Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : ACUSLABS (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Max Planck Society — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : MPG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149563.0 €

Development of new medicines such as chemotherapeutic drugs requires a detailed understanding of their biological mechanism of action. What are the desired and undesired interactions with biological molecules? It is our goal to found a start-up company that will provide a solution to this challenge. Using novel and ground-breaking approaches we can identify target structures and interaction partners of small bioactive molecules at an unmatched and unprecedented resolution. ERC PoC funding will be essential to support our activities to identify optimal strategies and initial customers for our service.

Mots-clés : drug development,genetic screen,haploid stem cells,compound protein interaction mapping
Projet ERC : WASP (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Spanish National Research Council — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CSIC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149972.0 €

Diabetic patients (around 8.6% of the western population) must constantly monitor their blood glucose level (BGL) with a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) device. This social need has already been addressed by some companies, with an overall compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for this market (from 2014 through 2019) of 19.6%. Besides such highly attractive market possibilities, to date none of the commercial CGMs can provide accuracy below 20%. This is a non-assumable risk for the users. In addition, the readout medical device can only be used for glucose sensing, severely limiting its use for early detection of other analytes of interest. WASP POC aims to bring into the market the next generation of CGMs which makes use of light as interrogation mechanism. In this approach, and with the appropriate multi-purpose medical readout device, accuracies of 10% will be attained. It is the vision of the WASP team that this approach will represent a game-changing player in the market of CGMs. Important is to mention that high technology does not necessary means huge fabrication costs, and WASP will only make use of mass-production technologies and well established measurement protocols (developed in the ERC Starting Grant HIP-LAB). To determine the market impact of WASP, a throughout market study will be pursued, considering the advantages of the WASP concept as opposite to the competitors. Additionally, a preliminary industrial overview for WASP massive production will be pursued. This preliminary evaluation will take into account production series in the range of 3-300 million units per year, considering all key factors in a real productive environment such as direct costs, replacement costs, etc. WASP is firmly grounded on already owned IPR related to this topic (patent PCT/ES2011/070011). In addition, a risk assessment procedure has been established allowing the choice of the best route towards either starting-up or licensing the concept to a major player.

Mots-clés : continuous glucose monitoring  cgm  device,photonic devices
Projet ERC : ROBOTAR (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : University of Twente — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Diagnostic agents are currently injected into the body in an uncontrolled way and visualized using non-real-time imaging modalities. Delivering agents close to the organ and magnetically guiding them to the target would permit a myriad of novel diagnostic and therapeutic options, including on-site pathology and targeted drug delivery. Such an advance would truly revolutionize minimally invasive surgery (MIS). Presently MIS often involves manual percutaneous insertion of rigid needles. These needles deviate from their intended paths due to tissue deformation and physiological processes. Inaccurate needle placement may result in misdiagnosis or ineffective treatment. Thus, the goal of ROBOTAR is to design a robotic system to accurately steer flexible needles through tissue, and enable precise delivery of agents by magnetically guiding them to a designated target. There are several challenges: 3D models describing the evolving needle shape are not available, real-time control of flexible needles using 3D ultrasound (US) images has not been demonstrated, and US-guided tracking of magnetic agents has not been attempted. These challenges will be overcome by using non-invasively (via US) acquired tissue properties to develop patient-specific biomechanical models that predict needle paths for pre-operative plans. Intra-operative control of flexible needles with actuated tips will be accomplished by integrating plans with data from US images and optical sensors. Ultrafast US tracking methods will be coupled to an electromagnetic system to robustly control the agents. A prototype will be evaluated using microrobots and clusters of nanoparticles in scenarios with realistic physiological functionalities. The knowledge gained will be applicable to a range of flexible instruments, and to an assortment of personalized treatment scenarios. This research is motivated by the existing need to further reduce invasiveness of MIS, minimize patient trauma, and improve clinical outcomes.

