Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : CARBONICE (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Entité participante : University of London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. London
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999806.0 €

Carbon and water in its various states of matter make up a substantial proportion of our Universe. The two materials are highly dissimilar with respect to their chemical and physical properties. Elemental carbon is even often referred to as a hydrophobic, ‘water-hating’ material. Yet, the two materials often coexist and critical processes take place at the interface between these unlike chemical species. This includes the hydration shells of hydrophobic moieties in biomolecules, clathrate hydrate materials where water molecules crystallise around hydrophobic guest species as well as icy comets which are often black due to the presence of carbon at their surfaces. The aim of the CARBONICE project is to investigate the interface and interplay between water and carbon in detail. Using new and innovative experimental strategies, the water molecule will be placed in a variety of different yet highly relevant carbon environments. This will give us unprecedented insights into how water hydrates hydrophobic species which is highly important in the context of hydrophobic interactions. Investigations into how carbon species influence phase transitions of ice will give new insights into crystallisation phenomena but will also reveal the factors that lead to the formation of either ferro- or antiferroelectric ices. Creating carbon – ice composites in the lab as they exist on comets will enable us to understand the complex weather cycles on comets and may help explaining the unusual surface features recently identified by the Rosetta space probe. In summary, this truly multidisciplinary project opens up a new spyhole to critically important processes at the water – carbon interface. The results will have an impact on the space, atmospheric and general materials sciences but will also be highly relevant with respect to further optimising the computer models of water as well as understanding the properties of water in nano-confinements and how it drives biological processes.

Mots-clés : clathrate hydrates,carbon materials,amorphous materials,stacking disordered materials,diffraction,calorimetry,spectroscopy
Projet ERC : CARB-City (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
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 : 1727008.75 €

Carbonaceous aerosols (organic and black carbon) remain a major unresolved issue in atmospheric science, especially in urban centers, where they are one of the dominant aerosol constituents and among most toxic to human health. The challenge is twofold: first, our understanding of the sources, sinks and physico-chemical properties of the complex mixture of carbonaceous species is still incomplete; and second, the representation of urban heterogeneities in air quality models is inadequate as they are designed for regional applications. The CARB-City project proposes the development of an innovative modeling framework that will address both issues by combining molecular-level chemical constraints and city-scale modeling to achieve the following objectives: (WP1) to develop and apply new chemical parameterizations, constrained by an explicit chemical model, for carbonaceous aerosol formation from urban precursors, and (WP2) to examine whether urban heterogeneities in sources and mixing can enhance non-linearities in chemistry of carbonaceous compounds and modify their predicted composition. The new modeling framework will then be applied (WP3) to quantify the contribution of traditional and emerging urban aerosol precursor sources to chemistry and toxicity of carbonaceous aerosols; and (WP4) to assess the effectiveness of greener-city strategies in removing aerosol pollutants. This work will enhance fundamental scientific understanding as to how key physico-chemical processes control the lifecycle of carbonaceous aerosols in cities, and will improve the predictability of air quality models in terms of composition and toxicity of urban aerosols, and their sensitivity to changes in energy and land use that cities are currently experiencing. The modeling framework will have the required chemical and spatial resolution for assessing human exposure to urban aerosols. This will allow policy makers to optimize urban emission reductions and sustainable urban development.

Mots-clés : atmospheric aerosols
Projet ERC : ROSALIND (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting 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 €

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is under-diagnosed and under-investigated specifically in women. Clinical presentation of CVD is often different in women and the aetiology of some diseases is potentially triggered by specific female sex environmental factors (e.g hormonal cycles and pregnancy) and could result in a distinct physiopathology from men. This may apply to fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) and spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD), two devastating arterial diseases that share clinical features, which are non-atherosclerotic stenosis of medium-size arteries (renal and/or cerebrovascular arteries in FMD, coronary artery in SCAD) and an age of onset under 50, in addition to a high proportion of female patients (75-90%). In addition, genetic predisposing factors may interact with the female specific context and disturb the artery structure and/or function resulting in a female specific propensity to these CVDs. The ROSALIND project aims to: 1) Decipher the genetic basis of FMD and SCAD using genome-wide association in case control cohorts; 2) Examine the functional significance of the genetic susceptibility variants at confirmed loci and their targeted genes using high throughput NGS-based genomic methods and 3) explore the link of genes in FMD susceptibility loci with vascular function by the analyses of engineered cell lines and total expression in human renal arteries . This project will provide an unprecedented resource of genetic, gene expression and functional genomics data that will be instrumental to guide the uncovering of new genes and mechanisms involved in FMD and SCAD. This project will help better understand the physiopathology and shed light on novel and promising therapeutic targets for the non-atherosclerotic arterial stenosis that characterize these female CVDs

