Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : SINGLE (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Entité participante : CERCA Institution — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CERCA;I-CERCA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1497563.0 €

Amid declining marriage and fertility rates, singlehood is rapidly gaining scholarly attention. Yet, singlehood scholarship is remarkably fragmented and underdeveloped. Existing theories are divided between narratives of singlehood as an unfavorable outcome or an empowering life choice. Moreover, existing frameworks are limited by a glaring inconsistency in the measurement of singlehood, an overwhelming focus on young adults, and a general neglect of cross-national and intersectional approaches. These limitations undermine our ability to establish a comprehensive, holistic framework that answers fundamental questions: (1) what the scope of singlehood is in the adult population and (2) how social stratification is reproduced within the single population.  SINGLE proposes to resolve these tensions by taking an unprecedented, comprehensive, comparative approach that bridges demographic and sociological debates and pays attention to the diverse challenges and opportunities that single life offers. First, SINGLE takes a population approach by establishing a Demography of Singlehood framework that will produce and disseminate estimates of the prevalence, composition, and duration of singlehood across Europe using various large-scale secondary data sources. Through novel data collection, SINGLE will also offer pioneering insights into singles’ self-identification and motivation to be single to improve our understanding of selection and terminology in singlehood research. Second, SINGLE takes a stratification approach to expand our understanding of social inequality within the single population. SINGLE will disentangle how demographic, economic, and cultural forces systematically shape singles’ unequal outcomes within and across countries. By documenting singles’ time use, well-being, perceived pressure to partner, and access to support systems, SINGLE will reframe our knowledge of the complexity and diversity of European singlehood.

Mots-clés : singlehood union formation family demography cross national social inequality
Projet ERC : RADIOCONTROL (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1942158.0 €

Liposomes have been the most successful type of nanomedicine for cancer patients, playing a leading role in improving the tolerability of chemotherapeutics. However, to advance the success of liposomal drug delivery and cancer treatment, new approaches to physically trigger drug release in cancer tissues and increase the permeability of the protective cancer stroma are needed. This project will investigate whether radiocatalytic nanomaterials can be integrated in liposomes for spatiotemporal-controlled drug release, the alleviation of cancer desmoplasia, and improved efficacy of co-encapsulated drugs. Liposomes will be composed of oxidation-susceptible phospholipids that encapsulate hydrophilic drugs in their aqueous core. Radiation-absorbing nanomaterials will be included in the liposomes to produce high levels of reactive oxygen species when activated by X-rays. This will oxidize the liposomes and facilitate the release of the encapsulated drugs. Simultaneously, the cytotoxicity of the oxidants is expected to reduce the high cell densities in the tumor periphery, enabling the therapeutics to deeply permeate the cancer tissues following their release. This customizable strategy will be developed in the context of pancreatic cancer, a chemoresistant form of cancer with poor survival rates. This project develops a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the physicochemical mechanisms of radiotherapy-induced drug release, adaptive optics microscopy to study tissue permeability in 3D cultures of desmoplastic pancreatic cancer, and multimodal in vivo imaging to uncover the therapeutic potential and mechanisms. Radiotherapy-controlled drug release from liposomes is a ground-breaking novel concept, and its capacity to increase cancer tissue permeability has never before been demonstrated. When successful, new avenues for controlled liposomal drug delivery will emerge that can significantly advance the standard-of-care for many cancer patients.

Mots-clés : liposomal drug delivery reactive oxygen species photodynamic therapy radiotherapy chemotherapy cancer microenvironment enhanced permeability and retention pancreatic cancer
Projet ERC : MicroflowLife (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Blood circulation is essential to organs’ functions and occurs through a complex network of vessels with diameters varying from several millimetres for large arteries to only a few microns for small capillaries. Dysfunctions in the microcirculation are early markers of many diseases, which are however diagnosed at later stage, when observable symptoms become visible at larger scales. Mapping blood flows across several spatial scales at depth in organs is therefore crucial for early diagnosis and monitoring of diseases, but it remains a major challenge in clinical medical imaging. Our laboratory Physics for Medicine Paris has introduced in 2015 ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM), a non-invasive method to map and quantify blood flows at depth in organs down to a micron scale resolution, opening avenues for medical imaging. However, 2D ULM is highly operator-dependent because probe positioning is critical to view the appropriate cross-section. Imaging the whole-organ in 3D is therefore crucial for clinical practice, and for a comprehensive investigation of organ’s functions. Capturing large 3D volumes through the bones such as the skull or the rib cage is a further challenge in ultrasound imaging: acoustic energy losses due to reflection and distortion of ultrasound waves at the bone interface significantly reduce the imaging sensitivity. The objective of MicroflowLife is to develop ultrasensitive 3D ULM through bones for mapping the microcirculation of the whole-heart and the whole-brain. Our approach relies on the development of novel ultrasonic multi-lens probes, combined with new acquisition sequences and processing methods. Our technology and methods will be first validated in vitro and in vivo, and then translated clinically in first-in-human studies. Feasibility of cardiac and cerebral applications will be assessed in two morbid diseases associated with microcirculation alteration: coronary microvascular dysfunction and brain glioblastoma tumors.

