Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : PKDcontrol (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 : 135000.0 €

PKDControl is aimed at validating the use of a recombinant protein to reduce the pathology and mortality produced by proliferative kidney disease (PKD) in salmonids. PKD is caused by the myxozoan parasite Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae that affects both cultured and wild salmonids in North America and Europe. It can eventually lead to mortalities of up to 90%, generating great economic loses every year to the aquaculture industry. This problem may be aggravated by global warming since the incidence and severity of PKD are exacerbated by rising temperatures. During my ERC Consolidator Grant we have demonstrated that the cytokine BAFF (B cell activating factor) mediates the dysregulation of diverse B cell subsets present in the kidney during PKD. We have shown that the intramuscular injection of a plasmid coding for the extracellular domain of BAFF receptor (BAFF-R) led to secretion of this truncated BAFF-R (tBAFF-R) that, in turn sequestered circulating BAFF, blocking BAFF signalling. Preliminary field tests in Spain and USA demonstrated the potential of this approach in reducing the pathology and mortality of the infected stocks. In this project, we will recombinantly produce tBAFF-R in yeast to facilitate its uptake by the industry and test its bioactivity in both lab and field experiments. In parallel to these technical activities, we will reinforce the IPR position (based on a PCT - “international” - patent application that has received a very positive patentability report by the patent office). We will also design a long-term IPR strategy and develop a knowledge transfer strategy through the recently initiated collaboration with a fish health management company, willing to reach commercialization of tBAFF-R under a license and to contribute with their own funds to the activities carried out under this project. A business case will also be elaborated to support the commercialization of the recombinant tBAFF-R to ensure that the innovation potential of our results.
Projet ERC : FastML (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institute of Science and Technology Austria — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ISTA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Deep Learning is an area of massive progress, with myriad applications and significant industry adoption. A key enabler of its progress is the ability to train large, highly-accurate Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) in a distributed fashion, across tens to thousands of different computational nodes. Yet, DNN training at scale poses severe challenges to standard paradigms in distributed computing; existing distributed training approaches and their practical implementations, via training libraries such as PyTorch or TensorFlow, often suffer from major distribution bottlenecks, which can significantly reduce computational efficiency, leading to wasted time, money, and energy.  The FastML proof-of-concept (PoC) project will tackle this efficiency challenge head-on, by introducing a distributed training framework that will significantly reduce or even eliminate the overheads of parallelization for practical distributed training workloads, in common usage scenarios. FastML’s distinctive feature is leveraging the algorithmic and software techniques developed by our ERC Starting Grant, in order to reduce distribution overheads at scale without impacting training convergence or model accuracy. FastML stands in contrast to current distribution techniques, which rely on hardware overprovisioning–essentially, providing very fast but also very expensive interconnects between the computing nodes. As such, FastML can bring significant infrastructure and running cost improvements to its users, as well as lowering the cost and hardware entry barrier to training accurate machine learning models. The PoC will design and develop the FastML software library to target industry-relevant workloads via pilot projects jointly with our industrial partners. In addition, we will perform an in-depth market study, devise intellectual property and go-to-market strategies, and produce a minimally-viable product (MVP), which will be demonstrated to potential customers and investors.
Projet ERC : INPATT (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 : 30000.0 €

Light activation finds a widely spread application to produce photochemically solid organic resins at low irradiation intensity from liquid organic precursors. The main advantages of this process are that it can be activated locally, by focusing a light beam, remotely, and switched on/off easily, in a safe and convenient irradiation regime. For these features, light-activated polymerization is used for patterning organic structures in fields of high technological, economic and social impact such as stereolithography and tooth restoration. Recently we demonstrated that a similar result can be achieved by photochemical generation of an acid or a base in a suitably designed precursor solution and that this approach can be easily extended to inorganic materials such as insoluble carbonates and phosphates. On the basis of these results, our project INorganic photochemical PATTerning (INPATT), hence the photochemically-controlled production of a solid inorganic matrix instead of an organic resin will offer a solution to the market for the problem of patterning inorganic materials with light. The ambitious objective of INPATT is to provide new liquid formulations suitable for applications in stereolithography, patterning, and tooth and art restoration.
Projet ERC : FAIRGLUCOSE (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 €

