Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : TUCLA (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Lund University — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2442000.0 €

The field of combustion is of utmost societal/industrial importance while at the same time posing outstanding scientific challenges. In order to handle these, it is extremely important to develop and apply non-intrusive laser-diagnostic techniques with high spatial and temporal resolution for measurements of key parameters such as species concentrations and temperatures. Such techniques have been developed and applied by the PI for more than thirty-five years and the home institute has one of the most advanced instrumentations in academia world-wide. The proposal activities will be divided into two areas including five main Work packages: 1. Development of new diagnostic techniques. We will concentrate on concepts based on structured illumination which will add a new dimension to present diagnostics based on temporal, intensity and spectral properties. It will allow for multiscalar measurements and efficient suppression of background light. Furthermore, we will work with femto/picosecond lasers for investigating the diagnostic applicability of filamentation, new aspects of non-linear techniques, and diagnostic aspects of photodissociation phenomena. 2. Phenomenological combustion studies using advanced laser diagnostics. A very important aspect of the project is to use the developed and available diagnostic techniques to assure experimental data in extremely challenging environments and together with modeling experts enhance the understanding of combustion phenomena. Studies will be carried out on three different topics: - Flame structures in laminar flames at high pressure as well as turbulent flames at atmospheric/high pressure. - Biomass gasification, where complex fuels require new techniques to measure nitrogen, alkali, chlorine and sulfur compounds, as well as for measurements inside fuel particles. - Combustion improvement by electric activation which can be introduced to handle flame oscillations and instabilities.

Mots-clés : laser diagnostics,laser spectroscopy,combustion,gasification,flame studies
Projet ERC : BLASTOID (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Austrian Academy of Sciences — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : OAW
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

The first weeks of human embryonic development are crucial. Early abnormalities or insults result not only in infertility, but also contribute to long-term impairment of human health (e.g., cardiovascular disease and diabetes). Managing the onset of pregnancy therefore offers a huge opportunity to improve public health through effective family planning and disease prevention. To better manage pregnancy, biomedical research would require large numbers of human embryos for use in genetic and drug screening. Unfortunately, however, the scarcity of human embryos makes this impossible. Recently, hope for an alternative approach has come from work in my lab showing that mouse stem cells self-organize into structures closely resembling pre-implantation embryos (a.k.a. blastocysts), that we termed blastoids. Because stem cells can be largely expanded and genetically-modified, these synthetic embryos provide a powerful, scalable alternative that is amenable to drug and genetic screens, thus opening numerous possibilities for therapeutic breakthroughs. Here, I propose the development of human blastoids and uterine organoids to model embryogenesis and uterine implantation in vitro. This platform will be used to identify potential targets for the therapeutic modulation of the molecular pathways that control (1) early embryogenesis and (2) interactions between the embryo and uterus, and will pave the way to (3) establishing a drug discovery pipeline for the management of implantation. This project will generate key insights into druggable molecules controlling early human embryogenesis, facilitating identification of therapeutic targets to improve in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures and contraception and, ultimately, to prevent several chronic diseases.
Projet ERC : NanoPacks (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes 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 €

The foundation of nanophotonics and nanoplasmonics has boosted the development of ultrasensitive detection techniques. Some of these techniques, such as Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy or Surface Enhanced Fluorescence, are able to detect femtomolar concentrations of analytes or even single molecules, only relying on the adsorption of the analytes on a nanostructured surfaces. The development of nanotechnology requires a high control on the building blocks of the structures. The concept of self-assembly has been introduced and successfully applied in recent years to build all sorts of nanostructures. However, self-assembly generally involves an attractive interaction of the elements which requires the use of specially designed nanoparticles, thus imposing severe limitations in the applicability of self-assembly. The approach I want to explore in this project is a complete change of paradigm which consists on assembling nanostructures through the collapse of evaporating drops: A droplet, containing both metallic nanoparticles and a tiny amount of analyte molecules, evaporates until the whole solvent vanishes and only the solutes are left. By manipulating the way the droplet evaporates, we can control the shape and properties of the remains, and therefore assemble metallic nanoparticles together with the molecules of interest in a passive way. The project will increase the reach of plasmonic-based techniques for the early detection of diseases: First, the approach does not rely on expensive fabrication techniques, but only on the thermodynamics and the statistical physics of the particle packings. Secondly, by using a physical approach to form nanoparticle and analyte aggregates, we avoid adverse interactions with the analyte’s chemistry. The packing of metallic nanoparticles presents new challenges and brings several scientific questions that I will address experimentally through microfluidics, but also via simulations and modeling.
Projet ERC : ANTIBIOCLICKS (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment 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 : 2000000.0 €

