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

The emergence and establishment of mechanobiology has led to a growing demand for the mechanical characterization of biological samples. Moreover, nanomechanical tests for diagnosis and prognosis of diseases are now being applied in clinical trials. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is likely the most versatile, robust, and standardized tool for nanomechanical tests of biological systems. However, commercial AFM systems are expensive, not dedicated to mechanical tests, and difficult to use and customize. To solve these problems, we propose to develop and build an open-source force microscopy prototype: openFMLab. Built on the instrumentation developed during ERC Consolidator project MechaDynA, the openFMLab system will be affordable, customizable, user-friendly, and dedicated to mechanical tests in biology. Cost reduction will be assured by using open-source design, hardware and software and a function exclusively dedicated to mechanical measurements. The development of robust protocols and algorithms for calibration, data acquisition and data processing will provide ease-of-use. Finally, the system will be modular and adaptable to any optical microscope and experimental setup. During the openFMLab project, we will design, build, implement, and test the system in-house and with external end-users at biology and biomedical laboratories and industrial partners. We will explore cost reduction and create collaborations to add value to the system and define licensing and knowledge transfer and commercialization strategies. The final goal of openFMLab is to make AFM for nanomechanical testing a common tool in any laboratory.
Projet ERC : MultiSeq (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut de recherche en biomédecine — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : IRB
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 70000.0 €

Recent advances in Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) of nucleic acids (i.e. DNA or RNA) have transformed biology and medicine. Today NGS is one of the main pillars of research in various biological disciplines, and it has already pervaded numerous fields of applications ranging from clinics to the biotechnological industry. Given its versatility and high demand, the global market for NGS is rapidly expanding, with the number of sequenced samples doubling every two years. However, while major advances in NGS were mainly related to a rapid increase in sequencing throughput per machine, the preparation of sequencing libraries - the other integral step of NGS, has largely remained unchanged. Currently, this step is the major financial and operational bottleneck for sequencing projects, limiting the widespread adoption and utility of NGS. Current state-of-the-art solutions for overcoming these problems either require high upfront costs and/or are laborious. We are developing a bioinformatics solution to these problems, which minimizes the cost and time of library preparation. Our approach, called MultiSeq, allows designing a multiplexing strategy to reduce the number of libraries followed by computational demultiplexing. We plan to extend the experimental proof of concept of our method by applying it to broadly sequenced species. In addition, we will integrate our algorithms into a versatile computing framework and develop a pilot project in an industrially relevant context. In parallel, we will perform market analysis and evaluate the most suitable IP protection and commercialization strategies of our technology. If successful, MultiSeq will be a game-changing approach that will impact sequencing technology and related industries by further democratizing the field of NGS and benefiting both the scientific community and society.
Projet ERC : SYNEBIO (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ESPCI PARIS-PSL
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Drug combinations can lead to the discovery of novel drugs by increasing efficacy or lowering toxicity through synergy. This can boost existing drugs, rescue drug candidates, and accelerate drug discovery for yet poorly addressed diseases. However, predicting synergy is difficult, and finding synergies requires high-throughput screening (HTS) in advanced cell models. Current solutions propose either HTS in 2D cell cultures or low throughput assays in 3D cell cultures, but not both.  On the basis of a technology developed in the ERC-funded AbioEvo project, we devised an innovative microfluidic platform for 3D culture and HTS of drug combinations. Miniaturization densifies routine 3D assays, resulting in a throughput increase of 10 to 100 times. Fluidic automation reduces liquid handling 500 times for a 100x100 drug library at a 10-point dose-response combinatorial screening. Furthermore, 3D culture models better predict later physiological responses, thus increasing the success probability of downstream drug development stages. We have shown dose-response measurements of 144 antibiotic combinations on bacteria on a single chip. In this POC, we aim to demonstrate the applicability of our technology to human cells and benchmark it based on existing screens for breast cancer cells. We will adapt the cell culture conditions and data analysis, perform market analysis, and examine industrialization feasibility. This will put us in a position to create a spin-off to reach the preclinical drug screening market and identify the most promising therapeutic areas. Indeed, the technology has the potential to screen for synergistic drug combinations at an earlier stage of the drug discovery process (thanks to miniaturization and automation) while providing a more reliable cellular response for later stages (thanks to 3D culture).
Projet ERC : PREDICT (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Turin — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 110000.0 €

