Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : SUPER-RESOL (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CEA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 87500.0 €

The beginning of this century has seen the development of optical super-resolution fluorescence microscopic methods, which yield pictures to resolutions of a few tens of nanometers. This breakthrough has transformed the field of cellular biology, but relies on approaches generally demanding in terms of optics, and which can be applied only on limited classes of fluorophores. This project aims at preparing the commercialization of a new, simple, and cheap, way of extracting super-resolution from images obtained with classical confocal fluorescence microscopes. Currently, this approach yields images with a resolution between 80 nm to 50 nm, which can most likely be increased in a near future. This method can thus be used with any type of fluorophore, just by equipping (confocal) microscopes with a high-end X-Y table and a 2D detector. More complex super-resolution fluorescence microscopic techniques have generated more than 7000 citations in the last years, mostly in biology, but also in chemistry and material sciences. The proposed technology, which can i) easily be implemented for a limited cost and ii) requires no more maintenance and alignment than classical confocal microscopy, is expected to be rapidly implemented in a very large number of laboratories, thus generating new knowledge and a vast range of scientific advances. In the frame of this project, which is a direct consequence of the work started in the frame of the PhotProt ERC advanced grant (id n° 267333), we will in parallel i) improve the performances of this technology by modifying its present design, ii) perform the necessary patenting of this technology, iii) start market studies to evaluate its actual commercial potential iv) enter in contact with companies devoted to microscope engineering and development, and with detector manufacturers, to raise their interest, and envision under which form this new technology can be commercialized, how to conceive the corresponding commercial prototype.

Mots-clés : fluorescence,microscopy,super resolution,imaging
Projet ERC : SUPER-RESOL (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : VU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 62500.0 €

The beginning of this century has seen the development of optical super-resolution fluorescence microscopic methods, which yield pictures to resolutions of a few tens of nanometers. This breakthrough has transformed the field of cellular biology, but relies on approaches generally demanding in terms of optics, and which can be applied only on limited classes of fluorophores. This project aims at preparing the commercialization of a new, simple, and cheap, way of extracting super-resolution from images obtained with classical confocal fluorescence microscopes. Currently, this approach yields images with a resolution between 80 nm to 50 nm, which can most likely be increased in a near future. This method can thus be used with any type of fluorophore, just by equipping (confocal) microscopes with a high-end X-Y table and a 2D detector. More complex super-resolution fluorescence microscopic techniques have generated more than 7000 citations in the last years, mostly in biology, but also in chemistry and material sciences. The proposed technology, which can i) easily be implemented for a limited cost and ii) requires no more maintenance and alignment than classical confocal microscopy, is expected to be rapidly implemented in a very large number of laboratories, thus generating new knowledge and a vast range of scientific advances. In the frame of this project, which is a direct consequence of the work started in the frame of the PhotProt ERC advanced grant (id n° 267333), we will in parallel i) improve the performances of this technology by modifying its present design, ii) perform the necessary patenting of this technology, iii) start market studies to evaluate its actual commercial potential iv) enter in contact with companies devoted to microscope engineering and development, and with detector manufacturers, to raise their interest, and envision under which form this new technology can be commercialized, how to conceive the corresponding commercial prototype.

Mots-clés : fluorescence,microscopy,super resolution,imaging
Projet ERC : gAIa (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : University of Cambridge — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. Cambridge
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1495338.0 €

The behavior of intelligent systems, both living and artificial, is influenced through the structure of their surrounding environment. In nature, environmental constraints dictate the creation, unfolding, and interaction of living beings. Living systems are prototypes for collective robot behaviors— yet, despite the obvious influence of spatial constraints on interactions, the optimization of mobile robots and their immediate environment has been disjoint. Little thought has been given to what would make an artificial environment conducive to effective and efficient collective robotic mobility. The premise of this project is that the environment is as much a variable as the robot itself. I want to expose the coupling between environmental structure and collective robotic mobility. In pursuit of this goal, I propose a co-optimization scheme that finds the best robot-environment pairs in an automated, scalable manner. The work in this project will (i) optimize control policies that define the behavior of collective mobile robot systems, and (ii) find environments that are more conducive to efficient coordination and cooperation. The developed techniques will allow us to perform first-of-a-kind analyses that would reveal novel environmental paradigms and the collective robot policies optimized around them. Ultimately, this project will spearhead new ways of thinking about transport planning and urban design, in the wake of a new generation of mobile vehicles that are connected and coordinated.

