Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : Green2Ice (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université libre de Bruxelles — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ULB
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2556280.0 €

Green2Ice will investigate the deepest and oldest ice and basal sediments drilled from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS). Ice cores have been drilled the last 55 years, but the deepest ice containing basal materials has been preserved until now, and still holds undeciphered paleoclimatic messages. The breakthrough of Green2Ice is to develop and apply cutting edge dating methods on this unique sample collection and hence to reconstruct the age and the stability of the GrIS. A hypothesis to test is if the present GrIS formed at the time of the Mid Pleistocene Transition, 1,2 - 0.8 million years ago. One innovation of Green2Ice is to gain paleo-information of the past size of the GrIS to constrain future tipping points. This knowledge will reduce the uncertainty on estimates of future sea level rise. Green2Ice will bring together four PIs from three world leading institutions with complementary skills to lift this strongly interdisciplinary program. We will drill a replicate core at GRIP, to supplement the available material from five existing ice cores and ensure retrieval of sediments and rock material from beneath the GrIS summit. We will develop, improve and apply novel dating techniques (cosmogenic and radiogenic nuclides, OSL/IRSL, modeling of gas and isotope diffusion) to place constraints on past waxing and waning of the GrIS. State-of-the-art methodologies on fossil remains, organic matter, in situ produced and consumed greenhouse gases, and ancient bio-molecules will provide insights on the types of ecosystems and environmental conditions that emerged during ice-free conditions. Interpretation will include ice sheet modelling with data benchmarking to establish the climatic sensitivity of the GrIS. Earth system modelling and collaboration with the groups preparing the IPCC AR7 will bring the knowledge of the past into the future. The rare and unique basal ice and material can only be used once. This is the main high risk high gain component of Green2Ice.

Mots-clés : greenland ice sheet,mid pleistocene transition,ice free greenland,ecosystem,mass loss,sea level rise
Projet ERC : UNFOLD (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université de Liège — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2543181.25 €

Mammals with large brains and higher cognitive functions have a richly folded cerebral cortex. Folding abnormalities are linked to various cognitive disabilities. Despite its relevance in clinical diagnostics, the causes and consequences of cortex folding remain poorly understood. While cortex folding was long assumed to result from a limited skull volume, it is a developmental process intrinsic to the cortex. We hypothesize that cortex folding emerges from a dynamic interplay between mechanical and molecular processes, and that far from being an epiphenomenon, it has major consequences for brain architecture and function. UNFOLD will test this hypothesis by integrating genomics, cell biology, mechanics of brain development and computational modeling. Our interdisciplinary team will apply in vitro, in vivo and in silico approaches to brain tissue of strategically selected animal models. First, we will map molecular, cellular, and mechanical events accompanying cortex folding. Next, we will investigate the effects of genetic perturbations of cell biological processes on tissue mechanics, and vice versa, to identify key mechanisms leading to cortex folding and elucidate their dynamic interactions. Then, we will test the universality of these mechanisms by inducing folds in species with a smooth brain. Finally, we will decipher the consequences of cortex folding on neural circuit function and animal behavior. Our project integrates current, opposing concepts of cortex folding by adopting an interdisciplinary and multiscale perspective. Unraveling the dynamic interactions between molecular, cellular, and mechanical events during development will provide unprecedented insights into the determinants of cortical anatomy and brain organization. Our work, bridging physical and life sciences, will lead to new insights into normal and pathological brain development, paving the way to a new research area of integrated neurobiology with potential applications in modern medicine.

Mots-clés : cerebral cortex folding ferret mouse neurogenesis neuron migration viscoelasticity radial glia cell xenopus development mechanics afm tissue mechanics
Projet ERC : Synergy-Plague (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : James Hutton Institute — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 277499.0 €