The frightening increase in antibiotic drug resistance is threatening global healthcare as we know it. To this extent the World Health Organisation that has classes M. tuberculosis and Gram-negative nosocomial infections as the highest priority for novel R&D strategies. A major obstacle to drug discovery programs is to design inhibitors that can efficiently enter into bacteria. One such stealth strategy is exemplified by natural siderophore-antibiotics conjugates (sideromycins) that piggyback the bacterial iron acquisition machinery to enter bacteria. This Trojan-horse strategy has inspired the chemical synthesis of numerous sideromycin conjugates, with cefiderocol a current preclinical candidate. Despite the advances in this field, natural examples of sideromycins are still scarce, and finding new examples may provide further insight into siderophore antibiotic formation and delivery. ANTIBIOCLICKS will investigate a unique bioinspired conjugation chemistry that has been uncovered from a newly discovered natural sideromycin. This natural “click” chemistry is ideal for the coupling of catecholate containing siderophores (such as those of the WHO prioritised M. tuberculosis, A. baumannii, E. coli, P. aeruginosa and K. pneumonia) to antibiotics or other molecules. This project will aim to define the exact chemical mechanism behind this novel and surprisingly simple conjugation reaction, and use this unique and facile chemistry to generate a combinatorial library of siderophores with antibiotics and fluorophores. These products will subsequently be used to probe the exact mechanism of bacterial sideromycin uptake, potential intracellular decoupling and target engagement. Finally, the antibiotic and diagnostic potential of the generated siderophore conjugates will be evaluated. To this extent, ANTIBIOCLICKS will provide illuminating insight into new bioinspired conjugation chemistry, and evaluate its potential for novel bacterial therapeutics and diagnostics.

Mots-clés : sideromycin,conjugation,antibiotic,siderophore,combinatorial,trojan
Projet ERC : 3D-BioMat (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
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 : 1757778.72 €

The fundamental 3D-BioMat project aims at providing a biomineralization model to explain the formation of microscopic calcareous single-crystals produced by living organisms. Although these crystals present a wide variety of shapes, associated to various organic materials, the observation of a nanoscale granular structure common to almost all calcareous crystallizing organisms, associated to an extended crystalline coherence, underlies a generic biomineralization and assembly process. A key to building realistic scenarios of biomineralization is to reveal the crystalline architecture, at the mesoscale, (i. e., over a few granules), which none of the existing nano-characterization tools is able to provide. 3D-BioMat is based on the recognized PI’s expertise in the field of synchrotron coherent x-ray diffraction microscopy. It will extend the PI’s disruptive pioneering microscopy formalism, towards an innovative high-throughput approach able at giving access to the 3D mesoscale image of the crystalline properties (crystal-line coherence, crystal plane tilts and strains) with the required flexibility, nanoscale resolution, and non-invasiveness. This achievement will be used to timely reveal the generics of the mesoscale crystalline structure through the pioneering explorations of a vast variety of crystalline biominerals produced by the famous Pinctada mar-garitifera oyster shell, and thereby build a realistic biomineralization scenario. The inferred biomineralization pathways, including both physico-chemical pathways and biological controls, will ultimately be validated by comparing the mesoscale structures produced by biomimetic samples with the biogenic ones. Beyond deciphering one of the most intriguing questions of material nanosciences, 3D-BioMat may contribute to new climate models, pave the way for new routes in material synthesis and supply answers to the pearl-culture calcification problems.

