Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : THRON-SEC (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Leyde — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Under normal conditions, cells release proteins (secretome) to regulate fundamental processes like metabolism and immunity. Many diseases and their corresponding treatments involve alterations in the secretome and the cellular microenvironment. Understanding drug-induced changes in the secretome is vital for early assessment of drug efficacy, toxicity, and resistance development. We have developed a metabolic protein labeling technique based on bioorthogonal threonine analogues, THRONCAT, that offers sensitive and non-perturbing analysis of drug-induced changes in the cellular secretome. THRONCAT enables the identification and quantification of secreted proteins in response to drug treatment, even in sensitive cellular systems. We envision that Drug-Induced Secretome Profiling (DISP), holds promise for improving clinical and preclinical drug development by detecting specific signaling proteins and biomarkers early in the development process and validated secreted proteins may serve as biomarkers to assess treatment efficacy during drug development and clinical trials. In this proof of concept proposal we will validate the technical and commercial feasibility of a platform that allows the analysis of the cellular secretome upon drug treatment. THRON-SEC will: 1) Show that secretome profiling upon drug treatment allows the elucidation of a drugs efficacy and mechanism of action as well as early detection of toxicity and resistance markers; and 2) Perform IPR, market and business case analyses to ensure commercial feasibility and entry to market.
Projet ERC : StEnSo (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept 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 : 150000.0 €

The main goal of StEnSo is to explore a new concept of spatial light modulators based on strain engineering of two-dimensional semiconducting materials. Spatial light modulators allow for the creation of two-dimensional light patterns and have found many applications in photonics: image projection, holography, aberrations correction, laser surgery, optical tweezers, etc. These devices typically consist of an array of pixels that individually control the phase or amplitude of light passing through it or reflecting off it. In StEnSo I will exploit the large refractive index tunability of 2D semiconducting materials upon mechanical deformation, studied in my ERC StG 2D-TOPSENSE, to fabricate a new concept of spatial light modulator device.

Mots-clés : light modulation 2d materials strain engineering flat optics
Projet ERC : MycoSub (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Linz — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : JKU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Printed circuit boards are an indispensable technology present in all classes of modern electronics. Their flexible embodiments (flexPCBs) enable current and emerging form factors and drive the transition to human-centered applications. At the same time, PCBs are notoriously difficult to recycle and contribute majorly to the growth of electronic waste and an unsustainable use of resources. A paradigm change towards bioderived and biodegradable materials promises a remedy, however so far, no viable solution for sustainable (flex)PCBs exists. MycoSub takes on an entirely new approach of growing and refining fungal mycelium skins as environmentally friendly and entirely biodegradable, yet high performance substrate material for the manufacturing of flexPCBs. Building upon MycelioTronics, the first mycelium-based electronic circuits, we here aim at developing an industry-compatible process flow that seamlessly merges into established commercial procedures for rapid adoption of the technology. With facile post-processing steps that do not impede biodegradability, we will achieve a competitive flexible circuit board substrate with high thermal stability, high flexibility and low surface roughness. We aim to develop both conventional subtractive (etching) as well as fully sustainable additive manufacturing techniques for low-conductivity, soldering-compatible conducting traces. Such MycoSub-flexPCBs will ultimately provide unprecedented levels of sustainability through the combination of a biodegradable yet resilient substrate with efficient waste-minimizing, energy-saving workflows and re-use strategies for precious metals and electronic components. These endeavors will be accompanied by thorough material characterization, ensuring that MycoSub materials live up to the high requirements of the industry. Ultimately, MycoSub-flexPCB demoboards will showcase the potential of sustainable solutions for the broad ecosystem of flexible electronics.
Projet ERC : TI-uORFe (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HGF
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Therapy-induced neo-antigens represent a novel class of tumor-specific antigens that arise from therapeutic interventions such as chemotherapy and targeted therapies. These neo-antigens, resulting from genomic mutations, aberrant post-translational modifications, and dysregulated RNA splicing, are recognized by the immune system as foreign, prompting an immune response that bypasses central tolerance mechanisms. Despite advancements in next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics that facilitate the identification of these neo-antigens, distinguishing drug-induced neo-antigens from inherent tumor antigens remains a significant challenge. This proof-of-concept proposal aims to leverage therapy-induced neo-antigens to develop personalized cancer vaccines and immunotherapies, particularly targeting triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), where drug resistance is prevalent.  By utilizing ribosome profiling, we have identified non-canonical peptides translated from therapy-induced changes in cancer cells, which are presented by MHC-I molecules and recognized by T lymphocytes, leading to specific tumor cell killing. Our approach focuses on generating mRNA vaccines based on these neo-epitopes, with the goal of enhancing chemotherapy responses and overcoming drug resistance. The proposed research will address critical bottlenecks in neo-epitope therapy, including accurate identification of immunogenic neo-epitopes and validation of immunogenicity in preclinical models. Ultimately, this innovative strategy aims to improve therapeutic efficacy and patient outcomes in TNBC, offering a transformative approach to combat drug resistance and enhance survival rates.
Projet ERC : DeepSpacePULSE (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept 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 : 150000.0 €