FAIRGLUCOSE proposes a low cost, sustainable and self-powered standalone glucose sensing system that relies on the well-known oxidation process of glucose coming from finger prick blood and transfers it to a voltage readout through an innovative and extremely simple strategy. In this way, a measurement that typically requires a potentiostat with a microcontroller and a battery is performed here with a minimalistic and battery-less circuit that fits within the footprint of a commercial glucose strip. This allows for a reduction not only in device cost, but also in the generation of waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE or e-waste), avoiding the cumulative effect of millions of tests and their corresponding batteries performed at remote sites away from adequate recycling infrastructures. In order to interpret the result, the strip can be integrated in a card format that translates voltage into level bars accounting for low, normal and high glucose indicators – a solution that would substitute urine strips - or into a more sophisticated but still low-cost card containing a NFC chip allowing the transferring of a numeric result into a cell phone. Both cards could be implemented with state-of-the art flexible electronics technologies and could be reused infinite times, as energy would always come from the sample. The first targeted market of FAIRGLUCOSE solutions is located in low and middle-income countries, where cost of current glucometers limits severely the self-monitoring of blood glucose among population. However, at mid-term it is likely that the sustainability and affordability of the approach displaces the current glucose players in some market niches of developed countries and generates new applications in the healthcare and agro-food arena. Thus, FAIRGLUCOSE aims to investigate the commercial feasibility of this disruptive approach and create an innovation roadmap that allows deploying the technology where it can make the most.
Projet ERC : UNIDACT (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : CERCA Institution — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CERCA;I-CERCA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 74000.0 €

Within the ITUL project, funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant, we have developed a data compression algorithm based on circular context trees. The proposed algorithm is universal in that it can compress any type of data. The proposed compression algorithm offers unprecedented compression performance, and shows an average of at least 82% improvement over commercial algorithms like Lempel-Ziv (ZIP), Burrows-Wheeler transform compression (BZIP), and more complex state-of-the-art algorithms like prediction by partial matching (PPM) and context tree weighting (CTW). The proposed algorithm has linear decoding complexity. The proposed PoC is intended to extend the current binary implementation to arbitrary alphabets, provide fast encoder/decoder implementation, develop specific applications to compress satellite observation data and genomic data, develop an indexed version of the compression algorithm in order to access some of the data without full decompression, and investigate specific software licensing options and opportunities.
Projet ERC : NR2F6-AIM (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Innsbruck Medical University — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : MUI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Melanoma cases and deaths are expected to increase in the coming years, representing a significant burden for the European economy and healthcare system. Metastatic melanoma (MM) is the most serious form of skin cancer and is characterised by uncontrolled metastatic spread of melanocytes to distant sites. Although standard treatments exist, significant clinical challenges remain, resulting in limited response and high MM recurrence rates. As a result of these limited treatment options, the quality of life of MM patients is dramatically compromised. Emerging immunotherapies, such as adoptive cell therapy (ACT), are promising but have significant obstacles, including long manufacturing times, high costs and, most critically, rapid exhaustion of infused cells due to the tumour immune microenvironment (TIME).  Research in Gottfried Baier's lab has identified a unique way to effectively stimulate the immune system with an ACT by inhibiting NR2F6, an intrinsic immune checkpoint of T lymphocytes. This is done through our NR2F6 blockade-based adoptive immune cell therapy for metastatic melanoma (NR2F6-AIM) approach, where T cells are engineered for enhanced immune fitness prior to infusion. This greatly sensitises the patient's immune system to currently available immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy (ICT). This approach will permit us to deliver a combinatorial treatment that can overcome TIME immunosuppression, providing curative potential against MM. NR2F6-AIM will block NR2F6 by a non-viral, time-boxed gene silencing through a synthetic small interfering RNA (siRNA) transfection method. This method will allow us to overcome therapeutic manufacturing hurdles through a one-day in-hospital preparation of the ACT. NR2F6-AIM will verify and optimise the technology in relevant in vivo and ex vivo study models to validate the potential of this innovative ACT. It will also develop and execute an IP strategy and a commercial feasibility analysis to enter the MM market.

