Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : DynaPLIX (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UKE
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2521029.0 €

Proteins are biological macromolecules that are vital to all processes of life. Understanding the functions of proteins has great scientific and commercial value: proteins are used as industrial enzymes, as pharmaceutical treatments, and many proteins are the targets of drugs. Current knowledge of protein function is primarily based on static structures, which have provided great insights about structure-function relationships that today form the basis for protein science and protein engineering. Proteins are, however, not static molecules, but undergo spontaneous transitions between alternative structural states, some of which are rare, transient conformations that are essentially invisible to traditional methods. These dynamical properties are known to be critically important for function, but high-resolution studies of dynamics have so far been conducted merely as an “add-on” following structural studies. To change the situation, we aim to establish “integrative biomolecular dynamics” by developing methods that integrate time-resolved X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and molecular simulations to study the motions of proteins while they carry out their function. We focus on the challenging problem of molecular recognition because it represents a poorly understood frontier in molecular science where advances are expected to have great impact. Specifically, we will address the question of how proteins bind ligands by describing with atomic resolution the entire dynamic process to reach a consistent kinetic, thermodynamic, and structural view. We are at a point where it will be possible to develop the individual techniques required for our integrative biomolecular dynamics approach. As a team we can leverage ongoing developments in hardware and methods, while ensuring the tight integration between methods that is needed to study complex dynamical systems. We thus aim to move structural biology into a new era of protein dynamics.

Mots-clés : protein dynamics,ligand binding kinetics,molecular recognition,energy landscape,conformational ensembles,molecular dynamics simulations,time resolved x ray crystallography,nmr spectroscopy,nmr relaxation
Projet ERC : DarkQuantum (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université de Saragosse — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : CO-PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 4051463.75 €

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

Mots-clés : axions dark matter axion haloscope axion like particle photon counter qubit transmon high temperature superconductor low background techniques underground physics machine learning
Projet ERC : UNLEASH (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université de Dundee — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 0.0 €

Alternative splicing (AS) of mRNA precursors plays important roles in tissue-specific gene regulation and biological regulatory mechanisms, as it can radically alter protein expression, cell phenotypes and physiological responses. Altered splicing also contributes to disease mechanisms, ranging from neurodegeneration to cancer. Drugs modulating AS have recently provided the first therapy for Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a common genetic disorder, illustrating the huge potential for treating many other diseases of unmet need, if only we understood the mechanisms controlling splice site selection and how to regulate them with small molecules. Unfortunately, despite decades of research, a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms that control specificity of AS is lacking. This gap in basic knowledge prevents opportunities to harness splicing modulators as tools to study gene function, novel therapeutics or other biotech applications. This Project addresses head-on the major technical challenges that have limited progress in the AS field. Building on extensive preliminary data, we will use a multidisciplinary approach that combines chemical, structural, cellular, systems biology and machine learning to characterize mechanisms of splice site selection and identify targets for modulating these mechanisms using tool compounds. The outcomes will define key regulatory sequences, splicing factors and molecular interactions involved, thereby illuminating how the splicing machinery efficiently accommodates, yet also discriminates between, a wide range of splice site sequences. This will enable future applications harnessing splice site selection. Our primary goal is to answer the central question, ‘Is it generally possible to modulate splicing with high specificity using small molecules?’ Success will transform our basic understanding of human gene expression and unleash major opportunities for Pharma to develop new therapeutics.

Mots-clés : rna splicing,rna protein interactions
Projet ERC : ATHENS (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : EPFL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 4725192.75 €

Information and communication technology (ICT) crucially relies on the combination of two highly complementary fields: Microelectronics, which excels in processing and storing information using CMOS circuits and photonics, which is key to fast and efficient transmission of information over large distances. Electrical-to-optical conversion in photonic integrated circuits is what links both fields. While efficient conversion from optical signals to electrical signals is straightforward even at a single-photon level, electrical-to-optical conversion represents a key challenge – with respect to efficiency, bandwidth and noise. This challenge does not only affect optical communications, where efficient generation of broadband data signals is key, but also prevents photonic integrated circuits from unfolding their full impact in highly relevant emerging application fields such as microwave photonics, artificial intelligence or quantum technologies. ATHENS aims at overcoming this deficiency by establishing the foundations of a new class of photonic integrated systems that offer unprecedented electro-optic conversion performance. The project builds upon a synergistic selection of highly disruptive approaches on the material, process and device level, reaching from theory-guided engineering of organic electro-optic materials and novel ‘crystal-on-insulator’ integration platforms to disruptive concepts for broadband optical on-chip amplifiers based on ion implantation or parametric interaction and to highly flexible photonic-electronic system-integration concepts based on additive nanofabrication. These technologies are combined on a system level, building a base for groundbreaking demonstrations in hyperscale communications, millimeter-wave signal processing and quantum technologies. The project is borne by an interdisciplinary and highly complementary team of scientist from organic chemistry, solid-state physics, quantum technologies and communications engineering.

