Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : TEC_Pro (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy
Entité participante : University of Porto — Pays : Portugal — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1491749.0 €

The development of vaccines for the treatment of infectious diseases, cancer and autoimmunity depends on our knowledge of T-cell differentiation. This proposal is focused on studying the thymus, the organ responsible for the generation of T cells that are responsive against pathogen-derived antigens, and yet tolerant to self. Within the thymus, thymic epithelial cells (TECs) provide key inductive microenvironments for the development and selection of T cells that arise from hematopoietic progenitors. As a result, defects in TEC differentiation cause syndromes that range from immunodeficiency to autoimmunity, which makes the study of TECs of fundamental, and clinical, importance to understand immunity and tolerance induction. TECs are divided into two functionally distinct cortical (cTECs) and medullary (mTECs) subtypes, which derive from common bipotent TEC progenitors (TEPs). Yet, the genetic and epigenetic details that control cTEC/mTEC lineage specifications from TEPs are unsettled. My objectives are to identify TEC progenitors and their niches within the thymus, define new molecular components involved in their self-renewal and lineage potential, and elucidate the epigenetic codes that regulate the genetic programs during cTEC/mTEC fate decisions. We take a global approach to examine TEC differentiation, which integrates the study of molecular processes taking place at cellular level and the analysis of in vivo mouse models. Using advanced research tools that combine reporter mice, clonogenic assays, organotypic cultures, high-throughput RNAi screen and genome-wide epigenetic and transcriptomic profiling, we will dissect the principles that underlie the self-renewal and lineage differentiation of TEC progenitors in vivo. I believe this project has the potential to contribute to one of the great challenges of modern immunology – modulate thymic function through the induction of TEPs - and therefore, represents a major advance in Health Sciences.

Mots-clés : thymus,thymic epithelium,cortex and medulla,progenitors,self renewal and differentiation,rnai screen,chromatin status
Projet ERC : SPEED (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : Maastricht University — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UM
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2175941.0 €

The discoveries enabled by observations of gravitational waves (GW) from merging black holes and neutron stars provided us with a stunning glimpse of the immense potential of GW multi-messenger astronomy and cosmology. In order to discover new phenomena and better understand the constituents of the Universe and the forces driving it, it is vital to improve the sensitivity of future GW observatories. Indeed, to maximise the observation capacity of future GW observatories such as the Einstein Telescope (ET) it is imperative to go beyond the current quantum noise limit imposed by the uncertainty relation originating from a continuous position measurement of the interferometer mirrors, i.e. [x(t),x(t')]≠0. Quantum mechanics provides speedmeter interferometers (SMI) as a more elegant approach: measuring momentum (speed) of the test masses evades the uncertainty limit, i.e. [p(t),p(t')]=0. However, though SMI have been shown theoretically to offer superior sensitivity compared to currently used Michelson interferometers with squeezed light injection, the SMI concept lags behind in technical readiness and hence is currently not yet considered mature enough to build the baseline for ET. This grant will enable me to change this. In particular I will focus on two novel SMI concepts, we invented and which (in contrast to earlier SMI concepts) are easily implementable into current long-baseline interferometers. The main objectives of this proposal are: 1) development of the required new optical components and quantum noise analysis tools; 2) experimental demonstration, initially in proof-of-concept table-top experiments, followed by implementation in ETpathfinder, a unique cryogenic interferometer test facility; 3) verification of the SMI concept with complementary quantum technologies such as squeezed light; 4) development of a detailed SMI practical design for ET including a science case detailing possible improvements in astrophysics, cosmology and fundamental physics.

