Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : VIRGINS (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999039.0 €

An intricate network of blood vessels perfuses the brain to support neural cells and carry signaling molecules from the periphery. It is mainly considered a rigid “transportation network” rather than a dynamic and plastic “information network” integrated to neurons and glia. This proposal revisits this concept and aims to define the nature of vascular remodeling in healthy brains (i) and which remodeling mechanisms play a role in shaping plastic neuronal functions (ii)  The project VIRGINS explores this in the context of the neurophysiological adaptations occurring during and after pregnancy. There, sexual hormones promote neuronal plasticity, which tunes the cerebral control of energy balance, and drives the emergence of parental behaviors. Using our unbiased whole-brain vascular mapping technique TubeMap, we found that in pregnant mouse brains, vascular territories of regions controlling energy homeostasis and hormonal states are remodeled: the Arcuate, PeriVentricular, ParaVentricular, and DorsoMedial nuclei of the Hypothalamus. We also found remodeling of blood vessels in brain regions processing pup calls: the auditory and prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, and subcortical relays. The regional specificity of this vascular plasticity suggests precise and complex regulatory mechanisms and a role in shaping neuronal functions in the pregnant state.  To link structural, functional, and molecular changes in the neurovascular unit during gestation, we will use light sheet brain mapping, neurovascular (fast ultrasounds), and 2-photon imaging with transcriptomics, molecular and behavioral tools to determine 1) the nature of whole brain vascular plasticity during pregnancy, 2) its mechanisms and impact on the control of energy homeostasis and 3) its role in the tuning of the auditory system to infant calls. This project will transform our view on the capacity of the NeuroVascular Unit to sculpt neuronal computation and behaviors.

Mots-clés : vascular biology,pregnancy,plasticity,metabolism,auditory systems,neuroendocrinology,light sheet microscopy,brain mapping,neuroanatomy
Projet ERC : SeMER (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
Entité participante : Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UPPA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 203663.75 €

Mercury (Hg) pollution is a major environmental problem. Due to its extreme toxicity, Hg has recently been included in the top ten chemicals of major public health concern by the World Health Organization. Once released in the environment, it can be transformed, principally by aquatic microorganisms, into methylmercury. Methylmercury’s hazardous effects are biomagnified through food webs, resulting in negative health effects. However, Hg metabolic pathways in biota remain poorly understood. Therefore understanding these complex processes is crucial to elucidate potential (eco)toxic effects as well as factors governing Hg biogeochemical cycling. Hg binding with proteins has been evoked as a cause for toxicity and the role of selenium (Se) as antagonist for Hg toxicity is acknowledged but thus far not well understood. SeMER is an ambitious and multidisciplinary research project with a main objective to revolutionize the understanding of Hg metabolic pathways in living organisms in the context of (antagonist) interactions with Se. The project is based on the development of novel analytical approaches that combine speciation and natural isotopic fractionation in a unique pattern. Speciation provides valuable information about reactivity and potential toxicity of metabolites. Furthermore, the natural abundance isotopic signatures add a dynamic dimension, comprising the life history of target elements, pollution sources, and reaction tracking. The resulting (bio)molecular and isotopic signatures will provide valuable insights of Hg in biota and potential detoxification mechanisms. Developed methodologies will be assessed in both freshwater and marine ecosystems in order to characterize important differences in Hg:Se interactions across contrasting habitat types. SeMER concept will revolutionize the sources and tracing of Hg and its metabolites, that could be extended to other metals and push back frontiers in life and environmental sciences related to them.