Mots-clés : exa scale photonic computation,exa scale photonic computation,cryogenic photonic interconnects
Projet ERC : SmartX (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : EPFL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 3019969.75 €

The main objective of this project is to improve the early detection and accuracy of lung disease diagnosis by developing a novel detector concept for dark-field X-ray imaging - a novel method with great potential for the assessment of pathological changes in the alveolar microstructure of the lung as recently discovered in initial patient studies. Our research will focus on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the third leading cause of death worldwide, responsible for more than 3.2 million deaths each year. Traditional chest X-rays, while critical for diagnosis, are often inadequate for the early and accurate detection of mild to moderate COPD due to their limited sensitivity. Similarly, computed tomography (CT) scans are limited in detecting early stages of COPD and are associated with much higher radiation doses. This highlights a significant diagnostic need, as current methods, including spirometry and conventional imaging, cannot reliably assess the severity of COPD.  Our goal is to develop a breakthrough detector technology that overcomes the key challenge of darkfield imaging: the need for a 50% absorbing grating. By utilizing the latest advances in nanoscintillation materials and single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) sensor technology, we intend to directly resolve the interference patterns characteristic of darkfield imaging. This new technology not only promises to reduce the radiation dose required by current darkfield techniques by 50%, but also enables integration with single-photon spectral detection.  This initiative is a high-risk, high-reward project with the potential to revolutionize X-ray imaging technology, particularly lung imaging, after more than 125 years of practice. Most notably, it will lay the technological foundation for routine integration into the next generation of medical X-ray and CT imaging technology.

Mots-clés : x ray darkfield imaging,lung diseases,x ray detection technologies,photonics,computed tomography,respiratory diseases,scintillation materials
Projet ERC : CASTLE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université libre de Berlin — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2033480.0 €

Chirality is a key property of molecules important in many chemical and nearly all biological processes. Recent observations have shown that electron transport through chiral molecules attached to solid electrodes can induce high spin polarization even at room temperature. Electrons with their spin aligned parallel or antiparallel to the electron transfer displacement vector are preferentially transmitted depending on the chirality of the molecular system resulting in Chirality-Induced Spin Selectivity (CISS). The long-term vision of the CASTLE project is to transform the CISS effect into an enabling technology for quantum applications. This will be accomplished by achieving four key objectives. 1) The occurrence of CISS will be studied at the intramolecular level by photo-inducing rapid electron transfer within covalent donor-chiral spacer-acceptor molecules to generate long-lived radical pairs (RPs). 2) Direct detection of RP spin polarization will be performed using time-resolved and pulsed electron and nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. In addition, polarization transfer from one of the radicals comprising the spin-polarized RP to a stable molecular spin (Q) will be used to initialize the quantum state of Q, making it a good qubit for quantum applications, particularly sensing. 3) Quantum mechanical studies of the CISS effect will provide predictive models for molecular qubit design. 4) The CISS effect will be used to control, readout, and transfer information in prototypical devices embedding hybrid interfaces based on semiconducting or conducting substrates, thus dramatically advancing the use of molecular spins in quantum information technologies targeting high-temperature operation. These devices will be used also to prove molecule-based Quantum Error Correction. The knowledge acquired with CASTLE will impact a wide range of fields, including magnetless spintronics, dynamic nuclear polarization for NMR signal enhancement, catalysis, and light harvesting.

Mots-clés : chirality,electron transfer,molecular magnetism,spin selectivity,spintronics,supramolecular chemistry,coordination chemistry
Projet ERC : CultCryo (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université de technologie de Darmstadt — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : CO-PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2718962.25 €

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

Mots-clés : ethnography,technology assessment,language technology,digital history of concepts,cultural analysis,value analysis and theory,cryopreservation,cooling,infrastructures,public health,sustainability,
Projet ERC : OPEN-2QS (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université Eberhard Karl de Tübingen — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : CO-PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2966221.0 €

