Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : SLOW MO (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : University of Bristol — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Fibre lasers have become highly prevalent due to their cost, stability and practicality. However, they are inherently noisy and this is a severe limitation when using them for microscopy, spectroscopy or generate quantum states of light. We propose to develop a “plug-and-play” module that can be retrofitted to fibre lasers that are already deployed in the field, which reduces the optical noise at the laser output down to a fundamental limit of classical physics. This proof of concept grant will enable us to advance the commercial readiness of this noise suppression module, commission market research to identify potential customers, engineer a robust demonstrator for deployment outside the optics laboratory and foster relationships with end users willing to take part in trials. This project will bridge the gap between academic research and commercial exploitation of filter modules that allow lasers to operate at the fundamental shot noise limit.

Mots-clés : laser,balanced detection,shot noise limit,module,fibre
Projet ERC : LightPipe (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : University of Southampton — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2749639.0 €

Fibre optics has revolutionised telecommunications, enabled the widespread diffusion of the internet and profoundly impacted industrial manufacturing, metrology, medical endoscopy and structural sensing, to name but a few. In many applications however, fibres are now being operated very close to fundamental physical limits of the glass that forms their core, and this is already providing hard limits, for example, to the maximum data capacity or optical intensity that can be transmitted through them. A transformative new technological step is required to help increasing the information capacity and power delivery capability of optical fibres to keep up with the 1.5dB/year growth in global data traffic and with the 2dB/year raise in laser output power. Air guiding hollow core fibres can provide a natural solution, but the state of the art technology suffers from conceptual physical limitations that bound their minimum loss, maximum information capacity, and transmitted optical power and energy. This proposal addresses these global challenges by developing the ‘ultimate’ hollow core optical fibre technology based on nested antiresonant nodeless fibres. Based on a recent discovery of the PI yet to find experimental demonstration, these fibres exploit antiresonances and multiple coherent reflections from the glass membranes to achieve, unlike any other known air-guiding optical waveguide, simultaneous minimisation of surface scattering and leakage loss. By targeting a 10 times increase in data capacity and power handling and a 5 times reduction in transmission loss as compared to state-of-the-art technology, all in an ultra-low nonlinearity fibre with excellent modal purity and spectral transparency, the outcomes of this project have the potential to revolutionise telecommunications 45 years after the development of ultra-low loss glass optical fibres and to produce a step-change in many industrial and scientific high power laser delivery applications.

Mots-clés : fiber optics,fiber design and fabrication,microstructured optical fibers,ultralow loss optical fibers,radiation hard fibers,laser delivery,high capacity data transmission
Projet ERC : CODOVIREVOL (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator 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 : 1997100.0 €

Fidelity during information transfer is essential for life, but it pays to be unfaithful if it provides an evolutionary advantage. The immune system continuously generates diversity to put up with recurrent pathogen challenges, and many viruses, in its turn, have evolved mechanisms to generate diversity to evade immune restrictions, even at the cost of enduring high mutation rates. Synonymous codons are not used at random and are not translated with similar efficiency. A large proportion of viruses infecting humans, especially those causing chronic infections, display a poor adaptation to the codon usage preferences of their host. This observation is a paradox, as viral genes completely depend upon the cellular translation machinery for protein synthesis. The poor match between codon usage preferences of virus and host negatively affects speed and accuracy of viral protein translation. We propose here that maladaptation of codon usage preferences in human viruses may have an adaptive value as it decreases translational fidelity, results in the synthesis of an ill-defined population of viral proteins and provides a way to escape immune surveillance. We will address the fitness effects of codon usage bias at the molecular and cellular levels, and later at the organism level in a rabbit model of papillomavirus infection. We will apply experimental evolution to analyse genotypic changes by means of next generation sequencing and will monitor phenotypic changes through real-time cell monitoring techniques, comparative proteomics, and anatomopathological analysis of virus-induced lesions. Our results will help solve the evolutionary puzzle of codon usage bias, and will have implications for the development of therapeutic vaccines to guide the immune response towards the identification and targeting of the main protein species, avoiding the chemical noise generated by protein mistranslation.

Mots-clés : codon usage,experimental evolution,infection and cancer,chronic infection,immune escape,protein synthesis,translational selection
Projet ERC : AsthmaPhenotypes (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Massey University — Pays : Nouvelle-Zélande — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 469975.0 €

Fifteen years ago it was widely believed that asthma was an allergic/atopic disease caused by allergen exposure in infancy; this produced atopic sensitization and continued exposure resulted in eosinophilic airways inflammation, bronchial hyper-responsiveness and reversible airflow obstruction. It is now clear that this model is at best incomplete. Less than one-half of asthma cases involve allergic (atopic) mechanisms, and most asthma in low-and-middle income countries is non-atopic. Westernization may be contributing to the global increases in asthma prevalence, but this process appears to involve changes in asthma susceptibility rather than increased exposure to “established” asthma risk factors. Understanding why these changes are occurring is essential in order to halt the growing global asthma epidemic.This will require a combination of epidemiological, clinical and basic science studies in a variety of environments. A key task is to reclassify asthma phenotypes. These are important to: (i) better understand the aetiological mechanisms of asthma; (ii) identify new causes; and (iii) identify new therapeutic measures. There are major opportunities to address these issues using new techniques for sample collection from the airways (sputum induction, nasal lavage), new methods of analysis (microbiome, epigenetics), and new bioinformatics methods for integrating data from multiple sources and levels. There is an unprecedented potential to go beyond the old atopic/non-atopic categorization of phenotypes. I will therefore conduct analyses to re-examine and reclassify asthma phenotypes. The key features are the inclusion of: (i) both high and low prevalence centres from both high income countries and low-and-middle income countries; (ii) much more detailed biomarker information than has been used for previous studies of asthma phenotypes; and (iii) new bioinformatics methods for integrating data from multiple sources and levels.

