Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : GlycanSwitch (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Genos glycoscience doo za istrazivanje i usluge — Pays : Croatie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : GENOS GLYCOSCIENCE
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 132750.0 €

Autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are often life-threatening disorders with increasing disability having a negative impact on patients’ quality of life. Mechanisms leading to the breach of tolerance in development of autoimmunity are still largely unknown. Protein glycosylation is an essential regulatory mechanism in the immune system. We recently demonstrated that N-glycosylation of the variable region (Fab) of autoantibodies is a hallmark of RA development and progression. We also demonstrated that autoantibodies acquire these Fab glycosylation signatures already many years before disease onset. We herein hypothesize that Fab glycosylation at the level of the B cell receptor is a key molecular switch promoting the selection, activation and proliferation of autoreactive B cells leading to the concomitant breach of immunotolerance. Within GlycanSwitch, we will map the Fab glycome of various types of RA autoantibodies and autoreactive B cells. We will study the factors and underlying cellular mechanisms that regulate Fab glycosylation of B cell receptors and autoantibodies. We will investigate the immunological effects of Fab glycosylation and the impact in B cells signalling and activation in the context of molecular and cellular interacting partners in the immune microenvironment. Finally, we will test in relevant mouse models how Fab glycosylation of autoantibodies and autoreactive B cells contributes to the breach of tolerance. We expect that the obtained insights into the role of glycans as key checkpoint for the selection of autoreactive B cells and the rise of autoimmunity will provide leads for targeted therapeutic interventions as well as rationales for the early detection of RA and autoimmune diseases in general. We foresee that the knowledge generated will allow us to embark on a targeted prevention clinical study in patients at risk for RA to turn off the GlycanSwitch leading to chronic RA.

Mots-clés : autoimmunity,tolerance
Projet ERC : REVEAL (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université de Graz — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : CO-PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 3855149.0 €

For millennia people have wondered, “Do other Earths exist?” “Are they common?” “Would they show signs of life?”. We now have the technical capability to answer these questions. New radial-velocity spectrometers are capable of detecting the reflex motions of stars hosting Earth-mass planets in their habitable zones; the James Webb Space Telescope has the power to probe the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets. Yet the unprecedented precision of these instruments’ measurement capabilities is up against a fundamental astrophysically-imposed barrier to achieving these goals: contamination of exoplanetary signals by stellar activity and variability. Further progress is contingent on solving this “variability problem”.  REVEAL gathers world-leading experts in exoplanetary and stellar physics to tackle this problem in synergy:  - We will build on recent advances in magnetohydrodynamic simulations of stellar atmospheres, and data-driven efforts to separate the exoplanet signal from the stellar variability.  - We will simulate the “ground truth” of the turbulent physics of entire stellar photospheres resolved at the level of individual convective cells for a broad class of stars.  - We will model the emergent spectra of these “virtual” stars and “observe” them using the same data-processing pipelines as stellar radial-velocity and transit-spectroscopy observations.  We will continue to observe the Sun and stars hosting small planets found with TESS and PLATO. The stars’ own spectra will REVEAL the clues needed to disentangle stellar variability from our measurements of their planets’ masses and the fingerprints of molecules in their atmospheres. Our unified efforts will enable the new cutting-edge space observatories and ground-based facilities to realize the full potential of their designs, bringing us closer to the most profound discoveries we could hope to achieve in our lifetimes - the identification of another Earth or even possible signs of life on another planet.

Mots-clés : detection and characterization of exoplanets habitability of exoplanets stellar activity stellar variability
Projet ERC : GRAVITES (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Institut de technologie du Massachusetts — Pays : Etats-Unis — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : MIT
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2435396.0 €

