Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : microKIc (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 297395.0 €

The resistance to crack propagation is undoubtedly one of the most important properties of structural materials. However, our current mechanistic understanding of the fracture processes in typical semi-brittle materials like steels, refractory metals or semiconductors is not sufficiently advanced to predict the fracture toughness KIc and its dependence on the microstructure, temperature and strain rate. Therefore, KIc is commonly regarded as a phenomenological material parameter for fracture mechanics models that require experimental calibration. The aim of microKIc is to study fracture in model materials in order to gain a detailed understanding of the microscopic crack-tip processes during fracture initiation, propagation and arrest, and to systematically study the interactions of cracks with constituents of the microstructure like dislocations, voids, precipitates and grain boundaries. To this end, we will perform fully 3D, large-scale atomistic simulations on cracks in bcc-based materials (W, NiAl) with varying crack orientation, crack front quality, and in the presence of dislocations and microstructural obstacles. The obtained criteria for crack advance and dislocation nucleation at crack tips will be implemented in a coupled finite element - discrete dislocation dynamics code, which will allow for the first time a fully 3D study of fracture and crack-tip plasticity at the mesoscale. The simulations will be compared to in-situ micro-mechanical tests on well-characterized fracture specimens produced by focused ion beam milling. The ultimate goal of microKIc is to use this experimentally validated multiscale modelling framework to develop a microstructure-sensitive, physics-based micromechanical model of the fracture toughness, which will be tested against macroscopic fracture experiments. Such predictive models are crucial for the development of new failure-resistant materials and for improved design guidelines for safety-relevant structures and components.

Mots-clés : fracture,microstructure property relationships,multiscale modelling,atomistic simulation,discrete dislocation dynamics,micromechanical testing,micromechancial model,brittle ductile,transition
Projet ERC : EvoStruc (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : University of Edinburgh — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1826984.0 €

The rise in bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotic treatment poses a major global health challenge. Addressing this challenge is not just a clinical issue: understanding bacterial resistance evolution calls for an interdisciplinary approach, in which the development of new physics, in coordination with biology, chemistry and engineering, has a central role to play. In particular, statistical physics, to predict the stochastic emergence of drug-resistant mutants, must be integrated with soft matter and chemical physics, to understand the spatial organization of the bacterial populations within which this happens. Bacterial infections are very often spatially heterogeneous. This is known to influence the outcome of antibiotic treatment – for example bacterial biofilms, which form on the surfaces of medical implants, are notoriously hard to remove. However, much less attention has been paid to the role of spatial structure in the evolution of drug resistance, i.e. the emergence and spread of genetically drug-resistant bacterial strains. I will lead a research programme which will for the first time uncover the two-way link between the emergence of spatial structure in bacterial multicellular assemblies and the evolution of drug resistance. The programme builds on my current theoretical, simulation and experimental work. I will first determine the basic principles of evolution in drug gradients using theoretical models, combined with experiments in a controlled, 1D geometry. I will then explore how these principles translate to the more realistic scenario of bacterial biofilms, where spatial structure and drug gradients are emergent properties, using advanced computer simulation methods and both confocal microscopy and evolution experiments. In the final part of the programme, I will use these insights to reveal optimization principles for the design of evolution-resistant surface coatings for applications in medical devices.

Mots-clés : bacterial populations,antibiotic resistance,multicellular self assembly
Projet ERC : ECOSTRAT (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : University of Basel — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1993191.0 €

The rise of multidrug-resistant bacteria limits the options to treat critically ill patients. In 2015, Escherichia coli producing Extended Spectrum β-Lactamases (ESBL) were the leading cause of death attributable to antibiotic resistant bacteria in Europe. The failure to address these infections using standard antibiotherapy calls for better understanding of how these bacteria evolve in order to develop new treatments. Presence of resistance and virulence genes correlates with high prevalence in ESBL clones. Since the intestinal tract of mammals represents a major ecological niche for E. coli, gut colonization ability must have predisposed certain clones to evolutionary success during the antibiotic era. In particular, competition against the gut microbiota should select for colonization factors that predate the acquisition of resistance. To test this hypothesis, we will compare strategies for gut colonization in ESBL clones of different prevalence in absence of antibiotics. Using mice, we will be able to modulate selective pressures exerted by the intestinal microbiota. We will compare gut colonization factors in ESBL clones by performing parallel high-throughput genetic screening in conventional mice (aim 1). We will analyze adaptability and the stability of resistance and virulence genes during long-term colonization (aim 2). Subsequent competitions in gnotobiotic mice harboring permissive microbiota will allow us to deduce functions needed for colonization in the presence of a competitive microbiota. In aim 3, we will measure the impact of competitors transmitted from cohabitant to infected mice on the duration of ESBL E. coli carriage and assess potential synergies with the adaptive immunity in vaccinated hosts. Overall, we will unravel with unprecedented depth the general principles of intestinal colonization in ESBL E. coli, shed new light on the global success of prevalent clones and conceptualize robust antibiotic-free competition-based treatments.