Mots-clés : environmental chemistry,mercury,selenium,pollutants,speciation,isotopic fractionation,
Projet ERC : DynAML (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1994500.0 €

Advances in sequencing-based phylogenetic studies applied to cancer evolution have led to the observation that the linear accumulation of oncogenic alterations over individuals’ lifespan does not match the late life pattern of cancer incidence. It has thus become clear that beyond the sequential accumulation of oncogenic driver mutations, additional factors also support cancer outgrowth. The temporal and spatial dynamics of tumor evolution represent two of the most critical mutation-independent variables to consider. Hence, we hypothesized that the dual features of aging and spatial dissemination promote critical fitness gains that are at least as significant as driver mutations in cancer. The goal of this proposal is to investigate the spatial and temporal determinants of tumor progression and to dissect the contributions of these processes to cancer pathogenicity.  Due to its quite unique occurrence pattern and propagation characteristics, Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is the prototypical disease model that we have elected to template such spatiotemporal-dependent features of disease development. To study these features, we engineered two mouse models of leukemia dissemination and aging using serially-transplantable MLL-AF9-driven leukemic blasts. Using these two models, we propose to i) combine metabolomic- and epigenomic-based profiling to portray the spatiotemporal dynamics of leukemia growth; ii) deploy single-cell transcriptomics coupled with lineage tracing experiments to reveal the pre-deterministic attributes of such dynamics; and iii) leverage innovative multimodal in vivo shRNA and CRISPRa screening approaches to pinpoint and functionally characterize the critical age- and dissemination-related effector genes involved in leukemic progression. The comprehensive analysis of their unknown function will potentially define new therapeutic routes in AML, and, given the holistic nature of the spatiotemporal characteristics studied, in other cancers as well.

Mots-clés : preclinical mouse models of acute myeloid leukemia,multi omics analyses and in vivo loss of function screening approaches,relationship between host tissue and leukemia progression,influence of aging on leukemia malignity
Projet ERC : champANTIBIOTICS (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: B iological  Mechanisms , Structures  and Functions
Entité participante : Université d'Utrecht — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

Antimicrobial resistance is a major threat to global health. To combat this threat, new antibiotics with novel binding modes are urgently needed. Ideal candidates could be lipid-targeting antibiotics (LT-antibiotics) that target special lipids that only exist in bacterial, but not in human cell membranes. These drugs kill refractory pathogens without detectable resistance. This has generated huge interest. So far, the molecular mechanisms of LT-antibiotics have proven elusive due to technical challenges: 1) structures of small drug?lipid complexes in membranes cannot be solved by traditional methods; 2) LT-antibiotics need to oligomerize to become active; and 3) binding modes are strongly affected by cell membrane profiles. In consequence, it has been impossible to visualize native binding modes and an entire class of potent antibiotics remains poorly understood. In pioneering studies on the drug teixobactin, my lab recently presented the first quantitative insights into the mechanisms of LT-antibiotics in cell membranes. Strikingly, we discovered that teixobactin uses a novel ?double attack? type of antimicrobial action, in which teixobactin forms large oligomers that both block the peptidoglycan synthesis and damage bacterial membranes. These findings raise new questions about LT-antibiotics. I propose to establish a comprehensive understanding of LT-antibiotics by elucidating their native binding modes in intact bacteria and at several length-scales (? to ?m). To this end, I will develop solid-state NMR methods, isotope-labelling strategies, and super-resolution microscopy setups. With these tools, I will elucidate the mechanisms of some of the most promising antibiotics of our time: 1) novel drugs from unculturable bacteria; and 2) daptomycin, a front-line drug whose mechanism has been chased by two generations of scientists. This research will outline groundbreaking strategies for determining antibiotic mechanisms and, in so doing, address a pressing

Mots-clés : molecular mechanisms of antibiotics solid state nmr in cell structural biology
Projet ERC : MANTRATANTRAM (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : École pratique des hautes études — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : EPHE PSL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1972125.0 €

