revolutionised our ability to understand cellular heterogeneity. In addition, they have facilitated the development of novel genetic tools to study functions of specific cell types in vivo. I aim to use this technology and more specific in vivo tools to understand MNP phenotypic and functional heterogeneity in NAFLD in mice and men. This is essential for the development of novel therapeutic strategies targeting myeloid cells in what is becoming one of the biggest health challenges in the western world.

Mots-clés : dendritic cells,macrophages,liver,nafld
Projet ERC : MacinNASH (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
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 : 1999781.0 €

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), the most common chronic liver disease worldwide, is an unmet medical need with no approved therapies and debilitating consequences for patients. Obesity-associated insulin resistance is a high-risk factor for the development of NASH. The prevailing paradigm is a multiple hit process, whereby lipid accumulation in the liver of obese patients leads to oxidative stress and increased production of inflammatory cytokines by macrophages. However, my research group's comprehensive investigations in mice and humans have revealed that liver macrophages (LMs) contribute to insulin resistance and oxidative stress independently of their inflammatory status. I thereby propose that LMs predispose insulin resistant patients to NASH independently of their inflammatory status. In this ambitious multidisciplinary project, we will use a novel platform encompassing multiple single cell and in situ omics technologies tailored by my research group to characterize the phenotype of LM populations in healthy individuals and insulin resistant patients with or without NASH. We will strengthen this approach with functional validation in animal models as well as human liver organoids using a patented technology that I have developed to specifically manipulate gene expression in macrophages. We will then decipher how hepatic insulin resistance creates a spatiotemporal environment facilitating NASH. My group's unique access to patient material combined with cutting-edge methodologies to reveal the phenotype of single LMs provides an exceptional starting point from which to identify genes and pathways involved in the development of NASH in obese insulin resistant patients. This project will set the stage for a paradigm-shift in studying and treating life-threatening liver diseases.

Mots-clés : liver,macrophages,insulin resistance,obesity,non alcoholic steatohepatitis
Projet ERC : BrainControl (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Champalimaud Foundation — Pays : Portugal — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149625.0 €

Non-invasive Brain Machine Interfaces (BMI) bring great promise for neuro-rehabilitation and neuro-prosthesis, as well as for brain control of everyday devices and performance of simple tasks. Over the last 15 years the interest in BMIs has grown substantially, and a variety of interfaces have been developed. The field has been growing dramatically, and market studies reveal an estimated market size of $1.46 billion by 2020. However, non-invasive BMIs have failed to reach the impressive control seen by BMIs implanted in the brain. To date, they require considerable training to reach a moderate level of control, they are susceptible to noise and interference, do not generalize between people and devices, and performance does not show long-term consolidation. Results from our ERC-funded work uncovered a new paradigm that dramatically improves these issues. We propose to develop a prototype for a novel, standalone, non-invasive, noise-resistant BMI, based on an unexplored BMI learning paradigm. In this POC we will 1) refine the brain signal interface (decoder) to be automatically customizable to each individual and produces faster training, 2) implement our BMI technology into a portable hardware-based system, and 3) develop a virtual reality/gaming training platform that will increase learning, performance and consolidation of BMI control. In addition to these technical aims, we propose to explore commercial opportunities and societal benefits, in particular in the health sector. We will conduct market analysis and develop a business case for this product, while expanding industry contacts for production and commercialization. The work proposed in this PoC grant will permit, for the first time to our knowledge, the development of a portable, stand-alone, noise-resistant, and easy to learn BMI, applicable across a wide set of devices, which will bring a significant social impact in health, entertainment and other applications.

Mots-clés : brain machine interface,learning,neurorehabilitation,neuroprostheses,brain control
Projet ERC : SOFT (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : Spin-Ion Technologies — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 30000.0 €

Non-volatility is the main physical feature that fast memories, such as SRAM, are still lacking. Non-volatile memories could increase computing performance while reducing significantly the power consumption. The only viable option for sub-ns nonvolatile memory is the Spin Orbit Torque Magnetic Random Access Memory (SOT-MRAM). The main roadblock towards the integration of the SOT-MRAM is that the reproducible bipolar switching requires the application of a static in plane magnetic field. “Zero-field” SOT switching is still a challenge, which motivates active research on this topic. Within the “SMART Design” ERC-StG project, we are developing an innovative approach for this problem. We discovered that it is possible to determine the switching polarity by the shape of the magnetic free layer. This approach meets all the physical requirements for the SRAM replacement (scalability, switching time, switching current…), but the nano-fabrication of devices with complex shapes using standard u-v lithography tools is difficult and expensive. Here we propose to develop an innovative fabrication technique, adapted for complex shapes, based on ion irradiation. The technology provider is participating to the project, while the potential end-user of this technology is an external collaborator.