The DeepSpacePULSE project aims at studying the viability of an autonomous Pulsar X-ray Navigation unit that will improve by an order of magnitude almost all aspects of previous similar systems, making these satellite positioning devices competitive in both the public and private space market. Pulsars are astrophysical objects, namely the final result of the supernova explosions of very massive stars. We have detected thus far about three thousand pulsars in our Galaxy, but we know this is only the tip of the iceberg of their entire population. Pulsars are perfect clocks with unprecedented stabilities, making them a perfect GPS system in space. The DeepSpacePULSE Pulsar Navigation System is expected to be an efficient, small and light navigation unit to be mounted in future space missions. This novel navigation technique has been recently tested on the International Space Station, and can be used within our own Solar System (reducing costs with respect to more standard positioning systems), but also for future deep-space navigation. Travelling in deep-space is currently limited by the required power to exchange information with Earth, in particular concerning the satellite positioning system and orbit determination. The first step for a future deep-space exploration, is to develop the technology that will allow any space mission to be able to guide the spacecraft autonomously. DeepSpacePULSE, using this ERC PoC Lump Sum, wants to perform a feasibility study for a new concept of an autonomous X-ray pulsar navigation system expected to weight about 10kg, be as big as a microwave oven, and using a new pulsar observation plan that will possibly permit to keep the satellite autonomous positioning stable for a few centuries.
Projet ERC : ENCANT (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept 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 : 130000.0 €

Current cancer research efforts are focused on obtaining targeted therapies, with greater precision, that lead to improved patient survival, with fewer adverse effects to ensure a better quality of life. ENCANT (nanoengineered particles for ENhanced CANcer radioTherapy) will contribute to this aim by developing new therapeutic agents based on biocompatible nanoparticles bearing high atomic number (Z) elements, which will enhance external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) effect on cancer tissue. This will allow the use of a lower radiation dose, consequently lowering adverse effects related to radiotherapy lack of specificity.  The physicochemical properties of the NPs can be rationally designed according to different needs. NPs will be functionalized to increase their blood circulation time and facilitate their accumulation in the tumoural tissue. NPs will be tested in vivo to describe toxicity ranges, targeting efficiency and their therapeutic effect with external beam radiotherapy using in vivo cancer models.  ENCANT will initially focus on high-Z NPs for prostate cancer (PC). Nevertheless, their adaptability should allow to use them for other tumour types, thus expanding their range of application. ENCANT aims to improve and expand oncology treatment options available to cancer patients thus providing them a more personalized treatment.