Problem: In 2022, more than half a million lung cancer patients worldwide carrying KRAS mutations faced therapy resistance, a trend on the rise. Such cancers resist standard treatments and targeted therapies, leading to an average survival of 1.2 years post-treatment. The heterogeneous genetic background of KRAS-driven cancer adds further complexity, hindering personalized treatment due to resistance unpredictability.  Solution: Our Proof Of Concept (PoC) project PREDICT provides a personalized treatment roadmap for KRAS-mutant lung cancer, available through knowledge and genetic tools generated thanks to our ERC CoG grant KARMA, which was aimed at the understanding of the molecular mechanisms regulating the formation of the functional KRAS complex at the cell membrane. Using genetically-defined KRAS-mutant cell lines, our lab can facilitate direct comparisons of RAS-targeted treatments, including approved and trial drugs. This effort will empower clinicians to recommend effective strategies based on a patient's specific KRAS mutation, accounting for initial and potential acquired mutations and/or mechanisms of resistance. The model will evolve through in vitro testing, analyzing resistance mechanisms, and predicting therapies based on the patient's mutational landscape. Importantly, our approach eliminates the need for animal models.
Projet ERC : MECHANOMICS-POC (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut Mines-Télécom — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : IMT
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Mechanomics refers to the measurement of mechanical properties at the microscopic scale in biological tissues. Strong hopes are currently placed on mechanomics to evaluate quantitatively how a treatment or a gene expression affects the stiffness or strength of a tissue, with major impacts expected in drug discovery, diagnostics and genomics screening. However, there is a pressing need for new instrumentation technologies in mechanomics. In the BIOLOCHANICS ERC CoG project, we developed and validated a novel multimodal technology addressing these challenges. Our technology can perform the following actions: 1. apply controlled loads on tissue samples, 2. measure the induced bulk deformations at the micron level and 3. map the distribution of local stiffness of these tissues. Our technology shows very competitive potential for mechanomics in general. However, as an innovative technology, it remains now at the stage of a technological concept with a first laboratory application (TRL2-3) achieved within the ERC CoG BIOLOCHANICS project. Our global objective in MECHANOMICS-POC is to reach TRL 6 in order to take it further towards a commercial innovation: make a first integrated prototype, test it in an intended environment, and refine the comparison with existing technologies. Our specific objectives are (O1) to build an integrated user-friendly prototype; (O2) to determine further IPR strategy; (O3) to establish the commercialization strategy including market research, industrial partnerships and lead management; (O4) to validate the prototype in real-world conditions and present it to industrial stakeholders in the identified sectors. Beside the development and assessment of the prototype demonstrator, we will focus on the future exploitation and commercialization roadmap of this technology, which is aimed at becoming a standard laboratory equipment or service for fundamental research in life sciences and for drug discovery applications.
Projet ERC : CRISPR-SELECT (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HGF
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