Mots-clés : gravitational waves observation,laser interferometery,quantum measurement,quantum non demolition,multi messenger astronomy,einstein telescope
Projet ERC : ExoAI (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe sciences
Entité participante : University of London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. London
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

The discovery of extrasolar planets - i.e. planets orbiting other stars - has fundamentally transformed our understanding of planets, solar systems and our place in the Milky Way. Recent discoveries have shown that planets between 1-2 R are the most abundant in our galaxy, so called super-Earths. Yet, they are entirely absent from our own solar system. Their nature, chemistry, formation histories or climate remain very much a mystery. Estimates of their densities suggest a variety of possible planet types and formation/evolution scenarios but current degeneracies cannot be broken with mass/radius measures alone. Spectroscopy of their atmospheres can provide vital insight. Recently, the first atmosphere around a super-Earth, 55 Cnc e, was discovered, showcasing that these worlds are far more complex than simple densities allow us to constrain. To achieve a more fundamental understanding, we need to move away from the status quo of treating individual planets as case-studies and analysing data ‘by hand’. A globally encompassing, self-consistent and self-calibrating approach is required. Here, I propose to move the field a significant step towards this goal with the ExoAI (Exoplanet Artificial Intelligence) framework. ExoAI will use state-of-the-art neural networks and Bayesian atmospheric retrieval algorithms applied to big-data. Given all available data of an instrument, ExoAI will autonomously learn the best calibration strategy, intelligently recognise spectral features and provide a full quantitative atmospheric model for every planet observed. This uniformly derived catalogue of super-Earth atmospheric models, will move us on from the individual case-studies and allow us to study the larger picture. We will constrain the underlying processes of planet formation/migration and bulk chemistries of super-Earths. The algorithm and the catalogue of atmospheric and instrument models will be made freely available to the community.

Mots-clés : exoplanets,super earths,atmospheric spectroscopy,data analysis,radiative transfer,blind source separation algorithms,machine learning,space missions,astrobiology
Projet ERC : EASY-IPS (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Telethon Foundation — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) has provided a major advance in biomedical research as they are able to offer meaningful models to investigate human diseases and biology. A growing number of research laboratory are using iPSC for studying a wide variety of human diseases. iPSC have also tremendous potential for regenerative medicine because they can be virtually differentiated in any type of cell. Through the support of the ERC grant IEMTx, we built-up an in-house protocol for generation of iPSC from patients’ cell lines that is efficient and has an extremely low cost compared to other available methods with the highest clinical safety. Therefore, we can offer a superior system to produce iPSC based on a simpler, more efficient, highly reproducible, cost effective and customizable process. Moreover, HDAd have potential also for cell trans-differentiation that is the reprogramming of one somatic cell type into another cell type without passing through the pluripotent state. In summary, the goal of this proposal is to pave the way towards commercialization of our novel products for generating iPSC and trans-differentiated cell lines based on HDAd vectors as non-integrating, high-cloning capacity, inexpensive and easy to use vectors. We believe this method will become a relevant opportunity for biomedical research and might find applications in regenerative medicine as well.

Mots-clés : induced pluripotent stem cells,ipsc,reprogramming,transdifferentiation,helper dependent adenoviral vectors
Projet ERC : SENSEI (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Weizmann Institute of Science — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The dynamics of cell populations within tissues and organs is a hallmark of multi-cellular organisms. In many pathological states (e.g. cancer, diabetes etc) the functions and quantities of specific cell populations change. The ability to simultaneously and effectively monitor these functions and changes is essential for the study of these pathologies and the development of diagnostics and treatment. While single cell profiling is a multi billion dollar market, currently, unbiased and comprehensive classification of tissues into well-defined and functionally coherent cell subpopulations is impossible due to limitations in technology. Here we propose commercialize a technology we recently developed and published (Jaitin et al Science 2014) - Sequence-Enabled Single cEll identification (SENSEI) - based on massively parallel sequencing of RNA from single cells. Using broad sampling of single cell functional states from multi-cellular tissues we reconstruct biological functions in a bottom-up fashion, starting from the most basic building block – the cell. The potential benefits of this invention are blatantly evident. Since cells are the basic building blocks of multi cellular organisms accurate and dynamic description of cell states and functions is essential for both basic biological research and personalized medicine clinical applications. Our technique is immediately applicable in molecular biology labs, clinics or industry, requires no specific equipment beyond our developed consumables and can provide data on RNAs from hundreds of single cells at the cost of one standard average gene expression profile. Massively parallel single cell RNA sequencing is therefore emerging as a super high-resolution, robust and affordable approach for unbiased functional characterization of complex tissues and is likely going to dramatically change molecular research and have profound clinical applications.
Projet ERC : BEE NATURAL (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : SLU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499703.0 €

