Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : KILL-OR-DIFFERENTIAT (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2362240.0 €

The interactions between tumor and its microenvironment are often critical to uncovering the mechanisms of tumor survival. A striking example is the recent success of immunotherapy approaches that expose tumor cells to immune attack by disrupting a specific interaction between the tumor and infiltrating lymphocytes. The tumor can also repress immune response by inducing complex interactions among dozens of immune and stromal cell types that typically make up tumor microenvironment, however those remain largely uncharacterized as we currently lack systematic approaches to uncover relevant cell-cell interactions. The alternative to killing tumor cells, either directly or through immune system, is to force them to differentiate. Such strategy is particularly promising for tumors arising due to failure of progenitor populations to follow proper differentiation cascade. Here as well, the progress has been limited by lack of understanding of specific intercellular signals that that are disrupted in tumorigenesis. We propose a systematic approach for characterizing cell-cell interactions in complex microenvironments through joint analysis of spatially-resolved and disassociated single-cell transcriptomics. We will apply it to identify inter-cellular signals and pathways that can push tumors of neural crest origin, including as pheochromocytoma (PCC), paraganglioma (PGL) and neuroblastoma (NB), towards terminal differentiation. Building on our expertise with neural crest development, we will use single-cell profiling to map individual tumor cells onto developmental trajectory of neural crest differentiation. Spatial transcriptomics analysis will then be used to identify the sources and nature of microenvironment signals that channel neural crest differentiation during normal development. Contrasting interactions in normal and tumor tissues we will then aim to identify factors, pathways or signals that would push that PCC, PGL and NB tumors towards benign state.

Mots-clés : neural crest,neuroblastoma,differentiation,cancer,single cell transcriptomics,2d transcriptomics,development,tumor,pheochromocytoma,sympatho adrenal differentiation
Projet ERC : KILL-OR-DIFFERENTIAT (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Institut Curie — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 375000.0 €

The interactions between tumor and its microenvironment are often critical to uncovering the mechanisms of tumor survival. A striking example is the recent success of immunotherapy approaches that expose tumor cells to immune attack by disrupting a specific interaction between the tumor and infiltrating lymphocytes. The tumor can also repress immune response by inducing complex interactions among dozens of immune and stromal cell types that typically make up tumor microenvironment, however those remain largely uncharacterized as we currently lack systematic approaches to uncover relevant cell-cell interactions. The alternative to killing tumor cells, either directly or through immune system, is to force them to differentiate. Such strategy is particularly promising for tumors arising due to failure of progenitor populations to follow proper differentiation cascade. Here as well, the progress has been limited by lack of understanding of specific intercellular signals that that are disrupted in tumorigenesis. We propose a systematic approach for characterizing cell-cell interactions in complex microenvironments through joint analysis of spatially-resolved and disassociated single-cell transcriptomics. We will apply it to identify inter-cellular signals and pathways that can push tumors of neural crest origin, including as pheochromocytoma (PCC), paraganglioma (PGL) and neuroblastoma (NB), towards terminal differentiation. Building on our expertise with neural crest development, we will use single-cell profiling to map individual tumor cells onto developmental trajectory of neural crest differentiation. Spatial transcriptomics analysis will then be used to identify the sources and nature of microenvironment signals that channel neural crest differentiation during normal development. Contrasting interactions in normal and tumor tissues we will then aim to identify factors, pathways or signals that would push that PCC, PGL and NB tumors towards benign state.

Mots-clés : neural crest,neuroblastoma,differentiation,cancer,single cell transcriptomics,2d transcriptomics,development,tumor,pheochromocytoma,sympatho adrenal differentiation
Projet ERC : Bac2MUC (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy
Entité participante : Utrecht University — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

