Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : PRENEMA (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Entité participante : University of Bern — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UB
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499671.0 €

Interactions between plants, herbivores and herbivore natural enemies, so-called tritrophic interactions, are important determinants of ecological processes and crop yields. Plants play an important role in tritrophic interactions through their capacity to recognize and respond to herbivores by activating defences. Interestingly, recent work shows that plants also respond directly to natural enemies of herbivores. However, the mechanisms and specificity of these responses are not well understood, and how they influence tritrophic interactions is unknown. PRENEMA aims at characterizing plant responses to the third trophic level as an hitherto overlooked mechanism governing tritrophic interactions. To this end, PRENEMA combines an interdisciplinary approach with a new phenotyping method and a tractable, ecologically and agriculturally relevant, tritrophic model system consisting of maize and its wild ancestor teosinte, the root herbivore Diabrotica balteata and the entomopathogenic nematode Heterorhabditis bacteriophora. In a first step, PRENEMA will develop a novel root exometabolome sampling system to simultaneously extract and profile root water-soluble and volatile exudate metabolites. Second, PRENEMA will use this system to characterize changes in maize primary and secondary metabolites upon exposure to entomopathogenic nematodes, and assess the specificity of the responses across different maize and teosinte genotypes and nematode species. Third, a subset of the identified response markers will be used to uncover nematode-associated molecular patterns that are responsible for triggering plant responses. Fourth, the ecological consequences of the plant responses for plants, herbivores and entomopathogenic nematodes will be measured in the greenhouse and the field. The knowledge and technology generated by PRENEMA will help to integrate a new infochemical pathway into tritrophic interactions and will advance the state of the art in belowground chemical ecology.

Mots-clés : chemical ecology,tritrophic interactions,belowground interactions
Projet ERC : NOVELNOBI (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and communication engineering
Entité participante : Koç University — Pays : Turquie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

Interfacing with neural tissues is an important scientific goal to understand cellular processes and to combat nervous-system related diseases. Nanotechnology has a significant potential for the development of new neural interfaces. The atomic-level design and control of the nanostructures for neural interfacing can revolutionize the junction between neurons and nanomaterials. In this project, we propose a totally new approach for understanding fundamental requirements and from this knowledge designing customised nanomaterials with optimised characteristics. These will be used to develop and demonstrate unconventional neural interfaces that are ultimately designed, controlled and constructed at the nanoscale. Hence, the key objectives of this proposal are: (1) to use quantum mechanics in a new way to control and explore the neural photostimulation mechanism, (2) to explore, design and synthesize new biocompatible colloidal nanocrystals for neural photostimulation, to overcome the limitations in terms of toxic material contents (e.g., cadmium, lead, mercury, etc.), (3) to demonstrate novel biocompatible neural interfaces with exciton and quantum funnels, and plasmonic nanostructures for enhanced spectral sensitivity and dynamic range. This new approach from quantum mechanical design to nanocrystal assembly will enable exploring, tuning and controlling the underlying physical mechanisms of neural photostimulation. Furthermore, the biocompatible nanomaterials will result in a more reliable nanobiojunction. The funnel and plasmon structures will lead to unprecedented spectral sensitivities and dynamic ranges that are far beyond the state-of-the-art optoelectronic interfaces. The project is therefore expected to have high impact and may herald a new paradigm in neural interfacing. NOVELNOBI is expected to attract significant attention of researchers from diverse fields such as photonics, nanomaterials, photomedicine and neuroscience.

Mots-clés : nanocrystal,photostimulation,neuron,energy transfer,exciton,plasmon
Projet ERC : ANTIViR (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy
Entité participante : Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inserm
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499793.77 €

Interferons (IFNs), which are signalling proteins produced by infected cells, are the first line of defence against viral infections. IFNs induce, in infected and neighbouring cells, the expression of hundreds of IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs). The ISGs in turn induce in cells a potent antiviral state, capable of preventing replication of most viruses, including Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) and influenza A virus (FLUAV). Identifying the antiviral ISGs and understanding their mechanisms of action is therefore crucial to progress in the fight against viruses. ISGs playing a role in the antiviral state have been identified, such as human MX1, a well-known antiviral factor able to restrict numerous viruses including FLUAV, and MX2, an HIV-1 inhibitor. Both proteins bind to viral components but their detailed mechanisms of action, as well as the consequences of restriction on the activation of the innate immune system, remain unclear. Moreover, our preliminary work shows that additional anti-HIV-1 and anti-FLUAV ISGs remain to identify. In this context, this proposal seeks an ERC StG funding to explore 3 major aims: 1) unravelling the mechanisms of antiviral action of MX proteins, by taking advantage of their similar structure and engineered chimeric proteins, and by using functional genetic screens to identify their cofactors; 2) investigating the consequences of incoming virus recognition by MX proteins on innate immune signalling, by altering their expression in target cells and measuring the cell response in terms of gene induction and cytokine production; 3) identifying and characterizing new ISGs able to inhibit viral replication with a combination of powerful approaches, including a whole-genome CRISPR/Cas9 knock-out screen. Overall, this proposal will provide a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the antiviral effect of IFN, and may guide future efforts to identify novel therapeutic targets against major pathogenic viruses.