Mots-clés : gut microbiota,vaccines,transmission,horizontal gene transfers
Projet ERC : SPOOC (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inria
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1903500.0 €

The rise of the Internet and the ubiquity of electronic devices has deeply changed our way of life. Many face to face and paper transactions have nowadays digital counterparts: home banking, e- commerce, e-voting, etc. The security of such transactions is ensured by the means of cryptographic protocols. While historically the main goals of protocols were to ensure confidentiality and authentication the situation has changed. The ability of people to stay connected constantly combined with ill-conceived systems seriously threatens people’s privacy. E-voting protocols need to guarantee privacy of votes, while ensuring transparency of the voting process; RFID and mobile telephone protocols have to guarantee that people cannot be traced. Moreover due to viruses and malware, personal computers and mobile phones must not be considered anymore to be trustworthy; yet they have to be used to execute protocols that need to achieve security goals. To detect flaws, prove the security of protocols and propose new design principles the Spooc project will develop solid foundations and practical tools to analyze and formally prove security properties that ensure the privacy of users as well as techniques for executing protocols on untrusted platforms. We will - develop foundations and practical tools for specifying and formally verifying new security properties, in particular privacy properties; - develop techniques for the design and automated analysis of protocols that have to be executed on untrusted platforms; - apply these methods in particular to novel e-voting protocols, which aim at guaranteeing strong security guarantees without need to trust the voter client software. The Spooc project will significantly advance formal verification of security protocols and contribute to the development of a rich framework that provides techniques and tools to analyze and design security protocols guaranteeing user’s privacy and relaxing trust assumptions on the execution platforms.

Mots-clés : formal verification,security protocols
Projet ERC : ImmunoBile (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Université de Lille — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1724306.25 €

The role of chronic inflammation in obesity, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases is increasingly recognized. Bile acids (BA), synthesized in the liver and modified by the gut flora, facilitate lipid absorption in the intestine. BA modulate lipid and glucose homeostasis by activating the nuclear receptor FXR and the GPCR TGR5. Intriguingly, peripheral BA concentrations are elevated in type 2 diabetes (T2D) and FXR mediates the beneficial metabolic response to gastric bypass in mice. The immune system plays an important role in the cross-talk with metabolic tissues, such as liver, intestine and adipose tissues. However, whether BA modulate immune cell function is unknown. Our unpublished results identifying FXR and TGR5 expression in lymphoid cells, prompt us to study their role in the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism through immune cell modulation. Using reporter mice and specific ligands, we will characterize the immune cells expressing active FXR and TGR5. We will determine their role in metabolism and inflammation by immune cell-specific gene inactivation in models of obesity, T2D and elevated peripheral blood BA concentrations. Mass cytometry, cell sorting and single cell transcriptomic analysis will allow the identification of gene networks regulated by BA and their receptors. As microbiota generate biologically active secondary BA, we will assess the impact of microbiota depletion and subsequent BA acid pool modifications on immune cell populations. Translational studies in humans with altered BA metabolism and pharmacological treatment with anti-diabetic BA sequestrants will allow assessment of alterations in immune functions. This project aims to identify an hitherto unexplored role of BA through modulation of the immune system on T2D, NAFLD and dyslipidemia. Success of the project critically depends on an integrative approach uniquely undertaken in my laboratory through its unique multidisciplinary expertise in basic and translational biology.