Tantra dominated the Hindu and Buddhist socio-religious landscape across much of southeastern Asia from ca. the 7th to the 13th century. Once perceived ambivalently by scholars, and often still misrepresented in global pop culture as a form of sexual practice, the study of Tantra has now become a burgeoning academic subfield. However, the impact of Tantra on the religio-cultural history of Asia is still underappreciated, and disciplinary limitations as well as the Area Studies paradigm, fragmenting Asia into discrete areas, hamper our global understanding of this translocal phenomenon. Transcending these boundaries, the project will study Tantra from the perspective of cultural contact between different communities across the geo-environmental region referred to as ‘Monsoon Asia’, approaching the phenomenon in a global manner and in terms of ‘connected histories’ rather than in isolation according to distinct regional contexts. Taking the ‘medieval’ as its chronological framework, it will investigate textual corpora in Sanskrit, vernacular, and non-Indo-Aryan languages that have seldom been studied in a comparative manner, and complement the textual data with art historical evidence. In so doing, it will frame the emergence, transfer, and transformation of Tantra as a mobile and multi-centric network of people, languages, and objects that circulated across a vast interconnected region sharing common geo-environmental factors (e.g., the periodical monsoon winds). Besides uncovering the interactions between elite and nonelite socio-cultural milieus in the constitution of tantric traditions, it will also transcend the asymmetrical framing of premodern cultural relations between South Asia and the remainder of the wider Indic world, and highlight the shared religious heritage in a vast region that hosted the majority of the world population both historically and in the present, which has been artificially fragmented by national and global geopolitical configurations.

Mots-clés : tantra,tantrism,shaivism,hinduism,buddhism,south asia,southeast asia,east asia,monsoon asia,maritime silk roads
Projet ERC : HyperGraph (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Entité participante : Université Humboldt de Berlin — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2515938.0 €

At the heart of quantum physics and quantum technology lies the captivating phenomenon of entanglement, which society hopes to profit from in improved and completely novel technical applications within the second quantum revolution.  Entangled quantum states are extremely difficult to create and validate; only 50 years ago entangled states were shown to violate Bell’s inequalities, using two entangled quantized states of electromagnetic radiation, known as single photon states. For this achievement the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded.  Ever since, entangled states have driven fundamental and applied research. Intriguingly, entanglement can theoretically be created between an arbitrary number of photons. Their creation, however, has been very challenging, and over the past years, the size of one-dimensional entangled photon states has been increased to 14 in 2022. The slow progress is mainly limited by the development of deterministic single photon sources.  Recently, I have designed a novel spin-photon interface in diamond with record-high emitter to detector efficiencies theoretically exceeding 99% and realistically reaching 90%. These record efficiencies are enabled by the Sawfish interface. Multiplexing of several of such interfaces will enable the creation of large 2D and even 3D photon graph states. These states will be so complex, that new theoretical models are required for their understanding. The usage of states whose density matrix could never be computed on classical computers is indeed a conceptual problem in theory. In this regime, HyperGraph’s experimental research will stimulate concepts and new discoveries in theory. Moreover, because of the many degrees of interconnection between the individual qubits, I expect innovative concepts for error correction, novel and possibly improved protocols in fault tolerant quantum information processing, and even completely new application cases to be developed in parallel and beyond HyperGraph.

Mots-clés : quantum states of light,entangled photon states,entanglement generation,color centers in diamond,diamond nanocavities,nanophotonic spin photon interfaces,feedforward operations,error correction,photon graph states,hyperentanglement,hyperentangled photon graph states
Projet ERC : PLUNDERED LIVES (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Université Humboldt de Berlin — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999888.0 €

