Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : Supersolids (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Entité participante : Université de Florence — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 162500.0 €

Supersolids are a paradoxical quantum phase of matter that combines the properties of superfluids and crystals, searched for long time in quantum solids and many other systems. Recently, we discovered a novel cluster phase in a quantum gas of magnetic atoms which realizes a supersolid. However, the limited size, the inhomogeneity, and the lack of appropriate detection methods have allowed so far to assess only very basic properties of supersolids. Here I propose an innovative density-phase microscope and original ideas that combine the best of matter-wave and condensed-matter methods to unveil the extraordinary properties of supersolids. With a two-layer superfluid-supersolid configuration we will measure both density and phase of the supersolid. With controllable optical potentials we will realize large, homogeneous crystal geometries in 1D and 2D. With high-resolution optical addressing we will manipulate locally the wavefunction, e. g. creating phase patterns or force fields, and we will follow the local dynamics. Our main goal is to explore fundamental properties that are largely unknown even theoretically: variable superfluid density under rotation; variable angular momentum of quantized vortices; dissipation-less deformation of the crystal; Josephson effect without barriers; quantum entanglement properties. We will also attempt the realization of new types of supersolid, to prove the generality of the phenomena: with coupled supersolid layers, we will move towards supersolidity in 3D; using a quasi-2D environment, we will attempt to realize two proposed types of strongly interacting and strongly correlated supersolids. Our work will establish connections between supersolids and other patterned quantum phases, such as pair-density waves in superconductors and in helium superfluids, intertwined phases in low-dimensional superfluids, and pasta phases in neutron stars. Our work might open directions for the realization of materials with novel functionalities.

Mots-clés : superfluids,quantum solids,quantum phase transitions
Projet ERC : LUMINOUS (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Materials Engineering
Entité participante : Imperial College London — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ICL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 3021615.0 €

Metamaterials rely on spatial structures on the scale of light wavelength to transform and enhance their macroscopic properties. Current metamaterials passively redistribute wave energy in space only, enabling, for example, sub-micron flat lenses and ultra-compact spectrometers. In the last few years, exciting breakthroughs have shown that metamaterials can also power wave-based analogue computation a technology for fast, massively parallel computation at a fraction of the power. With low energy consumption, metamaterials have the potential to address sustainable computing, and the rapid adoption of power-hungry artificial intelligence.  The challenge is to exploit the temporal dimension and develop metamaterials that can compute both spatial and temporal derivatives and simulate spatio-temporal potentials. The temporal degree of freedom is already within reach as time-varying metamaterials have been recently demonstrated. Building on this novel field, I have shown that synthetic motion in metamaterials, where materials behave as if they were moving, is possible, and even at superluminal speeds, through the combination of both spatial and temporal modulation.  Light interaction with synthetically moving metamaterials (LUMINOUS) is the first experimental investigation of synthetic motion to perform analogue computation. The key to this project is our ability to achieve very large, close-to-unity temporal modulations on the timescale of the optical period of light (~fs), together with digital control of millions of spatial degrees of freedom via structured light, therefore enabling programmable synthetic motion. I will establish the experimental platform for programmable motion and use it to control light flow and light generation. Moreover, using synthetically moving metamaterials as space-time operators, I will solve non-separable differential equations, as well as perform analogue simulation of relativistic phenomena.

Mots-clés : photonics,time varying metamaterials,analogue computing,ultrafast,indium tin oxide,epsilon near zero
Projet ERC : AviCeD (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and I mmunotherapy
Entité participante : Université de Cambridge — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2498468.0 €

Zoonotic infections, particularly with viruses or bacteria, continue to be important threats to humans globally. These infections can cause severe inflammatory disease in humans, but may be tolerated by their animal hosts although how this occurs is unclear. Many human diseases have underlying inflammatory aetiologies so determining how diversity in host-pathogen responses occurs across animal species provides unique opportunities not only to identify fundamental inflammatory mechanisms, but also to find new anti-inflammatory therapeutic targets. Previously we found how the zoonotic bacterium Salmonella is sensed by Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRRs) to form macromolecular signalling platforms that trigger interconnected, caspase-dependent cell death pathways critical for inflammation and infection control. How these signalling platforms form is unclear. Our cross-species analysis identified major differences in key constituents of these signalling platforms which, we hypothesise, will alter the host inflammatory response to zoonotic pathogens. Our recent discovery of a novel caspase with defective activity against Salmonella in Carnivora spp supports this idea. AviCeD will leverage our new suite of techniques where we endogenously label, mutate or remove innate immune proteins in cell-lines from any species to determine how PRR-driven cell death platforms form in cells in response to infection. We will compare cells from chicken and ducks infected with Salmonella or Influenza virus, as reservoirs species with differential severity in their host inflammatory responses to these pathogens, performing proteomic analysis alongside evolutionary analysis and functional validation to identify key regulatory proteins. We will then analyse the physiological relevance of differential cell death pathway wiring on cell extrinsic inflammatory consequences in two-cell infection models.