Mots-clés : bile acid,nuclear receptors,inflammation,lymphocytes,type 2 diabetes,obesity,liver diseases
Projet ERC : ImmunoBile (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Institut Pasteur de Lille — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 250000.0 €

The role of chronic inflammation in obesity, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases is increasingly recognized. Bile acids (BA), synthesized in the liver and modified by the gut flora, facilitate lipid absorption in the intestine. BA modulate lipid and glucose homeostasis by activating the nuclear receptor FXR and the GPCR TGR5. Intriguingly, peripheral BA concentrations are elevated in type 2 diabetes (T2D) and FXR mediates the beneficial metabolic response to gastric bypass in mice. The immune system plays an important role in the cross-talk with metabolic tissues, such as liver, intestine and adipose tissues. However, whether BA modulate immune cell function is unknown. Our unpublished results identifying FXR and TGR5 expression in lymphoid cells, prompt us to study their role in the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism through immune cell modulation. Using reporter mice and specific ligands, we will characterize the immune cells expressing active FXR and TGR5. We will determine their role in metabolism and inflammation by immune cell-specific gene inactivation in models of obesity, T2D and elevated peripheral blood BA concentrations. Mass cytometry, cell sorting and single cell transcriptomic analysis will allow the identification of gene networks regulated by BA and their receptors. As microbiota generate biologically active secondary BA, we will assess the impact of microbiota depletion and subsequent BA acid pool modifications on immune cell populations. Translational studies in humans with altered BA metabolism and pharmacological treatment with anti-diabetic BA sequestrants will allow assessment of alterations in immune functions. This project aims to identify an hitherto unexplored role of BA through modulation of the immune system on T2D, NAFLD and dyslipidemia. Success of the project critically depends on an integrative approach uniquely undertaken in my laboratory through its unique multidisciplinary expertise in basic and translational biology.

Mots-clés : bile acid,nuclear receptors,inflammation,lymphocytes,type 2 diabetes,obesity,liver diseases
Projet ERC : HIDDEN FOODS (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : University of Cambridge — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : U. Cambridge
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 127461.07 €

The role of plant foods among prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies remains one of the major issues of World Prehistory. Recovering evidence for the use of plants in ancient forager diets presents many difficulties due to the low rate of survival of organic remains. More recently, developments of various methodological tools and analytical procedures for studying the importance of plant foods in the past have started to provide means for reaching realistic estimates about the role of plant foods in early prehistoric diets. The HIDDEN FOODS project aims to further develop a suite of methodological and experimental approaches in order to (a) obtain systematic and incontrovertible evidence about the importance of plant foods in European early prehistory; (b) study causal links between plant foods processing and technological changes in artefact production; and (c) assess the role of plant foods for prehistoric hunter-gatherers’ health status. The project will take a comparative, novel and integrated approach and investigate the importance of plant foods by studying three different categories of archaeological materials: ground stone tools, macro-botanical remains and human skeletal remains. The main methodological approaches involve (a) use-wear traces analysis; (b) starch identification; (c) parenchyma tissue analysis in macro-botanical remains recovered from archaeological sites; and, (d) study of dental pathologies related to plant foods on ancient human remains. The project will examine direct and indirect evidence of plant foods for Palaeolithic (~40,000–11,600 calibrated [henceforth cal] before present [henceforth BP]) and Mesolithic (~11,600–7900 cal BP) societies of southeast Europe and Italy. The integrated approach proposed by HIDDEN FOODS for identifying the role and consequences of plant foods’ consumption in ancient foragers’ diet, technological change and health status is, to date, unprecedented in the studies of European prehistoric hunter-gatherers.
Projet ERC : AArteMIS (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Institut Mines-Télécom — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : IMT
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 426368.76 €

The rupture of an Aortic Aneurysm (AA), which is often lethal, is a mechanical phenomenon that occurs when the wall stress state exceeds the local strength of the tissue. Our current understanding of arterial rupture mechanisms is poor, and the physics taking place at the microscopic scale in these collagenous structures remains an open area of research. Understanding, modelling, and quantifying the micro-mechanisms which drive the mechanical response of such tissue and locally trigger rupture represents the most challenging and promising pathway towards predictive diagnosis and personalized care of AA. The PI's group was recently able to detect, in advance, at the macro-scale, rupture-prone areas in bulging arterial tissues. The next step is to get into the details of the arterial microstructure to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. Through the achievements of AArteMIS, the local mechanical state of the fibrous microstructure of the tissue, especially close to its rupture state, will be quantitatively analyzed from multi-photon confocal microscopy and numerically reconstructed to establish quantitative micro-scale rupture criteria. AArteMIS will also address developing micro-macro models which are based on the collected quantitative data. The entire project will be completed through collaboration with medical doctors and engineers, experts in all required fields for the success of AArteMIS. AArteMIS is expected to open longed-for pathways for research in soft tissue mechanobiology which focuses on cell environment and to enable essential clinical applications for the quantitative assessment of AA rupture risk. It will significantly contribute to understanding fatal vascular events and improving cardiovascular treatments. It will provide a tremendous source of data and inspiration for subsequent applications and research by answering the most fundamental questions on AA rupture behaviour enabling ground-breaking clinical changes to take place.