Synergy-Plague is a multi-disciplinary project to bring our knowledge and understanding of plague, past and present, to new heights. Focussing on the environmental, biological, and societal aspects of plague outbreaks in Eurasia between circa 1300 and 1900 CE, it will address four main questions: (1) Why/how did plague re-emerge in 14th century Central Asia? (2) Why/how did plague re-occur and spread in Eurasia after the Black Death? (3) Why/how did clinical and demographic patterns of plague infection differ across space and time? (4) Why/how did plague disappear from Europe and the Middle East in the 18th and 19th centuries? Our project is based on the hypothesis that plague waves and clinical differences resulted from unique alignments of multiple events: environmental (climatic and soil-chemical), biological (from individual to ecosystem) and societal (demographic, socio-economic and political). Four PIs from the natural sciences and humanities, together with their team members, will jointly study how plague re-emerged in 14th century Central Asia and radiated repeatedly from Eurasian wildlife reservoirs in the following centuries, only to disappear in the 18th-19th centuries. We will develop and analyse new dendrochronological and (paleo-)soil data, textual documentary evidence, and epidemiological models. To understand how plague reached and spread in human populations, paleo-environmental and historical data together with relevant experimental work will be combined with statistical and mathematical modelling. To appreciate why clinical signs and mortality rates varied in space and time, historical evidence will be examined together with new entomological data and ancient DNA (aDNA) of historical plague strains (from humans and anthropophilic rodents). Synergy-Plague will revolutionise our understanding of plague and contribute to our ongoing struggle with epidemic diseases, present and future.

Mots-clés : black death,plague pandemics,rodent burrow systems,human and rodent ectoparasites,plague reservoirs,soil properties,past cimate,epidemiology,statistical and mathematical modeling,experimental work
Projet ERC : HepaModulatoR (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université Bar-Ilan — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : BIU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499263.75 €

RNA base editing, catalyzed by ADAR enzymes, is a natural process that diversifies protein function by modifying mRNA. Redirecting ADAR activity with RNA-based drugs holds significant promise for correcting genetic mutations and uniquely enables precise modulation of protein function. However, major challenges remain to fully unlock this potential. In this collaborative effort, we present a target discovery platform and demonstrate in vivo proof-of-concept (PoC) that targeted RNA base editing can mitigate chronic liver disease. Our team combines its groundbreaking insights and tools to predict functional editing computationally (PI Levanon), efficiently screen for effective edits (PI Stafforst), and establish functional PoC in animal models of liver disease (PI Heikenwälder). Chronic liver disease stems from disturbances in the liver microenvironment caused by chronic viral infections, alcohol intake, sedentary life-style/high-calorie diets or autoimmunity, all disrupt hepatocyte metabolism and regulatory signalling. This ultimately leads to liver inflammation, fibrosis, and liver cancer. We suggest that targeted RNA base editing is well-suited to counteract liver disease by modulating protein function and upregulating hepatoprotective proteins. To maximize the likelihood of success, our team addresses three Focus Areas, each representing a distinct stage of liver disease: In Focus Area 1, we aim to modulate liver metabolism (promoting catabolism) at an early disease stage. In Focus Area 2, we seek to reduce chronic inflammatory signalling at the mid-stage. Finally, Focus Area 3 focuses on generating highly immunogenic neoantigens in cancerous liver tissue to stimulate immune therapies at advanced stages. Overall, this project will push far beyond the current state-of-the-art in this field, significantly advancing this innovative therapeutic modality. We aim to make a substantial impact on Europe’s society, healthcare systems, and pharmaceutical industry.

Mots-clés : adar,rna editing,rna drugs,base editing,chronic liver inflammation,mouse models liver disease,spatial metabolomics,masld,mash,liver cancer,neoantigen,rna editing prediction,rna structure prediction,computational biology,genomics transcriptomics,large language models,machine learning
Projet ERC : DarkQuantum (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Conseil supérieur de la recherche scientifique — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CSIC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 375000.0 €

The unresolved nature of the Dark Matter permeating our Universe is one of the most pressing questions of modern science. It is connected to our very understanding of reality at the most fundamental level. The axion DM paradigm has recently emerged as one of the most compelling hypothesis to solve this question: Dark Matter would be composed by very light and very feebly interacting axions. This paradigm is strongly motivated by theory, and predicts a clear signal in terrestrial experiments called axion haloscopes. Pioneering experiments have reached enough sensitivity to test some realistic axion models in limited mass ranges, so far without a positive signal. However, there is still a large viable axion parameter space to be explored. The methods used to date will be inefficient to perform such a challenging task. Here our DarkQuantum consortium proposes a new way of addressing this gap using quantum sensing technologies and hybrid quantum systems. Specifically, we will combine quantum technologies and well established particle physics environments at CERN or DESY devoted to the detection of axions in the galactic halo. Building quantum-enhanced setups in particle physics environments is extremely challenging and needs expertise from very different fields of physics. Our consortium brings together experts from quantum circuits, very-low temperature cryogenics, quantum measurements and particle physics, to build two quantum-enhanced haloscopes with unprecedented sensitivity and mass scanning range. The novel sensing strategies of the DarkQuantum project could lead to the experimental detection of axions for the first time. Such a fundamental discovery in connection with the long-standing DM problem would lead to a breakthrough in Physics