Mots-clés : multiple melanoma,adoptive cell therapy,nr2f6 as immune checkpoint
Projet ERC : PET (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Twente — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

3D printing is literally building our future in realising components and parts which cannot either be manufactured with standard techniques (milling, lathing) or for which the scale does not justify the use of molding techniques which require longer time and are only convenient for a high production scale. The problem with current 3D printing is the tradeoff between speed and precision: if we want to print fast in additive manufacturing, it is more difficult to know what physically happens with the deposition, and increasing speed is always at the cost of precision. This is mostly due to the fact that the deposition process is basically in Open Loop. Currently there is a strong demand for in-situ measurement techniques to enable real time feedback, where the newest camera based techniques only allow for measurements on the outer surface of prints. The proposed innovation wants to create real time feedback by using easily implementable electrical impedance measurements during the printing process together with conductively doped material, measuring multipoint impedances among points on the substrate and the nozzle to possibly realize a tomographic description of the print. This intrinsically cheap method can be used pervasively and has ground breaking potential for both the professional and consumer 3D printing market. Prints will be of higher quality, printing will be faster and losses will be reduced. This will increase the usability, reliability and throughput of 3D printing which are the major concerns in this manufacturing technology for both the professional and the consumer market. The idea has been patented and industry has already confirmed strong interest. With the support of the ERC-PoC, the PI and his multidisciplinary team will be able to address the questions still to be answered in close collaboration with the industrial partner Ultimaker in order to address the correct scientific questions needed for a successful transfer to market.
Projet ERC : nanoVAST (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, 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 : 70000.0 €

Cell-specific cargo delivery is a key remaining problem in the field of RNA-based therapeutics. Thus far, delivery has relied on lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) which encapsulate RNA with high efficiency, but broadly lack in specificity. Viral vectors are currently the only FDA approved tissue-specific cargo delivery option, with specificity being the result of manipulation of outer capsid proteins. However, viral systems are also associated with drawbacks such as oncogenicity, antigenicity and pre-existing immunity to the viral carrier itself. The ideal carrier system would involve LNP-efficient cargo encapsulation together with specific targeting in the absence of oncogenicity or immunogenicity. DKFZ and Panosome GmbH have together developed this exact particle – the nanoVAST: a patented vesicular phospholipid bilayer densely decorated with a single protein that can be fused to a targeting molecule of interest through specific, efficient, and separately patented chemistry. Importantly, the attachment of the targeting component relies on a coupling of the vesicle to the targeting moiety, rather than a genetic manipulation of the carrier itself (as is the case with viral vectors), giving this system an unparalleled level of versatility. Additionally, our vesicular system is inherently fusogenic with target membranes, thus permitting cargo delivery directly to the cytoplasm and avoiding the reliance on the incredibly inefficient “endosomal escape” mechanism that plagues LNPs (it is estimated that conventional LNPs only deliver approximately 1% or less of their payload into the cytoplasm). This ERC PoC proposes to use the nanoVAST particle to (a) deliver specific RNA cargo to CD19+ B cells; (b) transport within the cells this cargo to the endogenous RNA editing machinery and (c) functionally alter the surface of the targeted cells. Through the PoC we aim to accelerate nanoVAST, our precision payload delivery system, towards direct clinical applications.
Projet ERC : ReproTox (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Leiden University Medical Center — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LUMC
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Environmental factors and chemicals are thought to be one cause of declining male fertility. Reproductive toxicity is becoming a major public health problem. Currently, new pharmacological or chemical compounds are tested in animals for their effects on reproduction before entering the market. This risk assessment is essential but time-consuming, expensive and is not always predictive in humans since animals have different reproductive characteristics and physiology. A validated and qualified human system to assess reproductive toxicity would be invaluable in addressing this conundrum between regulatory requirements and true relevance. Through my ERC-CoG, I have built a large repository of knowledge and developed robust technology on human in vitro gametogenesis, more specifically on how to generate male gamete progenitors from human pluripotent stem cells. This, together with my bioinformatics knowhow, makes me exceptionally well-placed to optimise a human-based high-throughput screening assay for male reproductive toxicity for use by the private sector in filing reproductive safety data to the regulatory authorities. This ReproTox assay will be further optimised (increase throughput, standardise measurements) and integrated with a software innovation (machine learning algorithm to automate quantification and webtool), before we carry out a pilot screen using FDA-approved spermatotoxic compounds and market research to define the commercialisation route.  Reducing the number of compounds that show male reproductive toxicity at very early stages of drug development will contribute to an effective first-tier toxicity screening, not only providing standard protocols for quantitative, rapid, cost-effective, high-throughput, scalable and reproducible toxicity testing, but also reducing, perhaps eventually replacing animal use. ReproTox will ultimately lead to economic, societal, environmental, health and ethical benefits.
Projet ERC : PROTEGE (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Coimbra — Pays : Portugal — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The unpredictable contamination of microbial communities in aquatic environments is a global concern for drinking water suppliers and aquaculture producers. Drinking water treatment expenditures, mainly caused by excessive proliferation of harmful cyanobacteria can cost over €150 million/year in European countries. The scenario aggravates when considering the debilitating attacks from pathogenic bacteria in aquaculture cages, generating global economic losses of over $25 billion. In both industrial sectors, the mitigation costs scales with microbial detection delay.  Existent monitoring solutions for water quality mostly rely on time-consuming and operator-dependent measurements of nitrogen and phosphorus fractions, temperature and dissolved oxygen or in using chlorophyll a as a proxy. Yet, these approaches fail to deliver effective and real-time detection of microbial contamination. Within the ERC-funded GREEN project we have identified a promising commercial application which by means of ultrasensitive electrophysiology allows unprecedent real-time detection of harmful microorganisms in aquatic environments. An international patent has been filed and two research articles published. In addition, two distinct industrial partners and a state laboratory are committed to support and actively participate in PROTEGE. The breakthrough has been realised by the development of ultra-sensitive porous conducting polyurethane foams which exploits the large electrode area, maximizing the double-layer capacitance and concomitant microbial detection sensitivity. The main aim of PROTEGE is to demonstrate a working prototype in the industrial partners facilities, capable of real-time detection of cyanobacteria in water-supply reservoirs and pathogenic bacteria in aquaculture cages, and to develop a business and exploitation plan for technology commercialization of a market-oriented prototype with real-time telemetry data.
Projet ERC : Design2Guide (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Leibniz-Gemeinschaft — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : WLG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