The four known interactions that occur in nature can be described either by Einstein's general relativity or by quantum field theory. Over the last decades physicists have tried to put these two pillars of modern physics on a common foundation. In doing so, they have been limited by a lack of experiments at the interface of these two frameworks. Both theories have been independently verified with astonishing precision, but all verifications to date have come without drawing on concepts from the other theory. The goal of GRAVITES is to perform experiments at the interface of quantum physics and general relativity. For the first time, we will measure gravitational properties of single and entangled photons in the background of Einstein’s gravity. To this end, GRAVITES aims to combine four complementary disciplines: quantum photonics and precision interferometry guided by expertise in general relativity and quantum field theory. The synergy among the research groups will realize a large-scale fiber interferometer with unprecedented precision. Since the sensitivity of GRAVITES’s apparatus must exceed present large-scale fiber-based quantum interferometers by orders of magnitude, the two experimental teams must combine cutting-edge technologies in their respective fields for advancing single-photon interferometry. These developments are also of direct relevance for many other applications such as quantum metrology and quantum sensing. In parallel, the theory teams will investigate the combined effects of gravitation and field quantization in dielectric waveguides. With this united effort GRAVITES is in the position to explore new physics that determines the gravitational properties of quantum superposition and quantum entanglement. This will allow us to create a unique experimental platform for probing how gravity interacts with the quantum world.

Mots-clés : quantum photonics,quantum gravity interface
Projet ERC : TACY (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université de Marbourg — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 4748385.0 €

Cyclacenes, i.e., cyclic versions of acenes consisting of linearly fused benzene rings, were first discussed in 1954 by Heilbronner, but - despite considerable synthetic efforts over decades - have remained an elusive class of compounds. Theoretical investigations suggest that cyclacenes are highly reactive due to pronounced polyradical character and significant ring strain. All prior attempts to synthesise cyclacenes failed, mainly because the final synthetic step of establishing a fully conjugated π-system was energetically prohibitive. Despite these challenges, cyclacenes remain intriguing synthetic targets because of their unique chemical, electronic, and structural properties as well as their potential applications in organic (opto-)electronics or spintronics. In this collaborative project, we will develop novel synthetic approaches, which synergistically combine efficient and high-yielding synthetic strategies of belt-type precursors that we will transform to cyclacenes by extrusion of suitable leaving groups under cryogenic matrix isolation conditions, on surfaces, in the solid state, and ultimately even in solution. Our synthetic approach is highly modular and allows to structurally vary the belt-type precursors, and thus the cyclacenes, by placing different substituents at the rims, including peri-annulation or isosteric substitution of CH units by heteroatoms. This research, combined with state-of-the-art computational investigations and characterization even on the single-molecule level, will provide unprecedented insight into the structure-property relationship of the fully conjugated zigzag topology present in cyclacenes and address fundamental questions of chemical reactivity and the interplay of aromaticity, strain and polyradical character. This knowledge will finally allow us to synthesise interlocked structures based on cyclacenes and to apply cyclacenes in controlled reactions on surfaces for creating further elusive materials such as polyacenes.

Mots-clés : polycyclic aromatic compounds,on surface synthesis,matrix isolation,nanobelts
Projet ERC : RECLESS (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Carnegie Institution for Science — Pays : Etats-Unis — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CIS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2002994.0 €

RECLESS will predict how ongoing ocean deoxygenation impacts microbial nitrogen transformations and thereby the future availability of nitrogen to support oceanic primary production and carbon sequestration. Microbial conversions of bioavailable nitrogen to dinitrogen in oxygen-depleted waters currently account for ~30% of the marine nitrogen loss, despite oxygen-depleted waters making up just 0.1% of the ocean volume. Models predict accelerating expansion of oxygen depletion, which entails increased nitrogen loss with negative impacts on ecosystem function and oceanic carbon sequestration, as well as an associated production of greenhouse-forcing nitrous oxide. However, biogeochemical ocean models currently fail to reproduce fundamental aspects of the microbial nitrogen transformations observed experimentally, including how nitrogen is either recycled or lost in oxygen-depleted waters. This reflects fundamental knowledge gaps concerning the environmental controls on growth, mortality, and activity of microbial populations, which preclude robust model predictions. RECLESS breaks new ground by synergistically integrating innovative oceanographic, biogeochemical, ecophysiological, and model-based investigations to close these gaps. With unprecedented in situ ecophysiological experiments using novel custom-made instrumentation as a cornerstone, RECLESS will identify key organisms, quantify their response to environmental controls, and construct the first comprehensive global microbial ecosystem model for oxygen-depleted marine systems. This model will enable robust predictions of how ocean deoxygenation affects nitrogen cycling and loss, greenhouse gas production, and interactions with the carbon cycle. Thus, RECLESS will transform our understanding of the present and future marine nitrogen cycle and its climate interactions, and set new standards for the integration of microbial processes in global biogeochemical analyses.