CRISPR technologies have revolutionized genome editing in medicine, agriculture, biotechnology, and life-sciences research with their ability to generate virtually any DNA edit at any genomic site in any organism. However, editing frequencies can be restrictively low, requiring extensive screening to identify cells harboring desired edits. What remains elusive is a way to greatly boost the frequency of editing. While characterizing CRISPR-Cas systems, bacterial defense systems and the source of CRISPR technologies, we discovered a new mechanism that could kill unedited cells yet spare edited cells, regardless of the type of gene edit. This versatile and sequence-specific approach can be described as programmable counter-selection, as undesired cells are targeted for removal, and those cells can be targeted in a programmable way. If proven, this capability could radically boost the effective editing frequencies by removing unedited cells regardless of the underlying edit, providing much-needed relief to the burden of screening imposed on diverse genome-editing applications. Here, we propose to perform proof-of-concept experiments demonstrating this capability in human cells while exploring which editing applications would best benefit from this capability. The associated tasks build on my extensive work at the interface of CRISPR biology and technologies and leverages his numerous academic and industrial contacts. I ultimately aim to translate a novel biological insight from my group’s ERC Consolidator project into an innovative foundational technology, with a clear path toward its broad use in genome editing.
Projet ERC : MelanomaLNs (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut Weizmann — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : WIS
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Malignant melanoma is a deadly disease with a 3% lifetime incidence. Currently, no clinically approved companion diagnostics exist for immunotherapy in melanoma, and sentinel lymph node (sLN) evaluation remains the cornerstone of clinical decision-making. A sensitive, robust, and clinically applicable method for identifying patients at risk of developing metastatic disease is urgently needed. Studies in murine models have shown that lymph nodes (LNs) play a dual role in tumor immunity, both supporting immune activation essential for immunotherapy and paradoxically promoting metastatic spread by inducing systemic tolerance. We hypothesized that sLNs exhibit both pro- and anti-tumorigenic roles, varying across patients and disease stages. In a study of 69 melanoma patients, we applied spatial transcriptomics and proteomics to analyze sLNs, revealing immunological organization patterns associated with these opposing roles. A machine learning model trained on this data predicted distant metastases with 93% and 79% accuracy in involved and uninvolved LNs, respectively, demonstrating strong potential to improve clinical diagnostics. Building on these findings, we propose developing a multiplexed imaging panel to profile immune organization in both primary tumors and lymph nodes to guide patient diagnosis and stratification. This panel will be designed for compatibility with clinical workflows and tested on an independent validation cohort of 500 melanoma patients. To pave the way for commercialization, we will explore the market and value chain, identify and engage with relevant industry players and set up a commercialization plan with the aim of positioning our innovation as the new standard for diagnosing and managing melanoma patients. Our diagnostic assay will enhance treatment decisions by identifying high-risk patients at diagnosis, ensuring they receive timely intervention while sparing low-risk patients from unnecessary, potentially harmful and costly treatments.
Projet ERC : longCOVID-UVBtherapy (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Tel Aviv — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TAU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

As the number of COVID-19 cases grows worldwide, so does the number of those suffering from clinical parameters that last weeks to-months post initial recovery, termed long-COVID, with as much as 36.55% of survivors exhibiting long-lasting symptoms (e.g., weight loss, chest pain, cognitive and memory disorders, breathlessness) according to recent studies—an estimated ~157 million long-COVID adult patients worldwide to date. Clearly, this growing health problem represents a modern global medical challenge. This challenge is compounded by a knowledge gap regarding the causes and prevalence of long-COVID, leaving no effective treatments. As noted by The Lancet: “The scientific and medical communities must collaborate … and find effective treatments”. Based on findings from my ERC grant, supported by other COVID-related reports, I propose to validate a UVB radiation (phototherapy) protocol for the treatment of long-COVID patients. Our findings indicate that phototherapy induces an immunological shift that counters that of the COVID phenotype: from T helper (Th) 1 cells, which stimulate inflammation and cell-mediated immunity, to Th2 cells, which promote humoral immunity. Phototherapy is also expected to address a range of reported respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological, endocrine and metabolic long-COVID symptoms. Our PoC entails both validating via a clinical trial the proposed treatment, through a strong collaborative framework with Maccabi Healthcare Services, Israel’s second largest HMO, and conducting pre-commercialization steps to enable quick, easy dissemination on the global stage. Taken together, our value proposition is an effective, non-invasive, simple long-COVID treatment that can be implemented through already established phototherapy clinics worldwide, thereby offering immediate relief to long-COVID patients while simultaneously reducing the health and financial burden of severely overburdened health systems.
Projet ERC : HiddenUniverse (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Universe Sciences
Entité participante : Université de Tel Aviv — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : TAU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2250000.0 €

Low-mass (dwarf) galaxies, with masses under a few billion solar masses, hold significant importance in astrophysics. They are the key objects in challenging dark matter models on small scales, yet considerable uncertainties remain in our understanding of their baryonic physics. Dwarfs also hold important clues on early star formation and chemical enrichment, and on the buildup of galaxies and the black holes within them. However, studying them has been hard – their low surface brightness nature makes them challenging to detect using standard instrumentation and survey techniques. Despite decades of research, our understanding of dwarfs primarily relies on those in our galactic neighborhood, orbiting the Milky Way. Recent technological advances have sparked a thrilling era of rapid dwarf galaxy discovery beyond the Milky Way. I propose a research program using two novel wide-field surveys, capitalizing on instrumentation designed specifically for this purpose to transform three key aspects: (1) With data from the Dragonfly Wide Field Survey, I will perform a pioneering study of galaxies down to the ultra-faint regime well beyond the Local Group. I will also utilize proprietary data from the Merian Survey to construct a sample of 100,000 classical dwarf galaxies at a redshift of z=0.05-0.1. These datasets will establish a solid foundation for understanding the census low-mass galaxies; (2) By combining kinematic measurements and dynamical modeling, I will obtain constraints on dwarf’s dark matter halo profiles, shedding light on core vs. cusp structures, dynamical friction, and dark matter on small scales; and (3) Pinpoint the baryonic processes that shape these galaxies by studying their stellar, gas, and star formation properties. With leadership roles in both observational initiatives, an in-depth understanding of the data, and exclusive data access, I'm uniquely positioned to lead this program, timed ahead of future community surveys like LSST, Euclid, and Roman.