Mots-clés : axions dark matter axion haloscope axion like particle photon counter qubit transmon high temperature superconductor low background techniques underground physics machine learning
Projet ERC : CultCryo (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université de Paderborn — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2042110.0 €

Artificial cooling fundamentally shapes the world in which we live. Since the onset of the Cold War, cooling and freezing technologies have become increasingly vital for a wide array of everyday practices, from nutrition, health and reproduction to dwelling, telecommunication, scientific research and economic productivity. A global system of cold storages, cold chains and air-conditioned spaces has become an energy-intensive yet barely considered planetary infrastructure: an “artificial cryosphere”. Artificial cold has drastically restructured life both on a biological and social level, yet the far-reaching impact of this technology is still largely unexplored and unresearched. Recent studies estimate that global cooling demand will increase five-fold by 2050, dramatically exceeding our future energy budget and urgently calling for change. CultCryo argues that avoiding the impending global cooling crisis will be impossible if we do not understand how the planetary infrastructure of artificial cold is deeply interwoven in cultural practices. Thus, in order to analyze the constitution of “cryogenic cultures”, we will undertake four interdisciplinary multi-sited case studies in the domains of food supply, air conditioning, biomedicine and computing. We develop innovative approaches using mixed-methods rooted in the history of technology, geography, digital history of concepts, ethnography and the philosophy and ethics of technology. Breaking ground for an innovative interdisciplinary field of research, CultCryo will provide the first geographical mapping of the cryosphere, a historical reconstruction of its emergence, an ethnographic account on its cultural constitution, and a philosophical analysis and ethical assessment of its underlying norms and values. Thereby, we develop a corpus of urgently needed knowledge to critically analyze a pressing global phenomenon while also identifying alternatives towards a more sustainable future of artificial cold.

Mots-clés : ethnography,technology assessment,language technology,digital history of concepts,cultural analysis,value analysis and theory,cryopreservation,cooling,infrastructures,public health,sustainability,
Projet ERC : mw-atlas (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Société Max-Planck pour le développement des sciences — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : CO-PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Société Max Planck
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 3820000.0 €

The Milky Way is the cosmic environment in which the solar system, the Earth, and life as we know it came into being. It is also the veil through which we peer into the extra-galactic universe. Its dust obscures our view of the formation of the cosmos. Its magnetic fields distort the observations of nature's most powerful particle accelerators. Its structure and metabolism determine the great diversity of observed star and planetary systems, including our own. Due to a lack of distance information, currently most information about the structure of the Milky Way is two-dimensional, while three-dimensional information is needed. For a breakthrough in Galactic cartography and the science it enables, we will create the first comprehensive three-dimensional atlas of all the physical components of the Milky Way. Our atlas will be self-consistent between component maps, quantify their remaining uncertainties, and be the most detailed to date. Thanks to the dramatic progress in observations at all wavelengths and in algorithmic methods based on information field theory in recent years, now is the right time to do this. Our team's combined expertise in galactic astrophysics, algorithms, observations, Milky Way surveys, and information field theory with its application to galactic tomography puts us in a unique position to generate the first comprehensive Milky Way Atlas. We will apply this atlas to a number of pressing questions in cosmology, cosmic ray, and interstellar medium research and transfer the used tomography technologies into other areas, like medical imaging, Earth monitoring, and industrial data analysis.

Mots-clés : cosmic cartography,tomography,inter disciplinary science,medical imaging,earth monitoring,information theory,information field theory,machine learning
Projet ERC : MetaDivide (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Société Max-Planck pour le développement des sciences — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Société Max Planck
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2500000.0 €