Mots-clés : genome wide association study,fibromuscular dysplasia,non atherosclerotic artery stenosis,women s cardiovascular health
Projet ERC : BIOMENDELIAN (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Lund University — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes (T2D) and obesity, collectively referred to as cardiometabolic disease, together with cancer are the major morbidities and causes of death. With few exceptions, research on cardiometabolic disease and cancer is funded, studied and clinically applied separately without fully taking advantage of knowledge on common pathways and treatment targets through interdisciplinary synergies. The purpose of this proposal is to reveal causal factors connecting and disconnecting cardiometabolic diseases and cancer, and to understand interactions between gut microbiota, host diet and genetic susceptibility in a comprehensive prospective cohort study design to subsequently allow design of intervention strategies to guide more personalized disease prevention. 1. We investigate causality between genetic risk factors for cardiometabolic disease associated traits and future incidence of T2D, CVD, cancer (total/breast/colon/prostate) and mortality (total, CVD- and cancer mortality), searching for causal factors in a prospective cohort with >15 y follow-up (N>30,000, incident cases N=3550, 4713, 5975, 6115 for T2D, CVD, cancer, mortality) 2. For the first time in a large population (N=6000), we investigate how gut and oral microbiome are regulated by dietary factors, gut satiety peptides and host genetics, and how such connections relate to cardiometabolic disease associated traits and cancer 3. We investigate the role of diet and gene-diet interactions of importance for cardiometabolic disease and cancer 4. We perform genotype, biomarker and gut microbiota based diet intervention studies. This inter-disciplinary project contributes to biological understanding of basic disease mechanisms and takes steps towards better possibilities to prevent and treat individuals at high risk for cardiometabolic disease, cancer and death.

Mots-clés : gut microbiota,oral microbiota,mendelian randomization,personalized medicie,dietary intervention,cardiovascular disease,type 2 diabetes,cancer
Projet ERC : PROVASC (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LMU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2498250.0 €

Cardiovascular disease including coronary heart disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide. Atherosclerosis as the underlying pathology is a lipid-driven inflammatory disease of arteries giving rise to vulnerable lesions prone to rupture and thrombotic occlusion. Lesions develop at predilection sites with disturbed flow, where endothelial damage promotes intimal retention of lipoproteins and inflammatory leukocyte recruitment. Past research has largely focused on atherogenic factors and their inhibition but not on boosting a counterbalance by protective mechanisms. We have recently found that the CXCL12/CXCR4 chemokine-receptor axis protects against atherosclerosis by controlling neutrophil homeostasis and facilitating endothelial regeneration in mice. This is supported by genome-wide association studies, identifying genetic variants near CXCL12 associated with the risk of coronary heart disease. The protective regulation of endothelial repair by microRNAs also involves CXCL12/CXCR4. However, the causal and cell-specific impact of this axis remains unclear. To balance the ongoing expansion of genetic risk variants, PROVASC aims to discover/elucidate novel mechanisms for protective cell homeostasis and regeneration counteracting atherosclerosis in depth. To this end, we will dissect cell-specific effects of the CXCR4-CXCL12 axis using an array of mouse lines for conditional deletion and bone marrow chimeras to compare resident versus hemato-poietic cell compartments. We will validate a role of coding and non-coding genetic risk variants affecting CXCL12/CXCR4 in different cell types and humanized mouse models. By identifying relevant microRNAs targeting CXCL12/CXCR4, we will unravel a regulation of this axis by cell type-specific microRNAs. Given the ubiquitous relevance of CXCL12/CXCR4, we expect that the impact of such new mechanisms will extend to other chronic inflammatory diseases, allowing for tailored strategies of tissue protection and regeneration.