Mots-clés : asthma,epidemiology,phenotypes
Projet ERC : AsthmaPhenotypes (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Federal University of Bahia — Pays : Brésil — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : UFBA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 255882.0 €

Fifteen years ago it was widely believed that asthma was an allergic/atopic disease caused by allergen exposure in infancy; this produced atopic sensitization and continued exposure resulted in eosinophilic airways inflammation, bronchial hyper-responsiveness and reversible airflow obstruction. It is now clear that this model is at best incomplete. Less than one-half of asthma cases involve allergic (atopic) mechanisms, and most asthma in low-and-middle income countries is non-atopic. Westernization may be contributing to the global increases in asthma prevalence, but this process appears to involve changes in asthma susceptibility rather than increased exposure to “established” asthma risk factors. Understanding why these changes are occurring is essential in order to halt the growing global asthma epidemic.This will require a combination of epidemiological, clinical and basic science studies in a variety of environments. A key task is to reclassify asthma phenotypes. These are important to: (i) better understand the aetiological mechanisms of asthma; (ii) identify new causes; and (iii) identify new therapeutic measures. There are major opportunities to address these issues using new techniques for sample collection from the airways (sputum induction, nasal lavage), new methods of analysis (microbiome, epigenetics), and new bioinformatics methods for integrating data from multiple sources and levels. There is an unprecedented potential to go beyond the old atopic/non-atopic categorization of phenotypes. I will therefore conduct analyses to re-examine and reclassify asthma phenotypes. The key features are the inclusion of: (i) both high and low prevalence centres from both high income countries and low-and-middle income countries; (ii) much more detailed biomarker information than has been used for previous studies of asthma phenotypes; and (iii) new bioinformatics methods for integrating data from multiple sources and levels.

Mots-clés : asthma,epidemiology,phenotypes
Projet ERC : VERDI (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Universidad Complutense de Madrid — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UCM
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2500000.0 €

Finding simple solutions to complex problems has been a challenge for humankind for decades. VERDI aims at designing a multifunctional nanosystem to heal complex bone diseases. This is an engineering challenge that will be tackled through the use of building blocks designed on the basis of cutting-edge technology. These building blocks will be assembled into a versatile multifunctional nanosystem that can be adapted through slight variations for the treatment of three diseases of clinical relevance: bone infection, bone cancer and osteoporosis. The novelty of this proposal is the design of a nanosystem that may address several diseases using a unique, versatile and scalable strategy. Mesoporous silica nanoparticles are selected as the main component of the nanoplatform because of their biocompatibility, robustness, loading capacity and versatile surface modification. The nanosystem will be modified by rational selection of building blocks, with targeting and/or therapeutic abilities, to tackle either one or a combination of pathologies. These features will enable us to deliver a library of nanomedicines using a toolbox of building blocks, customizing a specific nanosystem depending on the disease to be treated. The risks associated to VERDI are numerous, such as the great complexity of producing completely asymmetrical nanoparticles (NPs), the risk that modifying a drug or therapeutic peptide will affect its therapeutic efficacy, and the difficulty of achieving effective in vivo bone targeted NPs. A contingency plan for each risk has been elaborated. The expertise and capacities of my research group guarantees successful results, which we expect to lead to a revolution in the therapy of bone cancer, bone infection and osteoporosis. Additionally, the application of a single technology for the treatment of three different but frequently associated diseases will favour industrial scale-up process, thereby promoting the transition of nanomedicine from bench to bedside.

Mots-clés : mesoporous silica nanosystems,nanoplatform,bone infection,bone cancer,osteoporosis
Projet ERC : MAARvEL (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
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 : 1994813.0 €