Mots-clés : interferon,antiviral restriction,hiv 1,influenza virus,genetic screens,innate immune signalling
Projet ERC : PRIVIGO (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : University of Helsinki — Pays : Finlande — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UH
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2407105.0 €

Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) such as the World Health Organization or International Maritime Organization have always been assumed to work for the public good. Yet, they also engage the private sector in many ways. Some are funded by the private sector or set up public-private partnerships; IGOs themselves act and compete on markets when procuring goods and services or when marketing their own services; and their operations and standard-setting activities inevitably affect the distribution of benefits between private parties. Like most organizations, IGOs allocate costs and benefits, and therewith affect the private sector. IGOs are said to exercise functions on behalf of member states and for the public good, yet the encounter with the private sector may see them act in tension with this public mission. PRIVIGO will investigate this tension, first, by examining how widespread private sector involvement is and how IGO law responds to this involvement. Second, PRIVIGO will examine how the underlying framework of the law is affected: the legal rules are informed by theoretical considerations that are, in turn, informed by assumptions and axioms that are rarely questioned yet may be fundamentally irreconcilable with private sector involvement. In this manner, PRIVIGO will change how IGO law and IGO lawyers perceive and understand IGOs, renewing IGO legal theory. PRIVIGO will build on case studies conducted in eight different and varied domains where IGOs with a clear public mission are active and connections to the private sector are visible: food security; transportation; energy provision; health; human re-settlement; finance; resources and environment; and arms control. PRIVIGO aims to develop the law relating to IGOs and build up solid theoretical foundations, mindful of the huge impact of IGOs on our everyday lives.

Mots-clés : intergovernmental organizations law,international law,international organizations
Projet ERC : TextualMicrocosms (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : Hebrew University of Jerusalem — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HUJI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1999655.0 €

Interlinear translation – a bilingual genre that includes an original text and its word-for-word ‘equivalents’ in translation written in alternating lines on a single page – has been practiced in diverse societies over many centuries, yet has been little studied. Because it prioritizes detail and precision, the interlinear translation paradigm tells us more than any other about the workings of translation and the unavoidable choices inherent in every translation act. This project employs the interlinear text as a theoretical and methodological framework to study inter- and intra-cultural contacts, intersections and divergences. Approaching such texts as “textual microcosms,” it will explore a host of religious, intellectual, literary and linguistic processes and encounters as expressed and reflected on the interlinear page. The study’s focus is on interlinear translations produced between the late 16th and 20th centuries in the Indonesian-Malay world, a historically and culturally linked region now encompassing Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, southern Thailand and the southern Philippines. One of the world’s most linguistically diverse regions, it has seen Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, Christian, and Islamic textual traditions locally adopted and adapted over the centuries, often through the interlinear model. Five themes will be examined and combined in researching multiple texts to produce a holistic study of the interlinear phenomenon: local terminologies; religio-cultural aspects; script choice and use; standardization, untranslatability and mistranslation; visual elements. The study will expand our understanding of the nature of translation’s manifestations worldwide and offer new conceptual and methodological tools for studies of other regions and cultures. The findings will be of relevance to linguists studying language change, historians of culture and of religious pedagogy, and scholars in manuscript studies and art history.

Mots-clés : translation,indonesian malay world,islamic manuscript studies
Projet ERC : MCLPS (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Individuals, Markets and Organisations
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 : 2099223.0 €

International migration is among the most important issues that have shaped the policy debates and political landscape in Europe in recent decades. Both the intra-European migration of workers and the influx of refugee migrants from outside Europe pose enormous economic and political challenges to Europe in the coming decades. This proposed research will investigate three key areas in which migration can have fundamental consequences for both economies and societies: (i) The Impact of Migration on Workers, Firms, and Productivity; (ii) Migration and the Rise of Populism; and (iii) Immigration, Integration and the Policies of the Welfare State. The specific questions to be addressed include: How does the policy of free mobility affect workers and firms in sending and receiving countries, through channels other than the standard demand-supply mechanism? How does immigration affect citizens’ voting behaviour? In particular, what are the roles of past and present economic circumstances and the media in driving the relationship? What are the intended and unintended, and immediate and long term effects of policy reforms on residency rights of and welfare transfers to refugee migrants? The research will combine innovative theoretical perspectives with state-of-the-art empirical analyses, exploiting linked employer-employee datasets and population registers, as well as previously unexplored data sources on voting and electoral outcomes to uncover important causal relations. All the proposed research questions, while focused on immigration, also speak to different core issues on the frontier of economics research, including inequality, rent sharing between firms and workers, productivity, political economy, and welfare reforms. The results of this investigation will thus not only provide relevant insights for contemporary immigration policies in Europe but deepen our core understanding of the economy that should reach well beyond it.

