Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : TWIGA (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : KTH Royal Institute of Technology — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : KTH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2631250.0 €

We aim to develop the first generation of spatially resolved DNA methodologies to uncover the underlaying molecular landscape of cancer genomes in tissues. Our efforts will focus on a novel genome-wide technology to study genomic integrity in its spatial context, currently a major challenge in the field. The research program is based on developing new experimental protocols and new computational analysis methods. We aim to demonstrate the utility of the method in cancer applications focusing on prostate and breast cancer that display genomic alterations with hallmarks of multiclonality, amplifications and gene fusions. We have previously demonstrated the Spatial Transcriptomics (ST) technology to successfully resolve the transcriptomic landscapes of tissue sections in situ. This was the first demonstrated method to provide transcriptome-wide analysis in a spatial tissue context (Ståhl et al, 2016, review by Asp et al 2020). With the establishment of the technology we have been able to develop advanced computational strategies to explore spatially barcoded transcriptomes. We have, in a series of papers, demonstrated the value and impact to capture and link gene expression information to morphology. For example, we have employed our know-how in (i) cell atlas projects (Asp et al, 2019; Ortiz et al, 2020) (ii) understanding temporal aspects of neurological disease (Maniatis et al, 2019, Chen et al, 2020) (iii) deconvoluting the heterogeneity in cancer (Berglund et al, 2018, Ji et al, 2020). This ambitious proposal seeks to pioneer the use of the tools to perform tissue-wide identification of genomic alterations in cancer (TWIGA) through spatial barcoding on glass slides. This effort will enable us to, in an unsupervised manner, describe genomes in tissue sections for the first time. We are convinced that an increased knowledge of genomic alterations in situ will improve our understanding of cancer from precancer conditions to malignancy and spread.

Mots-clés : spatial,tissue imaging,genome wide,barcoding
Projet ERC : ONACSA (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : University of East London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UEL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499274.0 €

We are a social species. Most infants, and young children, spend the majority of their early waking lives in the company of others. But, for practical reasons, almost everything that we know about how the brain subserves early attention and learning comes from studies that examined brain function in one individual at a time. This means that we understand lots about how children attend and learn from information presented while they are alone, viewing a computer screen - but little about how attention is shared between people during social interaction. ONASCA will develop new techniques to look, for the first time, at how two brains dynamically interact with one another during early learning exchanges. The project will determine how children’s active, participatory bids during learning lead to reactive changes in both members of the dyad – and how these changes, in turn, influence both partners’ subsequent attention, and learning. It will also determine how, and why, some infants, and some parents, show greater sensitivity during social exchanges than others. And, using targeted interventions, it will investigate whether social sensitivity can be improved. The question of how two brains dynamically influence one another during learning exchanges has been described as the ‘dark matter’ of social neuroscience. Yet nobody has looked at these questions before from the perspective of early learning. Our results may help us to move beyond viewing children primarily as passive recipients of information during learning exchanges, to a perspective that better appreciates children’s role as active participants in learning. Our findings may also have practical implications for educationalists, and clinicians.
Projet ERC : LiquOrg (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Synergy grants)
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 : 2553940.0 €

We are in the midst of a revolution in our understanding of the internal organization of cells. In the 1950s we learned that lipid bilayer-based membranes serve as containers (organelles) within the cytoplasm. Now we are learning that liquid-like “membrane-less” organelles i.e. without any container, self-assemble based on “liquid-liquid” phase separations. We propose the seemingly radical idea that membrane-bounded organelles– like their membrane-less counterparts- are stabilized or even templated by analogous phase separations of their surface proteins into largely planar liquids akin to liquid crystals. Our unique Synergy team is organized specifically to test this “liquid crystal hypothesis” on the cell’s secretory compartments - ER exit sites (ERES) and the Golgi stack - by employing our complementary skills in physics, physical chemistry, biochemistry and cell biology. We hypothesize based on pilot experiments evidence that the ERES and Golgi self-organize as a multi-layered series of adherent liquid crystal-like phases of “golgin” and similar proteins which surround and enclose their membranes. Their differential adhesion and repulsion would specify the topology and dynamics of the membrane compartments. If this is true, it will literally rewrite the history of cell biology. We will test the ‘liquid crystal’ hypothesis directly, systematically, and quantitatively on an unprecedented scale to either modify/disprove it or place it on a firm rigorous footing. Experiments (Aim 1) with 13 pure golgins in cis and trans pairwise combinations will establish their foundational physical chemistry. Surgically engineered changes in golgins/ERES proteins will alter the rank order (hierarchy) of their affinities for each other and link phase separation physics to cell biology (Aim 2) and be used to establish the structural basis of phase separations and their specificity, and the potential for self-assembly of wholly synthetic biological organelles (Aim 3).

