Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : PROTOMAT (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Istituto di ricerca pediatrica citta della speranza — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Autres
Financement ERC de l'entité : 118750.0 €

The bottom-up construction of synthetic cells or protocells from inanimate molecules and materials is one of the grand challenges of our time. While research thus far has been focused on increasing the biochemical complexity individual protocells, this research proposal intends to pioneer the first scientific advancements towards the controlled assembly of protocell building blocks into forms of adaptive and self-regulating protocellular materials (PCMs) that can integrate with living cells and target their mechanochemical sensory pathways.  To achieve this, I am proposing to work at the interface of synthetic chemistry, materials science, microfluidics, and tissue engineering to address the following unprecedented aspects of PCM design and synthetic construction: (1) the engineering of PCMs with mechanical properties that mimic those of soft living tissues; (2) the engineering of PCMs with rudimentary adaptive and self-regulating higher-order behaviours; and (3) the development PCMs capable of interacting and integrating with living cells. I will start by developing the first experimental methodologies to assemble PCMs with a range of elastic moduli that mimic those of soft living tissues from protocells endowed with synthetic polymeric cytoskeletons of different composition. I will then engineer the first adaptive PCMs capable of autonomously converting environmental luminous stimuli into mechanical motions and reconfigurations that will self-regulate their endogenous enzymatic reactivity. Finally, I will develop the first forms of PCMs capable of delivering both mechanical and biochemical cues for living cell spreading, proliferation and differentiation in vitro.  Overall, the proposed work will pioneer new internationally leading science at the life/non-life interface that will generate transformative ideas in the field of bottom-up synthetic biology with profound fundamental and applied consequences, especially in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Mots-clés : protocell,prototissue,biomimetic material,protocellular material,bottom up synthetic biology,enzyme cascade,polymer network,mechanical properties of soft materials,tissue engineering
Projet ERC : SEMICYCLE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Conseil national de la recherche — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNR
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499286.0 €

Cardiometabolic disorders (CMD), a group of conditions that include cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, are characterised by dysfunction of glycaemic and/or lipid metabolism. Clinical manifestations, severity and progression are different between sexes, the underlying mechanisms of which are largely unknown. The poorer prognosis in women globally calls for an urgent need for better women’s tailored prevention and treatment strategies. Still, for an efficient personalised strategy, female-specific mechanisms have to be identified. The SEMICYCLE project will systematically investigate female’s sex hormones-microbiota interactions to unravel female-specific microbiota features regulating glycaemic and lipid metabolism in women during homeostasis and diseases. Findings of this research project will pinpoint key mechanisms useful to improve current prevention and diagnostic tools as well as therapeutic options of CMD. SEMICYCLE will follow up 300 healthy women during one menstrual cycle and longitudinal cross-omics data (five layers of information from host genome, gut microbiome, gut metabolome, vaginal microbiome, plasma proteome) will be generated, analysed and integrated with female sex hormones variations, lifestyle and diet, glycaemic and lipid phenotypes using state-of-the-art methodologies and computational approaches. Subsequently, mechanisms identified during homeostasis will be investigated for association with CMD onset and progression, using already existing cohorts totalling more than 10,000 samples. This research is based on my expertise and that of my research group in generating and analysing omics data in large data sets. Findings will reveal previously unknown microbiota regulators of CMD in women thus offering alternative routes for prevention, diagnosis and treatments in women, a necessary step for an efficient personalised medicine.

Mots-clés : sex specific mechanisms sex hormones gender medicine
Projet ERC : PhotoFreeze (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Université d'Angers — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Designing the materials of tomorrow requires the development of conceptually different synthetic methodology. Creating large conjugated molecular scaffolds often requires many synthetic steps, hindering their exploration and the discovery of new organic semiconductors. PhotoFreeze is a synthetic methodology that combines the best features of dynamic covalent chemistry and conventional covalent synthesis. With this novel chemical approach, a wide range of new functional materials will be developed, namely underrepresented electron-poor organic semiconductors, studied for their important optoelectronic properties. These materials have become essential to the development of organic electronic devices such as Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs), Organic Solar Cells (OSCs) or Organic Field Effect Transistors (OFETs) among others. The key advantage of PhotoFreeze is that a complex dynamic covalent library of nanographene-based polyimines in exchange can be quickly and irreversibly “frozen” by visible-light irradiation via photocyclization. Such reaction retains and even strengthens the electronic conjugation between the starting materials. This method holds a great promise in the development of a wide variety of imide-based complex conjugated molecular architectures. By varying the reactants stoichiometry, composition, geometry and reaction conditions, a specific target molecule can be prepared in a one pot-sequence. PhotoFreeze will be applied to synthesize various architectures including linear, helical, cyclic graphene nanoribbons, conjugated macrocycles and covalent organic framework. The methodology described here allows the synthesis of otherwise inaccessible or very tedious to prepare large and tuneable structures, and solves fundamental synthetic challenges. The proposed materials hold a great promise for novel high performances organic electronics and will be integrated into relevant devices, guiding the design of future n-type organic semiconductors.

