Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : MeerGas (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : Dutch Research Council — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : NWO
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2498811.0 €

Neutral hydrogen drives galaxy evolution. It is the fuel for star formation. However, there is not enough present in galaxies to sustain star formation over the lifetime of the universe. Galaxies must acquire their gas from an external source through an — as yet — undetected process. MeerGas will identify how galaxies replenish their gas supply and will thereby deepen our understanding of galaxy evolution. Simulations suggest that filaments of gas, which transfer intergalactic material, feed many galaxies. This process, called cold accretion, has not been observed directly as it needs sensitive observations that are virtually impossible with current telescopes. The new MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, the largest cm-wave synthesis radio telescope in the southern hemisphere, will fundamentally change this. MeerGas uses high-resolution, high-sensitivity 3D observations of neutral hydrogen in 30 nearby galaxies obtained from the MHONGOOSE Large Survey Project, the highest-ranked MeerKAT imaging key survey. Uniquely, these observations probe structures up to two orders of magnitude fainter than in previous nearby galaxy neutral hydrogen surveys. The MeerGas analysis of these data will be unparalleled in its ability to determine the nature of accretion. MeerGas will be the only systematic study of accretion at high resolution and high sensitivity until the completion of the Square Kilometre Array in a decade. The analysis of these unique data will be a challenge as the data volume will be two orders of magnitude larger than all recent nearby galaxy neutral hydrogen surveys combined. Through my extensive experience in nearby galaxies research and neutral hydrogen observations, I am uniquely qualified to lead this ambitious project, which will yield precision studies of the accretion processes in galaxies over a wide range of physical conditions and addresses an unanswered key question in galaxy evolution.

Mots-clés : radio astronomy,galaxies  evolution,galaxies  kinematics and dynamics,galaxies  ism
Projet ERC : IMMUNE CELL SWARMS (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy
Entité participante : Max Planck Society — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : MPG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Neutrophils are essential effector cells of the innate immune response. Intravital microscopy studies have recently changed our perspective on neutrophil tissue dynamics. They revealed swarm-like migration patterns in several models of inflammation and infection: Neutrophil populations show strikingly coordinated behavior with phases of highly directed chemotaxis and clustering at local sites of tissue damage. My previous work established that neutrophils self-amplify this swarming response by auto-signaling, which provided the first molecular basis for the collective nature of neutrophil swarms (Lämmermann et al., Nature 2013). However, we are still at the beginning of unraveling the molecular pathways behind this newly discovered phenomenon. Most importantly, we completely lack insight into the signals and mechanisms that stop neutrophil swarms in the resolution phase of an immune response. Since excess neutrophil accumulations cause deleterious tissue destruction in many inflammatory diseases, novel insights into the mechanisms, which prevent extensive swarm aggregation, might be of considerable therapeutic value. In accord with this, our proposal follows three aims: (i) dissecting the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control the resolution phase of neutrophil swarming, (ii) establishing a conceptual framework of how swarming immune cells adapt their dynamics to changing inflammatory milieus, and (iii) developing an integrated view on how neutrophil swarms are controlled by secondary waves of myeloid cell swarms. To achieve our goals, we will combine targeted mouse genetics with live cell imaging of immune cell dynamics in living tissues and the use of innovative mimics of physiological environments. Our future findings on innate immune cell swarms promise to (i) advance our knowledge on leukocyte navigation in complex inflammatory tissues and (ii) provide new avenues for the therapeutic modulation of tissue regeneration after inflammation and infection.