The ectoparasitic mite, Varroa destructor, vectors lethal honeybee viruses, in particular Deformed wing virus (DWV) and is unarguably the leading cause of honeybee (Apis mellifera) colony mortality world-wide causing critical economic and ecological consequences for pollination-dependent crop production and wild plant biodiversity, respectively. Since the introduction of the mite in the 1970s and 1980s, wild honeybees in Europe and North America have been nearly completely eradicated and managed honeybees only survive through mite control treatment, or otherwise die within 1-2 years. These treatments remove the selective pressure necessary to establish a stable host-parasite relationship, which hampers the evolution of resistance and obstructs fundamental research on natural selection host‒parasite coevolution in this new host‒parasite system, which is now only possible in a few small honeybee populations surviving long-term (>20 years) without varroa control in Sweden, France and Norway. These rare and valuable naturally selected populations offer unique insight into the natural adaptive capacity of honeybees, yet little is understood about their mechanisms of resistance or tolerance to varroa mites and the viruses they vector. Having exclusive access to these populations, the BEE NATURAL project sets out to comprehensively describe their host resistant and tolerant phenotypes towards both mites and viruses, using a variety of innovative experimental designs, in order to deeper our fundamental understanding of host-parasite interactions. Genomic regions or target genes associated with resistant and tolerant traits will be identified using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies such as RNA-seq and whole genome sequencing (WGS), providing valuable information that can be applied towards developing marker-assisted selection: a powerful new approach for disease resistant breeding that can facilitate major advances in genetic stock improvement.

Mots-clés : host parasite co evolution,disease resistance and tolerance,chemical ecology,next generation sequencing
Projet ERC : LANGARCHIV (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : Leipzig University — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 305000.5 €

The eighteenth and nineteenth century history of the central Sahara and Sahel has primarily been written using European or jihadist Arabic sources. This has led to an overwhelming emphasis on religion, politics, and geography as core themes that shaped social and cultural dynamics in this region. By focusing on sources in African languages—until now largely forgotten by historians—the project LANGARCHIV aims to enrich and expand this narrative. Hausa and Kanuri material collected by Germanophone, British, and French scholars for linguistic study between 1772 and 1913 in West and North Africa, England, and Brazil cries out for collaboration between historians, linguists, and anthropologists. This rich body of primary sources remains under-studied, having been rejected as colonial even though the majority were collected before colonial occupation. A general reconsideration of this material will enable a major shift in our understanding, toward a ‘history from below’ that will make it possible to explore the history of Sahelian societies through the stories that Sahelians told about themselves. Serving as linguae francae, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Hausa and Kanuri were spoken from Tripoli to Kano and Bahia, and today Hausa remains the most widely spoken language in West Africa, with 50 million speakers scattered over more than 6 countries LANGARCHIV will be the first project to explore materials in African languages as sources for African history. Combining an epistemological analysis of European scientific interest in African languages with the will to write a social history that overcomes the jihadist bias, the project aims to bring about a paradigmatic shift in the history of the central Sahara and Sahel. It will achieve this goal by revealing a rich body of primary sources and by developing an innovative analytical framework for using documents generated by early students of African languages and cultures as historical sources.

Mots-clés : history of africa
Projet ERC : YEASTMEMORY (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : VIB
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1959844.0 €

The emergence of intelligence –the ability to remember and analyze data to make decisions– was a milestone in evolution. Intelligence and memory are usually associated with plastic neuronal connections in higher organisms. However, new discoveries hint that a rudimentary form of intelligence is rooted in networks that regulate gene expression in a wide range of organisms, including bacteria and yeasts. Specifically, we and others have shown that microbes show plastic behavioral responses to past experiences, such as previously available nutrients or stresses. This implies that information about the past is somehow retained and passed to next generations, where it influences cellular regulation. The goal of this project is to use a simple eukaryotic regulatory circuit as a model to obtain a comprehensive picture of the different genes and molecular mechanisms underlying history-dependence (hysteresis) in cellular regulation. Specifically, we will study maltose (MAL) regulation in budding yeast, because this signaling pathway serves as a model for gene regulation circuits in other organisms, including humans. We will use a combination of genetic screens, live-cell microscopy in custom-built microfluidic devices, and mathematical modeling to pursue four aims: 1. To provide a comprehensive quantitative analysis of hysteresis in MAL regulation 2. To unravel the molecular mechanisms contributing to hysteresis 3. To unravel the epigenetic mechanisms allowing hysteresis to extend over several generations 4. To characterize the ecological relevance of hysteresis This project will establish an innovative model for hysteresis and generate a genome-wide, systems-level view of how past influences can be stored in regulatory cascades to influence cellular decision-making. The results will contribute to a paradigm shift in our view of biological regulation and memory, with possible applications in fields as diverse as industrial microbiology, synthetic biology and medicine.