This project aims to write the history of the great plunder of small things—everyday household objects, and personal items, including clothing, looted on a mass-scale by local non-Jews during, and in the aftermath of, the Holocaust. While historical research has focused on the top-down and centralized Nazi state’s takeover of Jewish financial assets, real estate, businesses, or art objects, we know nothing about the afterlives of unmarked objects of daily use that changed hands in the course of the Holocaust and continued being used for decades in the small local communities of East-Central Europe. The main objectives of the project are to document different modes of how Jewish personal possessions were appropriated by non-Jewish local populations of East-Central European shtetls; examine how they have been redeployed, adapted, and misused by their new owners; and assess the social and psychological trans-generational impact of this kind of plunder on the communities of both the beneficiaries and the victims. Breaking with the top-down view on Holocaust dispossession, this project focuses on eight microstudies of communities located in three different administrative units of German-occupied East-Central Europe. PLUNDERED LIVES’ novelty is in a combination of a microhistorical analysis with qualitative approaches of social studies and social psychology; extending the typical time frame (1939-1945) to include dispossession practices that continued after WWII; and experimental outreach strategies of digital crowdsourcing, curatorial interventions in public spaces, and cross-generational interviewing to elicit responses from the implicated communities and document hitherto inaccessible material in private possession. Highly interdisciplinary, PLUNDERED LIVES will open avenues for future research into the fields of genocide studies, anthropology of conflict, social psychology, economic history and forensic studies.

Mots-clés : holocaust history,genocidal dispossession,east central europe
Projet ERC : TECHtonics (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : Université Humboldt de Berlin — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999951.0 €

The governance of global technical standard-setting is in the midst of unprecedented transformation and contestation. Long dominated by wealthy industrialized countries, international standardization organizations have been shaken by the emergence of rising standards powers, above all China. Alongside China, several other Global South countries are now breaching the high barriers to entry in this field. TECHtonics will contribute two theoretical innovations addressed to both the international standardization literature and scholars of global governance more broadly. One aim of the project is development of a framework to study how and why some developing countries manage to acquire standards power, against the odds. A second contribution is introduction of the concept of governance rupture to study the multifaceted forms of contestation unfolding in global technical standard-setting. Since both topics addressed by these frameworks—institutionalized inequality and complex governance challenges—are not unique to technical standard-setting, the findings will advance theory-building on power, politics and contestation in the global governance literature. The project employs mixed methods to provide empirically rich, granular analyses of rising standards powers and governance ruptures in international standardization. One work package features case studies of rising standards powers at different levels of influence in international standardization—aspiring (Kenya), rising (India) and risen (China). A second work package will study the dynamics of governance rupture in global digital standard-setting unfolding across four theatres: power, practice, authority and bloc formation. TECHtonics will directly transfer insights to the practitioners’ world. A practitioner lab and secondments to standardization organizations will be established in order to directly fuse academic insights with practitioners’ needs, ensuring a high degree of research impact beyond academia.

Mots-clés : technical standards contestation global economic governance rising powers inequality kenya india china
Projet ERC : RESET (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
Entité participante : Université d'Utrecht — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2492625.0 €

Plate tectonics and mantle convection drive motions and slip buildup along plate boundaries. The locations where slip will be released during earthquakes are inferred from satellite observations. However, inversions ignore plate tectonic and mantle mechanics and much of the available data. Recent vertical velocities suggest megathrust earthquakes in subduction zones could rupture twice closer or farther from the coast. That could make the difference between shock and world-class disaster for one third of the world’s population. To set this straight and unlock earthquake sciences, I propose a paradigm shift by imaging, quantifying and understanding processes as part of an earthquake system. This multi-scale plate tectonic concept couples novel and known interactions between subducting and overriding plates, mantle and the megathrust from milli-seconds to millions of years. Imaging this multi-scale, visco-elasto-plastic system poses a major computational challenge that I will tackle by adapting the latest computer science advances in automatic differentiation and high-performance computing on graphical processing units to earthquake sequences. Adjoint-based slip and medium inversions and an Ensemble Kalman Smoother will assimilate all observations into physical system models. Application and validation in five natural laboratories will quantify system processes, which will be integrated into a unified theory quantifying surface velocities with time.  This integrative approach allows for the first probabilistic seismic hazard assessment based on first physical principles. RESET’s Earthquake System concept, methods and theory will equip solid Earth scientists with what is needed to explain recent observations and enable efficient, system-based quantification of future seismicity.

Mots-clés : earthquakes,plate tectonics,geodesy,inverse theory,numerical modelling