Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : TopFront (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : Weizmann Institute of Science — Pays : Israël — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 36333.73 €

Topological phases arise from a fascinating interplay between quantum mechanics and many-body physics. They exhibit an abundance of extraordinary properties, such as protected edge and surface modes, exotic particle statistics, and non-local correlations. These make them not only scientifically stimulating, but also appealing for ground-breaking future applications, such as quantum computing using non-Abelian systems. Their subtle nature often renders them hard to study theoretically, and even more so to detect and control experimentally. To date, only a small subset of them has been accessed in experiments. The purpose of this research program is to expand the scope of possible realizations of topological quantum matter, and to develop methods to detect, control and manipulate them. Two main research directions will be considered. The first will focus on utilizing defects to synthesize new non-Abelian systems. We will study the mathematical theory describing the defects, starting from microscopic considerations and aiming to achieve a unifying mathematical framework. New non-Abelian phases arising in networks of coupled defects will be explored. Protocols for controlling non-Abelian anyons and zero modes will be developed and optimized, aiming to minimize errors arising from imperfections in physical implementations. The second direction will explore the exciting possibility of inducing topological behaviour in non-equilibrium systems. Periodically driven systems, such as matter interacting with light, can exhibit anomalous topological phenomena with no analogue in static systems, which we intend to reveal and classify. We will study the unique many body physics arising from the interplay of topological Bloch-Floquet band structures, inter-particle interactions, and coupling to the environment. Finally, for both research directions we will consider possible experimental realizations in a variety of solid state and cold atom systems along with designated probes.

Mots-clés : topological phases,topological insulators and superconductors,topological quantum computation,dynamics of quantum many body systems
Projet ERC : CASTLES (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : University of Cologne — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 475310.0 €

Topology provides mathematical tools to sort objects according to global properties regardless of local details, and manifests itself in various fields of physics. In solid-state physics, specific topological properties of the band structure, such as a band inversion, can for example robustly enforce the appearance of spin-polarized conducting states at the boundaries of the material, while its bulk remains insulating. The boundary states of these ‘topological insulators’ in fact provide a support system to encode information non-locally in ‘topological quantum bits’ robust to local perturbations. The emerging ‘topological quantum computation’ is as such an envisioned solution to decoherence problems in the realization of quantum computers. Despite immense theoretical and experimental efforts, the rise of these new materials has however been hampered by strong difficulties to observe robust and clear signatures of their predicted properties such as spin-polarization or perfect conductance. These challenges strongly motivate my proposal to study two-dimensional topological insulators, and in particular explore the unknown dynamics of their topological edge states in normal and superconducting regimes. First it is possible to capture information both on charge and spin dynamics, and more clearly highlight the basic properties of topological edge states. Second, the dynamics reveals the effects of Coulomb interactions, an unexplored aspect that may explain the fragility of topological edge states. Finally, it enables the manipulation and characterization of quantum states on short time scales, relevant to quantum information processing. This project relies on the powerful toolbox offered by radiofrequency and current-correlations techniques and promises to open a new field of dynamical explorations of topological materials.

Mots-clés : topological insulators,radiofrequency transport
Projet ERC : TotipotentZygotChrom (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Cellular, Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Entité participante : Austrian Academy of Sciences — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : OAW
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 444745.0 €

Totipotency, the developmental potential of a cell to give rise to all cell types, is naturally achieved when differentiated egg and sperm fuse to form the one-cell zygote. How chromatin is epigenetically reprogrammed to totipotency within hours after fertilisation remains a central question in biology. We aim to address this by investigating the mechanisms of reprogramming and the spatial reorganisation of chromatin in mammalian zygotes. Our interdisciplinary approach combines mechanistic cell biology with genetics and genomics to understand how chromatin reorganisation promotes totipotency and to identify key regulators of this process in zygotes. Molecular insights into reprogramming to totipotency are crucial to understand the essential zygotic stage of sexually reproducing species. A better understanding of how cells naturally reprogram chromatin to totipotency, a state upstream of pluripotency, has the potential to improve induced reprogramming technology and revolutionize regenerative medicine. Our aim is to understand how chromatin is reprogrammed to totipotency. To reach this ambitious goal: 1) We will discover new general concepts of genome organization, as well as reprogramming-specific aspects, by capitalising on our recently developed single-nucleus Hi-C method to dissect spatial reorganisation of chromatin in zygotes. We will investigate the relationship between chromatin reorganisation and transcription. 2) We will uncover mechanisms of zygotic reprogramming by elucidating the loci and factors that support active DNA demethylation during reprogramming of the paternal genome. 3) We will illuminate the origins and contributions of the oocyte since the factors responsible for reprogramming likely reside as proteins or RNA in the unfertilized egg. Overall, these studies will provide novel insights into how chromatin is reprogrammed and spatially reorganised towards a totipotent state that facilitates zygotic genome activation.

