Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : SuperFlat (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : Donostia International Physics Center — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : DIPC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2343750.0 €

Physics is at the brink of a quantum revolution. Condensed matter research keep churning out breakthroughs almost every year. Topological insulators and superconductors, high-temperature su- perconductivity in hydrates under pressure and in pnictides, and a plethora of many-body phases in the (topological) flat bands of Moire lattices, are some of the paradigm-shifting discoveries of the past years. These seminal advances allow us to understand and predict new states of matter, with one possible goal of finding High-Temperature superconductivity. Using in-house tools developed by the PI, SuperFlat proposes a program of seminal advances focusing on new phases of matter and mate- rials exhibiting flat bands with high-temperature bulk and surface superconductivity, high catalytic properties and new topology. Specifically, SuperFlat will investigate six new intertwined directions: (1) Development of unifying principles to create flat bands whose electrons are not localized on atoms (2) Accurate prediction of materials with such electronic flat bands in the bulk and surface (3) Predic- tion of electron-phonon and electron-electron interactions in the flat bands of the discovered materials (4) Prediction of high-temperature superconductivity or other phases of matter in the discovered flat bands (5) Prediction of surface states, with flat bands, in all the large-gap (obstructed) insulators in nature (6) Concomitant analysis of the catalytic properties of the surface states in the obstructed insulators. The PI’s track record of developing new theoretical fields and experimentally realized pre- dictions - (a) the first topological insulator (HgTe), Weyl semimetal (TaAs), type 2 Weyl semimetal (WTe2), non-symmorphic insulator (KHgSb), higher order topological states (HOTI) (Bi, WTe2) (b) phonon-based superconductivity, flat-band topology, and related many-body numerics in Moire lat- tices (c) the existing in-house high-throughput materials databases to be used for the search
Projet ERC : CURVE-X (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : CNRS Innovation — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 12181.0 €

Pillar II of the ERC-STG-ICARUS aimed at paving the way to a common use of curved sensors for cost-effective imaging systems, through prototyping and recommendation for mass production. The next steps towards commercialisation and industrialisation are proposed in this PoC project to: improve the repeatability, prepare the industrialisation, realise market studies and outline a business plan. We create the start-up CURVE-ONE for the valorisation towards scientific instrumentation and amateur astronomy. The project has the positive support of potentiel clients and will be done with the help of CNRS-Innovation as a third party and the OPTITEC photonics competitiveness cluster to enhance the impact on industry.

Mots-clés : curved sensors,curved detectors,imagery,optical systems,optics
Projet ERC : CURVE-X (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 97129.0 €

Pillar II of the ERC-STG-ICARUS aimed at paving the way to a common use of curved sensors for cost-effective imaging systems, through prototyping and recommendation for mass production. The next steps towards commercialisation and industrialisation are proposed in this PoC project to: improve the repeatability, prepare the industrialisation, realise market studies and outline a business plan. We create the start-up CURVE-ONE for the valorisation towards scientific instrumentation and amateur astronomy. The project has the positive support of potentiel clients and will be done with the help of CNRS-Innovation as a third party and the OPTITEC photonics competitiveness cluster to enhance the impact on industry.

Mots-clés : curved sensors,curved detectors,imagery,optical systems,optics
Projet ERC : NIPCT (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : University of Copenhagen — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UCPH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Placental biopsies are associated with high risk of miscarriage. Current non-invasive tests are not very precise. The malaria protein VAR2CSA has been evoluationary refined to bind specifically to human placent cells. This causes the syndrom placental malaria in pregnant women. Recombinant VAR2CSA binds with high specificity to syncytiotrophoblasts in the placenta as well as placental cell lines. Using this knowledge we have developed a powerful tool which captures circulating trophoblast from a blood sample from pregnant women. This tool enables non-invasive fetal diagnostic, early in pregnancy. The aim of the ERC PoC project is to A) prepare a strategic product and business plan and B) further develop and validate the methodology enabling facile and early non-invasive fetal diagnostic.