Mots-clés : pattern recognition receptors,toll like receptor,inflammasome,nod like receptor,inflammation,cell death,pyroptosis,necroptosis
Projet ERC : TregCode (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and I mmunotherapy
Entité participante : Université de Cambridge — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2499960.0 €

Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) are highly potent immunosuppressive cells. Most of our understanding of Tregs is based on the population present in lymphoid tissues, however to harness their anti-inflammatory power in the clinic we need to understand the tissue-resident population. Converting generic Tregs into expanded proto-tissue Tregs, capable of entering inflamed tissues, adapting to local conditions, and driving an anti-inflammatory pro-rejuvenation process would transform cell therapy. However to be able to encode a tissue-resident function into Tregs, we first need to decode the cellular induction signals that allow a Treg to become a tissue Treg, and decode the molecular processes of Treg tissue entry and reprogramming into the residential phenotype.  This project seeks to dissect Treg tissue-residency at an unprecedented scale. The applicant’s team has developed and validated cutting-edge technology, “FlowCodes”, to enable massively-parallel functional testing of the tissue Treg repertoire and genetic control. The project will test the cellular behaviour of ~500 tissue Treg TCRs and ~500 gut Treg TCRs through retrogenic TCR analysis, across multiple organs, in health and disease, identifying the site of Treg induction and disease-responsiveness for each. The project will further test ~400 potential genetic cofactors (migration genes, transcription factors, metabolic adaptors), for contribution to tissue residency and potential to aid anti-inflammatory responses. Finally, the project will provide a proof-of-concept for re-encoding the identified residency features, and systematically test combinations of decoded TCR and genetic factors for the ability to augment tissue-residency and disease suppression in Tregs. The project therefore not only unravels the biological rules for Treg residency, it provides a pathway back to Treg cell therapy engineering.

Mots-clés : regulatory t cells treg,t cell receptor tcr,t cell differentiation,tissue entry
Projet ERC : BBThoughts (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Entité participante : Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives — Pays : France — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : CEA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2093468.0 €

Understanding the initial architecture and learning algorithms of the human brain are central goals for cognitive neuroscience. Anatomical and functional brain-imaging studies have revealed that a complex brain architecture is already present at birth, including features associated with adult brains such as structural and functional asymmetries, long-distance connectivity and activations in prefrontal cortex. Despite such advances, little is known about the depth of information processing and the richness of mental representations in human infants. To address this issue, I propose to study the dynamics of information processing and conscious access in 3–4-month-old-infants. Using high-density EEG (128-280 channels), combined with new methodological approaches such as decoding, single-trial analyses of variability patterns, and new paradigms that monitor infants’ attention with frequency tagging, pupillometry and eye-tracking, I will separate infants’ short-lived, externally triggered versus sustained, internally driven responses and shed light on their roles in early learning. WP1 will study whether the properties associated with conscious access in adults (ignition, top-down amplification, serial bottleneck) are already present in infants, and explore how ongoing neural activity, top-down expectations, and bottom-up stimulus features combine to modulate conscious access. WP2 will investigate the dynamics of acquisition and manipulation of symbolic representations. Experimental manipulations combined with fine-grained analysis of the temporal dynamics of EEG signals will clarify the time constants of infant cognition: how fast a stimulus enters perceptual awareness, how long attention can be maintained, how robust is this central representation to competing inputs, and how quickly it leads to stable learning. This project aims to enhance our understanding of early cognition, as well as provide new paradigms to shed light on early learning disabilities.

