Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : FRAGMENT (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : Technical University of Darmstadt — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 167706.25 €

Soil dust aerosols are mixtures of different minerals, whose relative abundances, particle size distribution (PSD), shape, surface topography and mixing state influence their effect upon climate. However, Earth System Models typically assume that dust aerosols have a globally uniform composition, neglecting the known regional variations in the mineralogy of the sources. The goal of FRAGMENT is to understand and constrain the global mineralogical composition of dust along with its effects upon climate. The representation of the global dust mineralogy is hindered by our limited knowledge of the global soil mineral content and our incomplete understanding of the emitted dust PSD in terms of its constituent minerals that results from the fragmentation of soil aggregates during wind erosion. The emitted PSD affects the duration of particle transport and thus each mineral’s global distribution, along with its specific effect upon climate. Coincident observations of the emitted dust and soil PSD are scarce and do not characterize the mineralogy. In addition, the existing theoretical paradigms disagree fundamentally on multiple aspects. We will contribute new fundamental understanding of the size-resolved mineralogy of dust at emission and its relationship with the parent soil, based on an unprecedented ensemble of measurement campaigns that have been designed to thoroughly test our theoretical hypotheses. To improve knowledge of the global soil mineral content, we will evaluate and use available remote hyperspectral imaging, which is unprecedented in the context of dust modelling. Our new methods will anticipate the coming innovation of retrieving soil mineralogy through high-quality spaceborne hyperspectral measurements. Finally, we will generate integrated and quantitative knowledge of the role of dust mineralogy in dust-radiation, dust-chemistry and dust-cloud interactions based on modeling experiments constrained with our theoretical innovations and field measurements.

Mots-clés : dust aerosols,mineralogy,physics of emission,climate,modelling,spectroscopy
Projet ERC : SOLENALGAE (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : University of Verona — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1341875.0 €

Solar Energy is the most abundant renewable energy source available for our Planet. Light energy conversion into chemical energy by photosynthetic organisms is indeed the main conversion energy step, which originated high energy containing fossil deposits, now being depleted. By the way, plant or algae biomass may still be used to produce biofuels, as bio-ethanol, bio-diesel and bio-hydrogen. Microalgae exploitation for biofuels production have the considerable advantages of being sustainable and not in competition with food production, since not-arable lands, waste water and industrial gasses can be used for algae cultivation. Considering that only 45% of the sunlight covers the range of wavelengths that can be absorbed and used for photosynthesis, the maximum photosynthetic efficiency achievable in microalgae is 10%. On these bases, a photobioreactor carrying 600 l/m-2 would produce 294 Tons/ha/year of biomass of which 30% to 80%, depending on strain and growth conditions, being oil. However this potential has not been exploited yet, since biomass and biofuels yield on industrial scale obtained up to now were relatively low and with high costs of production. The main limitation encountered for sustained biomass production in microalgae by sunlight conversion is low light use efficiency, reduced from the theoretical value of 10% to 1-3%. This low light use efficiency is mainly due to a combined effect of reduced light penetration to deeper layers in highly pigmented cultures, where light available is almost completely absorbed by the outer layers, and an extremely high (up to 80%) thermal dissipation of the light absorbed. This project aims to investigate the molecular basis for efficient light energy conversion into chemical energy, in order to significantly increase the biomass production in microalgae combining a solid investigation of the principles of light energy conversion with biotechnological engineering of algal strains.

Mots-clés : photosynthesis,solar energy conversion,photoprotection
Projet ERC : SPECTRACON (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes 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 : 2124593.0 €