Mots-clés : chromatin organization,totipotency,epigenetic reprogramming
Projet ERC : INTERPLASTIC (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : University of Haifa — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2597700.0 €

Traditionally, brain plasticity was viewed as a change occurring in synapses, brain structures and functional networks, within an individual brain. Considering that social interactions play a major role in the acquisitions of skills and knowledge, I suggest a new approach for understanding interaction-based learning that focuses on inter-brain plasticity. The term coined here, inter-brain plasticity, will be defined as the short and long-term experience-dependent changes in brain-to-brain coupling. I argue that inter-brain plasticity in the observation-execution system develops over the course of interaction-based learning to facilitate information exchange between partners and thus learning. The proposed study aims at introducing a new theory on how inter-brain networks reorganize following training in interaction-based learning. It has three objectives: 1) To develop a model of inter-brain plasticity during learning (short-term), following training (long-term) and generalization between/within interaction partners; 2) To develop a novel dyadic-neurofeedback technology that allows drawing causal inferences between inter-brain plasticity and learning; 3) To test whether diminished inter-brain plasticity in Autism Spectrum Disorders may be reversed following training with the new dyadic neurofeedback. To address these questions, I will take advantage of the high temporal resolution of state-of-the-art dual-functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) setup and examine how intra- and inter-brain networks reconfigure during learning of various skills, ranging from motor learning to language acquisition. The proposed experiments will lay the foundation for a new field of research focusing on the dynamics of inter-brain networks. The inter-brain plasticity approach will radically change how we view neuroplasticity. It will allow for the first time probing the long-term changes in the reconfiguration of inter-brain networks.

Mots-clés : social learning,brain to brain coupling,plasticity,fnirs,neurofeedback,hyperscanning
Projet ERC : DIAPASoN (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Computer science and informatics
Entité participante : University of Bologna — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNIBO
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 959562.0 €

Traditionally, program semantics is centered around the notion of program identity, that is to say of program equivalence: a program is identified with its meaning, and programs are considered as equal only if their meanings are the same. This view has been extremely fruitful in the past, allowing for a deep understanding of highly interactive forms of computation as embodied by higher-order or concurrent programs. The byproducts of all this lie everywhere in computer science, from programming language design to verification methodologies. The emphasis on equality — as opposed to differences — is not however in line with the way programs are written and structured in modern complex software systems. Subtasks are delegated to pieces of code which behave as expected only up to a certain probability of error, and only if the environment in which they operate makes this possible deviation irrelevant. These aspects have been almost neglected by the program semantics community until recently, and still have a marginal role. DIAPASON's goal is to study differences between programs as a constitutive and informative concept, rather than by way of relations between them. This will be accomplished by generalizing four major frameworks of program semantics, traditionally used for giving semantics to programs, comparing them, proving properties of them, and controlling their usage of resources: logical relations, bisimulation, game semantics, and linear logic.

Mots-clés : programming language theory,semantics,lambda calculus
Projet ERC : TrafficFluid (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : Technical University of Crete — Pays : Grèce — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TUC
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2495500.0 €

