Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : LECOR (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
Entité participante : European synchrotron radiation facility — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ESRF
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2067194.0 €

Since the discovery of the Earth’s internal structure and the existence of a dense metallic core about a century ago, the idea of iron being the dominant component of the core gained firm support confirmed by cosmochemical and geochemical observations, seismic data, the theory of geomagnetism, and high-pressure studies. However, although closely matching, the velocities of seismic waves traveling through the core are significantly slower than those in a pure iron-nickel alloy. The observed core density- and velocity- deficit suggest that around 3-7 wt% of the light element(s) should be present in the inner core in order to explain the observed mismatch. Moreover, the inner core is anisotropic, with the compressional waves traveling faster along the polar axis than in the equatorial plane. Thus, the candidate material should be also able to explain the observed anisotropic pattern. Nonetheless, the nature of the light element(s) in the core remains unconstrained, with hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, silicon, and sulfur being the most plausible candidates. The laboratory measurements on the physical properties of some candidate materials at high pressures and room temperature are available in the literature, but data at simultaneous high pressures and temperatures as most relevant to the Earth core are almost absent. In LECOR, we aim to identify the most plausible candidate element, extending state-of-the-art measurement techniques considerably. In particular, we will study the elasticity and plastic deformation mechanisms of candidate binary and ternary iron alloys and compounds in situ at extreme pressure-temperature conditions using a combination of state-of-the-art synchrotron X-ray techniques developed in our group. We will interpret this novel data within the most recent geophysical and geochemical models, to better determine the composition of the Earth’s core. Such would open fascinating avenues to refine theories about the formation of planets, in general.

Mots-clés : earth s inner core sound velocities core anisotropy extreme pressure temperature conditions
Projet ERC : D-REX (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Materials Engineering
Entité participante : European synchrotron radiation facility — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ESRF
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Combining strength and formability, metals are indispensable for modern life. Their properties firmly depend on processing, typically involving a series of plastic deformation steps that introduce defects deep below the surface. Our current understanding of the evolution of defect structures is phenomenological, and strongly limited by characterization tools being either limited to surfaces or not available at deformation levels relevant for metal processing. D-REX strives to radically improve our understanding of structure-property relations in plastic deformation and thermal annealing of metals by visualising and quantifying the structural dynamics in 3D with 100nm resolution – within bulk metals. This will be achieved by developing a unique multi-scale full-field X-ray diffraction microscope enabling time-resolved 3D strain and orientation mapping. Using pink beam diffraction imaging, the time resolution of the microscope is expected to be ~100× better than the existing diffraction imaging methods. The unique experimental results will be used to guide and validate crystal plasticity and phase field models.  D-REX opens a new way to address the unresolved questions of how metals get stronger during deformation and how this affects the annealing processes. For the first time, industrially-relevant deformation levels can be quantitatively and systematically mapped in real-life conditions. This will not only lead to a new scientific understanding, but also provide unprecedented access to critical material parameters from the bulk that will refine material models. More broadly, the novel multi-scale methodology and systematic approach of D-REX will be a game-changer for studies of many hierarchically-ordered crystalline materials.

Mots-clés : plastic deformation,dislocation structures,recovery,recrystallization,annealing,x ray diffraction,x ray imaging
Projet ERC : HoloE2Plant (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
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 : 1500000.0 €

The evolutionary processes underlying interactions between hosts and their associated microbes is a black box on which biologists have long attempted to shed light. A limiting factor has been knowledge of the precise molecular events, which are now increasingly possible to elucidate with the advent of next-generation sequencing technologies. The Big Data era have revolutionized evolutionary studies through sequencing of thousands of genomes allowing tracing genomic changes. Coupled to these technologies experimental evolution transformed evolution from a predictive to a functional science by opening a window on evolutionary changes in real-time. The challenge that now awaits evolutionary science is in identifying the trajectories simultaneously driving evolution in hosts and microbes. In this context, HoloE2Plant will validate the holobiont concept by looking at the simultaneous evolution of the host and its microbiome. This will be possible thanks to an experimental coevolution approach applied to fast-cycling Brassica rapa plants and Synthetic Microbial Communities (SynComs). SynComs will be selected from bacterial and fungal collections previously established from wild B. rapa populations. This ambitious project is timely and feasible thanks to the combination of high-throughput sequencing, cutting-edge modelling methods for microbial functional network reconstruction and a novel co-evolutionary quantitative genetic approach that will be developed here. Experimental evolution will be carried out in presence/absence of the fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani and the genetic bases underlying microbial-plant interactions and associated with disease resistance will be identified. HoloE2Plant will contribute to validating the holobiont concept and will provide unique methods to identify rapid evolutionary changes in holobionts; these theoretical advances will set the stage for future applied projects aiming at designing microbial consortia with biocontrol properties.