Mots-clés : conjugated materials,n type organic semiconductors,perylenediimide,organic materials,polyaromatic hydrocarbons,dynamic covalent chemistry
Projet ERC : SPACETIME (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Entité participante : Fondation Jean-Jacques Laffont - Toulouse sciences économiques — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : JJL-TSE
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1101000.0 €

Policies often target one market: road taxes target commuting, agricultural subsidies target farming, and car taxes target the automobile market. Economists developed a rich toolbox to evaluate the effects of policy in the targeted market in a partial equilibrium analysis. However, policies are often long-lasting and massive in scale, affecting where economic activity occurs. The spatial distribution of activity matters in agriculture and transport because of the environmental externalities of land use, congestion, and pollution.  This proposal presents an econometric methodology to study the interaction between policy and the spatial distribution of economic activity. The proposal presents a collection of large-scale spatial data that combine individual choices with aggregate outcomes and proposes a methodology that connects partial equilibrium evaluation of policy with spatial general equilibrium models. The first project illustrates how we can use a combination of data on individual travel choices and aggregate outcomes on traffic equilibria to estimate a structural econometric bottleneck model of congestion. The second project presents a methodology to investigate how the Common Agricultural Policy and Natura 2000 affect land use in the European Union. The Common Agricultural Policy has provided income support to almost 10 million European farmers since 1962. Natura 2000 protects 17% of Europe's terrestrial landmass. Subsidies in one region affect farmers in another through the open EU agricultural market. The third project evaluates policy that affects transport mode costs, such as company car taxation. Company cars receive an implicit subsidy of 50% and represent half of the new vehicle sales in several EU countries. Such subsidy to commuting by private vehicles impacts the spatial distribution of workers and firms. The location choices and resulting commuting patterns drive the policy's carbon, congestion, and pollution externality effects.

Mots-clés : policy evaluation,structural econometric methods,spatial general equilibrium,congestion,agriculture,transport,automobiles,empirical industrial organization,environmental economics
Projet ERC : CHIC (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative B iology : from Genes and Genomes to S ystems
Entité participante : Institut Gustave Roussy — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IGR
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Clonal hematopoiesis (CH) is the expansion of somatically mutated hematopoietic stem cells. Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) occurs when CH is driven by mutations in myeloid driver genes in individuals without hematologic disorders. CHIP increases the risk of hematological malignancies and chronic inflammatory diseases. CHIP is also associated with a higher incidence of non-hematological malignancies, such as lung cancer. These associations underline the importance of CHIP in the development of both malignant and non-malignant diseases. Patients with cancer have higher prevalence of CHIP compared to the general population and are at risk of developing therapy-related myeloid neoplasms (t-MN). As the prognosis of t-MN patients is poor, identifying and managing cancer patients with CHIP at risk of developing t-MN is critical. Moreover, patients with solid tumors and CHIP have an excess mortality not fully explained by increased rates of hematologic or cardiovascular diseases. Thus, a knowledge gap remains in understanding the role of CHIP in cancer, both in solid tumor progression and as a precursor to high-risk t-MN. I propose to address key challenges in four interconnected areas of (1) early detection of CHIP, (2) systemic role of CHIP at the solid tumor-immune interface, (3) interception of CHIP evolution, and (4) precision diagnostics at progression to t-MN, using a multidisciplinary approach at the intersection of computational genomics, artificial intelligence, myeloid cell tumor biology, and precision oncology. I will develop tools for the early detection of CHIP during routine clinical care, elucidate the role of CH in tumor evolution, identify mediators of CHIP evolution towards t-MN, and define a novel molecular t-MN classification. This project has the potential to transform our understanding and management of CHIP in cancer.

