Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : Host4Hypnozoites (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université Radboud de Nimègue — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : CO-PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 3697598.75 €

What?  Hypnozoites are dormant liver stage malaria parasites that can reactivate and cause repeated blood-stage infections without the bite of an infectious mosquito. We will, for the first time: - characterize the cellular environment contributing to dormancy at systems level (WP1) - explore the reactivation kinetic and tissue environment of hypnozoites within the natural host (WP2) - functionally characterize host & parasite factors governing dormancy or reactivation (WP3)  Why? - Dormancy and reactivation of hypnozoites is an unresolved biological mystery since decades - Dormant parasites are a major obstacle to the curative treatment of malaria  The challenge: Tracking the in vivo development and understanding the biology of these rare, quiescent parasites that normally reside inside the liver of the host  The solution: A synergistic, multidisciplinary investigation, which is only possible if we combine the unique resources and complementary expertise of three leading laboratories in: - Radiopharmaceutical chemistry for the development of dedicated Positron Emission Tomography tracers for non-invasive investigation of the parasites in situ, as well as to capture infected tissue samples for systems level investigations - Systems biology for simultaneous multi-omics profiling of the parasite and the host cell at single-cell resolution and in the spatial context to be validated by parasitological assays - Parasitology for functional investigation through genetic engineering and manipulation of the parasites in vitro and validation within the natural host  Anticipated project outcomes: - Detailed insights into the relapse characteristics of the parasite in vivo - Understanding how host and parasite factors collectively determine the fate of infection - Novel imaging, transfection and omics methods for malaria research and beyond - Opportunities for novel therapeutic strategies for awakening and killing these vicious pathogens

Mots-clés : relapsing malaria,dormancy,in vivo imaging,host pathogen interaction,liver,radiopharmaceutical chemistry,genetic micro manipulation,multi omics,pet tracers,epigenetics,translational repression
Projet ERC : POCOCOP (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université technologique de Dresde — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : CO-PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TU Dresden
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 3385000.0 €

The class P of polynomial-time computable computational problems is the most important and robust complexity class for the study of efficient computation. Answering what problems belong to P will lead to groundbreaking applications in science and society. Moreover, P is a relatively recent mathematical object and radically different from classical notions studied for centuries; thus, capturing it promises the discovery of new fundamental theorems in mathematics.  Our current understanding of P is limited; for instance, the P=NP millenium problem is wide open. There neither exists a uniform reduction technique, nor a single algorithmic scheme capturing the power of P, nor a description of P in purely logical terms. We intend to provide these in a context which is so rich and vast that it requires the unification of some of the most important techniques, and will enhance our general understanding of P.  Within the microcosm of finite-domain constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs), the recent resolution of the Feder-Vardi conjecture by Bulatov and by Zhuk provides a satisfactory picture of P. Our goal is a vast and uniform generalisation of this result in three directions: towards approximation via Promise CSPs, towards optimisation via Valued CSPs, and towards infinite domains via countably categorical CSPs and CSPs over numeric domains. In particular, our setting includes the linear programming problem as a numeric Valued CSP, the approximate graph coloring problem as a Promise CSP, and many problems from qualitative reasoning as infinite-domain CSPs. Our methods range from universal algebra, model theory, Ramsey theory, to complexity theory. Building on cross-connections between these extensions, we will provide a uniform description of P within this diverse and applicable universe, thus making a revolutionary leap in the resolution of the general problem.

Mots-clés : algorithms,computational complexity,finite model theory,universal algebra,model theory,ramsey theory,approximation,optimisation,constraint satisfaction problem
Projet ERC : SWIMS (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
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 : 4190208.75 €