Mots-clés : eeg,infant learning,expectation,consciousness,symbols,brain,cognition
Projet ERC : CureFSGS (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UKE
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2500000.0 €

Kidney diseases are a worldwide rising major health problem associated with an excess risk for cardiovascular disease and reduced life expectancy. While general risk factors for kidney diseases such as diabetes and hypertension are being addressed through numerous research efforts, causes of specific glomerular kidney diseases, especially Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), remain poorly understood. FSGS is the most common glomerular cause of end stage renal disease characterized by scaring of the glomerular kidney filters and podocytes loss. Until now, the development of specific therapies has been hindered by the poor stratification of FSGS entities and the lack of understanding of immune mediated forms of FSGS. CureFSGS will establish a new strategy to identify key factors in FSGS: First, CureFSGS will develop a molecular classification of FSGS entities by utilizing a worldwide unique kidney sample repository/ registry combined with a novel analysis pipeline of single cell analytics, multiplex imaging and machine learning-aided image analysis to guide clinical decision making and to provide novel molecular insights. Second, CureFSGS will precisely decode immune mediators of FSGS and systematically map the podocyte response towards immune actions by devising a novel complementary platform of immune cell analytics and podocyte in vitro, ex vivo perfused kidney, in vivo as well as human organoid systems. Third, CureFSGS will ultimately precision target the identified immune cells, soluble immune factors or podocyte injury pathways by newly developed cell-specific AAV- and nanobody strategies. Together, CureFSGS will set the stage to finally understand and treat FSGS effectively.

Mots-clés : translational medicine,nephrology,kidney physiology
Projet ERC : UNPAG (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Entité participante : Université de Göttingen — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : GAU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2492200.0 €

Universal paradigmatic gaps are gaps in linguistic paradigms that appear across languages and across users of a given language. As of yet, only very few gaps of this kind have been discussed in the literature. The one gap that has received substantial discussion concerns the universal absence of a lexicalized negated form for the quantifiers all, every or always: There appears to be no language in the world that exhibits a single word (or lexical item) that means ‘not all’, ‘not every’ or ‘not always’, an observation dating back to Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). UNPAG will show that the landscape of universal paradigmatic gaps is in fact much richer and more varied than generally thought of. It is deeply enigmatic that such words do not exist across languages and cultures. Clearly, any theory seeking to explain such missing lexicalizations, i.e. any theory of universal paradigmatic gaps, should be able to make clear predictions about what may or may not be lexicalized, and why that is the case. Such a theory has thus far not been developed. It is also without question that such a theory should have a broad empirical foundation. To date, the pool of data has been heavily slanted toward well-studied, Western, Indo-European, adult spoken language, and negative quantifiers therein. No existing study has thus far come even close to targeting a richer empirical base, even though many more universal gaps can be observed! UNPAG will be the long-overdue filler of this gap.  Understanding the nature, distribution and behaviour of universal paradigmatic gaps will have several profound implications for our understanding of human cognition, language and communication. UNPAG is the first panoramic study of universal paradigmatic gaps. Why is it that we cannot always say what is thinkable? UNPAG will provide an answer to this question and show when, how and why universal paradigmatic gaps may emerge in the languages that we speak or sign.

Mots-clés : paradigmatic gaps,negation,quantifiers,polarity sensitivity,modality
Projet ERC : ECHo-LE (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Entité participante : Université Johannes-Gutenberg de Mayence — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : JGU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 261105.0 €

The discovery of the neutrino mass scale is a milestone for shaping the extension of the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Experiments looking at the endpoint region of low energy beta decay and electron capture spectra benefit from a clear signature of massive neutrinos which only depends on energy and momentum conservation. Along with the well-established use of tritium, as in the KATRIN experiment where the present best limit of 0.45 eV at 95% CL was reached, two collaborations, ECHo and HOLMES have pioneered the use of Ho-163. In both experiments, low temperature microcalorimeters enclosing the Ho-163 source are used. Both collaborations have demonstrated the suitability of Ho-163 for a large experiment. The project ECHo-LE (ECHo-Large Experiment) will be built on the hardware and on solid results obtained with the ECHo experiment and will feature large arrays of metallic magnetic calorimeters where each detector encloses Ho-163 for an activity of 10 Bq. A new cryogenic multiplexer which ensures a homogeneous performance will be used for the readout. On-line data reduction and will be developed to allow for a limited saving space. Following the data analysis developed for the ECHo experiment, new fitting procedures will be tested to reduce the effects of systematic uncertainties. The experiment, consisting of 20000 detectors with gaussian detector response having full width at half maximum of less than 5 eV, will be built in the first two years of the project. After installation, the experiment will run for at least two years. The goal is to acquire more than 10 billion Ho-163 events. The analysis of the data will allow for significantly improving the knowledge of the Ho-163 spectral shape parameters and clearly search for an effect of a finite neutrino mass. ECHo-LE will be the first Ho-163 based experiment able to reach sub-eV/c2 sensitivity on the effective electron neutrino mass and set the basis for the ultimate Ho-163 based experiment.