Mots-clés : diagnostic,non invasive
Projet ERC : PLANMod (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : Tel Aviv University — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TAU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1487500.0 €

Planarians are freshwater flatworms that can regenerate any part of their body including an entire head. A single transplanted planarian pluripotent stem cell can rescue a lethally irradiated animal. Hence, the extreme plasticity of planarian stem cells (neoblasts) is critical for regeneration. Despite intensive research, we still do not understand how cellular mechanisms that regulate neoblast homeostasis are integrated to facilitate regeneration. In a preliminary study, I discovered that chemical modifications of nucleic acids are critical for normal neoblast function, and that animals lacking this activity fail to regenerate. This extreme neoblast phenotype suggests that these highly conserved base modifications are crucial regulators of stem cell homeostasis. In this project, I will dissect the functions of nucleic acid base modifications in vivo using high-throughput gene function screening, single cell RNA sequencing, and molecular biology methods. I will establish a mechanistic foundation for understanding the regulation of stem cell plasticity and regeneration. In particular, we will (1) analyze the functions of genes encoding nucleic acid modifiers and use planarians as a platform for discovery of unknown players, (2) elucidate the regulatory roles of the base modification machinery on stem cell function, (3) investigate the dynamics of nucleic acid base modification landscape in planarian stem cell physiology and injury. My approach will generate a systems level understanding of nucleic acid modification-based regulation on stem cell homeostasis, an emerging theme in stem cell research. The impact of these findings are far reaching and would become the basis for a deeper understanding of fundamental stem cell biology, including mammalian physiology and pathology.

Mots-clés : model organism,planarians,regeneration,mrna modifications
Projet ERC : BEBOP (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : University of Birmingham — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1186312.5 €

Planets orbiting both stars of a binary system -circumbinary planets- are challenging our understanding about how planets assemble, and how their orbits subsequently evolve. Long confined to science-fiction, circumbinary planets were confirmed by the Kepler spacecraft, in one of its most spectacular, and impactful result. Despite Kepler’s insights, a lot remains unknown about these planets. Kepler also suffered from intractable biases that the BEBOP project will solve. BEBOP will revolutionise how we detect and study circumbinary planets. Conducting a Doppler survey, we will vastly improve the efficiency of circumbinary planet detection, and remove Kepler’s biases. BEBOP will construct a clearer picture of the circumbinary planet population, and free us from the inherent vagaries, and important costs of space-funding. Thanks to the Doppler method we will study dynamical effects unique to circumbinary planets, estimate their multiplicity, and compute their true occurrence rate. Circumbinary planets are essential objects. Binaries disturbe planet formation. Any similarity, and any difference between the population of circumbinary planets and planets orbiting single stars, will bring novel information about how planets are produced. In addition, circumbinary planets have unique orbital properties that boost their probability to experience transits. BEBOP’s detections will open the door to atmospheric studies of colder worlds than presently available. Based on already discovered systems, and on two successful proofs-of-concept, the BEBOP team will detect 15 circumbinary gas-giants, three times more than Kepler. BEBOP will provide an unambiguous measure of the efficiency of gas-giant formation in circumbinary environments. In addition the BEBOP project comes with an ambitious programme to combine three detection methods (Doppler, transits, and astrometry) in a holistic approach that will bolster investigations into circumbinary planets, and create a lasting legacy.

Mots-clés : exoplanets,circumbinary exoplanets,binary stars,exo atmospheres
Projet ERC : BLASTOFF (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : Sainsbury Laboratory — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TSL
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1874187.0 €

Plant NLR-type immune receptors tend to have a narrow spectrum of pathogen recognition, which is currently limiting their value in agriculture. NLRs can recognize pathogen effectors through unconventional domains that have evolved by duplication of an effector target followed by fusion into the NLR. One NLR with an integrated domain is the rice resistance protein Pik-1, which binds an effector of the blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae via its Heavy-Metal Associated (HMA) domain. We solved the crystal structure of the HMA domain of Pik-1 in complex with a blast fungus effector and gained an unprecedented level of detail of the molecular interactions that define pathogen recognition. This led to the overall aim of this proposal to generate a complete picture of the biophysical interactions between blast fungus effectors and HMA-containing cereal proteins to guide the retooling of the plant immune system towards resistance to blast diseases. M. oryzae is a general cereal killer that infects wheat, barley and rice, which are staple food for a majority of the world population. The central hypothesis of the proposed research is that mutations in cereal HMA-containing proteins will result in broad-spectrum resistance to blast fungi. To achieve our goal, we will pursue the following objectives: 1. BIOPHYSICS. Define the biophysical properties that underpin binding of M. oryzae effectors to HMA-containing proteins of cereal crops. 2. RECEPTOR ENGINEERING. Develop Pik-1 receptors that respond to a wide-spectrum of M. oryzae effectors. 3. GENOME EDITING. Mutate HMA domain-containing genes in cereal genomes to confer broad-spectrum blast resistance. At the completion of this project, we will generate a thorough understanding of the biophysical properties of pathogen effector binding to cereal HMA proteins, and deliver traits and non-transgenic cultivars for breeding blast disease resistance in cereal crops.

