Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : PhotoPHYTOMICS (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
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 : 1424813.0 €

Phytoplankton is not only at the basis of the marine food chain but also an important buffer of climate changes, given that marine photosynthesis is responsible of 50% of the CO2 fixation on Earth. Despite their central roles in the Ocean, our understanding of the forces that shape the dynamics and structuration of phytoplankton communities is still limited by major methodological constraints in the marine environment. Prominent among them is the difficulty to simultaneously measure physiological responses from each microalga species within mixtures, which prevail in the Ocean. I recently developed an innovative approach based on a physical phenomenon, the Electro-Chromic Shift (ECS) of the photosynthetic pigments, to extract the photosynthetic responses of each species within an assembly. Photosynthesis is an ideal probe, i.e., a gateway to investigate both biotic interactions and abiotic stresses which are major determinants of the structuration of the phytoplankton community, because it is the prime target of those external factors. In this project, I propose to use this method to analyze the effects of three major parameters that contribute to shaping the ecological patterns at sea: differential capacities to harvest nutrients (leading to competition for nutrients); direct inhibition of the metabolism of competitors through the use of secondary metabolites (allelopathy), and, in addition to these biotic interactions, the responses of phytoplankton species to the rapid and intense light changes to which they are subjected. These studies will be conducted both in laboratory conditions and in the field for validation, so that the overall project will ultimately constitute a major breakthrough: it will provide a new tool allowing the study in situ and in real time of the cellular mechanisms giving rise to the ecological patterns observed in the Ocean.

Mots-clés : photosynthesis,phytoplankton
Projet ERC : SoftHandler (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : Qbrobotics srl — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 78250.0 €

Picking and placing objects that are orderly presented to a robot is a task that can be easily performed by current robots. However, grasping and manipulating objects randomly placed in an unstructured environment remains one of the hardest challenges for robots. Examples of complex picking industrial applications include (i) bin picking for part feeding, (ii) raw food handling and (iii) waste sorting for recycling. Within the "SoftHandler" ERC Proof of Concept project, we propose to develop new industrial-grade systems, comprised of end-effectors based on the "SoftHands" technology, integrated with a novel manipulator, for automated picking and placing of objects of heterogeneous dimension, shape, weight, position and strength. The Proof of Concept project will be focused on building a commercially viable prototype, and demonstrating it in real-world scenarios.

Mots-clés : robotics,unstructured environment,material handling,soft manipulator
Projet ERC : VapLoss (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : National Research Council — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNR
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 698037.6 €

Planets have long been thought to be made from building blocks of primitive (chondritic) meteorites. Yet it has become increasingly clear that such models fail to reproduce the composition of the best constrained planet, Earth. Problematically, no combination of chondritic meteorites can simultaneously explain Earth’s major element composition and isotopic characteristics. This striking dilemma points to the need for a radical reassessment of the current paradigm of planet formation. A tacit assumption of most previous models has been growth with a chemically closed system. Recent work has pointed to the likelihood of significant vapour loss during energetic, collisional accretion. Substantial modifications of the composition of a planet could occur as a result of vapour loss during this accretion. However, there is a critical lack of data to establish whether this drastically different model of planet formation accounts for the apparently conflicting perspectives on planetary origins from isotopic and elemental data. In this proposal I will therefore quantify the consequences of such major vapour loss during violent planetary growth. In a multi-faceted approach, I will undertake i) pioneering, high-temperature experiments mimicking partial vaporisation of molten planetary bodies, combined with ii) analysis of critical elemental and isotopic distributions between the liquid and co-existing vapour from the experiments as well as in key meteorites and terrestrial samples, and iii) numerical modelling to trace the chemical evolution of a planetary body as vapour loss proceeds in various astrophysical scenarios. In combination, this work will allow me to assess rigorously the value of promising models of vapour loss in accounting for the long problematic volatile contents of planetary bodies as well as the unique abundances of Earth’s main constituents.