Mots-clés : nanoparticles biomedicine prostate cancer external beam radiation therapy ebrt radioenhancers
Projet ERC : RuCoPOC (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : École nationale supérieure de chimie de Paris - PSL — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ENS Chimie de Paris
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Nearly 250,000 women are diagnosed each year with ovarian cancer around the world, resulting in 140,000 deaths. High-grade epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the deadliest gynecologic cancer, ranking fifth overall in cancer deaths. The majority of women have widespread intra-abdominal disease at the time of diagnosis, and the 5-year survival rate for these women is only about 40% after receiving standard therapy. Currently, the standard first-line treatment for ovarian cancer consists of surgical cytoreduction and platinum-based chemotherapy. Although this approach has proven to be the most effective treatment to date, many ovarian cancers exhibit primary platinum resistance, and most patients develop secondary platinum resistance during the course of their disease. There is therefore a paucity of approved targeted therapies. Accordingly, effective novel therapies are needed to improve survival rates for patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer, especially in its advanced stages and in the setting of platinum resistance. The phenomenal success of cisplatin, oxaliplatin and carboplatin has boosted the research directed at novel metal-based anticancer drugs. My group has embarked a few years ago into a program to thoroughly investigate Ru compounds as anticancer drug candidates. However, one serious problem of metal-based drugs is often their intrinsic toxicity. To tackle this issue and circumvent these limitations, macromolecular delivery systems can be used to improve the potential of the respective anticancer ruthenium complexes. During the frame of the ERC consolidator grant PhotoMetMed, my group could demonstrate that an innovative drug-initiated polymerization methodology could be used to tackle this problem. In this proposal, to further demonstrate that this technology could be used on human, the in vivo efficacy of this system will be validated in several in ovarian cancer Patient-Derived Xenografts (PDXs) models.
Projet ERC : MULTIDOOR (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université Bar-Ilan — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : BIU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

MultiDoor is a digital platform based on conflict resolution and machine learning expertise to address the comprehensive needs of litigants and recommend their best way forward to resolve their disputes. At present, litigants attempting to navigate through the civil justice system end up drifting through an incoherent, opaque process generally resulting in some form of reluctant compromise. While court systems worldwide are investing much effort to increase efficiency, a human-centred approach, which takes into account litigants' needs, interests and emotions, is lacking. MultiDoor employs an innovative intake screening recommendation system to integrate each litigant's (or potential litigant's) specific needs, interests and emotions, the features of the case, and the predicted case trajectory in the legal system, resulting in a diagnostic recommendation (e.g., mediation, arbitration, adjudication, out-of-the-box solutions). We describe the activities needed to develop a beta version of MultiDoor, including conceptual framing and validation. The activities include a crowdsourcing experiment to accumulate data on users’ satisfaction with conflict resolution-oriented processing of their disputes; developing forecasting models for user satisfaction; and developing a machine-learning based recommendation system. MultiDoor’s benefits include: 1) developing a new domain of conflict resolution machine learning via collaboration among data scientists and legal and conflict resolution experts; 2) advancing a personalized conflict resolution-oriented response to disputes, including to small non-litigable disputes; 3) promoting public trust and social wellbeing by ensuring that parties – including those from disenfranchised sectors – are informed and supported to self-determine how to resolve their disputes; 4) answering the current drawbacks of Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) systems, which focus mostly on legal issues rather than on the interests of the parties.
Projet ERC : MULTIBRIDGE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Rome « La Sapienza » — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 100000.0 €

The project aims at a proof-of-concept demonstration of a novel technology, enabling a substantial extension of the reach of unrepeatered fiber optic communication links. MULTIBRIDGE will permit to cross the ultimate frontier of high-capacity transmission systems, by introducing a new method for the amplification of multiple optical signals, that simultaneously propagate in long-haul, unrepeatered transmission systems based on multimode optical fibers. This will lead to a breakthrough distance increase of high capacity, mode-division multiplexed, unrepeatered optical systems. Today, fiber optics links based on singlemode fibers need the periodic insertion of devices for lumped (erbium-doped fiber amplifiers, EDFA) or distributed (Raman pump) optical amplification. Amplifiers dramatically limit the number of fibers that it is possible to insert into a single submarine or terrestrial cable. Unrepeatered optical systems based on singlemode fibers cannot extend their reach over more than 300 km, because of the limited amount of optical power that can be coupled into the fiber ends. In the MULTIBRIDGE approach, both individual signals and pump radiation are coupled into separate modes of a multimode fiber by using mode-division multiplexers. Raman amplification of signals is obtained by inter-modal stimulated Raman scattering, so that multiple processes of Raman amplification act simultaneously, thus increasing the amplification efficiency. Mode-division multiplexing is naturally compatible with the proposed technology, permitting the simultaneous transmission of multiple high-speed optical tributaries. Multimode optical fibers may carry several tens of Watt of optical pump and signal power, thus permitting the extension of unrepeatered fiber links well above the 300 km limit of single-mode systems, as well as the deployment of long-haul systems with hundreds of fibers into a single submarine/terrestrial cable.
Projet ERC : CELLO (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept 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 : 150000.0 €