Mots-clés : plant pathology
Projet ERC : FEDD (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : Max Planck Society — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : MPG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499375.0 €

Plant and animal domestication and dispersal is one of the most heavily debated topics in the social and biological sciences. However, a focus on the cereals has dramatically overshadowed other scholarship in the field, resulting in a shocking lack of scientific data relating to the origins of many crops. In contrast to annual crops, the domestication of long-generation perennials appears to have taken different biological trajectories and required significant cultural and ideological shifts. The FEDD project will study the origins and spread of many of the world’s most popular fruits by contrasting art historical, historical, archaeological, and linguistic data with the results from archaeobotanical, genomics modelling, and ancient proteomics analyses. My team will focus on the broad geographic region of Central Eurasia, where several of the most cultivated fruits in the world are thought to have originated. Furthermore, many other economically important fruits spread across Eurasia in antiquity along exchange routes colloquially called the Silk Road. Contrasting the results of these multidisciplinary studies will allow us to look at biological changes in the fruits and cultural changes among their cultivators during the domestication process. My unique ability to conduct this research rests in access to archaeobotanical material from collaborations with archaeological excavations (n=15) spanning the late Pleistocene to the medieval period and crossing seven different countries. The project represents an international endeavour, incorporating collaborators working in many of the least-studied areas of Eurasia, and will pull together team members interested in approaching plant domestication studies from different methodological perspectives. The FEDD project seeks to uncover the enigmatic journey of some of the most beloved items on our kitchen tables; from apples to peaches and pistachios to walnuts, we will explore the domestication and spread of arboreal crops.

Mots-clés : archaeobotany,domestication,origins of agriculture,arboriculture
Projet ERC : HARVEST (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : Max Planck Society — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : MPG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 0.0 €

Plant foods comprise the majority of most human diets, yet the potential importance of these foods in human evolution is often overlooked. Using a behavioral ecology framework, the HARVEST project explores fundamental questions: Why did hominins choose to eat certain plants? What were their foraging goals? We will focus on two objectives: 1) Reconstructing the diets of fossil hominins and 2) Exploring the costs and benefits of plant foods. To understand the factors driving food choice by ancient hominins, we must know what they ate. Analyses of plant remains, proteins, DNA and other residues preserved in dental calculus are cutting-edge methods for reconstructing diets, and provide information about food, processing techniques, and oral microbiota. With a sequential sampling approach, we will combine these analyses to identify foods consumed by hominin groups for which plants are thought to be of great importance. The decision to consume a particular plant depends on its inherent properties (nutrients and antifeedants) and on the biological and technological abilities of the consumer, so that each potential food has a different cost and benefit. We will study the variation in plant properties among microhabitats in African environments similar to those used by hominins, to better model their food choices. Separately, our study of the food choices among living African foraging and farming groups will reveal if plants are chosen for calories, micronutrients or cultural preferences, while analysis of their gut microbiota and studies of their food processing behaviors will indicate how they acquire nutrients from these foods. Finally, we will assess how the costs of fire might influence food processing choices. Results from these studies will help fill important lacunae in our understanding of hominin diets, broaden our knowledge of hominin behaviors in a variety of environments, and help generate hypotheses about the relationships between diet and human evolution.