Mots-clés : planetary chemistry,formation of earth,experimental petrology
Projet ERC : VOLARE (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : University of Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UvA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Plant leaves can emit large amounts of volatiles into the air. When attacked by insects, the composition of these blends changes markedly. It is well known that these changes affect not only the behavior of insects interacting with the plant but also the metabolism of the plant itself as well as its nearby competitors. However, how plants perceive these volatiles and generate a functional response is not known. My research activities have been dedicated to a group of plant volatiles emitted the earliest upon herbivory, the so-called green leaf volatiles (GLVs). I discovered a class of enzymes, present in plants and insects, that profoundly affect ecological interactions by converting the highly abundant GLV Z-3-hexenal into E-2-hexenal (Science 2010, eLife 2013, Frontiers in Plant Science 2017). These two compounds, as well as their derivatives, among which Z-3- and E-2-hexenyl acetate, have distinct effects on the behavior of herbivorous and predacious insects as well as on the metabolism of plants. Here I propose to take my program to the next level by elucidating how plants and insects perceive E-2-hexenal and hexenyl acetates. First I will use a classical mutagenesis screen and a cutting-edge technique called chemical yeast 3-hybrid (Y3H) to identify plant proteins involved in signal processing and especially perception of volatiles. With the newly identified genes in hand I will create non-responsive mutant plants to investigate the role of these key volatiles in the plant's self-recognition and its interactions with herbivorous insects and pathogens. Simultaneously, I will use Y3H to also identify insect proteins that directly interact with either E-2-hexenal or E-2-hexenyl acetate and I will create non-responsive insects using CRISPR-Cas9 and assess how this affects their behavior. This interdisciplinary research project will uncover the perception mechanism of key plant volatile signals and the roles these play in the (eco)physiology of plants and insects.

Mots-clés : green leaf volatiles,perception,plant insect interaction,e 2 hexenal,hexenal isomerase
Projet ERC : CELLONGATE (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cellular, Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Entité participante : Charles University — Pays : Rép. Tchèque — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1498750.0 €

Plants differ strikingly from animals by the almost total absence of cell migration in their development. Plants build their bodies using a hydrostatic skeleton that consists of pressurized cells encased by a cell wall. Consequently, plant cells cannot migrate and must sculpture their bodies by orientation of cell division and precise regulation of cell growth. Cell growth depends on the balance between internal cell pressure – turgor, and strength of the cell wall. Cell growth is under a strict developmental control, which is exemplified in the Arabidopsis thaliana root tip, where massive cell elongation occurs in a defined spatio-temporal developmental window. Despite the immobility of their cells, plant organs move to optimize light and nutrient acquisition and to orient their bodies along the gravity vector. These movements depend on differential regulation of cell elongation across the organ, and on response to the phytohormone auxin. Even though the control of cell growth is in the epicenter of plant development, protein networks steering the developmental growth onset, coordination and termination remain elusive. Similarly, although auxin is the central regulator of growth, the molecular mechanism of its effect on root growth is unknown. In this project, I will establish a unique microscopy setup for high spatio-temporal resolution live-cell imaging equipped with a microfluidic lab-on-chip platform optimized for growing roots, to enable analysis and manipulation of root growth physiology. I will use developmental gradients in the root to discover genes that steer cellular growth, by correlating transcriptome profiles of individual cell types with the cell size. In parallel, I will exploit the auxin effect on root to unravel molecular mechanisms that control cell elongation. Finally, I am going to combine the live-cell imaging methodology with the gene discovery approaches to chart a dynamic spatio-temporal physiological map of a growing Arabidopsis root.

Mots-clés : arabidopsis,cell wall,auxin,live cell imaging,microfluidics
Projet ERC : RuMicroPlas (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : Ben-Gurion University of the Negev — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : BGU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499000.0 €

