Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : RNA.ORG (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Université libre d'Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499140.0 €

Brain function requires precise regulation of the neuronal proteome which involves localizing thousands of mRNAs to neurites, where specific subsets are translated at the required subcellular locations. Although local translation is well-established, the mechanisms that ensure the capture and translation of specific mRNAs at the correct subcellular location remain elusive. A better understanding of this process is urgent since dysregulation of mRNA localization and translation is emerging as a key pathological event in neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).  In RNA.ORG, I aim to define, at a molecular level, how the coordination between mRNA transport, capture and local translation occurs to support neuronal function. Recent work from my lab and others has shown that multiple organelles interact with mRNA and translational machinery. This raises the exciting possibility that organelle interactions coordinate mRNA distribution, local capture and selective translation. I have developed tools to visualize and manipulate organelle position and contacts at nanoscale resolution. Here, I will leverage these tools and directly control mRNA positioning to elucidate the importance of mRNA capture in neuronal function and intervene in its dysregulation in ALS. In combination with live-cell and super-resolution imaging, RNA-sequencing and proteomics, this project will address the following key objectives: 1) Resolve the subcellular distribution and dynamics of neuronal organelle-mRNA contacts 2) Unravel the functions of organelle-mediated mRNA capture at specific subcellular locations 3) Determine the role of dysregulated mRNA capture in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis  RNA.ORG will elucidate novel mechanisms on the subcellular capture and translation of specific mRNAs in neurons and will provide new insights into the role of local mRNA positioning in neuronal development, physiology and pathology.

Mots-clés : axonal mrna translation,mrna localization
Projet ERC : DynaDiff (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative B iology : from Genes and Genomes to S ystems
Entité participante : Helmholtz Zentrum München — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HMGU
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1498372.0 €

Development is driven by transcriptional programs where specific gene regulatory networks (GRN) control genes on several time scales. However, the extent to which transcriptional dynamics are coordinated for different genes and how the differential downregulation of the progenitor GRN determines cell fate remains poorly understood. This in part due to the difficulty of measuring genome-wide transcription with temporal resolution in complex developmental systems. Plus, transcription occurs in the nuclear context, where the nucleoplasm is compartmentalized into a variety of highly dynamic condensates known as membraneless organelles (MLOs), which include nucleoli, PML (promyelocytic leukaemia) nuclear bodies (PML-NBs), and nuclear speckles (NSs). The homeostasis of these MLOs changes during differentiation, but their impact on transcription and lineage commitment remains elusive. In DynaDiff, I aim to investigate the link between PML-NBs and NSs and transcriptional regulation during mammalian differentiation by: 1) developing single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) methods to characterize transcriptional dynamics in mouse and human embryonic stem cells (m/hESCs) during the exit from pluripotency; 2) determining the role of PML-NBs and NSs on transcriptional dynamics during differentiation, and 3) assessing the role of PML-NBs and NSs in organizing chromatin conformation and its link to active transcription. I recently made a significant technological breakthrough, finally bringing long-awaited temporal resolution to scRNA-seq. This expertise, in combination with my background in high-throughput microscopy and computational analysis allows me to lead and conduct DynaDiff successfully. Finally, hESCs have the potential to form cell types from the three primary germ layers. Our knowledge of this system is paramount to understand human early embryonic development for the treatment of developmental disorders, and for the development of regenerative medicine.

Mots-clés : membraneless organelles,chromatin conformation,single cell transcription,deep learning
Projet ERC : SELFRELIANCE (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Entité participante : Université de Leyde — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499984.0 €