SWIMS vision is to propose a bio-inspired paradigm change for the design and hardware of future smart wireless multimodal sensory systems that will operate with stochastic spikes, offering a breakthrough with unrivalled energy efficiency at system level, for event detections and communication. The scientific breakthroughs proposed here are sine qua non advancements for a sustainable deployment of billions of future Internet of Things nodes to support smart economy and society development, with large energy savings and limited impact on environment. The synergistic interaction of four complementary skilled PIs enables the realization of a radically-novel end-to-end stochastic analog spiking neuromorphic concept for SWIMS nodes, offering solutions to challenges of sensor spiking signal generation, processing and communication with disruptive innovations at all levels, inspired by the biological model of a small insect. SWIMS involves many beyond state-of-the-art scientific advancements from technology to system level to enable a neuromorphic architecture with i) as input neuron layer, new heterostructure spiking sensor arrays based on transition metal oxides/2D semiconductor, covering infrared, ultraviolet, acoustic and electromagnetic detections, ii) hidden layers in tiny spiking neural networks based on novel CMOS Fe-FET concepts capable of efficiently dealing with inherent stochastic noise when processing spiking signals on-chip, iii) a spiking emitter as output layer for event-driven wireless transmission using optimized spike modulation and encoding, and iv) a modelling framework embedding stochastic effects in task-based electronic system design and biologically inspired recurrent neural networks. The synergistic interaction will enable unique design and experimental validations of first of their kind event-driven demonstrators with optimized all spiking multi-modal sensor nodes and energy consumption more than 100x lower than existing state of the art.

Mots-clés : cmos,iot edge nodes,integrated circuits,ultra low power,phase change and ferroelectric devices,modulation and coding,non gaussian uncertainties,stochastic spiking sensors
Projet ERC : CASTLE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université de Turin — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 170406.25 €

Chirality is a key property of molecules important in many chemical and nearly all biological processes. Recent observations have shown that electron transport through chiral molecules attached to solid electrodes can induce high spin polarization even at room temperature. Electrons with their spin aligned parallel or antiparallel to the electron transfer displacement vector are preferentially transmitted depending on the chirality of the molecular system resulting in Chirality-Induced Spin Selectivity (CISS). The long-term vision of the CASTLE project is to transform the CISS effect into an enabling technology for quantum applications. This will be accomplished by achieving four key objectives. 1) The occurrence of CISS will be studied at the intramolecular level by photo-inducing rapid electron transfer within covalent donor-chiral spacer-acceptor molecules to generate long-lived radical pairs (RPs). 2) Direct detection of RP spin polarization will be performed using time-resolved and pulsed electron and nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. In addition, polarization transfer from one of the radicals comprising the spin-polarized RP to a stable molecular spin (Q) will be used to initialize the quantum state of Q, making it a good qubit for quantum applications, particularly sensing. 3) Quantum mechanical studies of the CISS effect will provide predictive models for molecular qubit design. 4) The CISS effect will be used to control, readout, and transfer information in prototypical devices embedding hybrid interfaces based on semiconducting or conducting substrates, thus dramatically advancing the use of molecular spins in quantum information technologies targeting high-temperature operation. These devices will be used also to prove molecule-based Quantum Error Correction. The knowledge acquired with CASTLE will impact a wide range of fields, including magnetless spintronics, dynamic nuclear polarization for NMR signal enhancement, catalysis, and light harvesting.

Mots-clés : chirality,electron transfer,molecular magnetism,spin selectivity,spintronics,supramolecular chemistry,coordination chemistry
Projet ERC : Custom-Made (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université de Turin — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2500000.0 €

The rising incidence of age-associated neurodegenerative diseases, due to increased life expectancy, poses a challenge to the brain's limited regenerative capabilities. Stem cell-based therapies offer promise for addressing crucial neuron loss, particularly in Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases (PD and HD). Ongoing first-generation stem cell trials, replacing damaged neurons with healthy ones, represent a notable advancement. However, their impact is constrained by a ‘one-cell-fits-all’ generic therapy that does not take in account the diverse clinical needs due to variations in disease etiology, stage, patient heterogeneity, and daily fluctuations in graft requirements. CUSTOM-MADE is a transformative initiative advancing knowledge and crafting a tailored portfolio of stem cell products for individual patients or patient subgroups, notably targeting PD and HD. Integrating stem cell technologies, genomics and bioengineering, CUSTOM-MADE develops rational graft composites of therapeutic neurons and complementary cells to meet the clinical needs of individual patients. Moving into preclinical animal models, the project refines graft connectivity and functional recovery post-transplantation. A groundbreaking leap involves modeling circuitry reconstruction in a fully humanized 3D in-vitro bioengineered system - the connectoids, allowing detailed studies at cellular and molecular levels for defining factors controlling correct and functional graft integration. For increased translatability, CUSTOM-MADE pioneers the generation of cell products whose activity can be self-regulated or tuned to the patients’ individual requirements. The project implements strategic measures to shield grafts from pathology and introduces the innovative concept of grafted cells exhibiting disease-modifying activity. In essence, CUSTOM-MADE drives the field toward customized stem-cell therapies for PD and HD, marking a paradigm shift in the treatment landscape of neurodegenerative diseases.