Mots-clés : yeast,saccharomyces cerevisiae,fermentation,subtelomeres
Projet ERC : ABIOS (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1497031.0 €

The emergence of life is one of the most fascinating and yet largely unsolved questions in the natural sciences, and thus a significant challenge for scientists from many disciplines. There is growing evidence that ribonucleic acid (RNA) polymers, which are capable of genetic information storage and self-catalysis, were involved in the early forms of life. But despite recent progress, RNA synthesis without biological machineries is very challenging. The current project aims at understanding how to synthesize RNA in abiotic conditions. I will solve problems associated with three critical aspects of RNA formation that I will rationalize at a molecular level: (i) accumulation of precursors, (ii) formation of a chemical bond between RNA monomers, and (iii) tolerance for alternative backbone sugars or linkages. Because I will study problems ranging from the formation of chemical bonds up to the stability of large biopolymers, I propose an original computational multi-scale approach combining techniques that range from quantum calculations to large-scale all-atom simulations, employed together with efficient enhanced-sampling algorithms, forcefield improvement, cutting-edge analysis methods and model development. My objectives are the following: 1 • To explain why the poorly-understood thermally-driven process of thermophoresis can contribute to the accumulation of dilute precursors. 2 • To understand why linking RNA monomers with phosphoester bonds is so difficult, to understand the molecular mechanism of possible catalysts and to suggest key improvements. 3 • To rationalize the molecular basis for RNA tolerance for alternative backbone sugars or linkages that have probably been incorporated in abiotic conditions. This unique in-silico laboratory setup should significantly impact our comprehension of life’s origin by overcoming major obstacles to RNA abiotic formation, and in addition will reveal significant orthogonal outcomes for (bio)technological applications.

Mots-clés : classical and ab initio molecular dynamics,multi scale simulation approach,origins of life,thermophoresis,phosphoester bond formation,xeno nucleic acids
Projet ERC : NanoGraphy (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : Technion – Israel Institute of Technology — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

The emergence of nanoscience and nanotechnology, with envisioned applications spanning from nano-optics and nano-photonics, to plasmonics and nano-electronics, depends on the capability to fabricate a variety of nanometre-scale structures. Despite the impressive development in these fields, breakthroughs remain in the laboratory, largely due to technological limitations in the ability to manufacture complex and accurate nanometer-resolved surface patterns, with satisfying resolution and on large area. The development of a new fabrication methodology is thus required. We propose to develop and demonstrate a novel technique for nanoscale photolithography that would bring 21st century nanotechnology breakthroughs out of the lab and into the public sphere. This technique is based on a chemical mechanism recently discovered in my lab. We revealed that multi-electron photocatalytic reactions could be directed to progress exclusively under a plasmonic field, in a controlled and highly localized manner. In this proposal we describe how this phenomenon may be leveraged for pattering, and high-resolution nano lithography. The project is divided into 3 stages: 1. Fundamentals of the underlying physical phenomena 2. Probe enhanced photocatalytic writing 3. Photolithography via plasmon enhanced photocatalytic mask At the end of the 5-year project we expect to be at a position to demonstrate our platform for lithographic writing of an interesting nano pattern of high quality, and establish the potential of this methodology as a powerful instrument in the nanotechnology researcher’s toolbox. I strongly believe that successful implementation of this project would fundamentally change the way in which nanotechnology affects modern life.

Mots-clés : plasmonics,nano electronics,nanoscale photolithography,photocatalysis