To tackle global challenges like climate change or pandemics, large-scale cooperation is needed. Cooperation and its maintenance are traditionally seen as a conflict between pro-sociality (dedicating resources towards public goods) and free-riding (taking advantage of the cooperation of others). Yet, when faced with shared problems that require cooperation, individuals may also have the ability to solve them individually. Societies often, and increasingly so, provide individuals with means to become independent of public goods through, e.g., private healthcare or retirement planning. How such opportunities of self-reliance influence cooperation and group-living is largely unknown. SELFRELIANCE fills this void and elucidates the functional and dysfunctional effects of (increasing opportunities for) self-reliance. Conceptualizing cooperation as a conflict between 'communalism' and 'individualism' reveals a heretofore neglected social dilemma and shows (1) how self-reliance changes the interdependence structure of groups, (2) how such changes influence the ability to solve shared problems, (3) affect norms of trust and responsibility, and (4) give rise to institutions able to solve the dilemma between independence and collective action. To this end, SELFRELIANCE is built on a new collective action model. Using this model as the theoretical bedrock, the strengths of three methodological approaches are combined: laboratory experiments (WP1/1PhD), a large-scale cross-cultural study (WP2/1Postdoc), and computer simulations (WP3/1PhD). In combination, this approach will reveal how self-reliance changes the normative foundation of groups, how cross-cultural differences in interdependence influence cooperation around the globe, and the co-evolution of self-reliance, institutions, and collective action. Results will advance our theoretical understanding of human cooperation and inform policies for promoting cooperation towards shared socio-economic problems across societies.

Mots-clés : cooperation,social dilemmas,social interdependence,individualism,institution formation
Projet ERC : Materials-GRoWL (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Entité participante : Université de Leyde — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

This project, Materials-GRoWL, will assess the current and future construction material uses that compose human settlements of the Global South, which is sometimes indiscreetly aggregated as the Rest of the World (RoW) in global studies. This is crucial, because construction materials have global environmental impacts: half of yearly consumption of all raw materials, significant shares of carbon emissions, and major contributors to land use change. Most of their future demands and thus environmental and societal impacts will occur in the global south. This is also challenging, because understanding the lifecycles of construction materials – how many and which materials, where are they used, to what ends, and with which impacts – has been daunting due to limited data and research frameworks. The Global South has been neglected so far, and the little understanding we have is incomplete, uncertain, and incoherent. Thus the environmental and socioeconomic risks related to construction material use in the RoW countries now and in upcoming decades are only generically studied or remain unknown. Materials-GRoWL will: 1. Develop novel methodologies to produce high-resolution construction material data in the Global South and link these to the societal services and human needs they provide; 2. Compare future material use developments to 2070 under a suite of different socioeconomic and wellbeing pathways; 3. Identify environmental and socioeconomic risks imposed on and by construction material accumulation; and 4. Form an exchange framework for cross-transfer of material use knowledge. Materials-GRoWL will overcome the severe data and methodological challenges that held back the study of construction material use in the Global South. It will provide data and methods crucial for addressing the SDGs and material prerequisites of decent living standards. The results will link the development of the built environment with its impacts to inform further research, policy and action

Mots-clés : industrial ecology,material flow analysis,social economic metabolism,material stocks,sustainable resource use,build environment
Projet ERC : BIG-5 (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Entité participante : Université polytechnique de Catalogne — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 250000.0 €

Nature-experiences are on the decline, but does that mean environmental values are as well? — Where the decrease of experiences of nature is often cited as a cause for dwindling appreciation of nature and consequently less commitment to environmental stewardship, I argue that the internet is an overlooked factor in multiplying nature experiences, creating nature values, and fostering environmental stewardship, thus counteracting the ‘extinction of experiences’ of nature. With more than half of the global population already using social media, the BIG-5 project utilizes five of the world’s largest social media platforms to better understand the fostering of physical-virtual nature interactions that support sustainable global transitions in a rapidly changing world. The BIG-5 project introduces Digital Relational Values (DRVs) as fundamental and eudemonic values that are developed within virtual communities, triggered by indirect experiences of nature. It will trace these values across five landscape types, five large social media networks, and in five European languages through qualitative and quantitative (big data) approaches in an inductive-deductive manner. Furthermore, the BIG-5 project will develop and apply innovative empirical approaches that allow to (a) identify DRVs across different social media platforms, (b) understand how they spread across virtual communities, and (c) examine the relationship between virtually produced DRVs and physical environmental stewardship. BIG-5 will thereby challenge the assumption of an “extinction of experiences” and the consecutive decline of nature values and care for the environmental. It will further strengthen the importance of relational values as a foundation for environmental stewardship and contribute to a novel understanding of a physical-virtual continuum in the generation of nature values. Finally, BIG-5 will also advance on ethical consideration regarding the use of social media socio-environmental research.