Mots-clés : ultrasound,ultrasound localization microscopy,microangiography
Projet ERC : BOOTES (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe Sciences
Entité participante : Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas — Pays : Grèce — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : FORTH
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1469875.0 €

Supermassive black holes form the most intriguing astrophysical systems offering countless opportunities to study fundamental physics in regimes not accessible to laboratories on Earth. Their multimessenger emission manifests in the formation of accretion disks, jets, and the acceleration of extremely energetic particles all of which are still poorly understood. Optical polarization can provide answers to such long-standing black hole physics questions since optical polarization signatures clearly distinguish between competing theories. However, the optopolarimetric data necessary for such a task are missing. BOOTES is a unique joint observational and theoretical program that can unify our understanding of transient (tidal disruption events) and steady (active galactic nuclei) supermassive black hole systems using optopolarimetry. The unprecedented telescope time (109 nights/year) and high-accuracy optical polarimeter available to the proposed work will allow us to produce (1) the first comprehensive optical polarization monitoring of tidal disruption events; (2) the first systematic very-high-cadence optical polarization monitoring of relativistic jets. Having clear polarization expectations from the state-of-the-art models we will uncover two fundamental black hole processes: the accretion disk formation mechanism; the high-energy particle energization process in relativistic jets – two open questions currently at a precipice of a breakthrough in black hole studies.

Mots-clés : supermassive black holes,accretion disks,jets,particle acceleration
Projet ERC : CRACK-5HT (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1483738.75 €

Knowing the causal structure of a system enables controlling this system to our benefit. In neuroscience, the brain is widely envisioned as a complex controller whose main role is to help the organism reach and maintain itself into the most desirable states of its environment. However, not all environments are equally controllable and changes in environmental controllability require a permanent adaptation of cognitive and motor processes. Controllability estimation may thus play a key role in the regulation of action in health and disease, but its cognitive and neurobiological underpinnings remain poorly understood. Here, I will leverage a computational framework that I have recently developed to investigate in detail the neural implementation and the downstream consequences of controllability estimation for adaptive and maladaptive behaviours, with a particular focus on the serotonin (5-HT) system. My goal is to demonstrate that 5HT neurons broadcast controllability prediction errors and mediate the behavioural effects of controllability estimation in rodents and humans performing homologous tasks. To do so, I will record and manipulate the activity of genetically defined 5-HT neurons using light-based techniques and pharmacological manipulations. I will further test whether drug-naïve patients diagnosed with depression suffer from downward biases in controllability estimation and whether these biases can be alleviated by the initiation of serotonergic antidepressants. Finally, I will probe the neural mechanisms underlying controllability estimation mechanisms in healthy and depressed participants using functional neuroimaging. The ambition of this translational project is to untangle the complexities of 5-HT signalling and clarify its roles in depression and antidepressant treatments, which are still elusive despite decades of research. As such, it may provide new insights and predictive phenotyping tools for evidence-based approaches in neuropsychiatry.

