Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : anthropYXX (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Université de Toulouse — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UT
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1487116.0 €

The project anthropYXX proposes an archaeogenomic exploration of the status and life of women and men during the key transitional period between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age in occidental Europe, with the ambition to better understand the deep roots of gender contrasts in present-day societies. Inequalities today can be measured through economical markers, health or education levels. As these metrics are not directly accessible in prehistoric periods, alternative proxies have to be exploited to trace back the emergence of inequalities, including data from ethno-archaeology and anthropobiology, traditional isotopic analyses, or the interpretation of funerary practices and artistic representation. The project anthropYXX proposes to add palaeogenomics to the current gender archaeology toolkit. More specifically, anthropYXX aims at leveraging the latest advances in ancient genomics applied to a rich collection of protohistoric human remains, and combined with isotopic data, to better picture the contrasted life of women and men, through the reconstruction of family structures, inbreeding levels and residential rules. The health status of the women and men, and their associated microbes, will be assessed. The development of innovative approaches both on the bench and in silico will enable the characterization of past DNA methylation levels and their comparison with modern data, especially at positions impacted by adverse life conditions. Finally we will document the populations’ genetic heterogeneity and investigate the hypotheses of sex biases in population migrations. The anthropYXX project will provide a new proxy to test if (i) health conditions, reproductive behaviour, as well as epigenetic environmental impact, were contrasted between women and men during protohistory, (ii) men and women contributed differently to the genetic makeup of European populations, and (iii) these contrasts were exacerbated during the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age.

Mots-clés : palaeogenomics,ancient dna,epigenetics,gender,neolithic,bronze age,isotopes
Projet ERC : REGULADOSIX (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative B iology : from Genes and Genomes to S ystems
Entité participante : Université de Toulouse — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UT
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 110735.0 €

Differences in gene dosage can be as powerful as to drive species evolution (e.g., whole-genome duplications) and as harmful as to lead to human diseases (e.g., aneuploidies or haploinsufficiencies). Regulating the effects of gene-dosage differences is thus extremely critical, and this is paradigmatically illustrated by what happens to the X chromosome in mammals. In XX individuals, one of the X chromosomes is transcriptionally silenced as a result of a developmental and epigenetic process called X-chromosome inactivation (XCI), which is presumed to have evolved to compensate X-linked gene dosage between XX and XY individuals. Since its ‘discovery’ in 1961 by Mary Lyon, we have learnt much about XCI developmental dynamics and molecular underpinnings, however very little is understood about the developmental and molecular reasons at the basis of its evolution. REGULADOSIX aims to gain a functional and mechanistic understanding of the need of X-linked dosage compensation in mammals – we will (i) determine the developmental and molecular consequences in the absence of XCI in mouse embryogenesis, and (ii) functionally identify genes on the X chromosome that are dosage-sensitive, as well as their functions, which would have dictated the emergence of XCI in mammalian evolution. Building on my previous expertise, I propose a multidisciplinary approach at the intersection between development and genetic engineering, which includes cutting-edge genomic technologies (epigenetic screens, functional transcriptomics and proteomics) and novel approaches that we will develop to tune levels of expression in mouse embryonic stem cells and in mouse models. Besides bringing new insights into the need for dosage compensation between the mammalian sexes, REGULADOSIX will contribute to a quantitative understanding of gene expression, and pave the way to establishing fundamental principles of gene dosage regulation in development and disease.

Mots-clés : x chromosome inactivation dosage compensation gene dosage dosage sensitivity mouse embryonic stem cells
Projet ERC : Super-FALCON (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and Processes Engineering
Entité participante : Université de Twente — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Our healthcare system is under unsustainable strain owing, largely, to cardiovascular diseases and cancer. For both, imaging vasculature and flow precisely is paramount to reduce costs while improving diagnosis and treatment. Specifically, the focus is on the multiscale aspects of shear, vorticity, pressure and capillary bed (10-200 μm vessels) structure and mechanics. However, this requires an imaging depth of ~10 cm with a resolution of ~50μm. Furthermore, velocities often exceed 1m/s, which requires a frame rate of ~1000 fps. Clinical imaging modalities have so far been hindered by insufficient spatiotemporal resolution and there is thus a dire need for new techniques. Plane-wave ultrasound enhanced with contrast microbubbles outperforms all modalities in safety, cost, and speed, and is thus the ideal candidate to address this need. The strategy I propose in Super-FALCON harnesses the nonlinear dynamics of monodisperse microbubbles. In WP1, I will use deep learning and GPU-accelerated acoustic simulations to recover super-resolved (1/20th of the wavelength) bubble clouds. In WP2, I will create a new model for confined bubbles, and use them as nonlinear sensors for capillary imaging. In WP3, I will disentangle attenuation and scattering using (physics-informed) deep learning and correct for wave distortion. This is needed to apply the strategies from WP1 and 2 in deep tissue. Finally, in WP4, I will use automatic segmentation to integrate the fundamental results of WP1, 2 and 3 into a technology that I will scientifically assess on vascularized ex vivo livers. With Super-FALCON, my ambition is to generate a long-term impact both scientifically and societally. I will produce new fundamental knowledge about confined bubble dynamics, inhomogeneous ultrasound propagation, and deconvolution strategies as well as new experimental methods for flow imaging and characterization. In healthcare, Super-FALCON could initiate a paradigm shift towards patient-specific treatment.