Mots-clés : archaeobotany,gut microbiota,fire,optimal foraging theory
Projet ERC : IMMUNO-PEPTALK (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy
Entité participante : University of Zurich — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UZH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999999.0 €

Plant receptor kinases are major pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) that function as part of dynamic multimeric complexes to perceive pathogen-associated molecular patterns or host-derived damage-associated molecular patterns at the plasma membrane (PM). Our long-term objective is to decipher the molecular basis of plant innate immunity and to understand how plant receptor kinases work. Our recent findings point to an important role of endogenous peptides in the regulation of plant innate immune signaling. The main aim of this proposal is to understand how these endogenous peptides and their corresponding receptors regulate plant innate immune signaling. The central hypotheses of this research are that: (i) a subset of plant endogenous peptides are perceived by receptor kinases to fine-tune dynamically plant innate immune signaling, and thus act as ‘phytocytokines’; (ii) these phytocytokines and their receptors regulate the formation of active immune-signaling nanoclusters at the PM; and (iii) phytocytokine receptors participate in the sensory continuum represented by the plant PM and the cell wall to respond dynamically to environmental challenges. We will pursue the following specific objectives: (1) decipher the regulation, function, and perception of RALF peptides by malectin-like receptor kinases during immunity; (2) elucidate the formation, composition, and function of PM immune receptor nanoclusters; (3) reveal the function of the receptor kinase MIK2 and its ligand(s) in immunity. Through a balanced combination of straight-forward and high risk/high gain biochemical, biophysical, bioimaging, and genetics approaches, this project will provide groundbreaking insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the establishment and regulation of plant innate immune signaling, but also into the general mechanisms that control plant receptor kinase functions and by which the myriad endogenous peptides encoded by plant genomes control environmental sensing.

Mots-clés : pamps,endogenous peptides,receptor kinases,plasma membrane
Projet ERC : PHOTOPARS (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : University of London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. London
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Plastic and reconstructive surgical procedures provide a means of reconstructing tissues following damage due to cancer, trauma, burns and infections. An important example is flap surgery which involves transferring skin and the underlying tissues from one part of the body to another; for example, in the DIEP flap breast reconstruction procedure, skin and tissue from the abdomen is removed and implanted in the breast. For a successful repair, it is essential that the transplanted tissue develops an adequate blood supply. Failure to do so results in tissue death (necrosis) which can lead to complications such as infection, delayed wound healing and disfigurement due to scarring with attendant psychological trauma. This proposal seeks to address this by developing and constructing a prototype clinical imaging instrument based on a novel photoacoustic technology which can provide highly detailed three-dimensional maps of blood vessels. This technology offers the prospect of reducing the number of complications and the need for repeat procedures with consequent benefits in terms of reduced patient trauma and lower healthcare provider costs.

Mots-clés : photoacoustic,medical imaging,plastic and reconstructive surgery
Projet ERC : POETRY OFF THE PAGE (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : University of Vienna — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Univie
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1871395.0 €

Poetry Off the Page (PoP) will reveal an alternative ‘literary’ history of the period 1965-2020 by shifting the focus from the written to the spoken word. It will launch a new interdisciplinary methodology for studying poetry’s oral mode and firmly establish poetry performance research as a global discipline. Its central question is how spoken-word poetry’s semantics of presence and embodiment have shaped the “meaning” and functions of poetry, within and across national boundaries. PoP acknowledges that poetry performance upsets the traditional text/context distinction of literary studies. Embracing a double focus on the aesthetics of spoken word and the institutional and media infrastructures in which poetry performance has thrived, PoP will capture the formal innovations and cultural work of poetry performance, its functions as a form of public address, as well as its relation to received literary history (e.g. “de-colonising” and “gendering” the canon). Moreover, the project will highlight the much-neglected transnational aspects of oral performance that are of vital significance especially with regard to emerging communications technologies and postcolonial positionalities. More broadly, PoP critically investigates the role of orality in literate cultures at the crossroads of self-performance, community-building, and their technological mediation. The three methodological pillars of the PoP project are archival research, close listening/viewing aided by digital humanities tools, and qualitative interviews with performance practitioners (poets, spoken-word agents, programmers, producers). On the meta-level, we will create a sophisticated theoretical and methodological framework for interpreting our findings – informed by disciplines such as sound studies, persona studies, life-writing studies, and performance studies, and including sociological constellation analysis and Actor-Network Theory – so as to lay a sound foundation for future scholarship in this field.

Mots-clés : spoken word,poetry performance,twentieth century poetry,contemporary poetry,history of poetry,literary history,orality,poetry slam