Mots-clés : surgical robotics,medical microrobotics,minimally invasive surgery
Projet ERC : DIATOMIC (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
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 : 2423753.0 €

Diatoms are major contributors of primary production in the ocean and participate in carbon sequestration over geologically relevant timescales. As key components of the Earth’s carbon cycle and marine food webs we need to understand the eco-evolutionary underpinnings of their ecological success to forecast their fate in a future ocean impacted by anthropogenic change. Genomes and epigenomes from model diatoms, as well as hundreds of transcriptomes from multiple species, have revealed genetic and epigenetic processes regulating gene expression in response to changing environments. The Tara Oceans survey has in parallel generated resources to explore diatom abundance, diversity and gene expression in the world’s ocean in widely contrasting conditions. DIATOMIC will build on these resources to understand how evolutionary and ecological processes combine to influence diatom adaptations to their environment at unprecedented spatiotemporal scales. To examine these processes over timescales relevant to current climate change, DIATOMIC includes the pioneering exploration of ancient diatom DNA from the sub-seafloor to reveal the genetic and epigenetic bases of speciation and adaptation that have impacted their ecological success during the last 100,000 years, when Earth experienced major climatological events and an increase in anthropogenic impacts. As a model for exploring eco-evolutionary processes in the past and contemporary ocean we will focus primarily on Chaetoceros because this diatom genus is ancient, ubiquitous, abundant and contributes significantly to carbon export. Key findings will be additionally supported by lab-based studies using the diatom Phaeodactylum for which exemplar molecular tools exist. Specifically, the project will address: 1. What molecular features characterize genome evolution in diatoms? 2. Which processes determine diatom metapopulation structure? 3. What can ancient DNA tell us about diatom adaptations to environmental change in the past?

Mots-clés : micro eukaryotes,diatoms,paleogenomics,phytoplankton
Projet ERC : VERTEBRATE HERBIVORY (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1728065.0 €

Diet is a key factor driving vertebrate evolution. Exploring dietary traits and trophic relationships in fossil food webs is fundamental for understanding radiation and extinction events. This project aims to constrain the evolution of herbivory (plant feeding) and trophic interaction of extinct vertebrates at different spatiotemporal scales by analysing their teeth with isotopic and dental wear techniques. A new approach of combined Ca and stable Sr isotope as well as 3D surface texture (3DST) analysis will be developed and applied to fossil teeth of mammal-ancestors and dinosaurs. Teeth record time-series of diet-related isotope compositions in their enamel while their surface tracks short-term food abrasion. These diet proxies will be calibrated on extant vertebrates with well-known diets from wild animals and controlled feeding experiments simulating diet and trophic level switches. Both Ca isotopes and enamel surface textures have a high preservation potential in fossil teeth and enable micro sampling of enamel for Ca isotope and non-destructive 3DST analysis. For the first time, I will combine Ca isotope and 3DST analysis to reconstruct the diet of extinct key vertebrate taxa and their trophic level in fossil food webs. This multi-proxy approach will provide a versatile toolset to test independently feeding hypotheses that mostly hinge on tooth and skeletal morphology, leading to fundamental new insights into the palaeoecology, dietary flexibility and niche partitioning of fossil vertebrates. The aim is to reconstruct the evolution of herbivory in vertebrates. Here, major objectives are: 1) to infer ontogenetic and evolutionary diet changes by combined Ca isotope and 3DST analysis of fossil teeth, 2) explore stable and radiogenic Sr isotopes as combined proxies for trophic level and habitat use, and 3) pioneer 3DST analysis for reptiles. Beyond the field of palaeontology these dietary proxies will be broadly applicable in archaeology, anthropology and ecology.
Projet ERC : DNAccess (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : Friedrich Miescher Institute — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : FMI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2302500.0 €