OPEN-2QS aims to deliver a disruptive change in our capabilities of analog quantum simulation of open 2D many-body systems. For the first time, this will allow us to investigate quantum matter with competing coherent and dissipative processes over extremely long times - a regime that is inaccessible by current technology. This will open a new window for the discovery of emergent dynamical phenomena and states of matter, such as quantum glasses. As any system in Nature eventually couples to an environment, and thus is open, the research program of OPEN-2QS will deliver foundations and concepts whose relevance extends to chemistry, biology and information processing, thereby also forming a basis of future technological innovation. OPEN-2QS’ ambition to redefine the state-of-the-art of open system quantum simulation will be achieved by employing ion crystals, forming two-dimensional geometries, which host >100 individually addressable and mutually coupled particles. Strong state-dependent tunable dipolar Rydberg interactions will allow for a full control over the build-up of quantum correlations in 2D geometries. Vibrational phonon quantum degrees of freedom will enable the engineering of irreversible dissipative processes. The ensuing complex dissipative dynamics will be stabilized over thousands of dissipation cycles via coherence-preserving in-situ optical cooling. Monitoring quantum trajectories under dissipative dynamics and an unprecedented access to reservoir correlation functions will enable the investigation of collective relaxation behavior and exotic forms of matter. We will study the impact of quantum effects on phase transitions, explore correlated dynamics in quantum glasses, test fundamental principles of quantum thermodynamics, and advance numerical algorithms through a close theory-experiment interplay. To achieve these goals, we have gathered a world-wide unique team of pioneers in trapped ions, Rydberg physics and quantum non-equilibrium theory.

Mots-clés : trapped ions,open quantum systems,phase transitions,rydberg states
Projet ERC : X-MESH (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université catholique de Louvain — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : CO-PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UCL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 4583973.25 €

This project will develop an innovative approach, X-MESH, to overcome a major difficulty associated with engineering analysis: we aim to provide a revolutionary way to track physical interfaces in finite element simulations using extreme deformation of the meshes.  Unprecedented low computational cost, high robustness and accuracy are expected as the proposed approach is designed to avoid the pitfalls of the current methods, especially for topological changes. The key idea of the project has emerged in a synergistic brainstorming between J.-F. Remacle (meshing methods) and N. Moës (computational methods). This key idea is to allow elements to deform up to zero measure. For example, a triangle can deform to an edge or even a point. This idea is rather extreme and totally revisits the interaction between the meshing community and the computational community who, for decades, have striven to interact through beautiful meshes. Six areas in fluid and solid mechanics as well as heat transfer are targeted. Interfaces will be either (i) material, i.e. attached to particles of matter (the interface between two immiscible fluids or the dry interface in a wetting and drying model) (ii) immaterial, i.e. migrating through the material (a solidification front, contact front, yield front in yield stress fluid flow or a crack front). Successes brought by X-MESH are expected in the following engineering areas: safety design and maintenance, manufacturing processes, coastal engineering, energy efficiency, ocean modeling to cite a few. The project takes place in a stimulating environment mixing senior staff with PhDs and Post-docs to produce and disseminate publications with open source pieces of software. It also intends to create a synergy at large with the computational communities dealing with interfaces and fronts in all fields of science: topology optimization, superconductivity, tissue growth, hydrogel swelling, crystal growth, ferroelectric crystal etc.

Mots-clés : mesh generation,finite element analysis
Projet ERC : KARST (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Conseil supérieur de la recherche scientifique — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : CO-PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CSIC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1937824.0 €

Karst aquifers are a treasure and a threat: while up to 25% of the world population depends on them for drinking water, they also have capabilities for extremely fast conduction of water and contaminants. In the light of climate change, we need to prepare for extreme flooding and understand the consequences for karst aquifers. Despite their socio-economic importance, decades of research, and high-profile disasters, karst structures and processes remain notoriously difficult to assess. Because of the complexity of karst and its lack of accessibility, the foundations of flow and transport modeling in karst systems are weak. Key phenomena related to extreme events such as flash floods and heavy tails in tracer recovery are still beyond current modeling capabilities. KARST will establish the next generation of coupled stochastic modeling frameworks to predict karst processes, assess the vulnerability of karst aquifers, and forecast their response to extreme events. Our approach will bridge structures and processes on all scales, far beyond the capabilities of current theories and computer simulations. This will be achieved by targeting three key objec- tives: (i) Identification and quantification of flow and transport dynamics at the conduit scale. (ii) Characterization and modeling of karst network structure at the catchment scale. (iii) Derivation of a new upscaled approach to predict karst processes at different resolution scales. Together, this will result in an unprecedented multiscale modeling framework for the prediction of flow and transport in karst. Solving this long-standing problem is possible thanks to the synergy of the KARST PI team combining the set of skills and knowledge (hydrogeology, physics, mathematics) required to make a ground-breaking step in this field. Beyond that, the new approach is expected to impact other real-world systems in medicine (capillary networks), neuroscience (brain microcirculation) or glaciology (meltwater flow in glaciers).

Mots-clés : karst,networks,upscaling,flow,transport,graphs,structure,anomalous transport,continuous time random walks,lagrangian analysis,particle methods,dispersion,turbulent transport,groundwater,contamination,floods