Mots-clés : neutrino mass,ho 163,low temperature microcalorimeters
Projet ERC : ReprOids (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Fondazione per la ricerca biomedica avanzata ets — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : VIMM
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 835207.5 €

Understanding the neurodevelopmental causes and mechanisms of the brain disease is challenging due to the limited access to the human brain tissues, the complexity of brain anatomy and the lack of accurate models to recapitulate human brain development. The convergence between induced pluripotent stem cell and organoid technology enable to recapitulate key features of early human neurodevelopment disease in vitro. However, the low efficiency, high cost and technical variability of generating induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) and organoids make an impossible challenge to design a powered study for associating patient genotype to organoids’ in vitro phenotypes. I will generate technology to produce human brain organoids from a selected patient in a robust, timely and seamless process and to capture - so far undetected - neurodevelopmental phenotypes. This will be obtained by combining reprogramming to nascent states of pluripotency with neurodevelopmental morphogenesis in three-dimension. Starting from a single nascent naive hiPSC, we will develop a process to form an epiblast cyst, then neuroepithelial cyst and forebrain organoid in continuous three-dimension process. I will use this technology to investigate genetic and epigenetic modifications in the early phase of neural development of Fragile X Syndrome (FXS). We will generate brain organoids from large cohorts of FXS patients for: i) profiling the whole spectrum of in vitro phonotypes associated with the variety of patient’ genetic and epigenetic modifications; ii) revealing unexplored developmentally regulated mechanisms; iii) design a powered study to assess targeted therapeutic options in FXS. ReprOids will allow the generation of human brain organoids from large cohorts of patients capturing in vitro the whole spectrum of disease manifestations. This will have huge impact in patient clinical management at the diagnostic, prognostic or therapeutic level.

Mots-clés : pluripotent stem cell,reprogramming,organoid
Projet ERC : RandoPEGMed (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Université Johannes-Gutenberg de Mayence — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : JGU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2477433.0 €

PEGylation, the attachment of the highly hydrophilic, biocompatible polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG) to therapeutics, has become a key strategy in current nanomedicine. PEGylation is indispensable for a broad variety of commercial therapeutics. They range from protein drugs to relevant nanocarriers, such as liposomes and lipid nanoparticles. PEG leads to the particular “stealth effect”, i.e., strongly prolonged blood circulation times and apparent “invisibility” for the immune system. This is also used for lipid nanoparticles (LNP) transporting mRNA vaccines, used worldwide against the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this powerful weapon is now in danger of becoming blunt: An increasing body of literature from immunologists, clinicians and biochemists shows a rapid increase of individuals (50-70% in industrialized countries) possessing anti-PEG antibodies (APAs). This causes undesirable rapid elimination of PEGylated drugs from the bloodstream, hypersensitivity and strong allergic reactions. RandoPEGMed introduces PEG-derived random copolymers for nanomedicine. These PEG copolymers with well-defined chain length possess randomly distributed “point mutations” along the chains, which both disables recognition by the immune system and formation of antibodies. The project will thus exploit monomer sequence statistics to eliminate immunogenicity, representing a radically new approach in polymer therapeutics. One pivotal aim is precise understanding of monomer sequence statistics in the anionic copolymerization of glycidyl ether monomers with ethylene oxide (EO). At the interface of polymer synthesis, pharmaceutical chemistry and medicine this project aims at preserving the benefits of PEGylation for the future. Based on our preliminary results and the hypothesis that anti-PEG antibodies cannot be formed against random PEG copolymers, this concept will have vast therapeutic implications for polymer conjugates, therapeutic nanoparticles and stealth liposomes.

Mots-clés : copolymerisation,polyether,monomer sequence regulation,polyethylene glycol,pegylation,bioconjugation,nanomedicine,polymer protein conjugates