Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : STARNEL (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
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 : 1500000.0 €

There has been tremendous progress in understanding the importance of the microenvironment and its chemical signals for homeostasis of stem cell niche in the intestine and for tumor invasion and metastasis formation in many different tissues. However, the way stromal cells such as myofibroblasts or cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) use mechanical forces to shape the extracellular matrix and consequently dictate the response of epithelial cells remains unexplored at the single-cell level mainly due to limited imaging tools. Here we propose a multi-disciplinary approach, at the interface of cancer cell biology and physics, aimed to understand how myofibroblasts contractility influences epithelial cell functions in physiological (homeostasis) and pathological (cancer) conditions using the gut as a model. Specific aims: 1. Characterize myofibroblasts in gut mucosa. Using omics analysis, mouse models and optogenetic tools we will obtain molecular signatures of myofibroblasts, characterize their migration, proliferation and contractile capacities. 2. Determine the role of myofibroblasts contractility in gut epithelial homeostasis. Using gut-on-chip and intravital imaging we will determine if supracellular contractility of myofibroblasts is necessary to maintain crypt shape upon mechanical stimuli. 3. Determine the role of CAF alignment in cancer progression. We will use 3D in vitro models to explore if CAFs alignment prevents or stimulates cancer cell invasion. Using mesentery metastasis mouse model, we will test if CAFs alignment can generate collagen bundles that cancer cells use to metastasize. 4. Explore if CAF alignment can induce therapy resistance and tumor relapse. Using human samples of rectal cancer before and after chemo-radiotherapy we will determine if CAFs alignment can protect cancer cells from therapy and stimulate metastasis formation.

Mots-clés : cell contractility,fibrosis,extracellular matrix,myofibroblasts,invasion,metastasis
Projet ERC : COGNIBRAINS (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
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 : 2145339.0 €

There is a common perception that larger brains mediate higher cognitive capacity. Social insects, however, demonstrate that sophisticated cognition is possible with miniature brains. Honeybees display higher-order learning such as categorization, non-linear discriminations, concept learning and numerosity, which are unique among insects. These capacities are mediated by a miniature brain with only 950 000 neurons. Despite extensive behavioral analyses, no study has attempted to elucidate the neural mechanisms underpinning the higher-order learning of bees. Our current breakthrough establishing virtual-reality protocols for tethered honeybees offers a unique opportunity to uncover the minimal circuits that mediate higher-order forms of cognitive processing in the brain of a behaving bee. We have recently shown that bees learn to solve elemental and non-elemental problems in this experimental context, which allows integrating behavioral, neurobiological and computational approaches to unravel the neural mechanisms underlying non-elemental learning in the honeybee. I will combine behavioral recordings of bees learning non-linear discriminations and relational rules in a virtual reality environment, with access to their brain via multi-photon calcium imaging and multielectrode recordings of neural populations. I will determine the neural circuits of elemental and non-elemental visual learning along the visual circuits of the bee brain, and the necessity and sufficiency of these circuits for these capacities via selective knockdown and rescuing via wavelength-selective multi-photon uncaging of neurotransmitters. Data will be fed into computational models to test hypotheses about minimal neural architectures for visual cognition, working towards whole-brain modeling. This project will expand the information available on the neurobiology of insect learning, and will provide the first integral characterization of the mechanisms underlying cognition in a miniature brain.

Mots-clés : cognition,higher order learning,invertebrates,insects,honey bee
Projet ERC : LightCas (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Forschungszentrum Jülich — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : FZJ
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1498125.0 €