Mots-clés : ultrasound imaging,nonlinear microbubble physics,inhomogeneous wave propagation,deep learning
Projet ERC : CHORUS (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and Processes Engineering
Entité participante : Université de Rennes — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UNIVRENNES
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 19687.0 €

Fluid flow in porous media plays a central role in a large spectrum of geological, biological and industrial systems. Recent advances have shown that microscale chemical gradients are sustained by pore-scale chaotic flow dynamics. This fundamentally challenges the current macrodispersion paradigm that assumes that porous transport processes occurs under well-mixed microscale conditions. Using novel experimental, numerical and theoretical approaches, CHORUS will explore the origin, diversity and consequences of chaotic mixing in porous and fractured media. For this, the team will develop a new generation of imaging techniques coupling laser induced fluorescence, refractive index matching and additive manufacturing of complex and realistic porous and fractured architectures (WP1 and WP2). The CHORUS team will use these insights to develop new modelling concepts for describing scalar mixing and dispersion in microscale (WP3) and multiscale (WP4) systems. Building on these experimental, numerical and theoretical breakthroughs, CHORUS will design “smart” porous flows with porous architectures that selectively optimize mixing, dispersive or reactive properties (WP5). CHORUS will thus develop a new paradigm for transport dynamics in porous and fractured media, with far-reaching applications for the understanding, modelling and control of a range of natural and industrial processes, including contaminant transport and biogeochemical reactions in the subsurface, CO2 sequestration, membrane-less flow batteries, flow chemistry, chromatography or catalysis.

Mots-clés : porous media,transport,mixing,dispersion,fractured media,lagrangian chaos
Projet ERC : i-SignalTrace (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative B iology : from Genes and Genomes to S ystems
Entité participante : Leiden University Medical Center — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LUMC
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Understanding the identity and intensity of the specific extracellular signals that a cell experiences at different times during its differentiation is essential to develop advanced cellular therapies. However, uncovering the sequence of these signaling events, their intensities, timing, and relevance in development and disease is proving to be very challenging.  Here, I propose to build i-SignalTrace: a CRISPR/Cas9-based molecular recorder with the capacity to store both lineage information and signalling pathway activity for multiple signals over time in single cells. By performing kinetic experiments and mathematical modeling, I will use i-SignalTrace to extract the probability of signalling pathways to be activated in stem cells when subject to different extracellular signals and reconstruct the lineage tree of pathway activities during differentiation with single-cell resolution. In combination with single-cell RNA sequencing, i-SignalTrace will make it possible to characterize transition and intermediate states along differentiation trajectories, and quantify the integration between extracellular signals and autonomous programs of gene expression. These results will allow predicting the differentiation trajectories that stem cells follow when subject to external perturbations, and deciphering the role of heterogeneity in signalling pathway activity during cell-fate commitment.  Using i-SignalTrace, I will identify missing or redundant signalling pathways induced during in vitro differentiation protocols. Therefore, I expect that exploitation of i-SignalTrace will allow establishing new criteria to design protocols to differentiate stem cells on demand. As a proof-of-concept, I propose a framework to improve the functionality of monolayer-derived cardiomyocytes. Taken together, i- SignalTrace will find applications in both fundamental developmental biology and translational regenerative medicine, which will benefit a much wider scientific community.

