Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : VirFix (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : University of Warwick — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499997.5 €

Around half of the carbon dioxide (CO2) fixation on Earth occurs in marine systems, environments dominated by the cyanobacterial genera Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus. Viruses infecting these organisms (cyanophages) divert the flow of an estimated 20% of globally fixed CO2. Intriguingly, my lab has recently shown that cyanophage can directly inhibit host CO2 fixation capacity whilst at the same time carry genes essential for the light-driven reactions of photosynthesis. VirFix will elucidate the molecular basis of how viruses inhibit host CO2 fixation, which I hypothesise involves a novel protein based mechanism, and directly assess CO2 fixation rates in viral infected cells requiring the development of innovative approaches to both manipulate cyanophage genomes and enumerate viral infected cells in natural seawater samples. By focusing on how viral infection controls CO2 fixation under environmentally relevant light and nutrient conditions, Virfix will tackle novel concepts associated with elemental stoichiometry and pseudolysogeny and provide host mortality estimates which will directly inform and refine global primary production ecosystem models. In so doing, I will contribute new biological theory into how CO2 fixation is controlled at the global scale. Thus, I will be able to determine how viruses modulate primary production in organisms that are the most abundant phototrophs on the planet and whose abundance is expected to increase by 15-30% at the end of the 21st century due to global warming. By building innovative research directions on a solid foundation of host physiology and genomics I will contribute new understanding of photosynthesis and metabolism as subverted by cyanophage. Together, the proposed work has crucial implications for our understanding of marine carbon cycling and ultimately the planet’s climate and will provide novel genetic approaches for manipulating photosynthesis allowing for their potential exploitation in energy generation.

Mots-clés : viral photosynthesis,co2 fixation,regulation,ecosystem model
Projet ERC : CLASP (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : University of Oxford — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2443640.0 €

As elsewhere in Europe, Anglo-Saxon England saw a development from an oral, vernacular, native, and pagan culture to one that was primarily literate, Latinate, imported, and Christian; and such a transition is clearest in Anglo-Saxon verse. CLASP will focus on all surviving verse of Anglo-Saxon England, composed in Old English and Anglo-Latin over a period of over four centuries (c. 670–1100 CE), and produce for the first time an online and interactive consolidated library, marked up through TEI P5 XML to facilitate the identification of idiosyncratic features of sound, metre, spellings, diction, syntax, formulas, themes, and genres across the entire corpus, so forging connections and suggesting more certain chains of influence both within and between the two main literary languages of Anglo-Saxon England. The bilingual corpus comprises almost 60,000 lines of poetry, with about half surviving in each language, and mostly appearing in only a single witness, usually in manuscript. More than fifty named poets are identified, many of them dateable with more or less precision, whose influence on each other can be closely documented, while in the case of anonymous verse, most of which is in Old English, the focus will be on tracing potential influence between texts, to establish a comparative rather than an absolute chronology. CLASP will use the full panoply of digital resources, including sound- and image-files where relevant, to make the oldest surviving poetry in England available to a modern audience for unprecedented kinds of exploration, comprehensive analysis, and interrogation, and in a series of conferences, workshops, and other publications will show the potential of such a comprehensive multilingual corpus to revolutionize perspectives not only on Anglo-Saxon England, but elsewhere in Europe, where Latin and the vernacular likewise co-existed in a Christian context across centuries.
Projet ERC : NANOVR (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Entité participante : University of Santiago de Compostela — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : USC
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1988168.0 €

As molecular scientists have made progress in their ability to engineer and design the structure of mo-lecular systems at the nano-scale, a new fundamental challenge has emerged: namely, our ability to un-derstand and engineer molecular dynamics (MD) and flexibility. This limits our ability to carry out effi-cient molecular engineering in a range of important areas, including enzymatic catalysis, ligand-protein kinetics, and molecular signalling. In principle, MD simulations offer an excellent tool for furnishing microscopic insight into the fundamental dynamical and kinetic processes driving important molecular processes. However, the potential energy surfaces which characterize complex nano architectures have an extremely high dimensionality, making the exploration of structural dynamics a challenge; simula-tions tend to get trapped in metastable states, making it difficult to explore important transition path-ways. Drawing on the state-of-the-art in high performance computing [HPC] and virtual reality [VR], NanoVR will develop a new paradigm for undertaking nano-scale design, engineering, and analysis, through a synergistic combination of human design insight on the one hand and computational automation on the other. We will develop an intuitive open-source framework which enables molecular scientists to use VR-enabled interactive MD for guiding the automatic calculation of free energies along dynamical pathways in complex systems. We will highlight the power of this approach by applying it to under-stand enzyme-catalysed peptide macrocyclization, as well as the key protein-ligand interactions re-sponsible for emerging drug resistant strains of influenza. In so doing, we will advance fundamental new microscopic insight into molecular conformational dynamics, and grow a thriving user & develop-er community across both academia and industry committed to accelerating molecular design across important domains spanning biochemistry, materials chemistry, & catalysis.