There is an urgent need for the development of greener syntheses procedures if mankind wants to maintain an environment worth living in but is at the same time unwilling to accept a reduction in material comfort. The establishment of more biocatalytic steps in chemical syntheses is one possible solution, as enzymes and whole cells offer sustainable advantages, such as biodegradability, intoxicity, high selectivity, and many more. As a myriad of enzymatic reactions exist for almost any product, their potential is immense. Great scientific achievements and new techniques recently developed have enabled the design of economically and ecologically feasible multi-step enzyme cascades. However, with these new opportunities, also new challenges arise. The more enzyme steps are combined in one pot, the higher the risk of undesired cross-reactivity is. There is thus an urgent need for a tight control of each biocatalytic step in a cascade in order to obtain the desired product in a high purity and to make use of all advantages that enzyme cascades intrinsically offer. With LightCas, I aim to break new grounds in the area of multi-step (bio)catalysis by enabling an orthogonal, selective and thus flexible on/off tuning of enzymes in a cascade. By entrapping enzymes into light-switchable microgels, using photo-switchable active site lids and light-induced enzyme deactivation, three methods providing the opportunity to control enzyme activity in vitro and in vivo on demand will be (further) developed. The ultimate goal is to set up a one-pot multi-step light-controlled enzyme reactor yielding the desired product in high selectivity and concentration in a technically self-regulated manner. Beyond the ground-breaking direct impact in the field of enzyme catalysis, huge gains in knowledge are expected from LightCas with respect to the application of intelligent stimuli-responsive materials as well as new, advanced methods for applications in the clinical and research environment.

Mots-clés : synthetic enzymes cascades,light controlled multi step biocatalysis,enzyme entrapment in photo switchable microgels
Projet ERC : StemHealth (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
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 : 2000000.0 €

There is currently no medical cure for the millions of individuals affected by inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). These patients suffer from bleeding along the gastrointestinal tract due to epithelial ulceration, which causes severe abdominal pain, diarrhoea and malnutrition. This is due to the severely compromised integrity of the intestinal epithelium. I propose that patients with IBD will benefit from an intestinal epithelial transplant. The objectives of this research programme are two fold. Firstly, I propose to perform preclinical testing of human intestinal epithelium to pave the way for their inclusion in clinical trials for IBD patients. This will be based on a combination of state-of-the-art cell culture methods with novel transplantation methodology. By combining analysis of intestinal epithelial cells from various developmental stages, I will be able to identify the most suitable source for transplantation and define how adult stem cells are specified in the tissue. Secondly, I will utilise an in vitro culture system to identify the transcriptional networks responsible for the maturation of the foetal intestinal epithelium. Tissue maturation currently constitutes a major roadblock in regenerative medicine as cells derived from foetal and pluripotent stem cells have foetal properties. Understanding this process will therefore improve our ability to generate sustainable sources of cells for transplantation, which is pivotal for future therapies relying on regenerative medicine and in vitro modelling of disease The proposed research programme will have significant clinical and biological impact. Clinically, it provides the framework for initiating clinical trials for patients with IBD and protocols to obtain mature adult epithelium for in vitro disease modelling. From a biological perspective, we will gain insights into how specific signalling networks maintain specific cell states and dictate tissue maturation.

Mots-clés : intestinal stem cells,inflammatory bowel disease,tissue maturation,transplantation
Projet ERC : FIRMNET (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : Groupe des écoles nationales d'économie et statistique — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : GENES
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 450000.0 €

There is mounting evidence that firms are becoming more fragmented; production is less often made “in-house”. Firms buy inputs from abroad. Tasks are often split in parts. Some are offshored, others are subcontracted. Hence, firms buy services from other, local or international, firms. But they also supply inputs to other firms. Technical change, the internet, and globalization, all facilitate this transformation. In order to better understand how firms thrive in the new global environment, the proposed research aims to construct a networks view of the firm. Fragmentation offers new opportunities: firms may specialize in what they make best, hence creating a business network of customers and suppliers. Networks are also useful to secure provision of fragmented tasks. The firms’ suppliers of goods and services – accountants, logisticians, consultants… -- may well be related to the firm through its workers’ social networks: family ties, boardroom relations… These social networks should be useful when times are tough -- board members could help find financing in banks where their schoolmates have a job – or when times are unusually good -- employees could help in spotting the right hires among their former co-workers. The proposed research will focus on how firms social and business networks help firms to be resilient in the face of shocks. Resilience will be measured using the firms’ and workers’ outcomes – value-added, wages, employment, or occupations. The research will have a theoretical component using general equilibrium models with heterogeneous firms, an empirical component with unique data sources from at least two countries (France, Sweden), and an “econometric theory” component which will seek to develop techniques for the study of many-to-one matches in the presence of networks. The research will speak to the labor economics community but also to the international trade community, the management community, as well as the econometrics community.