Mots-clés : serotonin controllability depression antidepressants calcium imaging optogenetics fmri translational research
Projet ERC : FEMALE-PH (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Amsterdam University Medical Centers — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499999.0 €

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a rare but progressive fatal disease characterized by accumulation of persistently activated cell types in the pulmonary vascular wall exhibiting abnormal expression of genes driving proliferation, inflammation, and metabolism. The currently used vasodilatory therapies have little or no impact on this activated phenotype and therefore offer no cure or even substantial survival benefit. PH has a high female predominance (3:1 to 9:1). This proposal aims to understand the mechanism behind the high female predominance to identify novel therapeutic targets to attenuate disease progression in male and female PH patients. Female predominance can be linked to sex hormones and/or incomplete X chromosome inactivation (XCI) leading to biallelic expression of immunoinflammatory and metabolic genes. To understand the impact of oestrogen and androgen signalling on abnormal vascular remodelling in PH, I will develop a unique opposite-sex lung transplantation rat model, identify oestrogen metabolites in a large set of patient serum samples and explore their biological relevance using pulmonary vascular cells from male and female PH patients in cell-based assays. Preliminary experiments suggest there is incomplete XCI in PH. I propose to combine sequencing and molecular studies to extensively characterize the impact of incomplete XCI on the physiology of male and female PAH cells and identify genes and druggable targets regulating incomplete XCI in PH. Finally, I will explore a novel pulmonary endothelium-specific drug delivery method to deliver identified promising genes/compounds to selectively inhibit the activated pulmonary vasculature thereby minimalizing side effects compared to current delivery methods. Together, this high risk-high gain study will dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying the unresolved female predominance in PH and offer novel pulmonary endothelium-specific therapies for both male and female PH patients.

Mots-clés : pulmonary hypertension,vascular remodelling,pulmonary artery endothelial cells,sex differences,x chromosome inactivation,endothelium specific drug delivery
Projet ERC : CircTu-Age (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Institut de recherche en biomédecine — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IRB
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499300.0 €

Age is cancer's primary risk factor and a significant determinant of how the resulting disease presents and progresses. Yet the specific contribution of ageing’s diverse hallmarks to this phenomenon is poorly defined. Circadian rhythms are a conserved adaptation that enables organisms to anticipate daily environmental cycles and thus mitigate their harmful effects on the body. However, in recent years, a decay of homeostatic cellular, tissue and systemic circadian rhythms has emerged as a hallmark of mammalian ageing. Concurrently, in the context of cancer, circadian inputs from the host are known to drive daily rhythms in tumour microenvironment composition, metastasis seeding and treatment response, whilst disruption of physiological circadian rhythms is itself an established tumour promoter. When considered together, this raises the intriguing possibility that ageing of the circadian system may reshape cancer circadian biology in a manner pertinent to its prevention or treatment.  In particular, three key questions emerge: 1) Does ageing of the body and its circadian rhythm system change the tumourigenic potency of circadian rhythm disruption? 2) Are the circadian rhythms of an established tumour altered by ageing of the host and its circadian system? 3) If cancer circadian biology is rewired by ageing, can we identify where this change originates from?  In CircTu-Age, we will combine cutting-edge models of ageing and cancer with targeted circadian rhythm disruption and circadian-omics to define how ageing impinges upon the circadian biology of cancer. This timely project will reveal the as-yet-uncharacterised interaction between an emerging hallmark of ageing, circadian rhythm decay, and the most common of age-related diseases, cancer. The knowledge generated by CircTu-Age will provide a roadmap for identifying interventions that diminish cancer risk later in life, and contribute to refining and expanding the burgeoning field of cancer chronotherapy.

Mots-clés : ageing,cancer,circadian rhythms,inter tissue communication,colorectal cancer,melanoma,gemm,premature ageing
Projet ERC : UNRAVEL-CAUSALITY (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Amsterdam University Medical Centers — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Serious mental illness – depression, bipolar, and psychotic disorder – is among the leading causes of disability worldwide, disproportionately affecting people of non-European ancestry. On top of the burden posed by its symptoms, mental illness is also associated with comorbid health problems. The two most important ‘comorbidities’ of mental illness, given their driving role in decreasing quality and duration of life, are substance (mis)use and cardiovascular disease. Whether these comorbidities arise due to causal relationships is surprisingly unclear. The causal direction is also uncertain: does mental illness lead to comorbidities, and / or do comorbidities increase the risk of (more severe) mental illness? Through several prestigious fellowships, I have established myself as an expert in epidemiological and genetic causal inference methods. In this ambitious project, I will bring together innovative approaches to unravel the relationships of mental illness with substance (mis)use and cardiovascular disease. My aims are to: 1) assess bidirectional relationships between mental illness and its comorbidities by conducting longitudinal analyses in (multi-ancestry) prospective cohort studies, 2) distinguish bidirectional relationships from shared genetic liability by jointly modelling the complete genetic architecture of mental illness and its comorbidities (genomic structural equation modelling), 3) establish causality by using only highly significant genetic variants as instruments for one variable and testing causal effects on another (Mendelian randomization), 4) fully unravel the nature of relationships between mental illness and its comorbidities by ‘triangulating’ evidence from aims 1 to 3, and 5) assess how informing medical doctors about the outcomes of aim 4 influences their clinical decisions in a randomized online experiment. This interdisciplinary project sets the stage for more effective prevention and treatment of mental illness, across ancestry groups.