Differential gene expression programs account for the diversity of cell types in our body. They are controlled by intricate networks of sequence-specific transcription factors (TFs) that operate in the context of chromatin. Chromatin is itself an essential component of this process, and is part of the system that selectively restricts DNA access for TFs. As a consequence, most TFs only bind to a small subset of their motif occurrences, in a way we currently do not fully understand. Our inability to predict binding of a TF based on its cognate motif and location in the genome is a serious obstacle towards predictive models of gene regulation. DNAccess has the ambitious goal to define in vivo the sensitivities of TFs to nucleosomes and their reliance on chromatin remodeling enzymes for binding. Using novel genomics and genome editing tools we will: (a) systematically vary TF motifs, presence of nucleosomes and their modifications at a defined chromosomal locus and quantify resulting TF binding; (b) explore genome-wide the ability of ectopic TFs to engage with a chromatinized genome in the absence of host cofactor engagement; (c) dissect chromatin remodeler dependent TF binding in order to define temporal order and subcomplex function and (d) deconstruct remodeler recruitment by mutating TF interaction domains. DNAccess will build a highly integrated setup to comprehensively characterize how nucleosomes, their modifications and mobility restricts genome access. We will characterize existing chromatin barriers and identify how TFs overcome them. This represents a crucial step towards a comprehensive understanding of the role of chromatin in gene regulation, and will advance our understanding of how specificity is generated in large eukaryotic genomes.

Mots-clés : chromatin,transcription factor binding,nucleosomes,genomics
Projet ERC : TissueMaps (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Uppsala University — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1738690.0 €

Digital imaging of tissue samples and genetic analysis by next generation sequencing are two rapidly emerging fields in pathology. The exponential growth in digital imaging in pathology is catalyzed by more advanced imaging hardware, comparable to the complete shift from analog to digital images that took place in radiology a couple of decades ago: Entire glass slides can be digitized at near the optical resolution limits in only a few minutes’ time, and fluorescence as well as bright field stains can be imaged in parallel. Genetic analysis, and particularly transcriptomics, is rapidly evolving thanks to the impressive development of next generation sequencing technologies, enabling genome-wide single-cell analysis of DNA and RNA in thousands of cells at constantly decreasing costs. However, most of today’s available technologies result in a genetic analysis that is decoupled from the morphological and spatial information of the original tissue sample, while many important questions in tumor- and developmental biology require single cell spatial resolution to understand tissue heterogeneity. The goal of the proposed project is to develop computational methods that bridge these two emerging fields. We want to combine spatially resolved high-throughput genomics analysis of tissue sections with digital image analysis of tissue morphology. Together with collaborators from the biomedical field, we propose two approaches for spatially resolved genomics; one based on sequencing mRNA transcripts directly in tissue samples, and one based on spatially resolved cellular barcoding followed by single cell sequencing. Both approaches require development of advanced digital image processing methods. Thus, we will couple genetic analysis with digital pathology. Going beyond visual assessment of this rich digital data will be a fundamental component for the future development of histopathology, both as a diagnostic tool and as a research field.

Mots-clés : digital image analysis,digital pathology,tissue analysis,visualisation
Projet ERC : PLABOR (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Social World and Its Diversity
Entité participante : University of Amsterdam — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UvA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1403250.0 €

Digital platforms like Uber and Airbnb are transforming how people work, create and share value, and sustain themselves in their everyday lives. As such, platforms are becoming increasingly ubiquitous as new institutional actors that redraw relations between civil society, the market, and the state. Yet, as many scholars have shown, such relations have historically been shaped by pervasive gender, class, and racial subordination. It is therefore crucial to ask to what extent platforms, as new sites of capital accumulation, governance, and norm-making, remediate existing inequalities and if/how they also generate new vulnerabilities or tools for empowerment. Accordingly, this research project aims to determine how digital platforms are reconfiguring the gendered, classed, and racialized organization of labor and social reproduction in post-welfare societies. To achieve this aim, three objectives have to be met: • determining how on-demand labor platforms distribute new opportunities and vulnerabilities for workers along gender, class, and racial lines; • determining how digital platforms create new solutions and challenges for the gendered, classed, and racialized problem of social reproduction in post-welfare societies; • determining which policy and legal issues arise when labor and social reproduction are increasingly organized through platforms and identifying ways to tackle these issues. These objectives will be met through a cross-national comparative study that examines how platforms operate in three quickly growing and distinct tech hubs: Amsterdam, Berlin, and New York City. To organize this transatlantic study an innovative research platform will be developed and implemented, which enables (1) participatory research, (2) international scholarly collaboration and stakeholder engagement, and (3) the dissemination and discussion of research findings. The participatory research will combine ethnography and methods from software studies.