Mots-clés : connectoids,biosensors,chemogenetics,activity regulators,parkinson s disease,huntington s disease
Projet ERC : SKIN2DTRONICS (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Conseil supérieur de la recherche scientifique — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CSIC
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2266680.0 €

The goal of SKIN2DTRONICS is to demonstrate the large scale integration (LSI, transistor count larger than 1000) of soft and thin (skin-like) electronic devices on ultra-flexible substrates, capable of conformally adapting to any rough and curved surface. This vision will be realized by atomically thin two-dimensional materials (2DMs) that possess compelling properties for this application: high electronic performance, environmental stability, low toxicity and cytoxicity, and extreme resilience to mechanical deformations. With the increasing pressure towards ubiquitous electronics (wearables, Internet-of-Things, smart patches, etc.) it is urgent to develop electronics that can be easily integrated on the surface of everyday objects and, in the case of health monitoring applications, on a variety of rough biological surfaces. Today’s conformal electronics is mainly based on conformal sensors with flexible and stretchable electrodes interfaced to bulky silicon chips, responsible for processing. This approach is prone to mechanical failures, especially at the solderings, as the connection between the conformal and solid components remains very challenging. The research will rely on the complementary conjuncture of four fields: sensors, 2D-based electronics, flexible electronics and biomedical engineering that the PIs of the consortium bring, each of them recognized experts in their respective fields and with a valuable experience in leading ERC projects.

Mots-clés : conformable electronics,wearable systems,on skin electronics,ultra flexible circuits,two dimensional materials
Projet ERC : nilomorph (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université libre de Berlin — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 3166396.25 €

NILOMORPH sets out to explain how linguistic evolution took a highly unexpected turn in one family of languages spoken in East Africa. They have evolved a morphological system where multiple grammatical categories are expressed simultaneously within a single syllable, through subtle modulations of its phonological properties. For example, in the Dinka language the word tèm, meaning ‘to cut’, can be made to mean ‘she cuts it for someone’ by lengthening the vowel, changing the low tone to high, and pronouncing it with breathy voice quality: té̤ːm, and more than dozen other contrasts can be generated by similar means. A sin-gle monosyllabic word in language like Dinka attains a degree of information density unparalleled else-where in the languages of the world. Surprisingly, comparative evidence suggests that the West Nilotic lan-guages were once much more conventional, using suffixes to mark grammatical categories. As has hap-pened in many other languages, such as English, these suffixes were lost over time. But rather than simply disappearing, they were transformed into suprasegmental phonological properties pronounced concurrently with the word stem. The aim of NILOMORPH is to reconstruct this evolution. But because of the extreme rarity of this morphological type, we need to explain not just how it happened here, we also have to explain why it did not happen in other language families. It is therefore not enough just to retrace the history of linguistic forms. NILOMORPH proposes a transformative step in historical linguistics: the reconstruction not just of external features, but of the cognitive motivation behind them. This will be achieved through the synergy of three teams, DESCRIPTION, MORPHOLOGY and RECONSTRUCTION, employing a combination of field linguistics, acoustic analysis, experimental linguistics, computational simulation, typology, and the historical-comparative method.

Mots-clés : linguistic morphology,inflection,phonology,nilo saharan languages,africa,language documentation,agent based modelling,artificial language experiments,linguistic reconstruction,digital humanities
Projet ERC : CartoHostBug (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Laboratoire européen de biologie moléculaire — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : EMBL
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2083456.53 €

Microbiome-host crosstalk is crucial for gut homeostasis and its dysregulation is a hallmark of diseases such as colorectal cancer (CRC) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Despite its key relevance for a holistic understanding of the human superorganism and its (patho-)physiology, how local host-microbiome interactions form specific niches in the gut and how these niches function at the cellular and molecular level remains unexplored, mainly due to a lack of suitable technologies. To fill this gap, we propose to jointly reconstruct the host transcriptional and microbiome compositional landscape of the human gut across a large number of healthy individuals as well as IBD and CRC patients. For this, we will leverage a combination of novel spatial profiling technologies for unbiased transcriptome sequencing and microbiome profiling at single-cell resolution in situ. First, we will spatially delineate local niches formed of specific microbes and host cells. To dissect this complex crosstalk into specific interactions, we will secondly use in vitro and in vivo models to introduce perturbations either on the host or the microbiome side. Finally, we will integrate the resulting data to deconvolute host-microbiome circuits computationally and to predict functional niches, in particular host responses to pathogens of relevance in IBD and CRC. Interesting predictions will be tested in organoid and animal models. Developing a spatially resolved computational model of the gut ecosystem will allow us to predict early local events in disease onset; from these we will identify and validate prognostic IBD and CRC biomarkers for future clinical translation.  This work will revolutionize our understanding of intestinal host-microbiome interactions by adding a first-ever functionally resolved spatial dimension with clinical relevance for the future diagnosis and treatment of intestinal disorders.