Traffic congestion is a serious threat for the economic and social life of modern societies as well as for the environment, which calls for drastic and radical solutions. The proposal puts forward an utterly original idea that leads to a novel paradigm for vehicular traffic in the era of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) and is based on two combined principles. The first principle is lane-free traffic, which renders the driving task for CAVs smoother and safer, as risky lane-changing manoeuvres become obsolete; increases the static and dynamic capacity of the roadway due to increased road occupancy; and mitigates congestion-triggering manoeuvres. The second principle is the nudge effect, whereby vehicles may be "pushing" (from a distance, using sensors or communication) other vehicles in front of them; this allows for traffic flow to be freed from the anisotropy restriction, which stems from the fact that human driving is influenced only by downstream vehicles. The nudge effect may be implemented in various possible ways, so as to maximize the traffic flow efficiency, subject to safety and convenience constraints. TrafficFluid combines lane-free traffic with vehicle nudging to provide, for the first time since the automobile invention, the possibility to design (rather than merely describe or model) the traffic flow characteristics in an optimal way, i.e. to engineer the future CAV traffic flow as an efficient artificial fluid. To this end, the project will develop and deliver the necessary vehicle movement strategies for various motorway and urban road infrastructures, along with microscopic and macroscopic simulators and traffic management actions. TrafficFluid risk stems from the immense challenge of designing a new traffic system from scratch; however, we expect that the project will trigger a whole new path of international innovative research developments and testbeds that would pave the way towards a new efficient traffic system in the era of CAVs.

Mots-clés : connected and automated vehicles,new traffic paradigm
Projet ERC : BURSTREG (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions
Entité participante : Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : NKI-AVL
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1950775.0 €

Transcription in single cells is a stochastic process that arises from the random collision of molecules, resulting in heterogeneity in gene expression in cell populations. This heterogeneity in gene expression influences cell fate decisions and disease progression. Interestingly, gene expression variability is not the same for every gene: noise can vary by several orders of magnitude across transcriptomes. The reason for this transcript-specific behavior is that genes are not transcribed in a continuous fashion, but can show transcriptional bursting, with periods of gene activity followed by periods of inactivity. The noisiness of a gene can be tuned by changing the duration and the rate of switching between periods of activity and inactivity. Even though transcriptional bursting is conserved from bacteria to yeast to human cells, the origin and regulators of bursting remain largely unknown. Here, I will use cutting-edge single-molecule RNA imaging techniques to directly observe and measure transcriptional bursting in living yeast cells. First, bursting properties will be quantified at different endogenous and mutated genes to evaluate the contribution of cis-regulatory promoter elements on bursting. Second, the role of trans-regulatory complexes will be characterized by dynamic depletion or gene-specific targeting of transcription regulatory proteins and observing changes in RNA synthesis in real-time. Third, I will develop a new technology to visualize the binding dynamics of single transcription factor molecules at the transcription site, so that the stability of upstream regulatory factors and the RNA output can directly be compared in the same cell. Finally, I will examine the phenotypic effect of different bursting patterns on organismal fitness. Overall, these approaches will reveal how bursting is regulated at the molecular level and how different bursting patterns affect the heterogeneity and fitness of the organism.
Projet ERC : DynaMech (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : Princess Máxima Center — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2132500.0 €

Transcription is a stepwise process that is inherently dynamic. Different types of transcription factors are continuously interacting off and onto DNA, "searching" for appropriate interactions - each bringing different functions into play. The rates with which these factors interact with chromatin, their association and dissociation rates, dictate the outcome of "steady-state", developmental and rapidly responsive regulatory programs. Given the central role of transcription factors in biology and disease, it is remarkable that we know next to nothing about the dynamics of transcription factor-chromatin interactions. The objective of DynaMech is to implement technologies that will allow us to measure transcription factor binding dynamics (on- and off-rates) genome-wide, at binding site resolution. This will be applied to gain a systematic understanding of how these dynamics effect the function of transcription factors. Analyses will encompass components of the RNA polymerase II pre-initiation complex in yeast, as well as a comprehensive set of gene-specific transcription factors. For each of these factors we will determine the on- and off-rates genome-wide as well as the degree to which the mRNA synthesis rates from all promoters are dependent on the factor. This data will all be analysed in the context of nucleosome binding dynamics to understand the general principles of how chromatin-transcripton factor binding dynamics shape regulatory mechanisms. Through modelling promoter output and by additional perturbations, these principles will be explored to understand which properties of regulatory DNA determine differential transcription factor dynamics thereby causing differential promoter behaviour. We are as yet far from predicting regulatory outcome from regulatory sequence. The long-term aim of this work is to bring this closer, by bringing into play the almost completely unexplored aspect of transcription factor-chromatin interaction dynamics.