The intestinal microbiota consists of beneficial commensal bacteria and pathobionts that cause inflammation. The intestinal mucus layer dictates how specific members of the microbiota affect health and disease. The mucus layer consists of soluble mucins and epithelial transmembrane (TM) mucins that regulate host responses. The molecular mechanisms as to how the intestinal microbiota affect the functions of TM mucins is largely unknown. My recent work shows that TM mucin MUC1 is a key receptor for Salmonella invasion into polarized epithelial cells. We also discovered that MUC13 is a central regulator of epithelial barrier formation. I hypothesize that bacteria-mucin interactions shape epithelial responses by stimulating healthy barrier formation, driving inflammation or mediating bacterial invasion. My aim is to unravel molecular mechanisms via which distinct bacterial species regulate the functions of TM mucins MUC1 and MUC13 in the intestine. The key objectives of Bac2MUC are to: 1. Identify commensal and pathogenic bacteria that target TM mucins 2. Elucidate TM mucin signaling pathways activated by commensal and pathogenic bacteria 3. Determine the function of TM mucins during inflammation and invasion 4. Utilize bacteria-TM mucin interactions to unravel healthy epithelial barrier regulation I will use an innovative large-scale screening platform to identify novel bacteria-mucin interactions. TM mucin signaling pathways during bacterial interaction will be characterized by sortase technology. Cutting-edge technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing and advanced microscopy will be applied in established bacterial infection assays with intestinal cell lines and organoids. Bac2MUC is an ambitious and ground-breaking project that will address, for the first time, the complex interplay between intestinal bacteria and TM mucins. This project will contribute to clinical strategies that prevent intestinal inflammation and improve mucosal barrier function.

Mots-clés : transmembrane mucins,muc1,muc13,mucus layer,intestinal microbiota,epithelial responses,commensal and pathogenic bacteria,inflammation,impact of bacteria mucin interactions
Projet ERC : SuperCoolMix (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : Universität Innsbruck — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1004375.0 €

The intricate mechanisms leading to superfluidity and superconductivity have fascinated researchers for many decades. The pairing of fermionic constituents is at the heart of a rich class of related phenomena in quantum matter. The understanding of unconventional regimes of superfluidity, such as broken-symmetry systems with finite-momentum pairs, poses great challenges for theory and experiment. Our experimental approach is based on a new ultracold model system, which has become available very recently, following a breakthrough in our laboratory. We combine two fermionic isotopes with different masses (Dy-161 and K-40) to create a quantum-degenerate Fermi-Fermi mixture. The system features the key ingredients required for creating novel strongly interacting superfluids: mass imbalance, tunability of interactions, and collisional stability. At present, our Dy-K system represents the only experimentally available Fermi-Fermi mixture that offers this combination of properties. The key point is that, according to theoretical predictions, mass imbalance favors unconventional regimes of superfluidity. In contrast to the widely investigated ultracold fermionic spin mixtures (systems with equal masses), the regions in the phase diagram for unconventional phases are much larger and appear at temperatures that can be realistically achieved in experiments. We will realize strongly interacting Fermi-Fermi superfluids and investigate the various regimes of superfluidity with the ultimate prospect to demonstrate symmetry-broken phases. For this purpose, we will generalize the methods developed for spin mixtures, and we will develop new species-selective optical traps. We will carry out our main research on the Dy-K system, but we will also push the limits of mass-imbalanced systems by extending our studies to a new system with extreme mass ratio (mixture of Dy-161 with Li-6). Our work will lead to a new generation of experiments on ultracold fermions.

Mots-clés : ultracold superfluids,quantum gas mixtures,strongly interacting fermi gases
Projet ERC : nanoCARBS (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Delft University of Technology — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TU Delft
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149550.0 €

The introduction of biomass-derived feedstocks for the production of liquid fuels and chemicals brings new challenges to the chemical industry: the conventional heterogeneous catalysts used in past petrochemical operations often cannot be adopted. Demanding operation conditions cause extensive deactivation problems, while in the same time material scarcity is severely pressing for advances in the utilization efficiency of the active catalyst materials. The understanding of the interplay between agglomeration and coating during Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) in combination with the expansion of the surface nanostructuring options to carbon materials (ERC-StG: AggloNanoCoat) renders a new class of rationally-designed catalysts available. Nanostructuring precision in fabrication results in materials with an engineered structure-performance behaviour, effectively addressing performance-related issues (e.g. stability/selectivity) while using minimum amounts of scarce elements. Switching to a gas-phase technique for catalyst manufacturing has the potential to enable a cleaner way of production and a significant abatement of energy and waste footprints of the process. The foreseen profitability boost – while addressing societal requirements for optimal use of scarce resources in more efficient production schemes – can justify the transition in technology. The nanoCARBS project aims to realize the innovation potential of ALD for the production of nanostructured Catalysts as Rational Bio-conversion Systems in a scalable way. Taking the necessary pre-commercialization steps will enable us to demonstrate the benefits of the technology for an industrially-relevant catalyst product. Setting-up a business strategy will allow the commercialization of the technology initially in the field of catalyst industry.

