Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : GAINBYSTRAIN (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Technische Universität Braunschweig — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1994250.0 €

A central discipline of chemistry is the design und creation of molecules with defined structural and chemical properties. Stretching synthetic horizons is a never-ending endeavor to inspirit the chemist’ s creativity in preparing compounds and materials yet to be discovered. Relying on their high strain energy cyclopropanes, as carriers of the most fundamental ring geometry, offer a unique reactivity which allows for a multitude of transformations being grouped in ring-opening reactions, cycloadditions and rearrangements. Major advantage of all these processes is the cyclopropane-derived intrinsic atom-economy. In this research project, we propose a number of uncommon and challenging reactions making use of donor-acceptor cyclopropanes. Introducing a distinctively controlled bond cleavage we seek to develop novel modes of 1,3-bifunctionalization by σ-bond metathesis, by using hypervalent iodine reagents and by merging organocatalysis with photoredox catalysis. Unprecedented ring-enlargements to four-membered rings by [3+1]-cycloadditions employing isonitriles, carbenes and nitrenes are envisioned, aryne insertions into the three-membered ring leading to indane systems are planned and a general concept for [3+3]-cycloadditions with 1,3-dipoles is presented paving the way to unusual syntheses of heterocycles. A distinct class of compounds obtainable by our methodology will set the stage to access completely unexplored heterocyclic π-systems being of interest for material science and molecular electronics. Besides our central goals of advancing organic methodology and to demonstrating the synthetic utility of these novel reactions, we anticipate that mechanistic insights gained by experimental and computational means will be of high impact for the chemistry of this fundamental structural unit in general.

Mots-clés : cyclopropanes,donor acceptor cyclopropanes,organic methodology,strained systems
Projet ERC : PhotoNow (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : University of the Basque Country — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UPV;EHU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 218437.5 €

A central focus of leading investigations, the bulk photovoltaic effect is a nonlinear absorption process that converts light into electrical current intrinsically. The last few years have brought groundbreaking discoveries to the field, including an unprecedented enhancement of the photoresponse driven by a combination of topology and third-order electric-field effects, as well as the first material realization of solar-cell efficiency exceeding the upper-limit of current devices. The nonlinear mechanism is thus in an excellent position to revolutionize the field of solar-cell technologies by opening a fundamentally new route towards highly efficient third-generation photovoltaics. Reaching this landmark requires both a fundamental understanding and a systematic search of materials. In this scenario, first-principles calculations based on density functional theory must play a central role in coming years due to their innate ability to deliver microscopic and material-specific predictions. A first-principles description of nonlinear responses, however, is very complex and contemporary methods need to go far beyond the state-of-the-art for modelling central effects such as third-order contributions. PhotoNow aims at filling this critical gap by developing a first-principles method that correctly incorporates these effects, giving unprecedented access to crucial properties like the energy conversion efficiency. Our methodology will rest upon a Wannier-function technique adaptable to any material, crystallizing in a free software interdisciplinary tool aimed for physicists, chemists and engineers. This major development will allow us to achieve our central goal, namely discovering and characterizing outstanding materials for nonlinear photovoltaics. PhotoNow will carry out a systematic analysis of a wide variety of materials including Weyl semimetals, ferroelectrics and distorted semiconductors, delivering key microscopic understanding and guiding future discoveries.

Mots-clés : density functional theory,first principles calculations,nonlinear responses,bulk photovoltaic effect,optical properties of materials,shift currents,photocurrents,many body effects,maximally localized wannier functions,weyl semimetals,ferroelectrics,ferro  and antiferromagnets,tight binding models
Projet ERC : LogNeuroDev (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cellular, Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Entité participante : The Francis Crick Institute — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2357000.0 €