Mots-clés : mechanisms of transcription regulation,yeast,saccharomyces cerevisiae
Projet ERC : CHROMATRANS (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions
Entité participante : Max Planck Society — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : MPG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2017500.0 €

Transcription of protein-coding genes by RNA polymerase II (Pol II) governs cell identity and fate. We previously provided the structural basis of Pol II transcription initiation (ERC Advanced Grant TRANSIT: Sainsbury, Nature 2012; Lariviere, Nature 2012, Plaschka, Nature 2015) and of Pol II elongation regulation (ERC Advanced Grant TRANSREGULON: Vos, Nature 2018; Vos & Farnung, Nature 2018). These studies elucidated the mechanisms of transcription regulation. However, they were conducted on naked DNA, and not on chromatin, which is the natural template in cells and regulates transcription in many ways. As a consequence, the molecular mechanism underlying chromatin transcription and the regulatory interplay between chromatin and the transcription machinery remain poorly understood. Here I propose to take the next big step towards an understanding of the transcription mechanism and investigate the structural basis for Pol II transcription of chromatin templates. Integrated structural biology will provide structures of the transcription machinery on nucleosomal DNA. Nucleosomes are the building blocks of chromatin and regulate transcription in many ways. In particular, we will solve structures of pioneer factors bound to nucleosomes, to investigate how chromatin is opened locally for transcription (aim 1). We will solve the structure of the Pol II pre-initiation complex on the ‘+1’ nucleosome at the beginning of a gene, to understand how initiation is regulated by this specialized nucleosome (aim 2). Finally, we will determine structures of mammalian Pol II elongation complexes with many factors during nucleosome passage, to elucidate how Pol II transcribes chromatin (aim 3). Together with functional analysis in vitro and in vivo, these ground-breaking efforts will take the structural biology of transcription regulation to the chromatin level. The proposed research will also advance methods for the reconstitution and analysis of transient, higher-order complexes.

Mots-clés : transcription,chromatin,mrna,rna polymerase ii,integrated structural biology,cryo electron microscopy,gene regulation
Projet ERC : COMAL (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : University of Cambridge — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. Cambridge
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999574.0 €

Transcriptional dyregulation is a common driver in cancer and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an exemplar of this process. AML has a dismal survival rate of <30% with novel targeted therapies urgently required. My research focuses on improving our understanding of the biology of AML and using this knowledge to develop targeted therapies to improve outcomes. Recently loss-of-function mutations in members of the cohesin complex have been described in up to 15% of patients with AML. The cohesin complex mediates sister chromatid cohesion, an important process for DNA repair and proper chromosomal segregation. It has also recently been demonstrated to be important for transcriptional regulation, due to its coordination of communication between promoters and enhancer and insulator elements. Evidence suggests that transcriptional alterations underlie the mechanisms of transformation by cohesin mutations in AML. However, other evidence and my preliminary data also suggest cohesin mutant cells to have specific vulnerabilities related to their roles in proper chromosome segregation and DNA repair that can be specifically targeted. Objectives: 1) Generation of mouse models of cohesin-mutated AML. To model AML in vivo and as a resources for Obj 2-4 2) Characterisation of transcriptional defects in cohesin-mutated AML using state-of-the-art genomic techniques (RNA-Seq, ChIP-Seq and Capture Hi-C) 3) Define mechanisms of cohesin-mediated transcriptional regulation in normal hematopoiesis and its alteration in leukaemia using SILAC based proteomics and ChIP-Seq co-binding 4) Therapeutic targeting of the cohesin complex in cohesin-mutant AML using compounds identified in a large screen and suggested by Obj 1-3 and tested in cell lines, patient samples and in vivo models. This proposal will inform mechanisms of transcriptional regulation that occur during normal hematopoiesis and how these are altered in AML. It will also identify candidate therapies for this aggressive disease

Mots-clés : mechanisms of leukemia,mouse models of leukemia,repositioned therapies,personalised therapy
Projet ERC : CHIPTRANSFORM (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : Weizmann Institute of Science — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Transformation optics grew out of ideas for invisibility cloaking and exploits connections between electromagnetism in media and in geometries. This Proof of Concept project uses transformation optics for improving on-chip optical communication in silicon photonics. The goal is reaching a performance that matches industry standards such that the idea becomes sufficiently convincing to be commercialized.

Mots-clés : silicon photonics,transformation optics,electronics