Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : COMBINE (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université libre d'Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 113300.0 €

Aim: To break new ground in the field of official statistics, COMBINE produces error-corrected figures on (1) the number of individuals receiving social assistance benefit at a given point in time and (2) the transition rate out of social assistance between two points in time. Background: Social assistance benefits are an important pillar of the welfare state. Policy making on social assistance benefits is based on official statistics that are produced by National Statistical Institutes with the use of register data. However, register data suffer from measurement error that can severely bias official statistics and, consequently, policy-making that uses these statistics. Innovation: COMBINE tests, applies and evaluates a novel model-based error-detection and correction method on social assistance benefits. This method does not require concrete knowledge of the causes of measurement error. With this method, we produce different and more reliable official statistics on social assistance benefits. Moreover, this method is more efficient than the practices of data-quality improvement that National Statistical Institutes currently apply. Plan: The project is carried out in collaboration with Statistics Netherlands and, in particular, with its Department of Demographic and Socioeconomic Statistics. Besides producing error-corrected official statistics on social assistance benefits, COMBINE delivers an implementation plan of the method to other official statistics (by Statistics Netherlands or other National Statistical Institutes) and a dissemination plan for approaching policymakers and other users of the statistics. Impact: COMBINE will encourage a cultural shift in official statistics by boosting the confidence of National Statistical Institutes in producing model-based error-corrected statistics. In the policy field, as the method is applicable to a wide range of topics, the project contributes to evidence-based policy-making.

Mots-clés : official statistics,social assistance benefits,hidden markov models,register data
Projet ERC : Nanodesign (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Centro de Regulación Genómica — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CRG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Antibodies have become major players in the pharmaceutical industry and were valued at 0.16 US billion in 2023. Traditionally, antibodies are obtained after immunisation of different animals and then produced in relevant cells for use in research, diagnostics and therapy. In recent years, there is a growing public opinion in Europe to ban the use of animals for biomedical research, and therefore there is an increasing pressure to move from animal produced antibodies to design and produce them in vitro. Antibody engineering has another important advantage, which is the possibility of targeting a precise epitope and not rely on serendipity as when injecting an animal with an antigen. In recent years, there have been significant advances in protein design based on the use of artificial intelligence and precise force fields. Despite this, the majority of the companies that work on antibody design combine rational engineering with massive proprietary screening methods, and so far, there are no reported cases of fully de novo design of an antibody with nM affinity against a defined epitope. Using an interleukin receptor as a case study, we have shown that we can indeed fully design de novo a nanobody that recognizes the target with nM affinity, using our proprietary protein design software FoldX and ModelX. Experts consulted to date indicate that the results obtained so far are “truly impressive”, prompting us to continue validating and optimising our process. Our proposal has two main objectives: First, to fully automate our pipeline that involves epitope selection, antibody framework selection and docking, backbone move and side chain search. Second, demonstrate that our optimised pipeline can design fully de novo nanobodies against a defined target in a fast and cost-effective way. Success in both objectives will open the way to fully de novo antibodies with desired properties, and position ourselves in the search for funding and spin-off incorporation.
Projet ERC : OssiGel (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Lund — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Cancer is a huge societal concern representing one death out of sixth in 2020. The vast majority of existing cancers emerge or ultimately develop in bones: leukemia, lung, breast, prostate, kidney, bladder. Our bones are thus considered a privileged “harbor” for cancer cells, and this is also associated with a very poor survival prognostic: bone-developing cancers account for ~3 million deaths each year. When at all existing, treatments are poorly effective: 92% of new therapies successful in preclinical testing fail in clinical trials. This urgently calls for the development of models to study cancer and test therapeutics in a more reliable fashion. Towards this objective, we proposed to engineer human mini-bones in mice, in order to mimic the patient bone-developing cancer condition. These mini-bones (aka human ossicles) forming in animals consists in miniaturized bone organs composed of the patient own cells, including cancer cells. The human ossicles were thus proposed as unique technology to study tumour progression but also test therapeutics in an advanced and personalized in vivo setting. However, despite substantial promises, the human ossicle model suffers from a lack of standardization: only 10% of patient-derived cells can successfully form human ossicle5. This prevents the large exploitation of hOss as a standard model to study bone-developing cancers and establish tailored treatments.  We here propose OssiGel as a technology offering the standardized and reproducible formation of human ossicles. OssiGel consists in a cell-secreted gel, which production is ensured by a dedicated human cell line. Mixing isolated patient cells with OssiGel in vitro restore their capacity to form human ossicle. By injecting the OssiGel/patient-cells mixture in the back of mice leads to the successful formation of human ossicle in vivo (Fig. 1). The resulting patient-derived bones can then be used to study cancer development and for the personal testing/selection of drugs.