A central problem in biology and key to realising the potential of regenerative medicine is understanding the mechanisms that produce and organize cells in the complex tissues of an embryo. In broad terms, initially uncommitted progenitors acquire their fate in response to signals that control transcriptional programmes. These programmes drive cells through spatial and temporal successions of states that gradually refine cell identity. How these states are established and cell fate decisions implemented is poorly understood. To address this we use an experimentally tractable system – the formation of defined populations of progenitors in the vertebrate spinal cord. We take an interdisciplinary approach that combines our in vivo expertise with three recent advances in our group. First, we have developed in vitro differentiation systems and microfluidic devices that use embryonic stem cells to recapitulate development processes. Second, we have embraced new technologies that provide unprecedented ability to manipulate and assay single cells. Finally, we have established interdisciplinary collaborations to develop computational tools and construct data driven mathematical models. Using these approaches, alongside established embryological methods, we will establish a platform for manipulating and analysing mechanisms by which the multipotent progenitors that form the spinal cord acquire specific identities. We will identify the rules by which cells make decisions and we will define the design logic and network architectures that lead to distinct cell fate choices. The ability to: (i) follow the trajectory of a cell as it transitions to a specific neuronal subtype in vivo; (ii) manipulate the process in vitro and in vivo; and (iii) model it in silico, offers a unique system for understanding organogenesis. Together these approaches will provide the knowledge and technical foundations for rational, predictive tissue engineering of the spinal cord.

Mots-clés : cell fate decisions,quantitative biology,morphogen,gene regulatory networks,tissue engineering,transcriptional networks
Projet ERC : Learn2Walk (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : VU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1331625.0 €

A child’s first steps may be small, but they are a giant leap for its development. Children have an instinct to walk from the moment they are born – a 'stepping reflex' hardwired in their neural circuitry – but it typically takes about one year before they can start walking independently. In a pioneering work published on Science in 2011, I demonstrated that the coordinated muscle activation in neonate stepping is described by two basic activation patterns that are retained throughout development, and supplemented by two new ones that be-come manifest in toddlers. These seminal findings triggered profound questions: Is the development of new patterns an emergent property, indicative of spontaneously changing cortico-muscular interaction? Does locomotor impairment change the spontaneous character of this emergent property into a gradual one? With the proposed research, I plan to answer these questions by studying the interplay between brain and muscular activity at the onset of independent walking. The overarching aim is to characterize the emergence of independent walking in typically developing children and in children affected by cerebral palsy, and to identify an optimal rehabilitation strategy to promote normal walking in the latter. I plan to perform a combined analysis of brain and muscular activity in typically developing children, unraveling the detailed processes underlying the learning of walking. I will then elucidate the reorganization of cortical and cortico-muscular activity accompanying the altered development of walking in children with cerebral palsy. Finally, I will apply these results to the identification of optimal rehabilitation techniques for children with cerebral palsy. It is my long-term ambition to exploit fundamental insights into neuro-motor control for promoting normal walking in children with locomotor impairments. The proposed project provides an exciting opportunity for me to realize this goal.

Mots-clés : gait,development,children,cerebral palsy,cortico muscular coherence,functional connectivity,muscle synergies
Projet ERC : PREVENT RA (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Karolinska Institutet — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : KI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1090684.69 €

A common feature of autoantibody-positive autoimmune disease is that the disease-associated autoimmunity often appears many years prior to clinical onset and can hence be used to identify risk groups for future disease development. Autoantibody-positive (seropositive) rheumatoid arthritis (RA) provides a unique setting due to recent insights in the longitudinal development of the disease, suggesting that autoantibodies develop in genetic susceptible individuals as a consequence of specific environmental challenges (such as smoking) to only later on target the joints. The main objectives of the current program are: (1). To dissect the longitudinal development of seropositive RA and gain a detailed understanding of the processes responsible for autoantibody generation outside the joints, and specifically at the mucosal sites. (2). To develop new ways to identify seropositive disease-susceptible individuals and map targetable life style factors and immune events responsible for this susceptibility. (3). To elucidate the mechanisms by which systemic autoimmunity targets the joints to first induce bone loss and pain and only in a second phase chronic joint inflammation. If successful our project will not only allow efficient identification of RA-susceptible individuals, but also deliver new tools for risk estimation in each of these individuals and novel ways of intervention in order to delay, or in the best case prevent disease development. By shifting the time (to phases before joint damage and disability occurs) and the ways (to drugs targeting early previously unknown pathogenic mechanisms) of interventions, expected results from the current project are beyond the current state of the art in RA.