Mots-clés : atomic layer deposition,powders nanostructuring,biomass conversion,biorefinery,material scarcity,overcoats,carbon,agglonanocoat,scale up,catalyst manufacturing,catalyst market
Projet ERC : ZODIAC (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : Freie Universität Berlin — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : FU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499778.75 €

The introduction of the zodiac in Babylonia in the 5th century BCE was a turning point in the history of astral science - astronomy and astrology, scholarship and culture at large. The “zodiacal turn” was accompanied by a “mathematical turn” in astronomy and a “personal turn” in astrology. From Babylonia, zodiacal astral science spread to Egypt, the Greco-Roman world and beyond. In view of its entanglement with social practices, religious doctrines, philosophical theories and iconographic expressions, its global spread can be compared with that of Christianity, Islam, or Copernican astronomy. How did zodiacal astral science emerge, develop and spread to different ancient cultures and take root there? What explains the enormous success of this cross-cultural phenomenon? Until now, scholarship has failed to answer these questions, because crucial evidence has been ignored. ZODIAC will develop an account based on the hypothesis that zodiacal astral science offered universally appealing, adaptable solutions to social, religious and political needs that emerged in multi-cultural empires. It achieve this with an interdisciplinary approach that pays full attention to all aspects that shape transmission by conceiving astral science as a package of entangled astronomical, astrological, mathematical and other practices. It wil carry out the first in-depth, comprehensive study of cross-cultural transformations in textual and iconographic sources, including pivotal groups of overlooked ones, to reveal strategies that foster acceptance in new contexts. The accuracy of ancient predictions will be cross-culturally analysed using modern astrophysics. Recent scholarship on ancient empires will contextualise astral science in a new framework that transcends microhistorical approaches. The new account will be developed in dialogue with existing models of innovation, transmission and theory change, thus connecting ancient astral science to contemporary narratives of globalisation.

Mots-clés : ancient science,science and technology studies,innovation,astrophysics,astronomy,ancient mathematics,ancient astrology,ancient religion and divination,ancient empires,assyriology,egyptology,papyrology,classical philology,ancient iconography
Projet ERC : LOSS (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : Bocconi University — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1993518.0 €

The key aim of the LOSS project is to unravel: How economic hardship affects support for socially conservative political agendas aimed at restricting the rights of marginalised groups (ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities, migrants, LGBTQIA+ and women), and how local and national policy contexts affect this relationship. Many European societies have recently experienced growing prejudice towards marginalised groups and the rise in support for far-right parties advocating to restrict the rights of these groups. These developments threaten the cohesion of national and local communities across Europe. While aggregate level evidence suggests that financial crises generally coincide with increased support for far-right parties, we do not understand why this happens. By developing a groundbreaking interdisciplinary theoretical framework that integrates insights about the role of loss from political science, sociology, social psychology and behavioural economics, the LOSS project contends that experiences of economic hardship translate into specific narratives of loss that in turn trigger support for social conservative political agendas. To empirically examine the importance of narratives of loss, the LOSS project employs an innovative multi-method empirical approach combining qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. To uncover the role of context, the project compares five European countries (Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) that vary in the level of compensation provided for economic hardship, and local contexts within these countries.

Mots-clés : public opinion,political parties,public policy,voting behavior,economic hardship
Projet ERC : Local State (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : University of Copenhagen — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UCPH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2469285.0 €