Mots-clés : virtual reality,molecular design,catalysis,drug design
Projet ERC : BIONICbacteria (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : KU Leuven — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : KUL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1998750.0 €

As nature’s first bioengineers, bacteriophages have evolved to modify, adapt and control their bacterial hosts through billions of years of interactions. Indeed, like modern synthetic biologists aspire to do, bacteriophages already evade bacterial silencing of their xenogeneic DNA, subvert host gene expression, and co-opt both the central and peripheral metabolisms of their hosts. Studying these key insights from a molecular systems biology perspective, inspired us to develop these evolutionary fully-adapted phage mechanisms as a next-level layer of synthetic biology tools. Thus, BIONICbacteria will provide conceptual novel synthetic biology tools that allow direct manipulation of specific protein activity, post-translational modifications, RNA stability, and metabolite concentrations. The goal of BIONICbacteria is to pioneer an unconventional way to perform synthetic biology, tapping an unlimited source of novel phage tools genetic circuits and phage modulators. To achieve these goals, we will apply and develop state-of-the-art technologies in molecular microbiology and focus on three principal aims: (1) To exploit new phage-encoded genetic circuits as synthetic biology parts and as intricate biotechnological chassis. (2) To build synthetic phage modulators (SPMs) as novel payloads to directly impact the bacterial metabolism in a targeted manner. (3) To create designer bacteria by integrating SPMs-containing circuits into bacterial strains as proof-of-concepts for applications in industrial fermentations and vaccine design. This proposed “plug-in” approach of evolutionary-adapted synthetic modules, will allow us to domesticate Pseudomonas strains in radically new ways. By building proofs-of-concept for applications in industrial fermentations and vaccine development, we address key problem in these areas with potentially high-gain solutions for society and industry.

Mots-clés : bacteriophage,pseudomonas,engineering
Projet ERC : DIGISILK (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
Entité participante : University of London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. London
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499236.0 €

As part of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China has recently launched the “Digital Silk Road” program, focused on investments in digital technologies and infrastructure in countries that are part of its loosely reimagined Silk Road. This program is seen as having the potential to create a second, China-led internet, which splits from the US-centered one and is ruled by a different set of priorities and values. Are the Digital Silk Road and the global expansion of Chinese tech companies prefiguring a future with two internets: an existing one that is US-led and founded on market-driven ideology, and a new, alternative one that is China-led and characterized by state control, national boundaries, and national governance over what began as a borderless new space? What values and politics are built into the various components of the Digital Silk Road, and is - or how is - the internet they are creating fundamentally different from the current one? The project will employ qualitative and ethnographic methods, digital methods, and document analysis to understand the emergence of the Digital Silk Road from the ground-up and from the comparative perspective of business, governments, and ordinary people in four countries: China, where Digital Silk Road policies, finances, devices, online platforms and apps originate; Kazakhstan, a key player in Central Asia; Myanmar, whose economic dependence on China is the cause of considerable ambivalence; and Cambodia, that under Prime Minister Hun Sen has been one of the most enthusiastic supporters of Chinese investments. The project aims at illuminating the deployment of the Digital Silk Road to see what this second internet might consist of; seeks to understand what values and politics are embedded in it; and explores how they are received and negotiated in the countries concerned, thus contributing to the wider debate on values, ethics, and technology.