Mots-clés : atherosclerosis,chemokines,micrornas
Projet ERC : VASCUGRAFT (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : Kiel University — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CAU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 0.0 €

Cardiovascular diseases are one of the major causes of death in the EU and appropriate treatment remains challenging and expensive. Often, the only treatment option is the replacement of a native blood vessel, for example if a coronary artery bypass is needed. Although patient-derived vascular grafts remain the gold standard as a replacement of the original vessel, alternatives have to be found, as donor material is limited. Currently available synthetic grafts have several drawbacks in comparison to native blood vessels. The major drawback is the mismatch between the mechanical properties of the native vessel and the synthetic graft, thus causing major complications like intima hyperplasia. While the stress-strain-curve in synthetic grafts is linear and the grafts are relatively stiff, native blood vessels are soft and have a non-linear, strain-stiffening mechanical behavior. In our ERC Starting Grant CELLINSPIRED we have developed a material structure that allows us to mimic the strain-stiffening of blood vessels. We will employ our strain-stiffening materials in synthetic vascular grafts with broad applicability in the field of vascular surgery. Within the proposed project VASCUGRAFT we will fabricate demonstrators of such biomimetic vascular grafts and strive to find a company that licenses our invention and brings it on the national and international market.

Mots-clés : vascular graft,implant,soft material,mechanical compliance
Projet ERC : FunCatDesign (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : RWTH Aachen University — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : RWTH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1491875.0 €

Catalysis is ubiquitous in modern academic and industrial chemistry as well as an integral and indispensable discipline that may contribute to solutions of current global challenges. While the field has grown significantly over the past few decades, with numerous transformations that were previously unthinkable now being possible, progress has frequently relied on serendipitous discoveries or elaborate screening efforts. Although it is indisputable that high-throughput screening is an extremely lucrative approach to generate a wealth of chemical information, the next frontier in the development of innovative approaches to meet the high demand for predictable, selective and sustainable processes will likely arise from fundamental insight. However, owing to the complexity of catalytic processes, the fleeting and frequently highly sensitive nature of intermediates and the associated challenges in gaining fundamental mechanistic understanding, insight-driven developments and especially reactivity designs have so far been extremely rare. The objective of this proposal is to capitalize on the tools of experimental and computational chemistry as a powerful means to gain access to the fundamental mechanistic details of key catalytic steps that are required to allow reactivity design. The specific subject for study will focus on the most significant challenges in nickel-catalysis - a highly promising area in the context of sustainability and synthetic diversity owing to nickel’s relatively large abundance and also high reactivities towards relatively inert bonds. The proposed studies will address challenges in relation to Ni-catalyzed C-H activation, cross-coupling and trifluoromethylation reactions, as well as the exploration of novel avenues in catalysis at multinuclear sites.

Mots-clés : catalysis,mechanistic studies,organometallic,reactivity design,physical organic chemistry,synthesis,nickel,c h activation,trifluoromethylation
Projet ERC : MapCat (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Entité participante : Hebrew University of Jerusalem — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HUJI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1846009.0 €

Catalytic nanoparticles are heterogeneous in their nature - and even within the simplest particles structural and compositional differences exist and affect the overall performances of a catalyst. Thus non-disruptive, detailed chemical information at the nanoscale is essential for understanding how surface properties direct the reactivity of these particles. Infrared spectroscopy offers a low-energy route towards conducting in-situ, high spatial resolution mapping of catalytic reactions on the surface of single nanoparticles, yielding the influence of various physiochemical properties on the catalytic reactivity. In the project my team will employ recently developed Infrared nanospectroscopy measurements to provide high spatial resolution mapping of catalytic reactions on the surface of metallic nanoparticles, while using chemically active N-heterocyclic carbene molecules as indicators for surface reactivity. With this setup I will address fundamental questions in catalysis research and identify, on a single particle basis and under reaction conditions, the ways by which the size, structure, composition and metal-support interactions direct the reactivity of metallic nanoparticles in hydrogenation, oxidation and functionalization reactions. My research group demonstrated recently the feasibility of this novel approach by which structure-reactivity correlations were identified within single nanoparticles. Knowledge gained in this project will provide in-depth understanding of the basic elements that control the reactivity of heterogeneous catalysts and enable the development of optimized catalysts based on rational design. Moreover, one can foresee wide application potential for this experimental approach in various other research fields like batteries and fuel cells, in which high spatial resolution analysis of reactive surfaces is essential for understanding structure-reactivity correlations.