Mots-clés : social media,relational values,environmental stewardship,nature experiences,physical virtual continuum
Projet ERC : MeioPoly (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative B iology : from Genes and Genomes to S ystems
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 : 1496630.0 €

Hybridization between related species resulting in allopolyploidy is ubiquitous in the evolutionary history of plants. Such nascent allopolyploids face the challenge of ensuring accurate chromosome segregation during meiosis in the presence of related, but non-identical chromosome sets (called homoeologues), inherited from the allopolyploid’s progenitors. Essential for fertility, this relies upon the formation of physical connections (crossovers) between homologous chromosomes, while crossovers between homoeologues - that could lead to aneuploidy - must be prevented. Meiotic stability in the allopolyploid context thus requires a tight control of recombination partner choice. The existence of highly fertile natural allopolyploids shows that solutions exist and have arisen many times during evolution, but the mechanisms involved remain poorly understood. My goal is to elucidate the evolutionary processes of meiotic stabilization of nascent allopolyploids, with a special emphasis on the molecular mechanisms that prevent recombination between homoeologous chromosomes. I propose to recreate in the lab the natural hybridization that happened ~16 Kya between A. thaliana and A. arenosa leading to Arabidopsis suecica in order to characterize the mechanisms underlying the evolution of the young allopolyploids over the first generations as they acquire meiotic stability and full fertility. The proposed project has three main objectives: (1) map and characterize genome-wide recombination between homoeologues; (2) identify the factors that control homoeologous pairing and recombination and (3) elucidate how this control is progressively set up in newly formed allopolyploids. Our studies have the potential to bring new and fundamental insights on the evolutionary processes enabling meiotic stabilization of nascent allopolyploids and to contribute to polyploid crop improvement through knowledge transfer to plant breeding programs.

Mots-clés : polyploidy,meiosis,evolution,recombination,homoeologous chromosomes,plants,arabidopsis
Projet ERC : COMET (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : Université de Leyde — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

This project is a comparative study of human subject research in colonial Southeast Asia in the period 1890-1962. While the most (in)famous instances of medical scientists conducting unethical experiments on human beings took place in Nazi Germany and the United States, advances in medicine more broadly relied on research on non-consenting human subjects – often in colonial contexts. Doctors in the Dutch, British and American colonies in Southeast Asia too did medical experiments that discounted the well-being of their research subjects but the region also has some of the earliest examples of informed consent. This project will be the first to study these practices.  The key objective of the project is to define and explain the different ethical practices in human subject research in colonial Southeast Asia. To achieve that objective the project aims (1) to understand the nature and reveal the scope of human subject research in Southeast Asia, and (2) to conceptualize the ethical regimes in the colonies in order to explain differences between ethical decisions of doctors in diverse socio-cultural settings. To bring these issues into the present, the project also (3) examines the afterlife of colonial medicine in the postcolonial world to explore how the legacy of medical research could be used ethically today. The project’s hypothesis is that the changing context of colonial politics, research infrastructure, religious beliefs, professional (tacit) codes – what I call the ethical regime – together with local circumstances, explain these changes.  The project has a novel, anthropologically grounded approach and a three-way comparative method that includes comparisons between the Dutch East Indies, British Malaya and the (American) Philippines, and between colonies and their metropoles but also traces change over time. As such, we aspire to gain insight in why human subject research has become unethical in some circumstances and less so in others.

Mots-clés : history of science,history of ethics,history of medicine,history of colonialism,southeast asia
Projet ERC : MitErrA (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and R egeneration
Entité participante : Institute of Molecular Biology — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IMB
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1498111.0 €

One of the holy grails in cancer biology is to understand how genomic instability, a hallmark source of mutagenesis, arises. However, surprisingly little is known about non-genetic drivers of tumorigenesis. My proposal will delve into the old question of how Mitotic Errors and nuclear Abnormalities (MitErrA) affect cellular homeostasis, from a fresh perspective: the elucidation of non-genetic effects on genome function and cellular adaptation. I recently discovered that micronuclei, a prominent type of errors in mitosis, are a previously unappreciated source of epigenetic instability. This discovery, together with the novel technologies that I developed, will serve as the springboard to address four fundamental questions: 1) How is chromatin state affected in abnormally segregated chromosomes? 2) What are the mechanisms of transcriptional (dys)regulation following errors in mitosis? 3) How is genome organization perturbed in imbalanced genomes? 4) What is the physiological significance of abnormal chromosomes generated by mitotic errors? I will combine cutting edge techniques, such as targeted chromosome manipulation and single-cell genomics, with advanced systems to track mis-segregated chromosomes by live-cell imaging over multiple generations. I will identify additional sources of inherited abnormal nuclear structures (termed “Mit-bodies”) and characterize their DNA damage/repair dynamics and epigenetic alterations. I will study how transcription dynamics are perturbed in daughter cells upon abnormal mitosis and define higher-order genome organization, nuclear positioning and lamina association of mis-segregated chromosomes. Finally, I will investigate long-term cellular adaptations and assess the tumorigenic potential of these abnormal chromosomes. Altogether, these studies will offer the first comprehensive assessment of the non-genetic mechanisms by which errors in mitosis may drive cellular adaptation and tumorigenesis.