This research addresses a clinical problem with an innovative approach. Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers and only 10% of patients survive 5 years after diagnosis. To find better therapies, we need patient-specific models that mimic the biology of tumour tissues and target interactions between different cell types. We will develop a controllable platform for modelling the human disease in the laboratory. We will use our new platform to discover better ways of treating the disease.
Projet ERC : NanoLymphoma (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Radboud University Medical Centre — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Radboud UMC
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Immunotherapy using antibodies targeting the cell surface has led to important clinical advances in patients with cancer, exemplified by CD20-antibodies that are first-line treatment in patients with B-cell lymphoma. However, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the most common and aggressive form of B-cell lymphoma worldwide, is still incurable in 40% of patients. These patients have poor prognosis due to treatment failure or relapse upon therapy with CD20-antibodies (260,000 mortalities worldwide in 2020). Thus, there is urgent need for novel therapies to overcome resistance and enhance anti-tumor activities in patients with aggressive B-cell lymphoma. We developed nanofilaments that can efficiently cluster multiple lymphoma membrane targets (CD20, and new targets: CD22, CD37) to induce potent tumor cytotoxicity. This new therapeutic platform (''NanoLymphoma'') represents a powerful strategy since this approach is independent from genetic cancer subtypes and is broadly applicable in molecular heterogeneous B-cell lymphoma subtypes. NanoLymphoma will evaluate and validate the technical and commercial feasibility of its new therapeutic platform to target human lymphoma cells and prepare for clinical translation to patients with DLBCL. NanoLymphoma will: 1) Show that clustering of therapeutic targets on the surface tumor cells potently induces tumor cell death, and 2) Perform market and business case analyses to ensure commercial feasibility and entry to market through Simmunext Biotherapeutics. NanoLymphoma is expected to outperform conventional anti-CD20 antibody treatment in patients with aggressive lymphoma.