Mots-clés : crispr cas9 based lineage tracing,single cell sequencing,waddington landscape,in vitro differentiation,differentiation trajectory,cell differentiation
Projet ERC : RevIdEM (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Académie autrichienne des sciences — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ÖAW
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1496657.5 €

RevIdEM combines new insights from Cultural Memory Studies, Mediterranean Intellectual History, and Manuscript Studies, in order to provide the first comprehensive analysis of the monastic revival in the Eastern Mediterranean between 969 and 1375 CE. Challenging traditional avenues of research, RevIdEM will focus on the metanarratives ('myths') about the origins of Christian monasticism in Egypt (4th century CE), and their later reception in the culturally complex environment of the Medieval Mediterranean. The project reappraises this ample medieval engagement with late antique asceticism as an original intellectual endeavour spanning linguistic and political boundaries. To the same end, RevIdEM will tap the enormous potential of the large number of Syriac, Arabic, and Armenian ascetic manuscripts produced in this time frame as new sources for the religious, cultural and social history of the region. Essential information on the scribes, readers, users and circulation of these documents will be collected in an online database. By interpreting this hitherto neglected corpus of sources as focal points of ‘cultural memory making’, RevIdEM will explain the lasting success and wide-ranging impact of the Egyptian ascetic ideal in the Medieval Mediterranean. The project will thus pinpoint the role of cultural memory as the main catalyst of the monastic revival. In order to achieve these objectives, the team will focus on carefully selected case studies from Northern Syria, Egypt, and Armenian Cilicia, exploring the ways in which the monastic authors, scribes and compilers of these regions constructed and disseminated their narratives of early desert asceticism. By revaluing the cultural, social and political significance of monastic life in the medieval Levant and highlighting the role of metanarratives and cultural memory as engines of historical change, the results of RevIdEM will represent a major paradigm shift in the study of Mediterranean History.

Mots-clés : asceticism,monasticism,cultural memory,manuscripts,cultural entanglements,syriac,copto arabic literature,armenian cilicia
Projet ERC : COLDSPOT (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
Entité participante : Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : AWI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1511781.0 €

The release of greenhouse gases from the terrestrial biosphere is of global importance. The Arctic is a net source of the greenhouse gases methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), and a biogeochemically important ecosystem due to immense soil carbon and nitrogen pools and above-average warming. An observation-bias in Arctic greenhouse gas reporting towards high-emitting ‘hotspot’ sites is evident. In contrast, uptake of CH4 and N2O by Arctic soils, leading to greenhouse gas removal from the atmosphere, could partially compensate for carbon and nitrogen losses and completely redefine our baseline understanding of Arctic and global greenhouse gas budgets. No consideration has been given to understanding natural CH4 and N2O sinks in the Arctic, and the complex biogeochemical mechanisms governing these ‘coldspots’. I aim to show that Arctic greenhouse gas uptake matters, and that, contrary to traditional beliefs, intricate temporal uptake patterns exist and are driven by plant and microbial functioning. COLDSPOT will fulfil the scientific need to know when, where, and why Arctic soils act as a sink for CH4 and N2O, and will identify novel mechanisms underlying Arctic greenhouse gas uptake. High-resolution, laser-based measurements of soil CH4 and N2O uptake at field sites in Canada, Greenland, and Finland will be combined with machine learning tools and in-depth studies of environmental drivers in sophisticated experimental manipulations. COLDSPOT applies a multi-scale approach combining field-based measurements of multiple gas species with climate simulation experiments in state-of-the-art climate chambers in the laboratory, and investigations ranging from the microbial scale, via soil and plant processes to ecosystem-scale models. COLDSPOT will generate new process-understanding, fundamentally transform our perception of the magnitude and functioning of greenhouse gas sinks in the Arctic, and provide breakthrough insights for Arctic and global greenhouse gas research.

Mots-clés : arctic tundra,terrestrial biogeochemistry,soil incubations,permafrost soils,greenhouse gas fluxes,chamber measurements,methane,nitrogen cycle
Projet ERC : BICLOPS (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
Entité participante : Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : AWI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499981.0 €