Mots-clés : biomechanics,aneurysm,microstructure analysis,rupture criteria,numerical reconstruction,multiscale modeling
Projet ERC : AArteMIS (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : ARMINES — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ARMINES
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 950665.0 €

The rupture of an Aortic Aneurysm (AA), which is often lethal, is a mechanical phenomenon that occurs when the wall stress state exceeds the local strength of the tissue. Our current understanding of arterial rupture mechanisms is poor, and the physics taking place at the microscopic scale in these collagenous structures remains an open area of research. Understanding, modelling, and quantifying the micro-mechanisms which drive the mechanical response of such tissue and locally trigger rupture represents the most challenging and promising pathway towards predictive diagnosis and personalized care of AA. The PI's group was recently able to detect, in advance, at the macro-scale, rupture-prone areas in bulging arterial tissues. The next step is to get into the details of the arterial microstructure to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. Through the achievements of AArteMIS, the local mechanical state of the fibrous microstructure of the tissue, especially close to its rupture state, will be quantitatively analyzed from multi-photon confocal microscopy and numerically reconstructed to establish quantitative micro-scale rupture criteria. AArteMIS will also address developing micro-macro models which are based on the collected quantitative data. The entire project will be completed through collaboration with medical doctors and engineers, experts in all required fields for the success of AArteMIS. AArteMIS is expected to open longed-for pathways for research in soft tissue mechanobiology which focuses on cell environment and to enable essential clinical applications for the quantitative assessment of AA rupture risk. It will significantly contribute to understanding fatal vascular events and improving cardiovascular treatments. It will provide a tremendous source of data and inspiration for subsequent applications and research by answering the most fundamental questions on AA rupture behaviour enabling ground-breaking clinical changes to take place.

Mots-clés : biomechanics,aneurysm,microstructure analysis,rupture criteria,numerical reconstruction,multiscale modeling
Projet ERC : AMPS (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
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 : 1959968.0 €

The scholarly texts of ancient Mesopotamia in the first millennium BCE, specifically commentaries written in Akkadian on cuneiform tablets, were the work of priests who also performed cultic activities in the temple. The proposed project seeks to demonstrate how these scholarly and cultic activities were interrelated and how they shaped the self-identity of the priestly-scholarly community that was in charge of both. The project thus aims to bridge the gap between the study of intellectual history and the study of priesthood in ancient Mesopotamia, which are treated as two separate fields in Assyriology. The project innovatively treats Mesopotamian scholarship and Mesopotamian priesthood as complementary aspects of one phenomenon: “scholasticism.” This concept, which originally referred to the scholarly activities of Catholic priests in the Middle Ages, has recently been applied to the study of non-European communities of priestly scholars with great success. Using the scholastic model to study the priestly-scholarly community of ancient Mesopotamia will reveal the intricate connections between the ritual and textual activities of this community and illuminate the holistic and systematic worldview of its members. Combining traditional philology and the comparative approach, the project investigates how, like other scholastic communities, the scholar-priests of ancient Mesopotamia “internalized” the liturgical texts they studied and performed, how they attributed authority to these texts, and how their study of the liturgical corpus generated new exegetical texts. Key points of comparison between the scholar-priests of ancient Mesopotamia and various ancient and contemporary scholastic communities include their interest in language, textual authority, commentaries, and rituals. By applying the comparative method to the study of cuneiform tablets, the project aims to reconstruct the social, religious, and intellectual reality in which they were written.

Mots-clés : scholasticism,mesopotamia,religion,priests,ritual,commentaries,interpretation,cuneiform,hermeneutics,sumerian,akkadian