Mots-clés : dwarf galaxies,dark matter in dwarf galaxies,galaxy halo connection,low surface brightness imaging,galaxy surveys,galaxy stellar mass function,star formation
Projet ERC : brainsex (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and Processes Engineering
Entité participante : University College Dublin — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UCD
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499914.0 €

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a multi-anatomical-scale mechanical injury affecting 30 million women globally each year. brainsex will focus on the sex specific biomechanics of TBI in the elderly population motivated by the highest reported incidence of TBI in people over 75 years old. Furthermore, in the elderly population women account for more TBIs than men. However, women remain underrepresented in TBI research. Finite element brain models (FEBMs) have played a major role in improving our understanding of TBI. However, current FEBMs have been developed using male-only data and cannot accurately model female TBI due to the distinct sex specific neuroanatomies. I will embark on frontier research to test the hypothesis that TBI biomechanics are sex specific due to the multiscale sex specific neuroanatomy, causing damage to brain tissue, cerebral vasculature, and neurons under lower impact forces in women compared to men. To realize this ambitious goal, my team and I will develop ground-breaking sex specific FEBMs incorporating the multiscale sex specific neuroanatomy and constitutive damage properties of brain tissue and cerebral vasculature providing more accurate predictions of TBI from high energy head impacts. We will develop novel experimental technologies to characterise the constitutive damage properties of brain and cerebrovascular tissue (Aim 1), and neurons (Aim 2) under conditions required to model brain deformation during TBI. This data will be used to develop the first ever microstructure-informed constitutive damage model for brain tissue (Aim 2). This model combined with the FEBMs will revolutionise TBI biomechanics (Aim 3). brainsex will open new research horizons for biomechanics research focussing on the important role sex plays in tissue biomechanics. brainsex will deliver a breakthrough in our understanding of TBI biomechanics by delineating the sex dependent mechanical behaviour of brain tissue and cerebral vasculature during head impacts.

Mots-clés : biomechanics traumatic brain injury constitutive model experimental biomechanics atomic force microscopy
Projet ERC : DIASPORA (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Study of the Human Past
Entité participante : University College Dublin — Pays : Irlande — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UCD
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1417818.0 €

DIASPORA will focus on the Irish in post-war London and New York to provide a nuanced and penetrative investigation of the intersections between alcohol, drug use, mental health, migration and ethnicity. Crucially, it will interrogate the cultural and societal implications of the ubiquitous “drunken Irish” label, the disproportionate rates of alcoholism reported among Irish migrants/diaspora, and the perceived day-to-day roles of recreational drugs, drink and drinking spaces – both positive and negative – in the lived experiences of this cohort. The project will trace the interplay between expert, state, religious and cultural representations, before contrasting findings with first-hand accounts by Irish migrants/diaspora. By casting alcohol and drugs as prisms through which to view experiences and portrayals of the Irish abroad, the project will expose fault lines in existing historical studies of (i) Irish migration; (ii) migration, health and ethnicity; and (iii) alcohol and drugs, which have eschewed any meaningful examination of this topic. By drawing together these ordinarily distinct strands of historiography, and placing an ethnic stereotype at the centre of its investigation, it will redefine scholarly debates about other ethnic groups, as well as broader discourses on the physical and mental implications of migration and discrimination. DIASPORA’s overarching aim is to use the longevity of Irish migration to London and New York to enlighten the evolving ethnic and racial experience in Britain and the US. The project will offer a blueprint for future comparative analyses of health, ethnicity and race in historical perspective. To do so, it will blend traditional historical methodologies, including robust archival research on government files and Irish community and service centre records, with oral histories, and analysis of medical, sociology, social work and religious journals, autobiographies, fictional literature, drama, film and documentaries.

Mots-clés : alcohol and drugs history history of medicine history of psychiatry irish migration irish diaspora