Mots-clés : multi robot systems
Projet ERC : DIDONE (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : Universidad Complutense de Madrid — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UCM
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1209575.0 €

The belief that ‘the end of music is to move human affections’ (Descartes, Compendium musicae) has been a central issue in European musical thought since Plato. Opera was invented to recover the power of Ancient music to move the human heart, and its history is a permanent exploration of the capacity of action, words and music to convey emotions. In the eighteenth century a new type of opera consolidated with the chief concern of expressing the character’s emotions as they changed throughout the drama, inspired by Descartes’ theory of human passions. The key expressive medium was the aria col da capo, where a single, distinct passion was represented, like a concentrated pill of emotional meaning. The ideal corpus to study this issue are the 900 operas set to music by 300 composers on the 27 dramas by Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782). It contains a comprehensive catalogue of emotions in music, a unique window of opportunity to scrutinize conventions that defined music expression and meaning for over a century, paving the way for the emergence of ‘absolute’ instrumental music, autonomous from any other art form. DIDONE presents an innovative approach to unveil these conventions: the creation of a corpus of 4,000 digitized arias from 200 opera scores based on Metastasio’s eight most popular dramas, to be analysed using traditional methods and big data computer technology. The comparative scrutiny of dozens of different musical settings of the same librettos will reveal how composers correlate specific dramatic circumstances and emotions with distinct poetic and musical features. The results will be applicable to three main fields: (i) opera performance; (ii) analysis and interpretation of other types of music; and (iii) composition in several scenarios, from film soundtracks to creation by Artificial Intelligence. An opera festival will be designed to recover and disseminate this hitherto ignored repertoire, which was essential to define the European musical identity.

Mots-clés : opera,enlightenment,human emotions,computational analysis,digital humanities,european identity
Projet ERC : QuStA (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : Heidelberg University — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1958101.0 €

The biggest challenge to using ultracold fermionic atoms to simulate strongly correlated phases is cooling the system to sufficiently low temperatures. The aim of QuStA is to tackle this challenge with a novel bottom-up approach and assemble many-body systems from individually prepared building blocks. This vision has come within reach through recent breakthroughs in our group in preparing and manipulating few-atom systems with unprecedented fidelity. Building on this experience, we will prepare multiple such few-atom systems and develop strategies to merge them adiabatically to form a many-body system. Initially, we will focus on studying the physics of the Hubbard model, which is prototypical of strongly-correlated systems. Starting from many independently prepared double-well systems, we will assemble a finite lattice system of up to 10 x 10 sites with extremely low entropy. Since our approach will allow us full control over the parameters of the system - such as tunneling, interactions, and doping - we will be in the unique position to investigate the low-temperature phase diagram of the Hubbard model. Our quantum state assembly approach will also allow us to go beyond the Hubbard model and investigate the emergence of correlations in other interesting systems. In particular, we will take an innovative approach of preparing and merging itinerant spin chains to explore bi-layered lattice systems and spin ladders. These experiments will have far-reaching implications beyond the field of ultracold atoms. Our systems will provide an ideal platform to benchmark theories on strongly correlated phenomena since it clearly surpasses the capabilities of modern classical computers. We envision that the insight gained from our experiments will lead to the understanding of exotic quantum phenomena, such as high-Tc superconductivity.