Mots-clés : spin orbit torque,magnetic random access memory,ion irradiation
Projet ERC : XSTREAM (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : TU Wien — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TUW
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1513335.34 €

Nonlinear optics revolutionized the ability to create directed, coherent beams particularly in spectral regions where lasers based on conventional population inversion are not practical. New breakthroughs in extreme nonlinear optics promise a similar revolution in the X-ray regime. In a dramatic and unanticipated breakthrough, an international team lead by the PI demonstrated that the high harmonic generation process (HHG) driven by mid-IR lasers can be used to generate keV photons, implementing a >5000 order nonlinear process, while still maintaining the full phase matching that is necessary for good conversion efficiency. This work represents the most extreme, fully coherent upconversion for electromagnetic waves in the 50 year history of nonlinear optics. Moreover, the limits of HHG are still not understood, either theoretically or experimentally. It may be possible to generate coherent hard X-rays using a tabletop-scale apparatus. In another surprising breakthrough, the PI showed that UV-driven HHG in multiply ionized plasma can be also highly efficient, representing a 2nd route towards the X-ray region. Remarkably, this regime provides X-rays with contrasting spectral and temporal properties. Furthermore, by shaping the polarization of a bi-color mid-IR driving laser the PI, the JILA team in collaboration with Technion, demonstrated robust phase matching of circularly polarized soft X-rays. In the proposed work, the fundamental atomic, phase matching plus group velocity matching limits of HHG in the multi-keV X-ray regime will be explored using the 3 most promising, complimentary approaches: 1) mid-IR driven HHG, 2) UV driven HHG, and 3) all-optical quasi phase matching. The knowledge gained as a result of this effort will identify the best path forward for generating bright coherent X-ray beams on a tabletop, at photon energies of 1-10 keV and greater with unprecedented attosecond-to-zeptosecond pulse durations, and arbitrary polarization state.

Mots-clés : coherent soft and hard x rays,high order harmonic generation,extreme nonlinear optics,attosecond x ray pulses,zeptosecond x ray pulses,phase matching,group velocity matchng
Projet ERC : HANDLING (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : Université Catholique de Louvain — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UCL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Not only does the writer’s hand hold the pen, it manipulates pictures as well. Writers touch, hoard, cut, copy, pin and paste various kinds of pictures and these actions integrate literature in visual culture in many ways that have never been tackled as a whole before. Some writers spent their life surrounded by pictures taken from magazines, creating an inspirational environment; yet others nurtured their imagination with touristic leaflets and visual advertisements; others created fictional characters based on collected portraits. What do writers do with pictures? How does literature stage the pictures handled? From very concrete and banal uses of pictures will emerge a new vision of literature as intermediality in action. This investigation applies the tool set of visual anthropology and visual studies to writers for a deeper understanding of visual ecosystems. Covering a large period, from the beginning of mass reproduction in the 1880s and the digital practices of today, HANDLING focuses on the French and French-speaking field and stands as a laboratory to refashion a broader model for relationships between image and text. Its main challenge is to get to the root of contemporary iconographic practices. HANDLING is unconventional because literary studies usually focus on the text: contrary to the norm, it sets the image at the very centre of the literary act. This approach might yield promising results for the visibility of literature in the future, especially in exhibitions. Making these practices visible will make literature itself more visible. As an internationally recognized specialist of text-image relationships with an in-depth knowledge of French/Belgian literature and photography, I will build a team and lead this 5-year ambitious project. Grounded in interdisciplinarity, it will show the significant and unexpected role of literature in material visual culture.

Mots-clés : writers  iconographic practices,crossover of literary and visual studies
Projet ERC : PAAL-POC (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : University of Warsaw — Pays : Pologne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UW
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Nowadays, we witness that more and more information is stored and managed in a digital way. Moreover, very often processes are executed and planed by computers. This allows applying computer methods to optimize performance of our actions on an unprecedented scale. This is clearly visible in the case of eCommerce, where the main arena of operation of companies is handled solely using computers. Typically, machine learning tools and algorithms are widely used, e.g., for the prediction of user behavior, user classification, or in recommendation systems. When applying such tools one needs to base his computations on existing historical data. This limits the prediction power of such systems, as we cannot predict the reaction of the users nor of the markets to changes in our strategy. In the case of bidding for Ads in online auctions, we only have full information about the auctions we have won, but in the case of lost auctions we only know that we have lost. Hence, it is almost impossible to predict which auctions we would win using only plain historical data. This problem calls for a novel approach that could extrapolate missing information. Here, we propose the development of such framework together with the programming library that would support such extrapolation. This new framework will incorporate algorithmic game theory into the existing approximation and machine learning algorithms. Game theory gives the right tools to talk about incentives of strategic agents and allows predicting response of market actors to changing conditions. Our idea is to describe these incentives and to build a force feedback loop between market models and algorithmic optimization methods. We will first extract and learn the parameters of the market models from the historical data, only then the extrapolated model will be used as the benchmark for the optimization methods. This novel idea will allow to use optimization tools in the previously intractable parameter range.