Plasmids are known to be major contributors to lateral gene transfer in bacterial genomes; however, their comprehensive evolutionary role within bacterial communities is poorly understood. Recently we have developed cutting edge abilities to access a plasmid population (plasmidome) of a given microbial community, and applied them to rumen microbial communities. These abilities are an element long-needed for the study of microbial lateral gene transfer and evolution. Ruminants house a highly complex microbial community in the rumen compartment of their digestive tract, with which they have evolved into an obligatory co-dependence. Its confined nature provides a perfect system for the study of evolutionary dynamics within microbial communities. Here we propose to study the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of the rumen plasmidome and its interaction with the rumen microbiome using our established approaches, together with a dense host-sampling resolution. We aim to understand the origins and assembly of these two entities, as well as their interactions with each other. We will explore the effect of early assemblages on the adult plasmidome and microbiome phenotypes. To complement the overview of global trends, we will study local interactions among individual rumen plasmids with their microbial host's genome and physiology at the single-plasmid level. These two distinct perspectives will allow us to understand the role played by plasmids within this complex microbial community, the co-evolutionary relationships between these two entities and their importance to the overall rumen ecosystem. Based on a plasmid-centric approach, this study bears the unique ability to examine lateral gene transfer in “real time” by following genes on their transfer “vehicles”, and providing new insights into the fine details of microbial evolution. Its goals, many challenges and new approach place this proposal at the cutting edge of current research in microbial ecology and evolution.

Mots-clés : plasmids,plasmidome,metagenomics,lateral gene transfer,horizontal gene transfer,microbiome
Projet ERC : NaPuE (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : University of Turin — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNITO
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 849026.0 €

Plastics pollution is ubiquitous and plastic debris have been found almost everywhere from the Alps to Antarctica, and even in the atmosphere. The size of individual plastic particles spans several orders of magnitude, and many of them are in the micro- and nanometre range. Nanoplastics (NPs) can be produced through degradation of larger plastic pieces, or they can directly enter the environment by incorrect disposal. Little is known about NPs in the environment, and their occurrence in the oceans has only recently been demonstrated. Due to their small size and large surface-to-volume ratio, the interactions of NPs with naturally occurring chemical species can be significantly different compared to larger debris. NaPuE will assess the environmental impact of NPs by determining how NPs can interact with abiotic components (e.g. oxidants, light, etc.) in seawater and in the atmosphere, and how these interactions can disrupt natural processes including seawater photochemistry and air-sea exchanges. The first part of the project will use laboratory experiments to determine kinetic constants and degradation products for NPs reactions with both sunlight, and chemicals species in seawater and in the atmosphere. The second part will focus on developing a procedure to collect and analyse NPs in the environment, which is crucial to assess their occurrence. Several approaches will be tested to this purpose, from mass spectrometry to aerosol measurement techniques. Finally, the reactivity of NPs in the environment will be modelled to evaluate their potential impact on natural photochemical processes, sea-atmosphere exchanges and the carbon cycle. We will provide exceptional insights into the reactivity and transformation mechanisms of NPs in the environment. Combined with the data about NPs occurrence, these results will be crucial to assess the environmental impact of NP pollution and will be decisive in developing strategies to solve the problems related to plastic pollution.

Mots-clés : plastic pollution,photodegradation,organic carbon,reactive oxygen species,interface reactions,methodology development,aerosol,trace gases
Projet ERC : MAPPOLA (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : University of Vienna — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Univie
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000529.0 €

Poetry was the most affordable art form in the Roman world: all it required were words, and someone with a talent to arrange them in a meaningful, aesthetically convincing way. Yet, the study of Latin poetry has traditionally almost exclusively focused on a small, judiciously transmitted canon of texts – a segment of Rome’s artistic production that favours the poetry that was produced, enjoyed, and controlled, by a political, social, and financial urban elite, reinforcing their claim to cultural superiority. Focusing on a body of over 4,000 Latin verse inscriptions that have survived from the third century B. C. to Late Antiquity and cover the Roman empire in its entirety, representing ancient Rome’s middle and lower social strata in particular, MAPPOLA is an unprecedented effort to democratise our understanding of Roman poetry. A fundamentally multidisciplinary project that will make use of recent methodological advances in linguistic, historical, and archaeological scholarship, MAPPOLA’s prime aim is fundamentally to reassess the verse inscriptions as evidence for poetry as a ubiquitous, inclusive cultural practice of the people of ancient Rome beyond the palaces of its urban aristocracy. It will provide answers to the following questions: How is the empire’s considerable regional and ethnic diversity reflected in the engagement with inscribed verse? How and where did poetic landscapes emerge, and what inspired them? What was the cultural and social significance of inscribed Latin verse? How did subcultures and poetic subversion take shape? How did inscribed poetry transcend and transgress artificially imposed boundaries and abstractions? Over five years, organised into five integrated Work Packages and firmly rooted in the PI’s long-term vision, MAPPOLA will open a new area of empirical and quantitative research, alongside traditional qualititative approaches, into Latin poetry and its European legacy.