Mots-clés : social networks,business networks,firms and workers
Projet ERC : 3DALIGN (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication 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 : 1710853.0 €

Thermoelectrics (TEs) are important because they can convert heat directly into electrical energy and enable efficient heating/cooling. However, their popularization has been hindered by 1) their low efficiency (especially at room temperature), 2) the use of rare/toxic materials, and 3) the difficulty to process those materials. In 3DALIGN, I target a 3-in-1 solution to these challenges by using for the first time electric-field-assisted molecular alignment of 3D-printed TE polymers. High electrical/low thermal conductivity is required for efficient TEs, but both conductivities go hand in hand in traditional inorganic TE materials. This paradigm can shift for polymers, which possess complicated molecular structure. Despite their relatively low electrical conductivity, conducting polymers are appealing for TEs due to their much lower thermal conductivity than inorganic TE materials. Existing studies of organic TEs have focused on finding new materials, but no attention has been paid to molecular ordering, a known strategy to improve performance in organic transistors. I have recently developed a versatile method to induce molecular alignment in solution-processed polymers by using externally applied electric fields. In 3DALIGN, I propose to use this new method to boost the electrical conductivity of polymer TEs while inducing minimal alteration in their thermal conductivity. The high-risk of this goal is mitigated by other advantages of using polymer TEs: polymers are less toxic and more abundant than inorganic TE materials; and they are easy to 3D print, enabling a simple fabrication route for large-area through-plane TE structures that will lead to novel applications. In conclusion, this project will shed light in the relationship between molecular ordering and transport properties of organic electronic materials. If successful, it will also introduce a breakthrough in the performance and feasibility of TEs.

Mots-clés : thermoelectrics,3d printing,multi scale ordering,organic electronics
Projet ERC : ULTRA-LUX (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : IMEC — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2497493.0 €

Thin-film light sources such as OLEDs are extremely valuable, as, in contrast to III-V crystalline LEDs, they can be precisely designed and dimensioned, as single components or in massive arrays, into any target application without the need of hetero-assembly. Unfortunately, their light power density remains about 300 times smaller than that of III-V LEDs. Also, none of today’s thin-film light sources could ever be brought to lasing by electrical pumping. It is the objective of this project to break through the barriers that limit the brightness of thin-film light sources and to achieve lasing by electrical pumping (“injection lasing”) in such sources. Our first target is to create a high-brightness (30W/cm2) thin-film light-emitting device. For the emission layer, we propose a perovskite semiconductor with controlled quantum-confinement features (wells or dots). It will be integrated into a novel light-emitting device, in which electron and hole injection are separately controlled by gates, such that a perfect charge balance is achieved up to the highest current densities. Our next target is to create a thin-film injection laser. We present several innovative strategies to lower the lasing threshold. The emission layer of our light-emitting device will be shaped as a ring resonator with ultra-low optical losses. The gates will be patterned to spatially modulate the carrier injection in the emission layer, which will efficiently restrict the pumping to few selected modes. Further elaborations of cavity designs can lead to mode-locking. Combined with the efficiency of the quantum-confined perovskite emission layer in producing optical gain, these features will reduce the lasing threshold current density to below 100 A/cm2, within reach of our thin-film device. These novel devices will serve numerous applications in the fields of sensing and ICT, by enabling massive optical interconnects, augmented reality displays, on-chip sensing and more.