Mots-clés : 2d phase separation,protein liquid crystals,synthetic golgi,atomic force microscopy,surface forces apparatus,giant unilamellar vesicles,er exit site,golgin
Projet ERC : LiquOrg (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Centre for Genomic Regulation — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CRG;CRG-CERCA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2421410.0 €

We are in the midst of a revolution in our understanding of the internal organization of cells. In the 1950s we learned that lipid bilayer-based membranes serve as containers (organelles) within the cytoplasm. Now we are learning that liquid-like “membrane-less” organelles i.e. without any container, self-assemble based on “liquid-liquid” phase separations. We propose the seemingly radical idea that membrane-bounded organelles– like their membrane-less counterparts- are stabilized or even templated by analogous phase separations of their surface proteins into largely planar liquids akin to liquid crystals. Our unique Synergy team is organized specifically to test this “liquid crystal hypothesis” on the cell’s secretory compartments - ER exit sites (ERES) and the Golgi stack - by employing our complementary skills in physics, physical chemistry, biochemistry and cell biology. We hypothesize based on pilot experiments evidence that the ERES and Golgi self-organize as a multi-layered series of adherent liquid crystal-like phases of “golgin” and similar proteins which surround and enclose their membranes. Their differential adhesion and repulsion would specify the topology and dynamics of the membrane compartments. If this is true, it will literally rewrite the history of cell biology. We will test the ‘liquid crystal’ hypothesis directly, systematically, and quantitatively on an unprecedented scale to either modify/disprove it or place it on a firm rigorous footing. Experiments (Aim 1) with 13 pure golgins in cis and trans pairwise combinations will establish their foundational physical chemistry. Surgically engineered changes in golgins/ERES proteins will alter the rank order (hierarchy) of their affinities for each other and link phase separation physics to cell biology (Aim 2) and be used to establish the structural basis of phase separations and their specificity, and the potential for self-assembly of wholly synthetic biological organelles (Aim 3).

Mots-clés : 2d phase separation,protein liquid crystals,synthetic golgi,atomic force microscopy,surface forces apparatus,giant unilamellar vesicles,er exit site,golgin
Projet ERC : EVOLVE (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
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 : 1958919.0 €

We are witnessing transformative results in the clinical application of both cancer immunotherapies and gene transfer technologies. Tumor vaccines are a specific modality of cancer immunotherapy. Similar to vaccination against pathogens, tumor vaccines are designed to elicit a specific immune response against cancer. They are based on the administration of inactivated cancer cells or tumor antigens, or the inoculation of antigen-presenting cells (APCs) previously exposed to tumor antigens. In spite of significant development and testing, tumor vaccines have largely delivered unsatisfactory clinical results. Indeed, while some patients show dramatic and durable cancer regressions, many do not respond, highlighting both the potential and the shortcomings of current vaccination strategies. Hence, identifying and abating the barriers to effective cancer vaccines is key to broadening their therapeutic reach. The goal of EVOLVE (EVirs to Optimize and Leverage Vaccines for cancer Eradication) is to propel the development of effective APC-based tumor vaccines using an innovative strategy that overcomes several key hurdles associated with available treatments. EVOLVE puts forward a novel APC engineering platform whereby chimeric receptors are used to both enable the specific and efficient uptake of cancer-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) into APCs, and to promote the cross-presentation of EV-associated tumor antigens for stimulating anti-tumor immunity. EVOLVE also envisions a combination of ancillary ‘outside of the box’ interventions, primarily based on further APC engineering combined with innovative pre-conditioning of the tumor microenvironment, to facilitate the deployment of effective APC-driven, T-cellmediated anti-tumor immunity. Further to preclinical trials in mouse models of breast cancer and melanoma, our APC platform will be used to prospectively identify novel human melanoma antigens and reactive T cell clones for broader immunotherapy applications.
Projet ERC : HomDyn (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : Hebrew University of Jerusalem — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HUJI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2090625.0 €