Mots-clés : mitosis,nuclear structures,chromosome segregation,micronuclei,aneuploidy,genome organization,cell adaptation
Projet ERC : ENTRYHIRE (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : Institute for Employment Research (IAB) of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : IAB
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 396390.0 €

Firms’ hiring of labor market entrants is crucial for individual access to opportunity and the economy’s skill level. However, it involves a complex search and screening process that is prone to frictions. While macroeconomic research has shown that the efficiency of labor market matching depends on recruitment intensity, micro-level evidence on firms’ underlying behavior remains limited, mainly due to a lack of suitable data. Yet, such evidence is essential for understanding and improving labor market matching, particularly given ongoing demographic change and increasing market tightness in many economies.  The objective of ENTRYHIRE is to provide a systematic understanding of (i) firms’ hiring behavior and outcomes in tightening entry-level labor markets, (ii) the nature of underlying frictions and firm heterogeneity, and (iii) the effects of policies aimed at removing hiring frictions. As a ‘laboratory’ for studying the microeconomics of entry-level hiring, I draw on the German apprenticeship market, which features well-defined vacancy and applicant pools, a structured timeline, as well as exogenous tightness and policy variation.  ENTRYHIRE will collect and combine novel data from different sources, including employer-employee records, a matching platform, and the records of a large-scale hiring assistance program. Moreover, it will develop and implement a survey framework to elicit firms’ hiring tradeoffs. Combined with innovative empirical research designs, the collected data will enable a comprehensive view on firms' typically unobserved search and screening processes and their links to realized hiring outcomes.  The project will create systematic knowledge on the interaction between labor market tightness, firms’ hiring behavior, and public policy on entry-level markets. It will provide new empirical ground for economic models of labor market matching and inform policies aimed at promoting an efficient matching of young workers to jobs.

Mots-clés : hiring,entry level labour markets,labour market policy
Projet ERC : COMET (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and Analytical Chemical 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 : 1500000.0 €

In situ and real-time detection of analytes in complex biological media requires the development of robust and sensitive biosensors. In this context, the interdisciplinary COMET project will develop innovative optical biosensors based on communicating nanoparticles (NPs) whose response is modulated by the presence of opioids. To date, robust inter-particle communication between optically-active NPs has only been described with inorganics, involving either electron or resonance energy transfer. Despite their excellent optical properties, inorganic NPs raise environmental and biocompatibility concerns with respect to their toxicity or colloidal stability. In that regard, Fluorescent Organic Nanoparticles (FONs) are an interesting alternative: FONs are composed of organic dyes condensed in a small volume and engineered to display intense absorption and excellent brightness. The optimal arrangement of spectrally complementary FONs acting as synergistic energy donors and acceptors will address the critical challenge of achieving communication between NPs and signal amplification. To meet this goal, COMET will reinvent the classical FONs elaboration by investigating the self-assembly of dedicated dyes concomitantly with a biological recognition moiety in water. Spectrally relevant FONs will be associated into nano-constructions in which a donor and an acceptor FON are brought together to enable energy transfer. I will then design stimuli-responsive biosensors based on the triggered disruption of these nano-assemblies by an analyte, particularly opioids. The detection of nanomolar traces of opioids will be achieved thanks to signal amplification through cascade energy transfers within and between FONs. Such communicating nano-tools will provide the next generation of continuous ratiometric biosensors. In addition, they will open the way to a new paradigm in excitation energy migration and impact other research fields such as optoelectronics and nanomedicine.

Mots-clés : fluorescent nanoparticles fret photophysic biosensors