Mots-clés : coherent x ray microscopy,biominerals,biomineralization
Projet ERC : CANCEREVO (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
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 : 1250303.75 €

The fundamental evolutionary nature of cancer is well recognized but an understanding of the dynamic evolutionary changes occurring throughout a tumour’s lifetime and their clinical implications is in its infancy. Current approaches to reveal cancer evolution by sequencing of multiple biopsies remain of limited use in the clinic due to sample access problems in multi-metastatic disease. Circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) is thought to comprehensively sample subclones across metastatic sites. However, available technologies either have high sensitivity but are restricted to the analysis of small gene panels or they allow sequencing of large target regions such as exomes but with too limited sensitivity to detect rare subclones. We developed a novel error corrected sequencing technology that will be applied to perform deep exome sequencing on longitudinal ctDNA samples from highly heterogeneous metastatic gastro-oesophageal carcinomas. This will track the evolution of the entire cancer population over the lifetime of these tumours, from metastatic disease over drug therapy to end-stage disease and enable ground breaking insights into cancer population evolution rules and mechanisms. Specifically, we will: 1. Define the genomic landscape and drivers of metastatic and end stage disease. 2. Understand the rules of cancer evolutionary dynamics of entire cancer cell populations. 3. Predict cancer evolution and define the limits of predictability. 4. Rapidly identify drug resistance mechanisms to chemo- and immunotherapy based on signals of Darwinian selection such as parallel and convergent evolution. Our sequencing technology and analysis framework will also transform the way cancer evolution metrics can be accessed and interpreted in the clinic which will have major impacts, ranging from better biomarkers to predict cancer evolution to the identification of drug targets that drive disease progression and therapy resistance.
Projet ERC : DIMENSION (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : RWTH Aachen University — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : RWTH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 326823.75 €

The fundamental importance of materials to modern society is evidenced by the way new materials have revolutionized almost every aspect of our lives. Despite the many advances, dwindling resources and more stringent demands on product cost and performance demand increasingly better material designs and production processes, resulting in a heightened reliance on computational methods. In the field of computational materials engineering, the recent emergence of data science into the mainstream is causing a paradigm shift in the way models and data are used. There is a shift from traditional simulation methods which use data mainly to calibrate parameters in models, to data-driven simulation methods which seek to bypass the use of models by extracting knowledge from large data sets. This project synergistically combines aspects of both – by developing advanced computational methods that permit multi-scale material models to be informed by available measurement data. This project addresses this challenging problem through two main tasks. In the first part, we develop dimension reduction techniques for rapid multi-scale materials simulations. These methods must be capable of dealing with deterministic and stochastic microstructure parameters reflecting variations in loading, material, and morphological properties. In the second part, the reduced order models serve as an enabler for the development of computational methods for the selection of the most informative data and its assimilation into multi-scale material models. By enabling parameter estimation and model correction, this leads to increased accuracy and precision in the prediction of engineering quantities of interest. The success of the project will give rise to a novel computational framework that enables real-time multi-scale materials simulations informed by optimally chosen data, thus permitting effective risk management and cost reduction in the design of materials and control of manufacturing processes.

Mots-clés : computational homogenization,multi scale materials simulation,materials engineering,control of manufacturing processes,material design,finite element methods
Projet ERC : QUALIDEM (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : Université Catholique de Louvain — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UCL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1491658.75 €

The future consolidation or erosion of western democracies depends on the political perceptions, experiences and participation of ordinary citizens. Even when they disagree on the implications of their findings, previous studies stress that both attitudinal and behavioural forms of democratic linkages – political trust, political support, loyalty, formal and informal participation – have come under considerable pressure in recent decades. The QUALIDEM project offers a qualitative (re)appraisal of citizens’ (dis-)affection towards politics by relying on the core argument of the policy feedback literature: attitudes and behaviours are outcomes of past policy. It aims to explain the evolutions of democratic linkages as being shaped by public policy, and specifically by the turn to neoliberalism and supranationalisation. It aims to systematically analyse the domestic and socially differentiated effects of both of these major macro transformations to citizens’ representations and experiences of politics, as an addition to the existing emphasis on individual determinants and the existing contextual explanations of disengagement and disaffection towards politics. On the theoretical level, this project therefore aims to build bridges between scholars of public policy and students of mass politics. On the empirical level, QUALIDEM relies on the reanalysis of qualitative data – interviews and focus groups – from a diachronic and comparative perspective focusing on four Western European countries (Belgium, France, Germany and the UK) with the US serving as a counterpoint. It will renew the methodological approach to the question of ordinary citizens’ disengagement and disaffection by providing a detailed and empirically-grounded understanding of the mechanisms of production and change in democratic linkages. It will develop an innovative methodological infrastructure for the storage of and access to twenty years of qualitative European comparative surveys.