We consider the dynamics of actions on homogeneous spaces of algebraic groups, and propose to tackle a wide range of problems in the area, including the central open problems. One main focus in our proposal is the study of the intriguing and somewhat subtle rigidity properties of higher rank diagonal actions. We plan to develop new tools to study invariant measures for such actions, including the zero entropy case, and in particular Furstenberg's Conjecture about $\times 2,\times 3$-invariant measures on $\R / \Z$. A second main focus is on obtaining quantitative and effective equidistribution and density results for unipotent flows, with emphasis on obtaining results with a polynomial error term. One important ingredient in our study of both diagonalizable and unipotent actions is arithmetic combinatorics. Interconnections between these subjects and arithmetic equidistribution properties, Diophantine approximations and automorphic forms will be pursued.

Mots-clés : homogeneous dynamics,ergodic theory,invariant measures,entropy,algebraic groups,diophantine approximation,equidistribution,quantum unique ergodicity,arithmetic combinatorics
Projet ERC : Carbon Heaters (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Proof of concept grants)
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 : 149995.0 €

We have created a high performance, ultra-light and ultra strong carbon nanotube (CNT) film electrical heaters. Compared to traditional heating materials, they are super fast (reach the terminal temperature in less than (1/4s), lighter (100x), resistant to corrosion (concentrated acids do not affect them) and cheaper (a fraction of the cost). The heaters are fully scalable from nano-sized devices to full size applications on commercial aircrafts. Previous experiments involved a range of material sizes, from transformations on a molecular level to rapid de-icing of a model aircraft . The performance of the heaters revealed a 12,000,000% advantage by weight over the current most common heating alternative: resistive wires made of nickelchromium alloy. In this proposal, we show how this invention could alleviate the problem of aircraft de-icing.

Mots-clés : heater,carbon nanotubes,graphene,functional materials
Projet ERC : Diverge (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : Imperial College London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

We have generated a novel genetic circuit that, by combining an unusual site-specific recombinase and molecular splicing, allows to functionally diversify modular proteins in-vivo in a highly-directed manner. Applying this method to modular transcriptional activators allowed us to generate billions and even trillions of transcription factors variants in-vivo starting from a single base construct. The aim of the DIVERGE PoC project is to to explore the commercial potential of this approach for the isolation of transcriptional activators for human gene activation therapy and to establish a strategy for commercialisation of current and conceivable future implementations of this technology.

Mots-clés : synthetic biology,transcription factors,gene activation therapy,genetic disease
Projet ERC : FODEX (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth system science
Entité participante : University of London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : U. London
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 244216.37 €

We know how to map tropical forest biomass using an array of satellite and aircraft sensors with reasonable accuracy (±15-40 %). However, we do not know how to map biomass change. Simply differencing existing biomass maps produces noisy and biased results, with confidence intervals unknowable using existing static field plots. Thus the potential for using plentiful free satellite data for biomass change mapping is being wasted. To solve this I propose setting up the first experimental arrays of biomass change plots. In total 52 large plots will be located in logging concessions in Gabon and Peru, where biomass will be assessed before and after logging, and during recovery. In addition to traditional field inventory, terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) data will give the precise 3D shape of thousands of trees before and after disturbance, allowing biomass change to be estimated without bias. The project’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) will collect LiDAR data 4 times over each concession over 4 years, scaling up the field data to give thousands of hectares of biomass change data. In tandem, data from all potentially useful satellites (17+) flying over the field sites over the study period will be ordered and processed. These data will enable the development of new methods for mapping carbon stock changes, with known uncertainty, which I will scale up across the Amazon basin and west/central Africa. For the first time we will have the methods to assess the balance of regrowth and anthropogenic disturbance across tropical forests, informing us about the status and resilience of the land surface carbon sink. As well as of scientific interest, these results are urgently needed for forest conservation: the Paris Agreement relies on paying countries to reduce losses and enhance gains in forest carbon stocks, but we do not currently have the tools to map forest carbon stock changes. Without accurate monitoring it is not possible to target resources nor assess success.