Mots-clés : quantum simulation,hubbard model,few body quantum systems,mesoscopic quantum systems,many body quantum systems
Projet ERC : ARTIST (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : University of Münster — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : WWU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1683867.5 €

The bottom-up assembly of tissue from cellular building blocks constitutes a promising, yet highly challenging approach to engineer complex tissues. The challenge lies in controlling cell-cell interactions, which determine how cells organize with respect to each other, how they work together and consequently whether such a multicellular architecture will be functional. The limited spatial and temporal control over cell-cell interactions current biological and chemical approaches provide severely restricts bottom-up tissue engineering. Here, I propose a new way to control cell-cell interactions. I aim to regulate cell-cell interactions with visible light using proteins that reversibly homo- or heterodimerize under blue or red light. These photoswitchable cell-cell interactions provide sustainable, non-invasive, dynamic and reversible control over cell-cell interactions with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. First of all, we will focus on various light dependent protein interactions to mediate cell-cell contacts. The detailed characterization (strength, dynamics, interaction modes and orthogonality) of these new photoswitchable cell-cell interactions will provide the framework for the bottom-up construction of tissue-like structures. Secondly, we will use these photoswitchable cell-cell interactions to assemble cells into multicellular architectures with predictable and programmable organization. The dynamic and reversible nature of the photoswitchable contacts will allow us to locally alter interactions at any point in time, to rearrange and obtain asymmetric multicellular structures, which are typical of tissues. Finally, we will also explore how the photoswitchable cell-cell interactions alter cell behavior and signaling. Ultimately, this will pave the way for the bottom-up assembly of multicellular architectures, enabling us to control precisely and dynamically their organization in space and time as well as regulate how cells work together.

Mots-clés : photoswitchable,cell cell interactions
Projet ERC : ARTIST (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Max Planck Society — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : MPG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 253132.5 €

The bottom-up assembly of tissue from cellular building blocks constitutes a promising, yet highly challenging approach to engineer complex tissues. The challenge lies in controlling cell-cell interactions, which determine how cells organize with respect to each other, how they work together and consequently whether such a multicellular architecture will be functional. The limited spatial and temporal control over cell-cell interactions current biological and chemical approaches provide severely restricts bottom-up tissue engineering. Here, I propose a new way to control cell-cell interactions. I aim to regulate cell-cell interactions with visible light using proteins that reversibly homo- or heterodimerize under blue or red light. These photoswitchable cell-cell interactions provide sustainable, non-invasive, dynamic and reversible control over cell-cell interactions with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. First of all, we will focus on various light dependent protein interactions to mediate cell-cell contacts. The detailed characterization (strength, dynamics, interaction modes and orthogonality) of these new photoswitchable cell-cell interactions will provide the framework for the bottom-up construction of tissue-like structures. Secondly, we will use these photoswitchable cell-cell interactions to assemble cells into multicellular architectures with predictable and programmable organization. The dynamic and reversible nature of the photoswitchable contacts will allow us to locally alter interactions at any point in time, to rearrange and obtain asymmetric multicellular structures, which are typical of tissues. Finally, we will also explore how the photoswitchable cell-cell interactions alter cell behavior and signaling. Ultimately, this will pave the way for the bottom-up assembly of multicellular architectures, enabling us to control precisely and dynamically their organization in space and time as well as regulate how cells work together.

Mots-clés : photoswitchable,cell cell interactions
Projet ERC : MICRO-COPS (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Universität Hamburg — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UHH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2500000.0 €

The brain controls all body functions. At the base of this 'catholic' role are the neurons, cells that generate electrical signals, communicate via synapses and form circuits that execute computing tasks and control behaviour. The electrical signalling pattern of neurons is the information code of the brain and the synapse connectivity determines circuit function. This is, in brief, what most textbooks emphasise, but such a neuron-centred brain view is precariously short-sighted. Apart from neurons, the brain contains three glia cell types (from Greek 'γλία' for 'glue'): astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and microglia. But far from being mere 'glue', astrocytes and oligodendrocytes have multiple critical functions in the brain, accordingly affect many brain processes - even genuine computing tasks - and have therefore become a major focus of modern neuroscience. Microglia are the 'odd one out'. They are brain-resident immune cells, act as defence against pathological insults and have a housekeeping function as phagocytes. Aside from these functions, microglia seem to play an as yet unrecognized role by engaging in reciprocal signalling with neurons. It is this Microglia Control of Physiological Brain States we will study in MICRO-COPS, based on the hypothesis that microglia purposively control neuronal function. We will combine mouse genetics with cutting-edge gene expression analysis and cell biological, electrophysiological, and imaging technologies to define the reciprocal microglia-neuron signalling pathways, the signalling molecules involved, the biological consequences for microglia and neurons, and the role of the corresponding signalling processes in synapse physiology, neuronal integration, circuit dynamics, and behaviour. We expect that the mechanistic description of reciprocal microglia-neuron interactions - from synapses to circuits - will establish a new and critically important brain regulatory process and provide key insights into brain pathology.