Mots-clés : intravital imaging of the immune response,neutrophils,chemoattractants,directed migration,interstitial leukocyte motility,resolution of inflammation,macrophages
Projet ERC : ExtraImmune (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : University of Oxford — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499997.0 €

New crop protection strategies are essential to feed a growing world population. Plant pathogens decrease food production by 18-30% and these losses are expected to increase with climate change and reduced agrochemical use. Most plant-pathogenic bacteria, fungi and oomycetes colonize the extracellular compartment (apoplast) of plants and are exposed to a vast array of potentially harmful metabolites and hydrolytic enzymes secreted by the plant, providing basal, multigenic immunity that is hardly understood and exploited for crop protection. Challenges to unlock the potential of this extra layer of immunity reside in: i) the redundancies in the extracellular immune network; ii) adapted pathogens suppressing extracellular immunity; and iii) the research bias towards only a few extracellular immune components. The AIM of the project is to UNLOCK EXTRACELLULAR IMMUNITY for new crop protection strategies. To do so, I am proposing a radically different approach: to follow the concept that we should study secreted host proteins that are manipulated, uncovered by cutting-edge functional chemical proteomics. With a combination of activity- and reactivity-based probes and crosslinkers, I will display manipulations of secreted proteins from a unique, unbiassed angle and at an unprecedented broad scale, uncovering host targets manipulated by proteins, metabolites and post-translational modifications that are phenotypically hidden by network redundancies and by pathogen-mediated suppressions. Focussing on conserved host targets that are manipulated by multiple pathogens, and supported by exciting preliminary data and a powerful pathosystem in which both host and pathogen can be manipulated, I will address the challenges and unlock central components of extracellular immunity, for exploitation of this extra layer of immunity in crop protection.

Mots-clés : plant immunity,plant pathogens,crop protection,chemical proteomics,extracellular immunity
Projet ERC : NanoSOFT (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : Université Paris Cité — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UP Cité
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 60617.5 €

New models of fluid transport are expected to emerge from the confinement of liquids at the nanoscale, where the behaviour of matter strongly departs from common expectations. This is the field of the Nanofluidics : taking inspiration from the solution found by evolved biological systems, new functionalities will emerge from the nanometre scale, with potential applications in ultrafiltration, desalination and energy conversion. Nevertheless, advancing our fundamental understanding of fluid transport on the smallest scales requires mass and ion dynamics to be ultimately characterized across channels with dimensions close to the molecular size. A major challenge for nanofluidics thus lies in building distinct and well-controlled nanochannels, amenable to the systematic exploration of their properties. This project will tackle several complementary challenges. On the first hand the realization of new kind of fluidic devices allowing the study of fluid and ion transport at the nanoscale: these new experimental devices will be obtained by using nanostructures like building blocks as already shown by realising a fluidics set-up based on transmembrane nanotubes; in parallel a dedicated plateform for the characterization of fluid transport will be developed based on electrokinetics and optical detection set-ups. On the other hand, profiting of such experimental set-ups, I will look for the limit of the classical description of the fluid dynamics, focusing on new functionalities emerging from exotic behaviour of fluids at the nanometer level. This will be done by studying different kind of nanofluidics set-up such as carbon and boron-nitride nanotube, ultrathin pierced graphene and h-BN sheet and composite materials. I aim the creation of a link between fundamental research on soft matter and nanoscience-condensed matter with a an attention on the energy production domain, assuring a fruitful transfer between the fundamental findings and new industrial applications.

Mots-clés : nanofluidics,energy harvesting,blue energy,nanotube,graphene
Projet ERC : DNA_MICROSCOPY (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : KTH Royal Institute of Technology — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : KTH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499947.0 €