Mots-clés : causal inference,mendelian randomization,triangulation,mental disorders,cardiovascular,smoking,alcohol,cannabis,comorbidity
Projet ERC : ENDOMET-STEER (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Amsterdam University Medical Centers — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1528006.25 €

Inflammation is an important driver of atherosclerosis, the primary cause of global morbidity and mortality in emerging and developed countries. New strategies to reduce atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk are therefore eagerly needed. I recently found that atherogenic inflammatory stimuli rewire cellular metabolism in endothelial cells (ECs) and thereby contribute to atherosclerosis progression. Defining the intricate link between EC inflammation, metabolic rewiring and functional consequences for the vasculature will open new avenues for therapeutic strategies in CVD. My recent work shows that CVD-associated metabolic changes in ECs can affect their secretome. In turn, the endothelial secretome disrupts both stem cell function in the bone marrow niche and macrophage activation in the plaque microenvironment, two highly vascularized tissue compartments that drive atherosclerosis progression. Based on these findings, I hypothesize that CVD-associated EC metabolic changes impact the micromilieu in both tissue compartments, propagating the proinflammatory state in CVD patients.  With this ERC project I aim to define (1) how EC metabolism is affected in atherosclerosis, (2, 3) what the impact of altered EC metabolism is for stem cell function in the bone marrow niche and for macrophage activation in the plaque, and ultimately (4) to define how interventions in EC metabolism improve tissue function and halt CVD development.  I will apply innovative 3D organ-on-chip models that accurately reflects the human bone marrow and plaque microenvironment. By combining this with a unique collection of human ex-vivo atherosclerotic plaques, human bone marrow cells and novel transgenic in-vivo models, I will generate essential new insights that help to understand the development of atherosclerotic CVD.  Hereby, this ERC will yield important insights that the field urgently awaits to develop novel therapeutic strategies for the reduction of the burden of CVD.

Mots-clés : atherosclerosis,endothelium,inflammation,metabolism,bone marrow,macrophages
Projet ERC : InterBond (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Materials Engineering
Entité participante : Université de Leoben — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499972.5 €

The combination of different materials is often key to the functionality of engineering components. For instance, metal films on polymers are omnipresent composite materials, from food packaging to satellite insulation and flexible electronic displays. Thereby, interfaces are often the weakest link, associated with dissimilar physical properties of adjacent layers or joining parts. A common strategy to prevent interface failure is enhancing adhesion. However, strong (inseparable) interfaces limit recyclability, an aspect largely neglected yet. Novel interface design could change this situation. This proposal outlines a research program to establish new scientific principles for the nanoscale design of innovative “programmable interfaces” with reliable adhesion in use and thereafter “debonding upon request”, aiming at a new generation of reliable and recyclable sustainable thin film composite devices. Recent work of the PI on naturally well-adhering Al on Polyimide (adhesion energy Γ=40 Jm-2) suggests how unique benefits can be mimicked artificially for weak systems (2 Jm-2) via molecular layers (Al-O-C Alucones) deposited at the interface. The PI hypothesizes that inseparability of metallization and substrate can be solved by incorporated “triggers” for controlled degradation and delamination in conditions beyond those of standard use, e.g. via local heating at the interface by optical excitation of metallic nanoparticles. ”InterBond” shall combine a) fabrication of inorganic-organic model interfaces with triggerable degradation mechanisms, b) in-situ testing of interface strength in service/trigger conditions and c) physical modelling of structural integrity as a function of material combination and architectural design. This research program will focus on interfaces in metal films on polymer, yet the outcomes should apply to lightweight polymer matrix composites with metallic or ceramic fillers, leading the path to sustainable materials for technical applications.

Mots-clés : thin films,nanoparticles,polymer substrates,adhesion,fragmentation