Solar energy conversion will play a key role in our transition to a carbon-neutral society. However, single junction photovoltaic (PV) cells fail to achieve their theoretical efficiency due to an inability to harness all wavelengths of the solar spectrum. Spectral losses may be overcome through the addition of a spectral converter coating to the surface of a finished PV cell, which, through a photoluminescence process, converts solar photons into wavelengths suitable for use. Nonetheless, spectral converters currently fail to deliver their promise to significantly boost PV cell performance due to the difficulties of translating luminescent molecules (lumophores) from solution into efficient solid-state materials. By considering the lumophore-host material as an integrated unit, rather than discrete components, in SPECTRACON, I take a radically new approach to the design of spectral converters. Organic-inorganic hybrid polymer hosts incorporating covalently-grafted lumophores will be rationally engineered to deliver spectral converters with the tailored optical, structural, viscoelastic and mechanical properties needed for high performance solid-state conversion, which has so far been unattainable. Using cheap materials and a solution-based process suitable for scalable manufacturing, these spectral converters will be integrated with PV cells to realise next generation luminescent solar devices which display record levels of efficiency and reduced costs. A scientific breakthrough that demonstrates efficient solar spectral conversion in the solid-state would enable immediate deployment of luminescent solar devices to the commercial market, thus accelerating progress to an all-renewables society and delivering unprecedented impact on the quality of life of future generations. Moreover, the fundamental knowledge gleaned on the design of efficient solid-state emitters will open up new frontiers for application in light-emitting displays, optical storage and sensing.

Mots-clés : organic inorganic hybrid,polymer,composite,solar energy,spectral conversion,photoluminescence,fluorescence,luminescent solar concentrator,upconversion,downshifting,photovoltaic cell
Projet ERC : CAPaCITy (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Imperial College London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2351550.0 €

Solar energy conversion will play an essential role in the future supply of clean energy. Secure access to energy sources will require energy conversion technologies that are low impact, distributed and accessible both technically and financially. Molecular electronic materials embody these possibilities, offering facile synthesis, low energy production and the versatility to allow performance to be maximized for specific applications. Moreover, they bring appealing similarities with nature’s intrinsically low impact energy conversion materials. Whilst molecular semiconductors have been studied in detail for solar-to-electric energy conversion they have seldom been studied for solar-to-chemical conversion or for charge storage. However, they bring exciting potential advantages in terms of their light harvesting properties, the range of microstructures possible and the ability to tune their electrical properties. Polymer materials applied to solar chemical generation could open up an innovative route to artificial fuels, with the option to control light harvesting and charge separation through structural control. Polymer materials applied to mixed (electronic / ionic) conduction provide a route to lower cost electrochemical storage, as well as to biocompatible devices and sensors. Stimulated by recent experimental breakthroughs in the application of polymers as photocatalysts and ion transport media I will exploit my expertise in multi-scale modelling and functional characterization of molecular electronic materials and devices to develop a design framework for energy conversion and storage in conjugated polymer materials. This proposal aims to disentangle the parameters that govern the performance of conjugated polymer based photocatalysts and ion transport media to discover the underlying functional mechanisms. The tools generated will serve to enable the design and development of high performance materials for energy conversion devices.

Mots-clés : materials modelling,energy conversion,solar energy
Projet ERC : ELFIS (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : Graz University of Technology — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2227875.0 €

Solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation is strongly absorbed in our atmosphere and triggers a variety of photo chemical reactions, strongly influencing the earth’s development. Exact knowledge of the photo chemistry of environmental trace gasses is of paramount importance to understand effects contributing to global warming and to develop strategies for its abatement. Yet, despite the enormous relevance, spectroscopic information in the UV spectral region is scarce mainly owing to the lack of intense UV laser sources. ELFIS will surpass this limitation by transposing ultra-broadband dual frequency comb Fourier transform spectroscopy into the UV via harmonic frequency up-conversion. Linking competencies originating at the forefront of frequency comb metrology and ultrafast science will permit absorption spectroscopy in the UV spectral region with an unprecedented micro-eV resolution, unparalleled signal-to-noise ratio and record-short acquisition times. Congested absorption features of complex gas mixtures of fundamental, environmental and astrophysical importance will be recorded with a resolution at least one order of magnitude beyond state of the art. The world’s first UV dual comb spectrometer will demonstrate its potential by exploring the Rydberg state series close to 10 eV in the air pollutant methyl iodide. Also, the new technique will permit the first complete rotationally resolved study of the Rydberg bands in the most prominent greenhouse gas carbon dioxide around 11.3 eV. Time-resolved investigations with a unique combination of ultra-high spectral and high temporal resolution will explore photo-induced dynamics in atoms and molecules involving transient effects such as level splittings, shifts and quantum beatings at a new level of detail. With ELFIS, ultrafast dynamics linked to the UV photo-induced population transfer and dissociation in methyl iodide will be tracked with an unrivalled energy state resolution (3 orders of magnitude beyond state of the art).