Mots-clés : spatial transcriptomics spatial microbiome analysis host microbiome interactions mucosal immunology intestinal diseases colorectal cancer gut
Projet ERC : Green2Ice (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Université de Copenhague — Pays : Danemark — Rôle : CO-PI
Acronyme de l'entité : KU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 8493610.0 €

Green2Ice will investigate the deepest and oldest ice and basal sediments drilled from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS). Ice cores have been drilled the last 55 years, but the deepest ice containing basal materials has been preserved until now, and still holds undeciphered paleoclimatic messages. The breakthrough of Green2Ice is to develop and apply cutting edge dating methods on this unique sample collection and hence to reconstruct the age and the stability of the GrIS. A hypothesis to test is if the present GrIS formed at the time of the Mid Pleistocene Transition, 1,2 - 0.8 million years ago. One innovation of Green2Ice is to gain paleo-information of the past size of the GrIS to constrain future tipping points. This knowledge will reduce the uncertainty on estimates of future sea level rise. Green2Ice will bring together four PIs from three world leading institutions with complementary skills to lift this strongly interdisciplinary program. We will drill a replicate core at GRIP, to supplement the available material from five existing ice cores and ensure retrieval of sediments and rock material from beneath the GrIS summit. We will develop, improve and apply novel dating techniques (cosmogenic and radiogenic nuclides, OSL/IRSL, modeling of gas and isotope diffusion) to place constraints on past waxing and waning of the GrIS. State-of-the-art methodologies on fossil remains, organic matter, in situ produced and consumed greenhouse gases, and ancient bio-molecules will provide insights on the types of ecosystems and environmental conditions that emerged during ice-free conditions. Interpretation will include ice sheet modelling with data benchmarking to establish the climatic sensitivity of the GrIS. Earth system modelling and collaboration with the groups preparing the IPCC AR7 will bring the knowledge of the past into the future. The rare and unique basal ice and material can only be used once. This is the main high risk high gain component of Green2Ice.

Mots-clés : greenland ice sheet,mid pleistocene transition,ice free greenland,ecosystem,mass loss,sea level rise
Projet ERC : GlycanSwitch (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Synergy grants)
Entité participante : Leiden University Medical Center — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : CO-PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LUMC
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 5000000.0 €

Autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are often life-threatening disorders with increasing disability having a negative impact on patients’ quality of life. Mechanisms leading to the breach of tolerance in development of autoimmunity are still largely unknown. Protein glycosylation is an essential regulatory mechanism in the immune system. We recently demonstrated that N-glycosylation of the variable region (Fab) of autoantibodies is a hallmark of RA development and progression. We also demonstrated that autoantibodies acquire these Fab glycosylation signatures already many years before disease onset. We herein hypothesize that Fab glycosylation at the level of the B cell receptor is a key molecular switch promoting the selection, activation and proliferation of autoreactive B cells leading to the concomitant breach of immunotolerance. Within GlycanSwitch, we will map the Fab glycome of various types of RA autoantibodies and autoreactive B cells. We will study the factors and underlying cellular mechanisms that regulate Fab glycosylation of B cell receptors and autoantibodies. We will investigate the immunological effects of Fab glycosylation and the impact in B cells signalling and activation in the context of molecular and cellular interacting partners in the immune microenvironment. Finally, we will test in relevant mouse models how Fab glycosylation of autoantibodies and autoreactive B cells contributes to the breach of tolerance. We expect that the obtained insights into the role of glycans as key checkpoint for the selection of autoreactive B cells and the rise of autoimmunity will provide leads for targeted therapeutic interventions as well as rationales for the early detection of RA and autoimmune diseases in general. We foresee that the knowledge generated will allow us to embark on a targeted prevention clinical study in patients at risk for RA to turn off the GlycanSwitch leading to chronic RA.

Mots-clés : autoimmunity,tolerance