Mots-clés : satellite imagery,big data,deforestation,forest degradation,redd,forest recovery,natural resource management,lidar,radar,terrestrial laser scanning,permanent sample plots,tropical forest
Projet ERC : ELWar (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : University of Luxembourg — Pays : Luxembourg — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499788.0 €

We know remarkably little about the impact of war on political competition in postwar societies in spite of the fact that postwar elections have garnered tremendous interest from researchers in a variety of fields. That interest, however, has been limited to establishing the relationship between electoral democratization and the incidence of conflict. Voters’ and parties’ electoral behaviour after the immediate post‐conflict period have remained largely neglected by researchers. The proposed project will fill this gap in our understanding of electoral legacies of war by analysing the evolution of political competition over the course of more than two decades in the six postwar states of Southeast Europe: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. Organised around three thematic areas/levels of analysis – voters, parties, communities – the project will lead to a series of important contributions. Through a combination of public opinion research, oral histories, and the innovative method of matching of individual census entries, the project will answer to which extent postwar elections are decided by voters’ experiences and perceptions of the ended conflict, as opposed to their considerations of the parties’ peacetime economic platforms and performance in office. In-depth study of party documents and platforms, party relations with the organisations of the postwar civil sector, as well as interviews with party officials and activists will shed light on the influence of war on electoral strategies, policy preferences, and recruitment methods of postwar political parties. And a combination of large-N research on the level of the region’s municipalities and a set of paired comparisons of several communities in the different postwar communities in the region will help expose the mechanisms through which war becomes embedded into postwar political competition and thus continues to exert its influence even decades after the violence has ended.
Projet ERC : BSMFLEET (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : University of Santiago de Compostela — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : USC
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499855.0 €

We know that the Standard Model (SM) of Particle Physics is not the ultimate theory of Nature. It misses a quantum description of gravity, it does not offer any explanation to the composition of Dark Matter, and the matter-antimatter unbalance of the Universe is predicted to be significantly smaller than what we actually see. Those are fundamental questions that still need an answer. Alternative models to SM exist, based on ideas such as SuperSymmetry or extra dimensions, and are currently being tested at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. But after the first run of the LHC the SM is yet unbeaten at accelerators, which imposes severe constraints in Physics beyond the SM (BSM). From this point, I see two further working directions: on one side, we must increase our precision in the previous measurements in order to access smaller BSM effects. On the other hand; we should attack the SM with a new fleet of observables sensitive to different BSM scenarios, and make sure that we are making full use of what the LHC offers to us. I propose to create a team at Universidade de Santiago de Compostela that will expand the use of LHCb beyond its original design, while also reinforcing the core LHCb analyses in which I played a leading role so far. LHCb has up to now collected world-leading samples of decays of b and c quarks. My proposal implies to use LHCb for collecting and analysing also world-leading samples of rare s quarks complementary to those of NA62. In the rare s decays the SM sources of Flavour Violation have a stronger suppression than anywhere else, and therefore those decays are excellent places to search for new Flavour Violating sources that otherwise would be hidden behind the SM contributions. It is very important to do this now, since we may not have a similar opportunity in years. In addition, the team will also exploit LHCb to search for μμ resonances predicted in models like NMSSM, and for which LHCb also offers a unique potential that must be used.

Mots-clés : lhcb,flavour physics,non minimal flavour violating new physics