Projet ERC : Proceed (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Lund — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The prevalence of diabetes will rise to ~592 million in 2035. Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a leading cause of death through its vascular complications. High glucose increases the risk for complications, and thereby suffering for patients and costs for society. It is important that patients with T2D receive an optimal therapy that lowers blood glucose. Metformin is first-line T2D therapy. However, ~30% of patients do not respond to metformin. Currently, there are no biomarkers that predict the response to metformin. We discovered blood-based epigenetic markers that could discriminate between responders/non-responders to metformin in drug-naïve patients with T2D. This epigenetic tool may be further developed to help patients with T2D receive an optimal therapy. The aim of PROCEED is therefore to develop and commercialize our pharmacoepigenetic tool. We expect this biomarker tool to aid clinical decision-making in T2D therapy.
Projet ERC : LIMP (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université technique du Danemark — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : DTU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Polymers are increasingly used as a lightweight and more sustainable alternative to traditional materials like steel. However product developers are not using the polymer materials to their full potential since they don’t fully trust the models of strength and longevity. Having information about the material properties in the bulk of the components during the product development stage will provide this trust. Based on decades of experience from x-ray characterization and instrumentation, our team has developed an x-ray diffraction method to generate this bulk data for semicrystalline polymers. Through the ERC PoC project we will improve the technology by extending the measurement to 3D maps of the sample from the current 2D capability. The increased time in 3D scans will be alleviated through the use of focusing optics to improve the effective opening angle from the x-ray generator and with energy resolving 2D detectors with optimized absorption efficiency in the used energy range. In the project we will furthermore implement the technology in the development process of already selected companies through proto sales of a minimum viable product. The sales will be based on a business model of providing the information from diffraction measurement to the customer as a service rather than through a sale of hardware. This business model lowers the barrier of entry both for the customers and for us as a startup. The lower barrier will help us reach a broader market of SME producers of polymers and aid in the establishing the technology as a generally recognized technique.
Projet ERC : COMBCHIP (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université technique du Danemark — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : DTU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Generating new colors (frequency components) of light through nonlinear optical phenomena is one of the key drivers of modern optical technology. The spectrally diverse coherent light, widely known as an optical frequency comb, can be produced through a nonlinear process. The optical frequency comb enables energy-efficient optical communication, precision spectroscopy, and optical atomic clock. However, the frequency comb sources currently rely on bulky and power-hungry laser systems hampering their deployment outside the laboratory environment. There are great demands in lowering the size, weight, and power (SWaP) of such broadband light sources. Despite the significant progress in the miniaturization of comb systems and microcomb technologies. it is still a huge challenge to drive a broadband (larger than an octave) comb with microwave repetition rate using on-chip pump sources due to the limited performance of on-chip lasers. The COMBCHIP project aims to develop an ultra-efficient comb generator by combining the highly nonlinear AlGaAs waveguide and a newly developed seeded pumping scheme. The developed comb sources feature an octave-spanning bandwidth, microwave repetition rate, and ultra-low operation power, enabling chip-scale comb systems in emerging applications such as atomic optical clocks in satellites and mid-infrared spectroscopy.
Projet ERC : iSURE (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université technique du Danemark — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : DTU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The Proof-of-Concept project will develop the hardware and software architecture for a novel ultrasound scanner capable of performing real-time 3-D super-resolution imaging of the microcirculation in humans. The scanner is based on the methods developed in the SURE ERC synergy grant project for Super-resolution Ultrasound Real-time imaging using Erythrocytes (SURE). The approach can non-invasively visualize the microvascular structures in the human body for vessel diameters down to 28 μm from data acquired in just 2 seconds. The results of several clinical studies will be used as a proof-of-concept, and a prototype scanner with a touch-sensitive graphical interface will be developed and tested in a hospital environment. Documents will be made specifying the architecture of both the software and the hardware platform for potential commercial implementation of the approach. This will form the basis for either a potential spin-out company or a license agreement with a commercial ultrasound company.