New tools are needed in spatial transcriptomics, which uses imaging to resolve the positions of RNA in their native biological contexts to reveal molecular mechanisms underlying cell states and interactions. The developing embryo exhibits complex transcriptional regulation during the maternal-to-zygotic transition, when the reservoir of maternal RNA is phased out and the zygotic genes are turned on. Existing spatial sequencing approaches cannot simultaneously achieve subcellular resolution, whole transcriptome coverage, isotropic 3D resolution, and the parallel mapping of proteins and genetic regulatory elements that is desirable to form a mechanistic picture of transcriptional regulation in any system as complex is the embryo. The nascent field of DNA microscopy is perfectly suited for the high-throughput, multiplexed, molecular mapping needs of such problems. DNA microscopy uses carefully engineered in situ PCR, next-generation sequencing, and the mathematics of stochastic geometry instead of optics to convey microscale spatial information. In 2018, I developed a 2D DNA microscopy approach based on topological reconstruction of adjacent patches of barcoded DNA “polonies”. My work is among a few papers appearing just in the last year that together constitute a new field. I will adapt my 2D topological DNA microscopy method to one based on in situ whole-transcriptome sequencing in 3D, aiming to achieve subcellular resolution. I will also develop the mathematical basis of topological reconstruction and new computational tools to deal with the 3D data. Finally, I aim to incorporate the capability to localize other molecules in parallel with the transcriptome such as oligonucleotide-conjugated antibodies targeting specific transcription factors and other genetic regulatory elements. The technique, deployed on developing C. elegans embryos, will be used to study spatially dependent regulatory mechanisms such as the determination of cell polarity and fate during cleavage in greater breadth and depth than ever previously achieved. By being optics-free, this has the potential to overcome fundamental limitations imposed by traditional forms of microscopy, greatly expand the ease and throughput of spatial transcriptomics, and pave the way for routine use of hyper-multiplexed molecular imaging.

Mots-clés : graph theory,combinatorics,polymerase chain reaction,spatial inference,dna computing,in situ hybridization
Projet ERC : SNSNEWS (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal 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 : 1499044.0 €

News industry is undergoing a major transition: Traditional news consumption is on the decline, while citizens increasingly turn their attention to social network sites (SNSs). To accommodate this trend, news industry has been incorporating SNSs into its platforms, changing news into a social product. The project will explore this process and reveal its implications for news production and audiences’ political behavior. I develop a new model anchored in network logic and involving three key actors in news creation and distribution: news organizations, which are adapting news production to the logic of sharing; news feeders – users who select and disseminate news stories, thereby serving as a bridge between their online followers and news organizations; and news feedees – individuals whose news consumption is limited to stories fetched for them by feeders in their SNSs. The model points to some long-term effects on individuals' political beliefs and behavior as a consequence of acting as feeders or feedees. Multiple innovative methods will be employed, some of which will be implemented in the field of media and political studies for the first time. The methods are mutually complementary, combining ‘big data’ analysis with small-N in-depth designs. To study news organizations, I will interview news editors and analyze traffic data juxtaposing it against content analysis. To study users’ behavior and identify feeders and feedees, I will conduct a laboratory observation in which surfing behavior and physiological attention indices will be measured unobtrusively. Long-term political effects will be tested using a combination of survey panel data and web-based behavioral data spanning a period of two years. The proposal is theoretically and empirically innovative and can impact future research by providing novel conceptualization of news distribution, consumption and influence, as well as by introducing a new methodological ‘golden standard’ to audience research.
Projet ERC : InnoSpace (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : Universitat Politècnica de València — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UPV
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1998500.0 €

Next generation global telecommunication paradigms will require entirely new technologies to address the current limitations to massive capacity and connectivity. A full integration between optical fibre and wireless networks will be the key for the upcoming multigigabit-per-second 5G wireless communications and the era of Internet of Things. Microwave Photonics (MWP) is the multidisciplinary technology to achieve such a convergence. There is one revolutionary approach that has however been left untapped in finding innovative ways to increase the end user capacity and provide adaptive radiofrequency-photonic interfaces: exploiting space - the last available degree of freedom for optical multiplexing. Space-Division multiplexing (SDM) has been recently touted as a solution for the capacity bottleneck in digital communications by establishing independent light paths in a single fibre. My pioneering idea is to develop a novel area of application for SDM by exploiting for the first time its inherent parallelism to implement a broadband tuneable true time delay line for radiofrequency signals, which is the basis of multiple MWP functionalities. Within this project I envision an unprecedented revolution in fibre-wireless communications through the powerful concept of SDM that will lead to unique processing capabilities as well as to a reduction of size, weight and power consumption. My unique research background developed around the two core of this project, SDM and MWP, puts me in the privileged position to unify them in this truly interdisciplinary program, merging novel ideas and methods from physics, radiofrequency and photonics. Based on my profile, my preliminary results and the available infrastructure at my host organization, I am best positioned to successfully carry out this innovative high-gain/high-risk approach, which will lead to revolutionary advancements of the state of the art and prospective evolution of MWP for future ubiquitous communication scenarios.