The key concern of the proposed research is how political power is established and reproduced through the production of the fundamental social contracts of property and citizenship. We will re-define the research on so-called failed and weak states, by examining what political authority is actually exercised rather than measuring how they fall short of theoretical ideals. In developing countries with legal and institutional pluralism, no single institution exercises the political authority as such. Different institutions compete to define and enforce rights to property and citizenship. This is most visible at the local level, yet it has implications for theorizing the state as such. Hence, investigating the social production of property and citizenship is a way to study state formation. We study local institutions that exercise political authority and govern access to resources, and recognition of these rights. What institution guarantees what claims as rights, and, especially, how, is crucial, as it leads to the recognition of that particular institution as a political authority. We therefore study statutory as well as non-statutory institutions. We are not simply looking for property deeds and passports etc. issued by statutory government as measurements of political authority. Rather, we look for secondary forms of recognition ‘issued’ by non-statutory institutions that represent mutual acknowledgements of claims even without a narrow legal endorsement. Dynamics such as these are fundamental for a concise understanding of developing country state formation processes. Ten country studies with rural and urban field sites will be conducted. We focus on concrete controversies. We collect data at several levels and from different sources, including resident groups, land users, local civil servants, local politicians and business-owners, as well as large-scale contractors, municipal politicians and administrators.

Mots-clés : developing countries
Projet ERC : BEBOP (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1649861.0 €

The key ideas motivating this project are that: 1) precise control of the properties of porous systems can be obtained by exploiting bacteria and their fantastic abilities; 2) conversely, porous media (large surface to volume ratios, complex structures) could be a major part of bacterial synthetic biology, as a scaffold for growing large quantities of microorganisms in controlled bioreactors. The main scientific obstacle to precise control of such processes is the lack of understanding of biophysical mechanisms in complex porous structures, even in the case of single-strain biofilms. The central hypothesis of this project is that a better fundamental understanding of biofilm biomechanics and physical ecology will yield a novel theoretical basis for engineering and control. The first scientific objective is thus to gain insight into how fluid flow, transport phenomena and biofilms interact within connected multiscale heterogeneous structures - a major scientific challenge with wide-ranging implications. To this end, we will combine microfluidic and 3D printed micro-bioreactor experiments; fluorescence and X-ray imaging; high performance computing blending CFD, individual-based models and pore network approaches. The second scientific objective is to create the primary building blocks toward a control theory of bacteria in porous media and innovative designs of microbial bioreactors. Building upon the previous objective, we first aim to extract from the complexity of biological responses the most universal engineering principles applying to such systems. We will then design a novel porous micro-bioreactor to demonstrate how the permeability and solute residence times can be controlled in a dynamic, reversible and stable way - an initial step toward controlling reaction rates. We envision that this will unlock a new generation of biotechnologies and novel bioreactor designs enabling translation from proof-of-concept synthetic microbiology to industrial processes.

Mots-clés : bacteria,biofilm,porous media,flow,mass transport,fluid,biofilm interactions,biomechanics,microfluidics,micro bioreactor,multiscale imaging,multiscale modelling,control engineering
Projet ERC : CIRCUITASSEMBLY (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Aarhus University — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : AU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

The key organizing principles that characterize neuronal systems include asymmetric, parallel, and topographic connectivity of the neural circuits. The main aim of my research is to elucidate the key principles underlying functional development of neural circuits by focusing on those organizing principles. I choose mouse visual system as my model since it contains all of these principles and provides sophisticated genetic tools to label and manipulate individual circuit components. My research is based on the central hypothesis that the mechanisms of brain development cannot be fully understood without first identifying individual functional cell types in adults, and then understanding how the functions of these cell types become established, using cell-type-specific molecular and synaptic mechanisms in developing animals. Recently, I have identified several transgenic mouse lines in which specific cell types in a visual center, the superior colliculus, are labeled with Cre recombinase in both developing and adult animals. Here I will take advantage of these mouse lines to ask fundamental questions about the functional development of neural circuits. First, how are distinct sensory features processed by the parallel topographic neuronal pathways, and how do they contribute to behavior? Second, what are the molecular and synaptic mechanisms that underlie developmental circuit plasticity for forming parallel topographic neuronal maps in the brain? Third, what are the molecular mechanisms that set up spatially asymmetric circuit connectivity without the need for sensory experience? I predict that my insights into the developmental mechanism of asymmetric, parallel, and topographic connectivity and circuit plasticity will be instructive when studying other brain circuits which contain similar organizing principles.

Mots-clés : retina,superior colliculus,retinal ganglion cells,motion sensitive neural circuits,cell types,computation,two photon imaging,trans synaptic tracing,optogenetics,transcriptome,transgenic mice