Mots-clés : rheumatoid arthritis
Projet ERC : EndoSubvert (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy
Entité participante : Institut Pasteur — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

A common strategy of bacterial pathogens is active or passive uptake into host cells. There, they can localize within a bacterial containing vacuole (BCV) or access the host cytoplasm through BCV rupture. Hence, intracellular pathogens are often classified as vacuole-bound or cytoplasmic. Recently, this definition has been challenged by the discovery that many vacuole-bound pathogens, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Salmonella enterica, access the host cytoplasm, and by the insight that cytoplasmic bacteria, like Shigella flexneri or Listeria monocytogenes, do not always escape the BCV. Despite this increasing complexity, a precise understanding lacks for why and how a pathogen “chooses” between a BCV or the cytoplasm and yet this is very important: because of differential pathogen sensing in membrane-bound and cytoplasmic compartments, intracellular localization leads to induction of different host responses. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the processes controlling BCV integrity is not only essential, but can provide new therapeutic targets. Our previous research has implemented innovative fluorescence microscopy to track the invasion steps of pathogenic bacteria. We have further integrated a large-volume, correlative, light/electron microscopy (CLEM) workflow via focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy. This uncovered the subversion of host Rab cascades by Shigella to rupture its BCV. Starting with the Shigella model of epithelial cell invasion, we will delineate the precise molecular mechanisms controlling BCV integrity in different host cell types. We will analyze (i) the scaffolds of host pathways for membrane remodeling, (ii) their subversion by various pathogens, and (iii) their differential regulation depending on pathophysiological conditions. Together, this will allow development of novel, rational antimicrobial strategies and will yield fundamental insight into understudied cell biological mechanisms of membrane trafficking.
Projet ERC : SelforganisingEmbryo (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cellular, Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Entité participante : European Molecular Biology Laboratory — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : EMBL
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1867228.0 €

A defining feature of multi-cellular living systems is the capacity to break symmetry and generate patterns through self-organisation. Our project aims to understand the design principle of multi-cellular self-organisation, using a well-suited model system: early mouse embryos. In mammals eggs lack polarity and symmetry is broken during early embryogenesis, which results in segregation of three cell lineages in the blastocyst. Progressive expansion and coalescence of fluid-filled spaces form the blastocyst cavity that segregates the cavity-facing lineage from the rest. Despite extensive gene expression studies, how molecular and physical signals are dynamically coupled for self-organised blastocyst patterning remains poorly understood. We aim to identify the mechanisms of feedback between cell polarity, mechanics (contractility, adhesion, pressure) and fate operating across sub-cellular to whole organismal scales. For this, we adopt a unique set of strategies that integrate biology and physics: advanced live-imaging, quantification of molecular and physical parameters to integrate into lineage maps, reduced systems to establish physical models, and spatio-temporally controlled manipulations for functional validation of those models. We will build up complexities. At the single-cell level, we will study de novo assembly of the apical domain in relation to cell contact and cortical contractility. For inside-outside patterning, we aim to dissect the coordinated signalling between cell position and fate specification. Furthermore, we will study how fluid cavities, a yet unexplored parameter, contribute to cell sorting, apical polarisation and fate specification through generation of pressure and contact-free cell surfaces. Ultimately, we will reconstitute embryogenesis in silico, reveal emerging properties and design engineer the blastocyst. In all, this study will set a paradigm for studying self-organisation on subcellular to organismal scales.

Mots-clés : tissue mechanics,self organisation
Projet ERC : HamInstab (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : University of Barcelona — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UB
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 227152.32 €

A fundamental problem in the study of dynamical systems is to ascertain whether the effect of a perturbation on an integrable Hamiltonian system accumulates over time and leads to a large effect (instability) or it averages out (stability). Instabilities in nearly integrable systems, usually called Arnold diffusion, take place along resonances and by means of a framework of partially hyperbolic invariant objects and their homoclinic and heteroclinic connections. The goal of this project is to develop new techniques, relying on the role of invariant manifolds in the global dynamics, to prove the existence of physically relevant instabilities and homoclinic phenomena in several problems in celestial mechanics and Hamiltonian Partial Differential Equations. The N body problem models the interaction of N puntual masses under gravitational force. Astronomers have deeply analyzed the role of resonances in this model. Nevertheless, mathematical results showing instabilities along them are rather scarce. I plan to develop a new theory to analyze the transversal intersection between invariant manifolds along mean motion and secular resonances to prove the existence of Arnold diffusion. I will also apply this theory to construct oscillatory motions. Several Partial Differential Equations such as the nonlinear Schrödinger, the Klein-Gordon and the wave equations can be seen as infinite dimensional Hamiltonian systems. Using dynamical systems techniques and understanding the role of invariant manifolds in these Hamiltonian PDEs, I will study two type of solutions: transfer of energy solutions, namely solutions that push energy to arbitrarily high modes as time evolves by drifting along resonances; and breathers, spatially localized and periodic in time solutions, which in a proper setting can be seen as homoclinic orbits to a stationary solution.