Mots-clés : clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential,early detection,interception,tumor microenvironment,lung cancer,therapy related myeloid neoplasms
Projet ERC : Metabo3DC (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2406250.0 €

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a major global health problem with no approved treatments, and dire outcomes for patients. The pathogenesis of NAFLD is clearly linked to metabolic alterations, and is primarily characterized by excessive hepatic triglyceride content. Over time, metabolic dysfunction induces hepatic inflammation through mechanisms that remain poorly understood. This advanced disease stage, called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), significantly raises the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma, cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes. My recent work has helped demonstrate that: 1) changes in conventional dendritic cell (cDC) populations in liver are closely associated with the development and the resolution of NASH in humans, and 2) extracellular metabolites can modulate cDC cytokine production and responses by rewiring their intracellular metabolic programs. Together, these studies indicate that alterations of the local hepatic metabolite environment could affect cDC function and thereby drive NASH pathogenesis. cDCs coordinate innate and adaptative immunity through cytokine secretion and antigen presentation. However, their role in NAFLD pathophysiology not well defined. In this ambitious multidisciplinary project, my objective is to systematically dissect the immuno-metabolic programs and functions of hepatic cDC during NASH progression and regression. First, we will identify disease-associated cDC subpopulations and their intracellular metabolic programs. We will then determine whether these cDC subtypes associate with specific local metabolic microenvironments in the liver in relation to histological features of NAFLD. Finally, we will determine how metabolic manipulation of cDC affects their immune function in the context of NASH. The present proposal has the potential to radically transform our understanding of NASH pathophysiology by delineating the specific links between metabolic dysfunction and innate immunity in liver disease.

Mots-clés : immunometabolism
Projet ERC : QScope (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed Matter Physics
Entité participante : Université de technologie de Delft — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TU Delft
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Neurodegenerative diseases are incurable, progressive brain disorders associated with accumulation of aberrant protein aggregates with severe effects on movement and mental functioning. The mechanism leading to neurotoxicity is far from understood, due to our lack of insight into early processes. Recently, aberrant liquid-liquid phase separation has emerged as a new concept to explain protein aggregation in neurodegenerative disease. Here, I will investigate the biophysical basis of the formation of different material states of aggregates, by capitalizing on my expertise at the interface of single-molecule biophysics and quantitative, high-resolution imaging in cells.  I propose to address the following key questions, with the use of cellular models of Huntington’s Disease (HD) complemented with well-controlled in vitro experiments: How do the physico-chemical properties of protein variants and the cellular environment influence aggregation and toxicity? What role does phase separation play in Huntington’s disease? How does prion-like spreading of extracellular protein interfere with local protein assemblies in cells? HD is caused by a gene defect resulting in aggregation-prone huntingtin protein. The diverse sizes (nm-μm) and conformations of the aggregates pose a remarkable challenge, and multiple complementary approaches are needed to unravel their morphology and physico-chemical properties. I will develop multimodal AI-informed quantitative microscopy and functional nanoscopy to decipher how aggregates in neurodegenerative disease form and mature. Importantly, we will work without tags and exploit virtually stained quantitative phase imaging to assess mechanical properties and cell pathophysiology, therefore minimizing interference with aggregation processes. The QScope project is expected to elucidate the role of protein aggregation and phase transitions, relevant for a broad variety of diseases, and to establish new label-free and super-resolution imaging.

Mots-clés : super resolution imaging
Projet ERC : DISQOVER (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and Communication Engineering
Entité participante : Université de technologie de Delft — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TU Delft
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499858.0 €