Mots-clés : real time implementation,super resolution,ultrasound,micro vascular imaging
Projet ERC : PRABio (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Lund — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Ovarian cancer is the most common malignancy of the female reproductive system worldwide, and the leading cause of death from gynecological cancer. However, if diagnosed during the early stages, patients have a good prognosis, at around 90% 5-year survival rate. Despite its lethality, there are currently no effective simple tests for diagnosis nor population-based screening techniques for ovarian cancer. Emerging tests detecting cancer biomarkers have the potential for greatest impact for surveillance and early detection, such as the FDA approved CA125 and HE4 biomarkers. Importantly, because the levels of these biomarkers are not the same among all healthy females and increase with age, these tests should be quantitative. Current quantitative diagnostic tests for CA125 and HE4 detection are expensive, require high-cost infrastructures and trained professionals. Therefore, there is an urgent need for developing cheap, reliable, easy-to-use quantitative tests for ovarian cancer biomarkers. In this project, ground-breaking innovating research will give rise to novel technology, enabling the detection of cancer biomarkers in a manner that is quantitative, and yet simple, portable and cheap.
Projet ERC : LOCOSCOPE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Clair scientific aps — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 135000.0 €

High-content screening is rapidly gaining traction across the biological sciences as a means to acquire more detailed data and test more hypotheses in an unprecedentedly rapid and systematic manner. However, a key issue identified by its users is that the instrumentation costs are too high, with systems typically costing from €150.000-800.000. This limits ownership of the instruments to well-funded research labs and, in doing so, excludes a significant portion of the multi- billion USD potential market. This project aims to target this unserved lower end of the market with a competitive high-content screening platform costing just €10.000.  To achieve this, we’ll employ a novel quantitative phase imaging method originally developed for x-ray imaging as part of an ERC Starting Grant. The method allows us to make microscopes much simpler and less expensive without sacrificing image quality. So far, we’ve successfully demonstrated that our new imaging approach is fast, robust and can be readily utilized in such a low-cost screening system. Moreover, our IP is novel, protectable and in the process of being patented. This project will take the next steps towards commercialization by developing our prototype into a minimum viable product, and by carrying out extensive research into the market and customer base to determine the optimum price point, develop a field-tested sales pipeline and revenue model, and create a robust business plan for the eventual spinout company.  Our decision to pursue the market for low-cost devices carries significant risk in that it necessitates high market penetration to achieve sufficient sales volume. However, should we successfully mitigate this risk (e.g. via focused development of the sales strategy), our endeavor will eliminate the main entry barrier to high-throughput life science research, empower a new demographic of users with cutting-edge research tools, and address the growing issue of inequality in research and healthcare.
Projet ERC : TriScanner (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : KU Leuven — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Fluorescence microscopy is key technique in the life sciences, though the method struggles to deliver the fast and sensitive imaging of multicellular systems. Such samples are now becoming commonplace not only in research but also in clinical use, including spatially-resolved 'omics' and theranostics based on patient material that allow the development of personalized treatments. However, their general uptake is limited by the absence of suitable instrumentation.  As part of our ERC-funded research, we have invented the TriScanner, a novel fluorescence microscope that offers transformative imaging performance (much faster imaging, higher resolution, higher sensitivity), and is also simple, robust, and affordable. Our TriScanner readily addresses an urgent need in current research and healthcare research, and is well-positioned to scale out from research into 'workhorse' usage in industrial R&D and diagnostics.  We propose to develop this idea from a concept and lab prototype into a robust demonstrator that is showcased on a variety of highly-relevant applications, and that we will leverage to raise user awareness and interact with key leaders in academia and leading commercial partners. This project will furthermore allow us to explore the business case and market potential, in view of developing and selecting the optimal valorization track. We expect to deliver societal impact by providing unprecedented new imaging capabilities in a fast-moving and highly influential research field.