Mots-clés : citizens  attitudes towards politics,participation,citizenship,policy feedback,western democracies,comparative policy analysis,reanalysis of qualitative data  interviews,focus groups
Projet ERC : EPiR (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LMU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2486375.0 €

The genetic code consists of a defined sequence of four canonical nucleosides and the sequence of these bases carries the blueprints of all life on earth. It is apparent that this sequence information alone is not sufficient to explain how a multicellular organism can establish specialized cells like the 200 known cells types of a human body. For this, a second information layer is required and since a few years, it is apparent that this information layer is strongly based on Chemistry. Histones, DNA and RNA are the target of sophisticated chemical modification, which establishes a second layer of information. This proposal aims at decoding this chemical code on RNA, specifically on messenger RNA. More than 150 chemical derivatives of RNA nucleosides are known and many more await discovery. We are proposing a program to study RNA modifications and to decipher their function. We are expecting to answer key questions about the structures, the distribution and the biological function of numerous known and yet unknown chemical RNA derivatives that brings us deep into unexplored areas of science. Since some of the modified bases equip RNA with yet unknown reactivity we will study the functional aspects of reactive bases, which allows us to tackle some of the most important questions associated with the RNA world theory. Our results will move Europe into a central position in the new field of RNA epigenetics, which has the potential to become the next big wave in science 63 years after the discovery of the double helix structure. We are perfectly positioned to move the field forward. We established quantitative methods to study modified bases that uncovered a new biological principles in cancer cells (Carell, Carmeliet, Lamberts Nature 2016) and we contributed to the RNA world theory (Carell Science 2016). We applied proteomic tools to learn about the function of new DNA bases that we partially even discovered (Carell, Vermeulen Cell 2013; Carell Nat. Chem. Biol. 2014).

Mots-clés : chemical biology,rna modification
Projet ERC : AntCoCo (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : Comite national francais du c.t.i.f. — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1998625.0 €

The genre of late antique law texts, “constitutions”, appears puzzling to the modern observer: contrary to our expectations of clarity and brevity, they are astoundingly voluminous, hiding away the actual legal core—which can be quite short—in a lengthy and elaborate text. They are composed in an accomplished style, and we actually know that their authorship was entrusted to some of the best contemporary literati. Thanks to a sophisticated system of transmission, these texts would reach each and every town in the area of their intended diffusion. Eagerly attended public readings as well as postings at well-frequented places (sometimes permanently as inscriptions) ensured that vast portions of the population would come to know their contents. These texts’ importance in Late Antiquity contrasts starkly with the current state of research. Nobody has investigated the full imperial constitutions as prime examples of late antique Kunstprosa, nor has much effort been put into appreciating the various subjects raised in their complex introductions. Their communicative role, spanning huge geographic as well as social distances from the very center of power to the remotest corners of the vast empire, has been tentatively interpreted by some scholars as “propaganda”, a simplistic explanation which fails to convince. Clearly, these extraordinary texts are in dire need of reassessment. This project has a twofold purpose: first, on the basis of the evidence from the full constitutions, it will yield the methodically most sophisticated study of top-down communication in Late Antiquity, embracing important conclusions and methods of modern communication theory. Second, in order to obtain reliable results, the full constitutions must be collected, sorted, verified, emended, and published anew. Both the resulting collection itself as well as the completely novel methodology employed to ensure its soundness will have a major impact on other research in Classics, Law, and beyond.

Mots-clés : legal history,late antiquity,top down communication,ancient legislation,kunstprosa