Coordinated vertical migrations of animals in open waters (pelagic zone) are among the largest biomass movements on Earth. They structure marine ecosystem and are thereby essential to humans (e.g. fisheries, carbon-cycle). Yet, the mechanisms of these migrations are hardly understood, especially the impact of endogenous clocks vs. direct responses to environmental cycles. Endogenous clocks are central to various organismal rhythms. Importantly, they maintain organismal rhythmicity even under constant environmental conditions, clearly distinguishing clock-driven processes from those that are directly environmentally-controlled. Pelagic vertical migration behavior, environment and clocks strongly feed back onto each other, but molecular mechanistic functioning under these conditions is at present not understood at all, largely due to the lack of a pelagic lab animal model.  BICLOPS will determine the role of endogenous clocks and different environmental cues in shaping pelagic vertical migrations, using the copepod Calanus finmarchicus – a Northern Atlantic ecological key species – as a lab model system. I will combine my expertise with this species and with ecological and functional molecular approaches to address four objectives: – determine how light affects the circadian clock and define neural clock centers and light receptors. – determine circadian clock functional interactions and effects of temperature/oxygen cycles. – identify external/internal regulators of copepod seasonal diapause. – determine how individual clock components affect diel and seasonal rhythmicity by functional clock interference.  By determining clock functioning in a representative pelagic key species under environmental cycles shaped by the migrations themselves, BICLOPS will transform our knowledge of pelagic rhythm mechanisms. Understanding the processes that structure pelagic ecosystems is essential to predict their responses to climate change and implement measures to preserve them.

Mots-clés : marine chronobiology,zooplankton migrations,behavior environment interactions
Projet ERC : STORMtheWALL (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and R egeneration
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 : 2029368.0 €

Plants critically shape ecosystems and our societies by converting sunlight and CO2 into O2 and bio-mass while they grow. Understanding this growth process constitutes a major frontier in plant research. Growth is a multi-scale process. At a subcellular scale, it depends on the expansion of the cell walls, which involves changes in the chemistry and architecture of constituent polymer networks. Very little is known on the nature and the control of the cell wall changes that are critical for growth, in striking contrast to the, often detailed, knowledge of growth-regulating signaling networks. This is in part due to the lack of appropriate tools to study changes in the complex cell wall polymer assemblies that often occur at fast (~s) and small (<micrometer) scales. In this project, I propose firstly, to breach the spatial limits of the tools by using multi-target optical nanoscopy to visualize cell wall architecture and remodeling, and secondly, to overcome their temporal limits by using light-gated actuators and multiplexed intracellular biosensors to simultaneously perturb and monitor the system dynamics in vivo. In particular, I will address pectin remodeling, the role of which in plant growth was shown to be critical, but without clearly understanding the mechanism. My objectives are to (1) reveal the key changes in cell wall architecture and chemistry during growth, (2) understand the fast signaling by which cells perceive and coordinate wall remodeling, and (3) build a dynamic hybrid model to explain how plants coordinate wall expansion. This interdisciplinary project will provide new insights into the nanoscale organization of cell walls and propose a novel pectin-based mechanism for its active reorganization during growth. This will provide an essential framework, not only for understanding plant growth and morphogenesis but also for the study of life beyond the plasma membrane, for instance in relation to immunity, multicellularity, or symbiosis.

Mots-clés : cell wall expansion,pectin,super resolution microscopy,optogenetics,fret biosensors,growth,polymer remodeling
Projet ERC : LeviNeT (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Entité participante : Université de Ferrare — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Unife
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 983875.0 €

Primo Levi (1919-1987), one of the most important witnesses of the Holocaust, has been studied increasingly over the last three decades. Levi is currently recognized as one of the few Italian thinkers of essential importance for the understanding of the 20th century as a whole. The LeviNeT project aims to provide the very first edition of a significant portion of Levi?s multilingual correspondence. The edition will be open source and hosted on an online platform. It will concentrate on Levi?s German correspondence: the epistolary exchanges that took place between Levi and his German-speaking readers, interlocutors, friends, survivors and former oppressors from 1959 to 1987. This correspondence constitutes a stunning epistolary network between him and many German-language correspondents, including the translator, Heinz Riedt, the philosopher, Jean Am?ry, the historian, Hermann Langbein, and the politician, Hety Schmitt-Maass. It consists of a rich and vibrant discussion on themes such as guilt, the possibility of overcoming the past, and the consequences of that past on the present. What is at the heart of this network is the rebuilding of a post-war European identity. In short, this project uncovers a new and decisive crossroad in European cultural history. Thanks to the authorization of Primo Levi?s heirs, it will be possible to access Levi?s private archive for the first time, and so to have a complete view of his German network. The planned open-source edition will include: a philological transcription and a semantic analysis of each letter, a graphic visualization of the German network, in-depth biographical information for each correspondent, a timeline and a map, and a series of thematic itineraries. This edition will provide a brand-new narrative in studies of Primo Levi and unique core material for literary scholars and historians. Moreover, it will be an innovative didactic tool for the international community of teachers, students and readers.

Mots-clés : holocaust studies primo levi european history european identity politics of memory public memory epistolary studies