Mots-clés : experimental evolution,plant microbe interactions,coevolution
Projet ERC : MonitoringReality (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Entité participante : University College de Londres — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UCL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1477920.0 €

Our brain is able to turn external signals coming into our senses into a vivid and coherent experience of reality. At the same time, our brain is also able to generate sensory experience in the absence of external signals via imagination. Contrary to our intuition, our experience of reality is not an objective reflection of the external world, since the brain has no direct access to that. Instead, what we perceive as reality is an inference that the brain makes about its own activity, which is both externally driven (by sensory input) and internally driven (by imagination). Recent research has shown that imagining something leads to similar patterns of brain activity as perceiving that same thing in reality. This raises the question; how does the brain determine whether activity represents reality or imagination? I hypothesize that to distinguish imagination and reality, the brain relies on a perceptual reality monitoring process where higher-order brain regions infer perceptual reality when sensory signals are strong enough and there is low cognitive control. I propose to test this idea by answering three complementary questions: (a) how does sensory processing influence reality judgements? (b) how does cognitive control influence reality judgements? and (c) how are different signals integrated and evaluated to form reality judgements? To answer these questions, I will use a novel psychophysical paradigm to experimentally induce confusions between imagery and perception in healthy participants. I will precisely characterize neural processes during these confusions by combining state-of-the-art techniques (high-field fMRI, MEG and tRNS), with advanced computational methods (multivariate decoding and Bayesian modelling). The results of this project will increase our fundamental understanding of core cognitive processes such as perception and memory and will provide a novel perspective on disorders of reality monitoring such as psychosis.

Mots-clés : mental imagery,perception,neuroimaging,reality monitoring,metacognition
Projet ERC : XenoMicrogliaAD (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : VIB
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

The goal of this project is to decipher the exact cellular and molecular mechanisms by which human microglia transduce toxicity to neurons in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Genetics revealed that microglia are one of the central players in the pathogenesis of AD. I and others have characterized the phenotypic response of microglia in AD using transcriptomic and epigenetic tools. Nevertheless, it is yet to be defined how microglia communicate with other cells in the brain, by which mechanism they lead to neuronal alterations, and what the particular role of different microglial activation states is in this process. I will investigate the two major functional outputs of microglia - namely physical interaction with synapses and release of inflammatory factors that induce neuronal dysfunction and degeneration - in AD. Determining the role of human microglia in AD comes with technical challenges, including lack of homology between mouse and humans, and limited expression of AD risk genes in mouse microglia. I will use a human microglia xenograft model I pioneered where iPSC-derived cells are transplanted into the mouse brain, and in which they adopt a brain resident phenotype and can be exposed to amyloid-b plaques. I plan to combine xenotransplantation of genetically engineered iPSC-derived microglia and neurons, with state-of-the-art strategies to define the human microglia-synapse protein interactome as well as the cell-specific proteome/secretome. I aim to 1) define the surface protein interactome between human microglia and mouse synapses in vivo, 2) co-transplant human microglia and human neurons in the mouse brain to explore human to human specific aspects of this interaction, and 3) investigate the human microglia specific secretome in AD. This project will be the first of its kind to directly study the role of human microglia in the AD brain at cellular and molecular levels, opening new avenues for the development of new therapeutics and biomarkers to tackle disease.