Projet ERC : MOFFET (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : KU Leuven — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 120000.0 €

Detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at low concentrations is an important but challenging task with a range of applications, including checking food freshness, monitoring indoor air quality, and diagnosing lung conditions through breath analysis. In all of these areas, high-performance yet compact VOC sensors are needed. While compact VOC sensors exist, they suffer from limited lifetimes and low selectivities, and often produce questionable data. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with pores of molecular dimensions are excellent materials to adsorb VOC analytes from air, even at very low concentrations. The MOFFET project targets the integration of MOFs with transistor technology to realize a novel type of VOC sensor. In addition, the modular nature of MOFs and microfabrication will be combined to realize an ‘electronic nose’ demonstrator for the selective detection in mixtures of VOCs. If successful, the project will contribute to novel, non-invasive medical diagnostics, checking food freshness, and monitoring air quality.
Projet ERC : DCanVAX (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université technique de Munich — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Following decades of development, therapeutic cancer vaccines are beginning to gain momentum in demonstrating therapeutic effects, and they represent a particularly promising approach. The aim of therapeutic cancer vaccines is to stimulate immunity against tumor antigens, usually through the use of whole cells, peptides, or nucleic acids (i.e. mRNAs). Dendritic cell- (DC) based vaccines represent particularly interesting candidates for therapeutic cancer vaccine products due to their ability to cross-present antigens to T cells, thereby driving adaptive immune responses through induction of antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Despite the potential of DC-based cancer vaccines, several major limitations have hindered their success in clinical studies. These limitations include insufficient ex vivo maturation of DCs and challenges in selecting optimal tumor antigens to target. The aim of DCanVAX is to develop a novel oncolytic virus-based dendritic cell vaccine approach for systemic therapy of solid cancers. We propose that the use of a highly immuno-oncolytic virus as a mechanism to lyse tumor cells ex-vivo, will lead to the release of the entire tumor antigen library, as well as a cocktail of danger signals in response to the virus infection. By applying this highly immunogenic lysate to autologous DCs, an optimized and personalized DC vaccine can be generated. This method overcomes the major challenges that have been encountered by DC vaccine approaches in the clinic, by providing a potent mechanism of DC maturation and activation, while simultaneously exposing the DCs to the complete repertoire of tumor antigens that are specific to the patient, leading to potent and broad tumor-specific immune responses against the cancer. This approach can be developed for multiple solid cancer indications and combined with other immunotherapy approaches for potentially synergistic therapeutic effects.
Projet ERC : NewOilFactory (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : École polytechnique de Turin — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

One out of five deaths in the EU in 2017 were linked to unhealthy diets and it is estimated that 53% of the EU population is overweight or obese, creating an unsustainable burden on national sanitary systems. Overconsumption of fats, particularly saturated ones, is one of the main causes of obesity; hence promoting diets that are lower in fats is essential. One strategy could be the reformulation of fatty foods with a lower amount of both saturated and total fats. However, this is challenging as fats provide characteristic functional properties that are hard to replicate with different ingredients. The use of oleogels to replace pure fats is a valuable option to solve this difficult task. Oleogels are materials with a reduced content of saturated fatty acids, achieved via the structuring of a liquid oil with a gelator agent. They can be further processed to obtain more complex food ingredients with reduced calories and interesting organoleptic properties (oleocolloids). The application of oleogels is still limited due to several regulatory, technological and environmental limitations. Building on the knowledge gained from the ERC StG grant CryForm, NewOilFactory aims at overcoming these limitations by developing novel manufacturing processes for the production of crystalline oleogels made from sustainable liquid oils, without using hydrogenated fatty acids or expensive gelling agents, and following the mild-processing paradigm. As part of the project these processes will be tested at laboratory scale, optimized using engineering simulation tools and validated in terms of scale-up feasibility, as well as economic and environmental sustainability. In parallel, an evaluation of their market potential and a competitive analysis will be performed. A knowledge transfer strategy including patenting, licensing and the creation of a consultancy start-up for further research and co-development with industrial partners will also be established.