Mots-clés : china digital silk road,china belt and road initiative,digital technologies,infrastructure,myanmar,cambodia,kazakhstan,internet,internet governance
Projet ERC : ii-MAX (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : Institut national de recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inrae
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499875.0 €

As staple food crops, cereals are essential to feed the world’s growing population. Keeping pace with demography and global change requires increasing cereal yields in a sustainable manner. Destructive fungal pathogens such as Magnaporthe oryzae, the causal agent of the blast disease, represent major threats to cereal production. In this context, the ii-MAX project will produce ground-breaking knowledge of fungal virulence and plant immunity that will be valuable to engineer durable resistance to blast in cereals. During plant infection, pathogens deploy molecular weapons known as effectors that target cellular processes of the host to promote infection. In M. oryzae, a particularly large and diverse family of effectors has recently been discovered: the MAX (Magnaporthe AVRs and ToxB-like) effector family. Remarkably, these effectors possess various protein sequences but exhibit a conserved structure. The MAX effector family is specific to ascomycete fungi but has undergone massive expansion in M. oryzae suggesting a primary role for these effectors in the infectious process. Nonetheless, the cellular mechanisms they target in cereals are largely unknown. The aim of my project is to identify the host proteins targeted by M. oryzae MAX effectors and conduct a comprehensive study of the biophysical and functional interactions between MAX effectors and their target proteins in rice. This will enable new sources of resistance to be developed by modifying host susceptibility proteins targeted by MAX effectors. To achieve this goal, I defined four objectives: 1-Identify the host proteins targeted by MAX effectors. 2-Define the structural and biophysical properties governing the interaction of MAX effectors with their virulence targets in cereals. 3-Improve resistance to blast in rice by mutating virulence targets of MAX effectors required for susceptibility to M. oryzae. 4-Elucidate the virulence function of MAX effectors through functional investigation of their targets.

Mots-clés : magnaporthe oryzae,effectors,rice,immunity,susceptibility,resistance
Projet ERC : AI-DEMON (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Entité participante : Trinity College Dublin — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TCD
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499786.0 €

As technologies based on semiconductors and ferromagnets are reaching their limits in computational and memory-storage capabilities, new technologies based on spin are emerging as alternative. Magnetic molecules represent the ultimate small-scale magnetic unit that can be synthesized and processed into a device for spintronics and quantum computing applications but their use is confined to very low temperatures. The grand challenge of this proposal is to design magnetic molecules with long spin lifetime at ambient temperature by tuning the main microscopic interaction responsible for spin relaxation: the spin-phonon coupling. AI-DEMON will address this challenge by developing a novel first-principles and machine-learning computational framework able to cover all the essential aspects of the design of new coordination compounds with tailored properties. AI-DEMON has three main objectives, each one representing a major contribution to the field: i) I will unveil the mechanism of spin-phonon relaxation in magnetic molecules by developing a quantitative first-principles spin relaxation theory, ii) I will efficiently explore the chemical space of magnetic coordination compounds by developing a universal machine-learning model able to predict vibrational and magnetic properties, and iii) I will design molecular prototypes with tailored magnetic and vibrational properties by developing generative machine-learning methods. Preliminary results on spin relaxation theory and machine-learning applied to magnetic properties show great promise and set the cornerstone of the project. The use of novel methodologies, such as machine learning and first-principles spin dynamics, represent a strong disruption in the current approach to theoretical modelling and discovery of new magnetic molecules and will propel the field into a new and modern era. Significant impact beyond the field of molecular magnetism, e.g. bio-inorganic chemistry and solid-state qubits, can also be anticipated.

Mots-clés : molecular magnetism,molecular qubits,spin phonon relaxation,spin dynamics,machine learning,first principles calculations
Projet ERC : DEFEND (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Wellcome Trust — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : WT
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 107273.75 €