Mots-clés : hamiltonian systems,arnold diffusion,celestial mechanics,hamiltonian partial differential equations
Projet ERC : SIRPOL (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : University of Stuttgart — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1505750.0 €

A fundamental property of optical photons is their extremely weak interactions, which can be ignored for all practical purposes and applications. This phenomena forms the basis for our understanding of light and is at the heart for the rich variety of tools available to manipulate and control optical beams. On the other hand, a controlled and strong interaction between individual photons would be ideal to generate non-classical states of light, prepare correlated quantum states of photons, and harvest quantum mechanics as a new resource for future technology. Rydberg slow light polaritons have recently emerged as a promising candidate towards this goal, and first experiments have demonstrated a strong interaction between individual photons. The aim of this project is to develop and advance the research field of Rydberg slow light polaritons with the ultimate goal to generate strongly interacting quantum many-body states with photons. The theoretical analysis is based on a microscopic description of the Rydberg polaritons in an atomic ensemble, and combines well established tools from condensed matter physics for solving quantum many-body systems, as well as the inclusion of dissipation in this non-equilibrium problem. The goals of the present project addresses questions on the optimal generation of non-classical states of light such as deterministic single photon sources and Schrödinger cat states of photons, as well as assess their potential for application in quantum information and quantum technology. In addition, we will shed light on the role of dissipation in this quantum many-body system, and analyze potential problems and fundamental limitations of Rydberg polaritons, as well as address questions on equilibration and non-equilibrium dynamics. A special focus will be on the generation of quantum many-body states of photons with topological properties, and explore novel applications of photonic states with topological properties.

Mots-clés : quantum many body states of photons,topological states of matter,non equilibrium dynamics,rydberg atoms
Projet ERC : EDGE-CAM (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cellular, Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Entité participante : Institut national de recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inrae
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499771.0 €

A fundamental question in biology is how multicellular organisms robustly produce organ shapes. The underlying process of morphogenesis involves the integration of biochemical, genetic, and mechanical factors across multiple spatio-temporal scales. In plants, morphogenesis is dominated by the rigid cell wall, which fixes cells in their position. Adjacent cells must therefore coordinate their growth patterns, which are in turn controlled by the mechanical properties of the cell wall. Cell walls are assembled by a complex intracellular trafficking machinery that delivers cell wall components and their associated biosynthetic machinery to different subcellular regions. Based on our recent discovery that a trafficking route directed to cell edges is essential for cell wall assembly and directional growth at the cell and organ scale, we propose that morphogenesis is controlled by a signalling module at cell edges which integrates feedback from the cell wall. This hypothesis provides a mechanistic explanation for the integration of cell and tissue-level mechanical factors into coordinated cell wall assembly. We propose that a receptor-like protein recently identified as the first known cargo of edge-directed trafficking acts as a core component of a cell wall signalling pathway at edges. This proposal aims to test our hypothesis through a combination of experimental and computational methods: (1) at the molecular level, we will identify further components of the signalling module through ligand screening, comparative proteomics, and forward genetics; (2) at the cellular level, we will functionally characterise trafficking pathways and their regulation by edge signalling through quantitative imaging, glycomics, and computational mechanics; and (3) at the organ level, we will dissect how robust growth emerges from edge-based feedback on these trafficking pathways. Collectively, these results will provide a multi-scale mechanistic model of morphogenesis in plants.

Mots-clés : cell wall assembly,endomembrane trafficking,plant biomechanics,computational mechanics