Color centers are central to many quantum technologies, but today it takes years to understand whether a given color center makes a good qubit, and as a result we have discovered very few of them. I will develop an on-chip color center exploration platform that drastically accelerates qubit discovery. Color centers are defects in crystals, such as an atom of a given element substituting one of the crystal atoms. Color centers make good qubits by combining the long coherence of spins, the networking properties of photons, and the scaling of the solid state. For example, photons emitted from distant color centers were used to entangle their spins, advancing quantum communication and confirming the quantum mechanical nature of reality. However, today it takes years and many measurements involving multiple physical principles to assess whether a new color center fits a certain application. In addition, the number of potential candidates is vast, only bound by the number of combinations of atomic elements. This leaves an enormous potential unexplored, limiting our discovered qubits to a small subset with trade-offs in coherence, scalability, and connectivity. DISQOVER will allow unprecedented exploration of the vast search space of color centers, an impossible task for the current technology. This requires highly concerted innovation on tools, designs, methods, and protocols that combine traditionally separated fields. I will develop innovations in integrated photonics and mechanics, fields in which I am an expert, and combine them with local thermal control into an automated qubit discovery platform. With this, I will pursue qubits for quantum computing, transduction, sensing, and amplification. This will kick-start the field of application-specific qubits (ASQs) and transform the technological landscape, leading to breakthroughs in error correction for quantum computers and networks at scale, versatile quantum sensing, and lasing and amplification in silicon.

Mots-clés : photonic integrated circuits,color centers,microelectromechanical systems,quantum technologies,quantum photonics,silicon photonics
Projet ERC : EARS (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Materials Engineering
Entité participante : Université de technologie de Delft — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TU Delft
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2092095.0 €

Moore’s Law has dominated the trajectory of nanotechnology for the last half century; consistently pushing towards nanocomponents with decreasing size in x, y and z dimensions. It is widely predicted that Moore’s Law will eventually come to an end in 2025 when nanocomponents start to approach the size of individual atoms. Many wonder what kind of nanotechnology can we expect in the “post-Moore” world. Rather than asking how much smaller we can go, EARS will ask how big can we make nano-technology? Imagine we could manufacture extreme-aspect-ratio metamaterials which are only hundreds of atoms thick in z but extend out to meter scales in x and y. Even further, consider covering these meter-sized sheets in nanoscale patterning to give them exceptional material properties not found anywhere in nature or science.. Remarkably, these types of extreme-aspect-ratio metamaterials are increasingly at the heart of many future breakthrough initiatives ranging in functionalities from ultra-fast sails for space-exploration, to sensors that can detect the smallest fundamental forces of physics. EARS will combine my unique expertise in nanofabrication and high-precision optomechanics experiments to realize a cutting-edge platform that opens radical trajectories in unmanned space exploration. My novel approach will allow me to manufacture the highest aspect-ratio metamaterials ever produced and to reliably interface their dynamics with some of the most precise optical controls to date. EARS will herald a new frontier of nanotechnology that has the potential to revolutionize several breakthrough fields of science through metamaterials innovation.

Mots-clés : space exploration,nanotechnology,nanophotonics,propulsion
Projet ERC : HOMEPATH (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and R egeneration
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 283831.19 €

Mammalian cells sense and exert forces on their environment, and their responses to mechanical signals regulate their growth, motility, and behavior within tissues. However, little is known about the forces at play during microbial infections, and their impact on tissue homeostasis and disease progression. I recently found that binding of the extracellular bacterium Neisseria meningitidis (Nm) on the endothelium leads to the generation of large traction forces on the extracellular matrix. This is due to the formation of a new structure, that I called ancreopodia, linking the bacterial colony on the apical side of the host cell to the basal side and underlying substrate. I hence hypothesize that Nm induces long-range force transmission throughout the infected cells, leading to alterations in tissue function. In this project, I propose to dissect how host cell mechanics is affected by Nm infection, and how mechanical forces globally impact tissue barrier physiology in epithelia and endothelia. By developing quantitative tools to directly measure forces while imaging host cells during infection, both in vitro using 2D and 3D models of tissue barrier with increasing complexity and in vivo, I will: 1) identify the key molecular mechanisms involved in host cell structural remodeling and their regulation in space and time; 2) characterize the mechanics of the infected host tissue, using biophysical tools and theoretical approaches to link signaling to the forces involved, and 3) study the functional consequences of infection-induced mechanical imbalance on cell fate and host tissue integrity. This study has a double interest: to better understand the impact of mechanics in the process of infection, for the development of new therapeutic strategies, and to bring new fundamental knowledge on the mechanical homeostasis of tissue barriers, by integrating extracellular pathogens as new tools to shed light on complex feedbacks between cell architecture, mechanics, and function

Mots-clés : quantitative cell biology,bacterial infection,tissue barrier,neisseria meningitidis,type iv pili