Mots-clés : digital platforms,on demand economy,sharing economy,labor,labor rights,future of work,value,ethnography,inequality,gender,race,class,social reproduction
Projet ERC : DiGGeS (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
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 : 1049182.0 €

Discrete subgroups of Lie groups, whose study originated in Fuchsian differential equations and crystallography at the end of the 19th century, are the basis of a large aspect of modern geometry. They are the object of fundamental theories such as Teichmüller theory, Kleinian groups, rigidity theories for lattices, homogeneous dynamics, and most recently Higher Teichmüller theory. They are closely related to the notion of a geometric structure on a manifold, which has played a crucial role in geometry since Thurston. In summary, discrete subgroups are a meeting point of geometry with Lie theory, differential equations, complex analysis, ergodic theory, representation theory, algebraic geometry, number theory, and mathematical physics, and these fascinating interactions make the subject extremely rich. In real rank one, important classes of discrete subgroups of semisimple Lie groups are known for their good geometric, topological, and dynamical properties, such as convex cocompact or geometrically finite subgroups. In higher real rank, discrete groups beyond lattices remain quite mysterious. The goal of the project is to work towards a classification of discrete subgroups of semisimple Lie groups in higher real rank, from two complementary points of view. The first is actions on Riemannian symmetric spaces and their boundaries: important recent developments, in particular in the theory of Anosov representations, give hope to identify a number of meaningful classes of discrete groups which generalise in various ways the notions of convex cocompactness and geometric finiteness. The second point of view is actions on pseudo-Riemannian symmetric spaces: some very interesting geometric examples are now well understood, and recent links with the first point of view give hope to transfer progress from one side to the other. We expect powerful applications, both to the construction of proper actions on affine spaces and to the spectral theory of pseudo-Riemannian manifolds

Mots-clés : discrete subgroups of lie groups
Projet ERC : PERDY (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Università della Svizzera italiana — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : USI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1497302.0 €

Displays play a vital role in many professional and personal activities. They are a crucial interface between a user and the digital world in tasks involving visualization and interaction with digital data. The abilities of new display technologies regarding reproduction of important visual cues, such as binocular disparity, accommodation, or motion parallax, outperform the capabilities of methods for optimizing graphics content to match the requirements of particular hardware designs. This leads to a poor visual quality and massive computational overhead, which hamper the adoption of novel displays. I argue that there are significant gaps between hardware, computational techniques, and understanding of human perception, which prevents taking full advantage of these technologies. To overcome these limitations, I and my team will combine hardware, computation, and perception into a unique platform where the capabilities of displays and quality requirements are represented in a shared space. The basis for our project will be in-depth understanding of human perception. Our experiments will focus on three aspects: (1) investigation of perceptual limits across a wide field of view, (2) involving all visual cues, and (3) establishing optimal trade-offs between different quality aspects. We will build efficient computational models that will predict perceived quality and enable perceptual optimizations to drive new content adaptation techniques. This project will contribute display-specific perceptual optimizations of graphics content to match the requirements of human perception. It will address the key aspects of portable devices such as energy efficiency and visual quality. Our experiments and modeling of human perception will provide crucial insights into new hardware developments. The contributions will be necessary for development and standardization of new, high-quality display devices which will not only improve existing applications but also enable new ones.

Mots-clés : perception,novel display technologies,content adaptation