Mots-clés : perovskite light emitting diode,thin film solid state laser,light emitting devices for ict and sensors applications
Projet ERC : FLICs (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : IMEC — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499155.0 €

Thin-film transistor technologies are present in many products today that require an active transistor backplane e.g. flat-panel displays and flat-panel photodetector arrays. Unipolar n-type transistors based on amorphous Indium-Gallium-Zinc-Oxide (a-IGZO) as semiconductor is currently the most promising technology for next generation products demanding a high-performant, low power transistor, manufacturable on flexible substrates enabling curved, bendable and even rollable displays. a-IGZO is a wide bandgap material characterized by extremely low off-state leakage currents and electron mobility of ~20 cm2/Vs. IGZO transistors fabricated on flexible substrates will also find their use in applications that require flexible integrated circuits. The goal of this FLICs proposal is to develop disruptive technology and ground-breaking design innovations with amorphous oxide TFTs on plastic substrates, targeting large scale or very large scale flexible integrated circuits with unprecedented characteristics in terms of power consumption, supply voltage and operating speed, for applications in IoT and wearable healthcare sensor patches. We introduce a new logic style, “quasi-CMOS”, which is based on unipolar, oxide dual-gate thin-film transistors. This logic style will drastically decrease the power consumption of unipolar logic gates in a novel way by taking advantage of dynamic backgate driving and of the transistor’s unique low off-state leakage current, without compromising on switching speed. In addition, we also introduce downscaling of the transistor’s dimensions, while remaining compatible with upscaling to large-area manufacturing platforms. Finally, we will investigate novel ultralow-power design techniques on system-level, while exploiting the quasi-CMOS logic gates. We will demonstrate the power of this innovation with circuits for item-level Internet-of-Things, UHF RFID, and wearable health sensor patches.

Mots-clés : thin film transistor circuits,internet of things,metal oxide semiconductor,igzo,unipolar logic gates,submicrometer scaling,transponder,leakage current,ultralow power
Projet ERC : socio-bio interplay (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : Erasmus University Rotterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : EUR
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 573652.5 €

Think about the day you took your child to kindergarten for the first time. You were worried. Worried about the social experiences of your child. Would peers like your child, or would it get bullied, or rejected by classmates? Many children have positive social school experiences, but 10-15% of children become rejected, victim of bullying, have few friends and have poor relations with teachers. Such experiences have been linked to aggression development, but we poorly understand how. I hypothesize that adverse social experiences in kindergarten and elementary school affect the neurobiology of children. Specifically, I aim to study how adverse social experiences (1) affect DNA methylation of genes implicated with stress regulation, and (2) affect neurocognitive functions underlying self-regulation, thereby increasing aggression. I will use a multidisciplinary approach to comprehensively study these hypotheses by using the strengths of twin-, observational and experimental studies. I will first study the impact of bully-victimization on children’s methylation of DNA and neurocognitive function development in monozygotic twins differing in bully-victimization, to test whether bully-victimization affects the neurobiology above and beyond possible genetic effects. I will then focuses on cross-time influences of multiple social experiences on DNA methylation and neurocognitive functions. Adverse versus protective effects of peer- and teacher-relations on DNA methylation and neurocognitive functions will be studied to explore possible cascading, accentuation, and buffering effects. Further, sex differences will be addressed. In the final set of (lab-experimental) studies I aim to unravel how DNA methylation of genes implicated with stress system responses, and altered neurocognitive functions lead to aggression by studying differences between chronically rejected and stable non-rejected children in stress-, and self-regulation following a social exclusion experience.
Projet ERC : PQC (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : University of Bristol — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2009429.0 €

This CoG will simultaneously address the outstanding research challenges to establishing the feasibility of large-scale photonic quantum computing by: 1. designing, fabricating and optimising the required hardware (WP1) components—inc. waveguides, couplers, phase shifters, delays, interconnects, spectral filters, photon sources and detectors, and control electronics 2. establishing paths to the integration (WP2) of these components into complete systems 3. developing accurate, exhaustive and verified model of errors (WP3) in photonic quantum systems for optimised fault tolerance strategies, and efficient large-scale architectures (WP4) 4. exploring and developing approaches to optimising this architecture both generally, and for specific applications (WP5) Addressing these challenges in parallel will be essential to realising the vision because interim outputs are required to address each challenge, and an iterative approach with the flexibility to redistribute resources and effort is necessary to reach an optimal solution in minimal time.

Mots-clés : quantum computing,quantum photonics,quantum engineering,quantum information processing