Mots-clés : marine nitrogen cycle,ocean deoxygenation,microbial ecophysiology,single cell activity,ecosystem modelling,ocean modelling
Projet ERC : DynaTrans (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Institut Pasteur — Pays : France — Rôle : CO-PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 4057036.25 €

During mammalian embryogenesis, key events involving DNA and regulatory molecules over seconds and nanometers affect and are affected by, a major reorganization of the genetic material in the nucleus over hours and micrometers. How these scales are spanned and integrated into the course of development remains a major unresolved challenge. Progress in this quest is difficult, either because current model systems suffer from severe technical limitations or because existing analytical approaches probe individual spatial or temporal scales thus ignoring their evolving interactions. Traditional live imaging lacks the spatial resolution to accurately delineate chromosome organization at the scale of genes, while bulk molecular assays are ill-suited for studying development over time. Here, we propose a multi-disciplinary approach to the dynamics of developmental gene regulation to understand the details of the underlying mechanisms and their deployment over time. We combine and apply optical, molecular-genomic, and theoretical tools to recently available mammalian pseudo-embryos, allowing unprecedented precision in developmental staging, a large amount of material, and easy optical access. By focusing on select gene loci we track transcriptional activation and the interactions of distal DNA elements in real-time along with the associated chromatin dynamics using interaction profiles. Our datasets are iteratively distilled into mathematical models of increasing scope, converging towards an integrative dynamic polymer model that simultaneously captures long-timescale chromatin rearrangements as well as short-timescale motions of genetic regulatory elements and transcriptional activity. We then challenge these models via genome editing and temporally defined interventions by building light-controlled tools to affect the chromosome landscape. This project aims to reshape our view of how genes are regulated during mammalian development.

Mots-clés : gastruloids,pseudo embryos,live imaging,optogenetics,inference modeling,maximum entropy,nuclear architecture,loop extrusion,enhancers,regulatory landscapes,3rs principle
Projet ERC : 4D-STAR (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : KU Leuven — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : CO-PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 3069250.0 €

Stars are the source of radiation, chemistry, and life in the Universe. Models of how stars live are key ingredients in planetary, astrophysical, and cosmological research. A star is a hot plasma rotating around an axis. Small stars like the Sun rotate slowly but bigger ones with more mass rotate faster, shaping them as flattened spheroids. Yet, current stellar models simplify the flattening or treat stars as spheres during their lives, using 1 spatial and 1 time dimension (1+1D). Rotation and magnetism induce transport processes in 3 spatial dimensions, which change over time, requiring a 3+1D treatment. Current age-dating of stars is done from 1+1D models, with uncertainties up to 1000%. Accurate ages of stars are the dominant missing ingredient to understand stellar and planetary evolution, the emergence of life, and the chemistry in our Universe. 4D-STAR will answer the fundamental question of how rotating spheroids evolve in time and build up their chemistry during their lives. We will develop a new 3+1D theory of stellar rotation for flattened spheroids evolving over millions to billions of years, from birth to death. Lifting stellar models to 3+1D can only be done now, using asteroseismic data of thousands of stars in all life phases. Such data reveal nonradial oscillations, or starquakes, allowing us to infer internal stellar rotation, magnetism, chemistry, and the ages of stars with 10% accuracy. 4D-STAR will provide open-source modules to compute the evolution of rotating magnetic stars in 3+1D, calibrated to asteroseismic observables of single stars and stars in binaries and clusters. 4D-STAR brings a paradigm shift based on mathematical modelling, astrophysics, and computational science. Its breadth, challenges, and goals require a transdisciplinary integration of four teams led by an asteroseismologist, a theoretician specialised in transport, a hydrodynamicist, and a stellar evolution software developer, each with proven track records.