Mots-clés : microglia,xenotransplantation,alzheimer s disease
Projet ERC : AsexualEmbryo (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems E ngineering
Entité participante : Université Radboud de Nimègue — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Some plant species have abandoned sex and produce clonal seeds by apomixis; here, we will explore how this occurs, and exploit these insights to develop novel breeding technologies. In contrast to most eukaryotic species in which reproduction is sexual, a minority of plants and animals have evolved alternative – asexual – reproductive strategies. In plants, apomixis allows clonal transmission of favorable, hybrid genotypes through seeds over unlimited generations. Hybrid crop varieties are stress-resistant and high-yielding due to hybrid vigor, yet they reproduce sexually. The introduction of apomixis in hybrid crops would allow stable inheritance of hybrid vigor through seeds, in perpetuity, and eradicate the need to continuously re-make hybrids by crossing. However, our knowledge of the genetic and molecular basis of apomixis remains incomplete, and blueprints for synthetic apomixis in crops must be established.  This project will decipher the function and evolution of a novel PARTHENOGENESIS gene that I recently demonstrated causes asexual embryo formation in naturally apomictic dandelions. Harnessing and extending fundamental findings, synthetic apomixis systems will be developed in two important vegetable crops – hybrid lettuce and tomato – allowing the full complement of hybrid traits to be faithfully inherited through seeds. Ultimately, apomixis in crops could revolutionize the €22 billion hybrid seed industry, make hybrid seeds readily available for all, and facilitate sustainable, high-performance agriculture around the world.  Specifically, this project will involve:  1) Deciphering how a PARTHENOGENESIS gene homologue functions during sexual reproduction  2) Optimizing the expression of PARTHENOGENESIS factors through evolutionary insights and mutagenesis  3) Engineering synthetic apomixis – a holy grail of plant breeding – in two important dicot crop species by skipping meiosis and triggering PARTHENOGENESIS

Mots-clés : apomixis,clonal seeds,hybrid plants,meiosis,meiotic recombination,fertilization,plant chromosomes,plant biotechnology
Projet ERC : MemCode (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Université Radboud de Nimègue — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Despite their role in long-term information storage, synapses are highly dynamic and composed of rather short-lived components. In the adult mouse brain, it takes a couple of days for half dendritic spines to be replaced. Similarly at the molecular level most synaptic proteins have half-lives in the order of a week meaning they constantly need to be replaced by freshly produced ones. Thus, understanding how long-term memory can arise from unstable elements is one of today’s neuroscience’s greatest challenges. Overturning an old dogma, I discovered using in vivo and in vitro approaches that most synapses produce their own proteins locally at both the pre- and postsynaptic sites. Interestingly, classic plasticity paradigms produce unique patterns of rapid pre- and/or postsynaptic translation. This finding is driving a paradigm shift in our understanding of synaptic function. It is now possible to decode pre- and postsynaptic memory traces formed during learning. I am now in the unique position to combine omics, cytometry, super-resolution and live-imaging techniques, and behavioral learning tasks to unravel how local production of new proteins contributes to information storage at synapses. Firstly, using live-imaging, I want to understand how and when protein synthesis is recruited in excitatory boutons. Secondly, using next generation sequencing and imaging, I will investigate how mRNA find their way to presynapses. Finally, using a genetically encoded neuronal activation tracker, I will follow the molecular changes and thus uncover the synaptic memory traces in the hippocampus and cortex after learning. Altogether, these experiments will tackle from molecules to neural networks the unresolved question of memory encoding in the brain. With an unprecedented resolution, we will gain critical insights into how memories are stored at synapses. Such a fundamental understanding of brain function is needed to provide new avenues against neurodegenerative diseases.

Mots-clés : presynapse,memory,local protein synthesis
Projet ERC : RiboChem (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Université Radboud de Nimègue — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

RNA is an essential biomolecular polymer that exhibits many cellular functions ranging from catalytic to informational that are crucial for life. Long considered as DNA's unexciting counterpart, RNA has in recent years transcended its dull image, driven by pivotal discoveries of its involvement in cellular signalling pathways. Despite the clear importance of RNA in biology and medicine, many of its properties and functions remain elusive.  In the RiboChem program we will develop ground-breaking chemical tools for uncovering the identity, function, structure and druggability of RNA on an unparalleled transcriptome-wide level, with a special focus on riboswitches. Riboswitches are structured RNA molecules that have gathered particular interest due to their involvement in bacterial gene regulation that render them attractive targets for antibiotic development. The proposed tools will combine refined chemical design and synthesis, tailored towards RNA's chemical properties, with advanced sequencing technologies. This unique combination enables the discovery of riboswitches throughout the entire transcriptome using a photoaffinity labelling strategy. Customized chemical probes will be used to measure riboswitch conformational dynamics in response to environmental inputs and reveal how bacteria exploit these phenomena to fine-tune their gene expression. Finally, a paradigm-shifting strategy for modulation of riboswitch activity will be developed by applying small molecule covalent modulators of RNA structural elements, which has the potential of transforming the field of RNA targeting. Taken together, the research within RiboChem will find broad applicability in the emerging field of RNA chemistry and biology and help uncover many biological functions and properties of RNA and yield important insight into RNA targeting.