Building a synthetic cell from molecular components is one of the grand scientific and intellectual challenges of the 21st century, and requires interdisciplinary skillsets to design and integrate biochemical modules at different levels of hierarchy. Great progress has been made in the fundamental understanding and reconstitution of key features, such as metabolic reaction networks and replication machinery. However, their successful synergistic integration in minimal cells still lags far behind, due to often largely different experimental approaches. MetaDivide will bring together two groups of world-leading scientists with complementary expertise in biochemistry and biophysics to address this gap. Poolman and Schwille will combine their mastery of membrane systems and protein machineries to establish a blueprint for coupling metabolic networks to cellular modules for spatiotemporal regulation and force-induction for division. By this, we aim to reconstitute in a minimal system one of the most stunning and central features of cellular life: The autonomous division of proto-cellular compartments by encapsulated self-organizing macromolecular machinery, driven by a self-sustaining energy metabolism. We will test our hypothesis that the otherwise separately researched features of life: Metabolism, Cell Division and Genome Segregation are mechanistically linked in the emergence of cellular life. Besides the great technical advance in synthetic biology, this will be a huge accomplishment in the understanding of biological mechanisms in today’s organisms, which in living cells are often obscured by their immense molecular complexity. Moreover, our new fundamental insights on the main principles underlying cellular life will advance application-driven research: By elucidating the mechanisms of out-of-equilibrium reaction networks and cell division, we will obtain insight that may inform the future development of generic small molecules to curb bacterial proliferation.

Mots-clés : bottom up construction of cells,membrane transport,cell division,physicochemical homeostasis,vesicles,membrane growth
Projet ERC : MEDGREENREV (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université de Valence — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 101934.89 €

As Mediterranean societies prepare for the impacts of climate change over the next few decades, a case study to inform their future resilience is associated with one of the defining events in world history: the emergence of Islam in the 7th century, the subsequent Arab (and later Berber) conquests of the southern and western Mediterranean, their associated population movements and the environmental adaptations that enabled these new societies to flourish. The introduction of new forms of agriculture that transformed the economies of the conquered regions has been previously framed as the “Green Revolution”. Moving beyond the limited focus of earlier research, with its restricted spatial and chronological scope, this project will adopt an integrated ecological approach, encompassing plants, animals and soils, from production through to consumption, and compare the impact and legacy of environmental transformations associated with long-term societal change in the western Mediterranean (Iberia and Morocco), beyond the initial Arab/Berber conquests. Adopting a broader chronological span, from the century before the conquests through to the century after the dissolution of the last Islamic polity in Iberia, the transition from Islamic to Christian regimes in Iberia will be compared, for the first time, with the persistence of Islamic polities in northwest Africa, against the backdrop of climatic fluctuations. This will enable relationships between environmental transformations and sequences of political and demographic change to be effectively contextualised. The synergy between our groups will combine regional specialisms with a wealth of scientific expertise, enabling us to conduct the first long-term and inter-regional study of how conquest, migration and encounters with resident populations and landscapes drove environmental transformation in the western Mediterranean during this formative period in world history.

Mots-clés : geoarchaeology,zooarchaeology,archaeobotany,palynology,gis,multiculturalism,state formation,mediterranean,iberia,north africa,longue dur e,arab conquest,medieval green revolution
Projet ERC : NanoX (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : University College Dublin — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : CO-PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UCD
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2507161.0 €

A driving force behind biomedical innovation lies in disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment. This requires a comprehensive understanding of how pathogens exploit living organisms across molecular, cellular, organismal, and population levels. Treatment of disease often relies upon interventions that restore the normal structure and function of cells. However, it is currently challenging to visualise and quantify detailed cellular changes within whole tissues in response to disease. Soft X-ray microscopy is a novel, exciting imaging modality which enables detailed structural and chemical imaging of whole cells without fixation or dyes. This technique is currently used to image cultured cells, but has yet to be applied to the examination of cells within the intricate 3D architecture of tissue with its complex cell-cell interactions. Imaging of diseased tissue in this way is crucial to gain meaningful insight into disease mechanisms, while remaining complementary to other imaging modalities and biological assays. Project NanoX aims to tackle this challenge, by merging the skillsets of a world-leading team with synergistic expertise in infectious disease, physics and structural biology to pioneer several innovations – (i) a targeted micro-biopsy tool for rapid tissue extraction for soft X-ray microscopy, (ii) high-throughput nano-resolution 3D imaging of tissues, (iii) novel integrative data mining approaches, and (iv) unprecedented insights into the pathogenesis of hepatitis E virus (HEV), an important emerging zoonotic viral infection with no specific therapies or vaccines, in healthy and immune-compromised individuals. The scientific and technological innovations that will be developed and deployed by NanoX will revolutionize clinical diagnostics and research by providing new ways to directly image, characterise, diagnose, and treat diseases in any species at a level of detail and complexity that was previously unattainable.

Mots-clés : soft x ray microscopy,tissue imaging,disease mechanisms