Mots-clés : stellar evolution,stellar structure,asteroseismology,scientific software development,high performance computing,differential algebraic equations
Projet ERC : UNFOLD (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université Friedrich-Alexander d'Erlangen-Nuremberg — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2852565.0 €

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 : AUTO NERVE (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Leiden University Medical Center — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LUMC
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 140000.0 €

"As a common disease in western men, prostate cancer is a major driver for the billion-euro robotic surgery and laparoscopic devices markets. In the surgical management of prostate cancer patients, next to the tumor resection accuracy, the surgeon’s ability to preserve the nerve-network and prevent erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence, is key. As these nerves are not visible by eye, image guided surgery approaches aimed at nerve-sparing demand the clinical availability of nerve-specific fluorescence tracers. Hereby it is expected that the ability to visualize peripheral nerves promotes nerve-sparing opportunities and opens up new commercial-avenues for companies involved in the surgical market. Previously my ILLUMINATING NERVES ERC-StG yielded a sensory-nerve targeted lead-compound that was made suitable for imaging somatic-nerves (MY NERVE ERC-PoC). This tracer, however, does not allow for imaging of the autonomic nerves. For autonomic nerves I have now shown, within the same ERC-StG, that an alternative tracer can be used as an imaging target. The aim of the AUTO NERVE ERC-PoC project is to convert the autonomic-nerve targeted lead-compound into a fluorescence tracer. Systematic fine-tuning of this lead will optimize the structure-activity relation and will improve the chance of future commercialization. Ultimately, the outcome of the three complementary ERC-grants should yield an advancement in clinical care.”

Mots-clés : nerve specific imaging agent,autonomous nerves,surgical guidance,chemical optimization
Projet ERC : Portapower (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : University of Cambridge — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. Cambridge
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 142324.0 €

"Portable power (~1-20 W) for small electronic devices is a high value added market. Batteries are the most convenient power devices but have relatively low energy capacity per unit mass and also slow recharge times. Micro-solid oxide fuel (micro-SOFC) cells are much better on both counts but currently operate at too high of a temperature (>500°C). This project will reduce that temperature by 200°C in prototype test devices. It will do this by exploiting much improved materials in the micro-SOFC, these materials having been discovered and developed in an ERC AdG grant held by the PI. The project will involve prototype device fabrication and testing in conjunction with a small start-up company, the ultimate aim being to take the technology forward to market."

Mots-clés : sofc,portable power,thin film,oxide,clean energy,membrane
Projet ERC : Whither Music? (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Johannes Kepler University of Linz — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : JKU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2500000.0 €

"Whither Music?" was the motto of Leonard Bernstein's 1973 lectures at Harvard, where he analysed the (inevitable?) process that led to what he called the 20th Century Crisis of Music: the gradual decline of tonality, driven by a takeover of tonal ambiguity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, eventually leading to complete abandonment of tonality in Schönberg's dodecaphony. WHITHER MUSIC? is a project that aims to establish model-based computer simulation (via methods of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and probabilistic modelling) as a viable methodology for asking questions about musical developments, possibilities and alternatives - for musicology, for didactic purposes, for creative music exploration scenarios. Computer simulation here means the design of predictive or generative computational models of music (of certain styles), learned from large corpora, and their purposeful and skilful application to answer, e.g., "what if" questions, make testable predictions, or generate musical material for further analysis, musicological or aesthetic. Making it possible to do this in highly controlled and musically 'valid' ways will require massive research on machine-learning-based music modeling, to obtain generative models that are stylistically faithful, tightly controllable, transparent and explainable - in this way advancing the field of Music Information Research (MIR). At the same time, this will open entirely new possibilities for musicological research, for music education, and for creative engagement with music, some of which will be further explored, in the form of musicological studies, didactic tools and exhibits, and public educational events. To attain this vision, we will need to thoroughly re-think the way music is modeled in AI systems. The project wants to contribute to a redirection of MIR research towards more musically informed modeling, thus eventually addressing not only the "Whither Music?", but also the "Whither MIR?" question.

Mots-clés : music information retrieval,research  mir,ai and music