Asthma and behavioral problems related to neurodevelopmental delay such as ADHD and autism are common childhood disorder with lack of insight in disease mechanisms and no preventive measures, which is an unmet medical and societal need. In the Danish COPSAC mother-child cohort, I showed in two randomized trials that pregnancy supplements with n-3 long-chained polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LCPUFA) and high-dose vitamin D reduced offspring asthma risk, improved cognitive scores and accelerated language and milestone achievement, which was replicated in the American VDAART vitamin D trial. This holds the promise for primary prevention but establishing underlying biochemical mechanisms and effect modification by maternal and early life diet and host genetics remains to achieve a personalized preventive strategy targeting supplements only to those women, whose offspring will benefit from it. This research project aims to understand how dietary supplements and diet in pregnancy and early life shapes the child’s metabolism and how this is linked to asthma and neurodevelopment, using longitudinal untargeted and targeted metabolomics profiles from more than 1,500 mother-child pairs in COPSAC and VDAART, detailed data on maternal and infant diet, the early life exposome, and genetics and genomics data. The objective is to identify metabolites and biochemical pathways of importance for asthma and neurodevelopment, focusing on n-3/n-6 LCPUFAs, sphingolipids and tryptophan, with the ultimate goal to achieve healthy lung and brain development through personalized diet interventions during pregnancy. The transdisciplinary study group lead by the applicant consisting of MDs with pediatric, respiratory and psychiatric expertise, wet and dry lab metabolomics experts and bioinformaticians will bridge basic and clinical sciences in an international collaboration between COPSAC, Denmark, and VDAART at Harvard Medical School, US.

Mots-clés : asthma,child,diet,long chained polyunsaturated fatty acids,metabolomics,neurodevelopment,pregnancy,prevention,vitamin d
Projet ERC : KERNEL (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : OCA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1717811.0 €

Astronomy requires large telescopes to improve the sensitivity and the angular resolution of its observations. Of these qualities, angular resolution is the most difficult to maintain in the optical and near-infrared, since the atmosphere reduces it to that of a 10 cm aperture, regardless of the telescope size. On the one-hand, Adaptive Optics (AO) actively compensates for this effect but the improvement is often partial only. On the other hand, interferometric techniques (most notably sparse aperture masking interferometry) passively allow the extraction of self-calibrating observables, that boost the angular resolution, but severely affect the sensitivity of observations. A framework newly established by the PI of the proposal however now makes it possible to extract generalized self-calibrating observables called kernel-phases from conventional AO-corrected images. The work outlined in this proposal will make it possible to scientifically exploit the high angular resolution imaging capability of this technique, to improve its robustness and to expand its capabilities. The framework offers a very general purpose high angular resolution imaging tool for astronomers as well as wavefront control experts. This proposal is organized in five work-packages of increasing challenge that include: the reinterpretation of existing archival data with a super-resolution capability, the expansion of its robustness to open up new more challenging use-cases, a special focus on the development of a very high-dynamic range mode, the adaptation of interferometric image reconstruction techniques, and the development of new advanced AO concepts. The consequences of this project will have a major impact on the design and scientific exploitation of future high angular resolution instrumentation on the existing generation of 8-10 meter class telescopes as well as on the upcoming generation of 30-40 meter giants, championned by Europe and its E-ELT.

Mots-clés : interferometry,high contrast imaging,extrasolar planets,low mass stars,brown dwarfs
Projet ERC : EARTHCAM (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Philipps University of Marburg — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2264184.0 €

Asymmetric catalysis relies on the design of chiral catalysts and is dedicated to the economical generation of non-racemic chiral compounds, which are building blocks for the production of drugs, agricultural chemicals, flavors, fragrances, and materials. Chiral transition metal complexes constitute an important class of chiral catalysts and are typically synthesized by combining metal salts or organometallic precursors with chiral ligands. A neglected approach follows a different direction and exploits the generation of metal-centered chirality in the course of the assembly of achiral ligands around a central metal. Our group has pioneered the general use of such chiral-at-metal catalysts from noble metals, with the metal center both serving as the exclusive stereogenic center and at the same time acting as the reactive center for catalysis. The design of reactive chiral-at-metal catalysts based on earth-abundant metals, which have economical and environmental benefits, is the focus of this proposal. The design strategy appeals for its combination of sustainability (earth-abundant metals) and simplicity (achiral ligands). Furthermore, without the requirement for chiral motifs in the ligand sphere, untapped opportunities emerge for the design of chiral 3d metal complexes with distinct electronic properties and unique architectures. This unexplored chemical space for chiral catalysts will be applied to the challenging enantioselective functionalization of C(sp3)-H bonds with inexpensive and sustainable 3d metal catalysts. The implementation of chiral-at-metal catalysts from earth-abundant metals will rely on taming the high lability of coordinative bonds of 3d metals to warrant a satisfactory configuration stability. This will be addressed by exploiting the chelate effect of tailored multidentate ligands in combination with strong-field ligands and attractive weak interactions between coordinated ligands.

Mots-clés : metal centered chirality,asymmetric catalysis,earth abundant metals