Mots-clés : reciprocal microglia neuron signalling,synapses,circuits,microglia electrophysiology,microglia secretion
Projet ERC : activeFly (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Champalimaud Foundation — Pays : Portugal — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

The brain evolves, develops, and operates in the context of animal movements. As a consequence, fundamental brain functions such as spatial perception and motor control critically depend on the precise knowledge of the ongoing body motion. An accurate internal estimate of self-movement is thought to emerge from sensorimotor integration; nonetheless, which circuits perform this internal estimation, and exactly how motor-sensory coordination is implemented within these circuits are basic questions that remain to be poorly understood. There is growing evidence suggesting that, during locomotion, motor-related and visual signals interact at early stages of visual processing. In mammals, however, it is not clear what the function of this interaction is. Recently, we have shown that a population of Drosophila optic-flow processing neurons —neurons that are sensitive to self-generated visual flow, receives convergent visual and walking-related signals to form a faithful representation of the fly’s walking movements. Leveraging from these results, and combining quantitative analysis of behavior with physiology, optogenetics, and modelling, we propose to investigate circuit mechanisms of self-movement estimation during walking. We will:1) use cell specific manipulations to identify what cells are necessary to generate the motor-related activity in the population of visual neurons, 2) record from the identified neurons and correlate their activity with specific locomotor parameters, and 3) perturb the activity of different cell-types within the identified circuits to test their role in the dynamics of the visual neurons, and on the fly’s walking behavior. These experiments will establish unprecedented causal relationships among neural activity, the formation of an internal representation, and locomotor control. The identified sensorimotor principles will establish a framework that can be tested in other scenarios or animal systems with implications both in health and disease.

Mots-clés : sensory motor integration,drosophila,locomotion,optogenetics,calcium imaging,electrophysiology,motion vision
Projet ERC : NEUROPOP (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
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 : 2499131.0 €

The brain works through the activity of large, spatially distributed neuronal populations. Recent technological advances enable recordings of thousands of neurons from multiple brain structures, offering an unprecedented opportunity to understand neuronal population activity. However, mathematical and computational advances are also required to turn the resulting flood of data into concise principles summarizing brain function. Ideally, these principles would be not just be qualitative, but quantitative: simple formulae that capture the dynamics of neuronal populations, the underlying circuit mechanisms, and their behavioral impact. We will combine large-scale neuronal recording with novel data analysis techniques to study the structure of population activity within and between areas. We will use twelve 960-site probes simultaneously to record from several regions of cortex, hippocampus, thalamus and other structures in awake mice, complemented by recordings combining single high-count probes with wide-field calcium imaging. Optogenetic stimulation of excitatory and inhibitory populations will probe the mechanistic basis of population activity, and experiments in mice performing a discrimination task will probe its effect on behavioral output. We hypothesize that population activity can be quantitatively summarized by a two-level model: first, a low-dimensional dynamical system that captures the macroscopic activity of excitatory and inhibitory populations in each area as a function of brain state; and second, models predicting each neuron’s activity from the interaction of macroscopic variables with specific signals such as sensory inputs. We will validate our models mechanistically by their ability to predict of the effect of optogenetic perturbations on neural firing and behavioral output. The resulting models will form a compact summary of the mechanisms underlying neuronal population activity across multiple brain areas, and their relation to behavior.