Mots-clés : microwave photonics,radio over fibre,optical communications
Projet ERC : NGI (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
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 : 150000.0 €

Next generation sequencing has led to revolutionary discoveries in the fields of genetics, genomics, epigenetics and transcriptional regulation. The main limitation of this technology relies on the loss of spatial information: NGS is unable to retrieve the organization of nucleic acids (DNA/RNA) in the cell or within the more complex structure of the tissue. We have recently developed a novel imaging-based technology, Hi-M, that enables the simultaneous detection of tens of DNA and RNA species in single cells within the context of intact tissues. In NGI, we propose to make major improvements to drastically reduce data acquisition and analysis time, considerably increase throughput and number of independent nucleic-acid species detected, and improve the robustness of acquisition and the user-friendliness of analysis. These objectives will be achieved by implementing, testing and validating a novel combinatorial labeling scheme, parallelized acquisition, improvement of the liquid-handling robot to handle hundreds of independent species, and on-the-fly analysis using deep learning technologies to provide more robust data analysis pipelines and adapt acquisition parameters in real time. These improvements will enable simultaneous detection of thousands of species (DNA, RNA or protein) in single-cells with spatial resolution within the context of complex organisms and tissues. Because of these important advantages over existing technologies, NGI will be key to future discoveries in the fields of genetics, genomics and transcription. Critically, NGI will also have a large impact in other fundamental and applied fields where knowledge of spatial organization of transcription and 3D chromosome organization at the single-cell level are relevant: neuroscience and neurological diseases, diabetes, cancer, etc. Thus, NGI has the potential to become an ubiquitous tool not only in academic science but also at the clinic.

Mots-clés : single cell,transcriptomics,genomics,chromosome architecture,high throughput optical microscopies,tissue atlas
Projet ERC : NEBULAR (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : RWTH Aachen University — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : RWTH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 507428.56 €

Nitrogen-containing compounds underpin every aspect of our daily life as they form the structural basis of almost all pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, food additives and materials. The invention of methods for the formation of bonds between C and N atoms is of strategic importance for the discovery and evolution of molecules with direct implications on the quality of our lives. Despite this fundamental relevance, forming C–N bonds is still a very challenging task. This proposal aims to deliver transformative advances for the development of new efficient and selective strategies for the synthesis of N-containing molecules by harnessing visible-light as inexpensive and sustainable source of energy. I aim to challenge preconceptions about the field of organic chemistry and to develop innovative methods to control, modulate and transform the reactivity of nitrogen-centered radicals (NCRs), an entire class of reactive intermediates for which there are only limited applications in modern organic chemistry. My research group has developed two novel visible-light-mediated ways of generating NCRs, and I aim to: (1) Harness and explore the unique features of visible-light-mediated transformations to provide novel multicomponent reactions of NCRs. (2) Establish NCRs as viable partners in asymmetric photoredox catalysis and use them for the easy construction of complex molecules with defined 3D shapes. (3) Merge the visible-light generation of NCRs with organocatalysis to enable novel dual catalytic asymmetric protocols. (4) Combine the NCRs with transition metal catalysis and discover unprecedented transformations that go beyond photoredox catalysis and transition metal catalysis alone. This cohesive and innovative approach will develop new tools essential for the assembly of complex molecules with biological, therapeutic and agrochemical properties. Overall this project will transform the way C–N bonds are forged and how N-containing molecules are assembled.

Mots-clés : photoredox catalysis,visible light,electron tranfer,nitrogen containing molecules,c n bond formation