Fine aerosol particles are ubiquitous in the atmosphere and have important impacts on climate change and air quality. Organic compounds represent the largest mass fraction of fine particulate matter and their formation is believed to occur through the condensation of oxygenated volatile organic compounds. However, a fundamental physicochemical property of atmospheric aerosols – the Laplace pressure – has never been studied. This “missing” property is expected to have major implications for atmospheric chemistry and may explain the current gaps between ambient observations and modelling studies when evaluating the formation rates, ambient concentrations and the spatial distribution of atmospheric nanoparticles. Hence, my project aims at elucidating the key processes driven by the Laplace pressure in atmospheric aerosols and how they impact on the growth, evolution and physicochemical properties of submicron particles. MAARvEL focuses on the smallest particles, where the Laplace pressure is expected to have the greatest impact. By exploiting recent instrumental developments and using state-of-the-art mass spectrometry techniques, MAARvEL will provide an unequalled understanding of the processes occurring within the particles. Innovative laboratory experiments will be performed to discover the central role of the Laplace pressure for; (i) condensed-phase reactions, (ii) photochemical processes, and (iii) physicochemical properties of submicron particles. A strong emphasis will be placed on quantifying the extent to which chemical processes govern the growth and evolution of atmospheric nanometre-sized particles. By revealing how the Laplace pressure controls particle phase chemistry, MAARvEL will provide a major breakthrough to support more accurate predictions of the formation and evolution of atmospheric nanoparticles, thereby decreasing the uncertainties in assessing the magnitude of aerosol effects on climate.

Mots-clés : nanoparticles,mass spectrometry,atmosphere
Projet ERC : DeNovoImmunoDesign (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions
Entité participante : Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ETH Zurich
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1695489.0 €

Finely orchestrated protein activities are at the heart of the most fundamental cellular processes. The rational and structure-based design of novel functional proteins holds the promise to revolutionize many important aspects in biology, medicine and biotechnology. Computational protein design has led the way on rational protein engineering, however many of these designed proteins were solely focused on structural accuracy and completely impaired of function. DeNovoImmunoDesign proposes novel computational design strategies centered on the exploration of de novo protein topologies and the use of structural flexibility with the ultimate goal of designing functional proteins. The proposed methodologies aim to solve a prevalent problem in computational design that relates to the lack of optimal design templates for the optimization of function. By expanding beyond the known protein structural space, our approaches represent new paradigms on the design of de novo functional proteins. DeNovoImmunoDesign will leverage our new methodologies to design functional proteins with rational approaches for two crucial biomedical endeavors - vaccine design and cancer immunotherapy. Our strategy for vaccine design is to engineer structure-based epitope-focused immunogens to elicit potent neutralizing antibodies – a requirement for vaccine protection. The underlying basis of cancer immunotherapy is the inhibition of key protein-protein interactions - an arena where rational design is lagging. To meet this central need we will develop innovative approaches to design new protein binders for cancer immunotherapy applications. DeNovoImmunoDesign is a multidisciplinary proposal where computation is intertwined with experimentation (biochemistry, structural biology and immunology). Our unique competences and groundbreaking research have all the components to translate into transformative advances for both basic and applied biology through innovations in rational protein design.

Mots-clés : structure based computational design,protein engineering,vaccine design,de novo design
Projet ERC : FORCHAR (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : University of Exeter — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Fire Investigations are undertaken to determine the origin and cause of fires in housing or commercial properties, to identify whether there may be a need for criminal investigation, to provide information on financial loss and in the case of loss of life to design protocols to protect society. Charring is one of the most obvious products of fire and fire investigators have long attempted to utilise patterns of charring to determine fire origin and cause. However, these have often had to rely on qualitative descriptions of charring as there is no quantitative tool that allows them to measure the degree of charring of wood materials. My ERC StG developed a quantitative method that allows the amount of light reflected from charcoals to be measured toward estimating wildfire behaviour. In FORCHAR (forensic char) I aim to adapt this approach and develop it into an essential tool for use in the fire investigator’s forensic toolkit. Its strength is that it allows quantitative measurements of char properties to be used to interpret the origin and source of fires. The FORCHAR tool will be taken through a series of phases of validation testing to that 1) will provide proof of concept that the approach can be transferred from wildfires to fires in the built environment, 2) will allow real-world testing where FORCHAR will be utilised in real fire scene investigations via collaborations with industry partners. The aim being to develop a new tool that can be used to improving fire safety protocols toward preventing the loss of life.

Mots-clés : fire investigation,forensic science,charring,charcoal,fire damage,fire patterns,fire effects
Projet ERC : IDEAL DRONE (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Societa per la gestione dell' incubatore d' impresa del politecnico scpa — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : I3p
Type d'entité : Autres
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000.0 €

Firefighters fatalities are increasing worldwide because they are the first entering in damaged buildings or in fire, without knowing the location of victims and the source of danger. The Principal Investigator has invented a system for indoor tracking that is able to detect victims inside buildings after a disaster (earthquake, fire, etc.) using a radio frequency system (UWB) based on fixed nodes (anchors) in the building to detect the location of wearable nodes (tags). The application has been patented (PCT application: n. 102016000109493). The idea of the project IDEAL DRONE is to install the anchors on an unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) swarm that is flying around the building. The UAVs will be equipped with a customized sensor network so the system will provide indoor localization for managing emergencies without the need to install a structural health monitoring system (SHM) inside the building. Then the health condition and the location of the victims can be plotted in a map, so that rescue operations can be optimized. The goal of the project is to develop the first prototype of the system using a developing board for rapid prototyping and perform an initial market analysis of the system to analyze the impact of this product in the market. After the first prototype the next step will be to redesign all the electrical parts to find the optimal solution between quality and price for each submodule and component of the system.

Mots-clés : emergency,indoor tracking,search and rescue,firefighters,disasters