Mots-clés : nano ftir,metallic nanoparticles,high spatial resolution spectroscopy
Projet ERC : BIOACTIVECOATINGS (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut polytechnique de Grenoble — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Grenoble INP
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 126633.0 €

Cell culture is a method used for growing living cells artificially outside their natural environment under controlled conditions. It is used for a large range of applications such as studies of cellular functions, drug discovery, biotechnologies and regenerative medicine. Cell culture in vitro is generally performed on plastic substrates, especially multi-well plates or Petri dishes that are made of polystyrene, a very stiff and synthetic material. This stiff substrate can bias the experimental results and mask cellular responses. These culture conditions contrast drastically with the conditions of the cellular microenvironment in vivo, where the cells are surrounded by a soft extra-cellular matrix (ECM) that provides mechanical and biochemical signals. Bioengineers have recently made developments on hydrogels and surface coatings that better mimic the natural ECM and present: 1) a controlled stiffness in a more physiological range than plastic dishes and 2) active biomolecules (peptides, growth factors) that can target specific receptors and trigger cellular responses. However, to date, there are still very few commercially available alternatives to the traditional plastic plates for high throughput cell culture in more relevant conditions. Hydrogel-coated plates have begun to be developed but lack stability in time and are highly sensitive to hydration. The aim of the BioActiveCoatings project is to bring to the market surface-coated plates with a control over thickness, stiffness and presentation of bioactive molecules (peptide, growth factor). This innovative strategy based on the layer-by-layer assembly of biopolymers will be implemented on multi-well plates, which are compatible with biological assays and optical microscopy. The Lbl-coated multi-well plates will broaden the application of cell culture plates in research and industry for fundamental biological studies, production of biological molecules, diagnosis and regenerative medicine.

Mots-clés : surface coatings,multi well cell culture plates,nanoscale coating,bioactive molecule
Projet ERC : COREMA (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cellular, Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Entité participante : European Molecular Biology Laboratory — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : EMBL
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2497156.0 €

Cell division is fundamental for development. In the early mammalian embryo it drives the rapid proliferation of totipotent cells, the basis for forming the fetus. Given its crucial importance, it is surprising that cell division is particularly error-prone at the beginning of mammalian life, resulting in spontaneous abortion or severe developmental retardation, the incidence of which is increasing with age of the mother. Why aneuploidy is so prevalent and how early embryonic development nevertheless achieves robustness is largely unknown. The goal of this project is a comprehensive analysis of cell divisions in the mouse preimplantation embryo to determine the molecular mechanisms underlying aneuploidy and its effects on normal development. Recent technological breakthroughs, including light sheet microscopy and rapid loss-of-function approaches in the mouse embryo will allow us for the first time to tackle the molecular mechanisms of aneuploidy generation and establish the preimplantation mouse embryo as a standard cell biological model system. For that purpose we will develop next generation light sheet microscopy to enable automated chromosome tracking in the whole embryo. Mapping of cell division errors will reveal when, where, and how aneuploidy occurs, what the fate of aneuploid cells is in the embryo, and how this changes with maternal age. We will then perform high resolution functional imaging assays to identify the mitotic pathways responsible for aneuploidy and understand why they do not fully function in early development. Key proteins will be functionally characterised in detail integrating light sheet imaging with single molecule biophysics in embryos from young and aged females to achieve a mechanistic understanding of the unique aspects of cell division underlying embryonic aneuploidy. The achieved knowledge gain will have an important impact for our understanding of mammalian, including human infertility.

Mots-clés : mouse embryo,preimplantation development,aneuploidy,infertility,mitosis,chromosome segregation,centromere,kinetochore tracking,light sheet microscopy,spim,image analysis,spindle assembly