Mots-clés : latin poetry,carmina latina epigraphica,latin verse inscriptions,roman song culture,latin epigraphy,roman epigraphy
Projet ERC : CAPE (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
Entité participante : University of Groningen — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : RUG
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1103295.0 €

Positive peer experiences are crucial for young people’s health and wellbeing. Accordingly, multiple studies (including my own) have described long-term negative psychological and behavioral consequences when adolescents’ peer relationships are dysfunctional. Paradoxically, knowledge on adult social consequences of adolescent peer experiences –relationships with others a decade later - is much less extensive. Informed by social learning and attachment theory, I tackle this gap and investigate whether and how peer experiences are transmitted to other social contexts, and intergenerationally, i.e., passed on to the next generation. My aim is to shed light on how the “ghosts from peer past” affect young adults’ relationships and their children. To this end, I examine longitudinal links between adolescent peer and young adult close relationships and test whether parents’ peer experiences affect offspring’s peer experiences. Psychological functioning, parenting, temperament, genetic, and epigenetic transmission mechanisms are examined separately and in interplay, which 1) goes far beyond the current state-of-the-art in social development research, and 2) significantly broadens my biosocially oriented work on genetic effects in the peer context. My plans utilize data from the TRAILS (Tracking Adolescents’ Individual Lives’ Survey) cohort that has been followed from age 11 to 26. To study intergenerational transmission, the TRAILS NEXT sample of participants with children is substantially extended. This project uniquely studies adult social consequences of peer experiences and, at the same time, follows children’s first steps into the peer world. The intergenerational approach and provision for environmental, genetic, and epigenetic mediation put this project at the forefront of developmental research and equip it with the potential to generate the knowledge needed to chase away the ghosts from the peer past.

Mots-clés : peers,adolescence,intergenerational,developmental
Projet ERC : StressHUb (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions
Entité participante : University of Dundee — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2185859.0 €

Posttranslational modification of proteins with monoubiquitin or different polyubiquitin chains alter protein function to signal distinct responses in cells and thereby regulate every aspect of eukaryotic biology. Recently, ubiquitin has also been reported to form branched heterotypic chains. The central premise of this proposal is that branched ubiquitin chains adopt unique conformations and convey distinct intracellular signals essential for maintaining cellular homeostasis. We posit that branching of homotypic ubiquitin chains or de novo formation of branched structures occurs in response to specific cues and they serve as priority signals to mediate prompt cellular responses. The complex nature of branched heterotypic ubiquitin, the lack of tools to specifically and efficiently probe different branched ubiquitin structures and the relatively low abundance of these chains in a cell make it challenging to study them. In this proposal, I will describe an ambitious approach to define how branched ubiquitin serve as unique signals to elicit cellular stress responses. To attain these goals, we will pioneer the development of novel designer tools and methods, which we will combine with quantitative proteomics, single cell analyses, biochemistry and structural biology. We will elucidate the molecular players involved in the assembly, decoding and regulation of branched ubiquitin. We will develop approaches to monitor branched ubiquitin formation in cells to identify stress conditions that trigger formation of branched ubiquitin chains. We will functionally characterize how distinct branched heterotypic ubiquitin signals are formed in response to stress and serve as priority signals to trigger stress-response pathways. Our work will shed light on fundamental principles of intracellular signalling and mechanisms that maintain cellular homeostasis.

Mots-clés : ubiquitin,deubiquitinases,ubiquitin ligases,ubiquitin signalling,cellular homeostasis,signal transduction mechanisms