Mots-clés : laser spectroscopy,frequency combs,pump probe spectroscopy,high harmonic generation,dual comb,spectroscopy
Projet ERC : EXCHANGE (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions
Entité participante : Stockholm University — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999875.0 €

Solute Carrier (SLC) transporters mediate the translocation of substrates across membranes and after GPCRs represent the second-largest fraction of the human membrane proteome. SLC transporters are critical to cell homeostasis, which is reflected in the fact that more than a quarter is associated with Mendelian disease. Despite a few exceptions, however, they have been under-utilized as drug targets and most of the mechanistic understanding has been derived from bacterial homologues of these medically important proteins. In addition to subtle differences, bacterial homologues will not enable us to establish how the activities of many SLC transporters are allosterically regulated through the binding of accessory factors, e.g., hormones, to their non-membranous globular domains. Understanding the mechanisms by which their activities can be allosterically regulated through these complex and dynamic assembles is critical to human physiology and important for future drug design. Our model system is a family of transporters known as sodium/proton exchangers (NHEs), which exchange sodium for protons across membranes to aid many fundamental processes in the cell. NHEs are important to the cell cycle, cell proliferation, cell migration and vesicle trafficking and are associated with a wide-spectrum of diseases. Their diverse portfolio is connected to the importance of pH homeostasis, and the binding of many different factors to a large, globular cytosolic domain exquisitely regulates them. To date, we have no structural information for any of the NHE’s, functional assays in liposomes are lacking, and many interaction partners are yet to be validated by in vitro studies. Determining the structure, dynamics, and allosteric regulation of NHEs will be an enormous challenge. However, we envisage that by achieving our objectives, we will reveal important mechanistic insights relevant not just to NHEs, but to many types of SLC transporters.
Projet ERC : 2MoveMate4Melanoma (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : NKI-AVL
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149750.0 €

Some 50% of human melanoma tumors have activating mutations in the BRAF gene. BRAF inhibitor drugs given either alone or in combination with MEK inhibitors have improved progression-free and overall survival in patients with BRAF mutant metastatic melanoma. However, drug resistance invariably limits the duration of clinical benefit of such treatments and is almost always associated with re-activation of signaling through the MAP kinase pathway in the presence of drug due to secondary mutations in the pathway. This highlights the urgent need to develop strategies to treat melanomas that have developed resistance to BRAF and/or MEK inhibitors. As part of an ERC advanced grant, my laboratory has shown that BRAF inhibitor withdrawal in melanomas that have developed resistance to BRAF inhibitors leads to a transient growth arrest that is the consequence of temporary hyperactivation of signaling through the MAP kinase pathway, explaining the so called “drug holiday effect”. We have also found that subsequent treatment of such BRAF inhibitor resistant melanomas with Histone DeACetylase inhibitor drugs (HDACi) leads to persistent hyperactivation of MAP kinase signaling, causing both chronic proliferation arrest and cell death, ultimately leading to complete regression of BRAF-inhibitor resistant melanomas in mice. We propose here to perform a proof of concept study in at least 10 evaluable melanoma patients that, after proven initial tumor response, have developed resistance to BRAF inhibitors to validate that subsequent treatment of such patients with an HDACi drug will result in durable responses. Translational studies on tumor biopsies taken before, during and after HDACi treatment will be performed to study the cellular effects of HDACi treatment. Our goal is to provide initial proof of concept in patients for use of this sequential BRAFi-HDACi therapy as the treatment of choice for the some 40,000 BRAF mutant melanomas that are diagnosed in the EU annually.