Mots-clés : nucleic acid chemistry,riboswitches,rna profiling,photoaffinity labelling
Projet ERC : ASTRAL (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed Matter Physics
Entité participante : Université Radboud de Nimègue — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

While photonics has already enabled nearly lossless Tb/s transfer of data using light waves, computing at THz clock rates is the next monumental challenge. Magnonics, which employs spin waves (SWs) instead of light waves, is widely seen as one of the most appealing solutions to this problem, but so far only operates at GHz rate. Interference of SWs enables nearly lossless protocols for logic operations. The large natural nonlinearity of SWs can be used to control their mutual interaction, propagation and manipulation of magnetic bits - altogether facilitating the concepts of transistor and logic-in-memory devices. Since the wavelength of THz SWs is orders of magnitude shorter than that of THz photons, THz SWs offer enviable scalability down to the nanoscale. How to push magnonics into the THz domain and enter the nonlinear regime? How large are the THz nonlinearities? Answering these questions will open up new avenues to scalable technologies for THz and nearly lossless computing.  With ASTRAL I want to enter the nonlinear regime of THz magnonics by generating ultrashort large amplitude SW pulses that, similar to femtosecond laser pulses in optics, can zip undisturbed over long distances unlocking the nonlinear regime of interaction between the pulses, other SWs and even macroscopic spin textures. I propose to focus on antiferromagnets, where SW frequencies can easily reach the THz landmark and, similar to light waves in vacuum, follow a linear, so-called relativistic, dispersion relation. Owing to this, a broadband wavepacket of coherent SWs can be compressed to an ultrashort SW pulse - a bunch of few-cycle large-amplitude spin oscillations.  To achieve this, ASTRAL will exploit the exclusive ability of light to initiate ultrafast spin dynamics and will attempt to interconvert femtosecond laser pulses into large-amplitude ultrashort SW pulses. Although the idea is fundamental in nature, the ambition is to set the ground for revolutionary new computing technologies.

Mots-clés : spin wave,terahertz,antiferromagnets,ultrafast,nonlinear,control
Projet ERC : CONSENT (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Texts and Concepts
Entité participante : Université Radboud de Nimègue — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1486875.0 €

CONSENT examines the theme of sexual consent in European narrative traditions as represented in late medieval songtexts (c.1300-1550). It investigates the new and empowering narratives that were performed to engage in conversations about consent. Since songs were part of oral culture, circulating among various social classes and voicing contemporary views on societal affairs, they offer an indispensable gateway to medieval understandings of this timeless topic. The project will bring forth methodological innovation by making sexual consent (not: coercion or forced sex) its main lens for analysis. By introducing a consent-based approach to historical literature, CONSENT will showcase consent as a rich medieval literary theme and investigate how songtexts helped medieval people to explore positive scenarios for behaviour in sexual relationships. These aims are crucial to balance previous scholarship, that has focused on medieval narratives about rape. CONSENT, however, posits that current societal debates prompt a different, more positive perspective, unravelling a consent-oriented part of late medieval culture. First, CONSENT will trace WHERE consent-themed songtexts circulated. While rape-themed song seems to have flourished throughout Southern Europe, France and England, CONSENT will shift focus to Germanic traditions, hypothesizing that these lend a stronger voice to consent. Second, CONSENT will analyse HOW these songtexts represented ideas about sexual consent and mutuality, by applying a novel close-reading method that studies intersections of gender, social status and narrative space. The project hypothesizes that medieval songtexts adopted recognizable narrative patterns to express sexual consent and to contradict and destabilize rape narratives. Third, CONSENT will investigate WHY these songs were collected and sung, hypothesizing that consent narratives in songs promoted female agency in the domain of sexuality by fostering mutuality and equality.

Mots-clés : medieval studies middle dutch literature middle low german literature old czech literature medieval songtexts material philology gender agency