Mots-clés : approximation algorithms,machine learning,algorithmic game theory,programming library,prediction and recommendation
Projet ERC : PrecisionNuclei (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : Chalmers University of Technology — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499085.0 €

Nuclear physics is a cornerstone in our scientific endeavour to understand the universe. Indeed, atomic nuclei bring us closer to study both the stellar explosions in the macrocosmos, where the elements are formed, and the fundamental symmetries of the microcosmos. Having access to a a precise description of the interactions between protons and neutrons would provide a key to new knowledge across 20 orders of magnitude; from neutrinos to neutron stars. Despite a century of the finest efforts, a systematic description of strongly interacting matter at low energies is still lacking. Successful theoretical approaches, such as mean-field and shell models, rely on uncontrolled approximations that severely limit their predictive power in regions where the model has not been adjusted. In this project I will develop a novel methodology to use experimental information from heavy atomic nuclei in the construction of nuclear interactions from chiral effective field theory. I expect this approach to enable me and my team to make precise ab initio predictions of various nuclear observables in a wide mass-range from hydrogen to lead as well as infinite nuclear matter. I will apply Bayesian regression and methods from machine learning to quantify the statistical and systematic uncertainties of the theoretical predictions. The novelty and challenge in this project lies in synthesising (i) the design of nuclear interactions, (ii) ab initio calculations of nuclei, and (iii) statistical inference in the confrontation between theory and experimental data. This alignment of methods, harboured within the same project, will create a clear scientific advantage and allow me to tackle the following big research question: how can atomic nuclei be described in chiral effective field theories of quantum chromo dynamics?

Mots-clés : ab initio nuclear theory
Projet ERC : DELIVER (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
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 : 2000000.0 €

Nucleic acid-based medicines have opened a new avenue in drug discovery to target currently undruggable genes and to express therapeutic proteins, unlocking novel therapeutic options for a range of diseases, including neurodegeneration. However, they need to be encapsulated in nanocarriers to ensure their stability and efficient uptake into cells and tissues. Synthetic nanoparticles based on cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) and, particularly, lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have recently emerged as potent vectors for hepatic delivery. However, these systems fail to robustly target other organs in a safe manner. Another promising nanocarrier for advanced drug delivery is extracellular vesicles (EVs) that have the ability to efficiently convey macromolecules into cells. As native nanoparticles, EVs benefit from immune tolerance as well as the ability to cross biological barriers to reach, for example, the brain. We have developed advanced strategies to bioengineer cells to generate EVs loaded with therapeutic RNAs and proteins. However, their production at scale is cumbersome and time consuming. Here, I propose a platform development using synthetic nanocarriers to transiently engineer hepatic cells in vivo and harness EVs to functionally DELIVER biotherapeutics to currently unreachable, distant organs, focusing on brain. To achieve this, genetic constructs will be developed that allow for transient in situ engineering of cells in vivo and release of cargo (e.g. CRE)- laden EVs, displaying CNS-specific peptides, that can be functionally transported to distant organs, including brain. We will exploit the same strategy using CPP-based nanoformulations, recently developed in my lab, injected locally in brain to secrete EVs loaded with the disease-relevant protein GBA1 as a treatment strategy for Parkinson´s disease. Long-term this novel project has enormous potential, as any engineered EV could be produced in situ and be used for delivery of virtually any biotherapeutics.

Mots-clés : cell engineering,exosomes,extracellular vesicles,drug delivery,gene therapy,rna delivery
Projet ERC : INO3D (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions
Entité participante : Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LMU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2201875.0 €

Nucleosomes, ~147 base pairs of DNA wrapped around an histone protein octamer, package and protect nuclear DNA but also carry important biological information. The position and composition of nucleosomes along chromosomal DNA is a key element of defining the state and identity of a cell. Chromatin remodellers are ATP dependent molecular machines that position, move or edit nucleosomes in a genome wide manner. Collectively, they shape the nucleosome landscape and play central roles in the maintenance and differentiation of cells, but also in pathological transformations. INO80, a megadalton large remodeller consisting of 15 or more subunits, is involved in replication, gene expression and DNA repair. It models chromatin by positioning barrier nucleosomes around nucleosome free regions, editing nucleosomes and generating nucleosome arrays. However, structural mechanisms for INO80 and other remodelling machines are poorly understood due to their complexity. To provide a comprehensive mechanistic framework, to understand how INO80 senses nucleosome free regions to position barrier nucleosomes and how it generates arrays or senses DNA breaks, I propose a challenging but ground-breaking endeavour using a combination of cryo-EM and functional approaches. We address structures of fungal and human INO80 complexes at promoter regions, on di-nucleosomes and at DNA ends and develop quantitative positioning assays to reveal common and distinct features of shaping chromatin in different species. We also explore cryo-EM as tool towards revealing distinct steps the chemo-mechanical remodelling reactions. The proposed research will help derive fundamental molecular principles underlying the modelling of the nucleosome landscape.

Mots-clés : chromatin remodelling,nucleosomes,ino80,atpase,molecular machine