Mots-clés : melanoma,braf,clinical trial,drug resistance
Projet ERC : NanoSCAN (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : University of Zurich — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UZH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1700000.0 €

Spatial and temporal changes in the underlying biochemistry of cancer control disease progression and response/resistance to treatment. Developing methods to detect changes in oncogenic signaling at an early stage is vital to further our understanding of cancer, and will advance the next generation of anti-cancer therapies. Nanomedicine is the medical application of nanotechnology to diagnose or treat disease. In light of the recent introduction of tools like Positron Emission Tomography/Magnetic Resonance Imaging (PET/MRI) scanners, there is now a new opportunity to develop hybrid imaging protocols that can simultaneously take advantage of the functional and anatomic information available from PET/MRI to address changes in oncogenic signaling pathways. The work outlined in this interdisciplinary ERC Project is designed to advance new chemistry and imaging methods to measure changes in oncogenic signaling in various cancers before, during and after treatment using PET/MRI. The long-term goals are to expand the scope and utility of radiolabelled nanomedicines as dual-modality PET/MRI probes for detecting changes in oncogenic signaling in various cancers and develop efficient methods for translating new technologies to the clinic. Successful completion of this ERC Project has the potential to transform personalised clinical management of cancer patients via advanced PET/MRI detection of oncogenic signaling processes.

Mots-clés : radiochemistry,nanomedicines,molecular imaging,oncogenic signaling
Projet ERC : NavigationCircuits (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Max Planck Society — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : MPG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1483750.0 €

Spatial navigation is a fundamental ability for animals to survive in a geometric space. A prominent feature of rats is their ability to create an internal metric space, or a map, in their brain. While place cells in the hippocampus are considered key elements of the spatial representation system, the activity of these cells primarily depends on the animal’s instantaneous position; thus it is not clear how the brain computes an estimate of future positions, necessary for route planning. Although several ideas have been proposed to extract future representations from place cells, how such information is used in downstream brain structures is still largely unknown. I thus propose to clarify the roles of the hippocampus in the larger context of brain circuits for route planning. A growing body of evidence indicates key roles for the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) in navigation. I hypothesize that RSC, downstream of hippocampal area CA1, may represent the animal’s future position by making use of information from place cells about positions and movements. The future positions may then be evaluated in mPFC, a downstream target of RSC and CA1, which potentially represents the spatial proximity to the goal. I will clarify the key circuit dynamics during route decisions among these structures together with the hippocampus. As route planning requires information about positional relationships in the environment, I will also investigate a role for brief trajectory sequences generated by place cells, or replay, for transferring such information from the hippocampus to RSC. Simultaneous high-density recordings from multiple regions as well as optogenetic silencing of specific projections are all available in freely behaving rats, and extensive use of computational methods will help decipher the codes in navigation circuits. The studies will provide key insights into how internal models in the brain influence cognition and behaviour.
Projet ERC : CsnCRL (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions
Entité participante : Friedrich Miescher Institute — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : FMI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2200677.0 €

Specificity in the ubiquitin-proteasome system is largely conferred by ubiquitin E3 ligases (E3s). Cullin-RING ligases (CRLs), constituting ~30% of all E3s in humans, mediate the ubiquitination of ~20% of the proteins degraded by the proteasome. CRLs are divided into seven families based on their cullin constituent. Each cullin binds a RING domain protein, and a vast repertoire of adaptor/substrate receptor modules, collectively creating more than 200 distinct CRLs. All CRLs are regulated by the COP9 signalosome (CSN), an eight-protein isopeptidase that removes the covalently attached activator, NEDD8, from the cullin. Independent of NEDD8 cleavage, CSN forms protective complexes with CRLs, which prevents destructive auto-ubiquitination. The integrity of the CSN-CRL system is crucially important for the normal cell physiology. Based on our previous work on CRL structures (Fischer, et al., Nature 2014; Fischer, et al., Cell 2011) and that of isolated CSN (Lingaraju et al., Nature 2014), We now intend to provide the underlying molecular mechanism of CRL regulation by CSN. Structural insights at atomic resolution, combined with in vitro and in vivo functional studies are designed to reveal (i) how the signalosome deneddylates and maintains the bound ligases in an inactive state, (ii) how the multiple CSN subunits bind to structurally diverse CRLs, and (iii) how CSN is itself subject to regulation by post-translational modifications or additional further factors. The ERC funding would allow my lab to pursue an ambitious interdisciplinary approach combining X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, biochemistry and cell biology. This is expected to provide a unique molecular understanding of CSN action. Beyond ubiquitination, insight into this >13- subunit CSN-CRL assembly will allow examining general principles of multi-subunit complex action and reveal how the numerous, often essential, subunits contribute to complex function.

Mots-clés : e3 ubiquitin ligase,signalosome,macromolecular complexes,molecular mechanism