Improper recycling of plastics leads to their degradation in the environment, resulting in smaller pieces of plastics that are harmful for the life on the planet. Microplastics are also intentionally included in many products as whitening agents, to produce white appearance in many personal care products and contribute to the microplastic pollution. In this proposal, we will provide the industry with viable alternatives to substitute current opacifying agents that follow European regulations. In particular, we will propose the use of cellulose, earth’s most abundant biopolymer which is also bioresorbable. To this end, we will exploit our expertise in photonic architectures to engineer scattering inks from nanocellulosic and seaweed materials. In addition, we will also expand the range of applications of cellulose-derived thin films through an inexpensive and scalable patterning process that provides optical functionality to these membranes. The development of smart paper films with different sensing or anti-reflection functionalities will serve to illustrate the many hidden talents of this biomaterial.
Projet ERC : PRO-MOM (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université Bar-Ilan — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : BIU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Microbial dysbiosis can lead to behavioral changes including aggressive behavior. Mice treated with antibiotics exhibit increased aggression, as do offspring of mothers given antibiotics only during pregnancy or alternatively only when nursing. Promising results from our lab in flies and mice support our hypothesis that such behaviors are partially affected by gut bacteria and associated metabolic compounds. Pregnancy is associated with reduced immune function and women receive antibiotics during this period for a myriad of reasons. Preclinical trials and clinical research suggest strong effects of these treatments on offspring. A postbiotic to be taken daily, in a manner similar to prenatal vitamins, following antibiotic use during pregnancy and breastfeeding can restore microbiota form and function, towards alleviating changes in offspring behavior. Throughout our ERC-funded research, BEHAVIOME, our approach to exploring the innovation potential of our research is a stepwise process. A direct result of this process was the identification of the ERC Proof of Concept as a viable route to defining the early commercialisation steps, and obtaining internal support to develop and implement the project. Within PRO-MOM, we aim to complete two critical objectives: significant progress on technology development (POC demonstration, in vivo pilot data), and achieving business readiness (market research, business plan, end-user engagement). The outcome of the ERC POC will enable us to take the last step pre-commercialisation, developing market readiness. For commercialization, our plan is to set up a spin-off company that will develop several postbiotic leads, either through funding raised through venture capital, or co-development with other larger companies in the field. With PRO-MOM we will develop a post-antibiotic supplement that promotes maternal-neonatal microbiota restructuring and reduces behavioral disturbances in the critical first 1000 days of life.
Projet ERC : SwingBots (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR) — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : DLR
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 65333.0 €

The SwingBots project is about constructing energy-efficient industrial robots. In our ongoing ERC-funded project, M-Runners, we developed new theoretical foundations and technological solutions for realizing repetitive robot motions mechanically, by nonlinear resonance. We now want to leverage this knowledge to build a robot where most robot motions are generated by a tuned interplay between moving masses of the robot links and elastic elements instead of purely relying on electric motors. This concept is especially beneficial for repetitive or close-to-repetitive motions as often encountered in engineering and industry. As a prominent example, we look at pick-and-place applications. By focusing on use-case identification, market research, and building a prototype with commercial viability, the SwingBots project aims to take the first steps towards commercialization, which is bolstered by the protection of several granted patents. The better the mechanical resonance matches the motions required for the applications, the less the actuators need to do - and the higher the energy efficiency. Besides efficiency, the approach promises to increase safety in human-robot interaction and more silent, robust, and cheaper robots.