Mots-clés : migration,geographic labor mobility,immigrant workers,refugees,wages,inequality,government policy,provision and effects of welfare programs,populism,elections,voting behavior
Projet ERC : Relieve-Chol (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : University of Cambridge — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : U. Cambridge
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 149907.0 €

Intra- hepatic Cholangiocytes represent one of the main cell type of the liver with hepatocytes. They line the biliary tract and fulfill essential functions such as bile modification and transport. Cholangiocytes are targeted by a diversity of diseases including genetic disorders such as Cystic Fibrosis. There is currently no cure for disorders affecting cholangiocytes and end stage disease require liver transplantation. Importantly, primary cholangiocytes obtained from biopsy can not be grown in vitro without loosing their functional characteristics while transformed cells and animal models rarely recapitulate the entire pathophysiology of human diseases. Consequently, the development of novel drug and therapies remains problematic despite an urgent clinical need. Human induced pluripotent stem cells could provide an advantageous solution to bypass this major challenge. Indeed, these pluripotent stem cells are generated by direct reprograming of somatic cells and they can proliferate almost indefinitely in vitro while maintaining their capacity to differentiate into almost any cell types. Interestingly, hIPSC can be derived from patients with genetic disorders and then differentiated into the relevant cell types for disease modeling purposes. Of direct interest, we recently developed a protocol to generate cholangiocytes from hIPSCs using chemically define conditions. The resulting cells display functional characteristics of their in vivo counterpart including the capacity to transport bile acid. Here, we propose to enable our culture system for the production of large quantity of hIPSCs derived cholangiocytes in conditions compatible with the pharmaceutical industry requirements. The resulting cells will be then fully characterized to validate their relevance for modeling Cystic fibrosis and for testing small molecules. Thus, the overall objective of this project is to create a novel drug screening platform for the discovery of therapeutics targeting genetic form of cholangiopathies.

Mots-clés : cholangiopathies,drug screening,cholangiocytes,liver diseases,genetic disorders
Projet ERC : NeuroInCellNMR (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions
Entité participante : Weizmann Institute of Science — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1143821.37 €

Intracellular aggregation of the human amyloid protein alpha-synuclein is causally involved in Parkinson’s disease, a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder. The goal of this project is to combine low-resolution, fluorescence-imaging methods with high-resolution in-cell NMR and EPR spectroscopy techniques to derive macroscopic and microscopic insights into alpha-synuclein aggregate structures directly in neuronal cells. To achieve this goal, we will employ different sets of cultured neurons and investigate intracellular alpha-synuclein aggregation under defined conditions of mitochondrial dysfunction and cellular oxidative stress, two of the most common denominators of the disease. Importantly, we will also establish a human stem cell model for studying alpha-synuclein aggregation with high-resolution in-cell NMR and EPR methods, by using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived dopaminergic neurons from Parkinson’s disease patients and control individuals. Results from this study will provide novel insights into the native mechanisms of intracellular aggregate formation and ultimately enable novel pharmacological approaches for therapeutic intervention.

Mots-clés : cellular structural biology
Projet ERC : G-Statistics (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
Entité participante : Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Inria
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2183583.75 €

Invariance under gauge transformation groups provides the natural structure explaining the laws of physics. In life sciences, new mathematical tools are needed to estimate approximate invariance and establish general but approximate laws. Rephrasing Poincaré: a geometry cannot be more true than another, it may just be more convenient, and statisticians must find the most convenient one for their data. At the crossing of geometry and statistics, G-Statistics aims at establishing the mathematical foundations of geometric statistics and exemplifying their impact on selected applications in the life sciences. So far, mainly Riemannian manifolds and negatively curved metric spaces have been studied. Other geometric structures like quotient spaces, stratified spaces or affine connection spaces naturally arise in applications. G-Statistics will explore ways to unify statistical estimation theories, explaining how the statistical estimations diverges from the Euclidean case in the presence of curvature, singularities, stratification. Beyond classical manifolds, particular emphasis will be put on flags of subspaces in manifolds as they appear to be natural mathematical object to encode hierarchically embedded approximation spaces. In order to establish geometric statistics as an effective discipline, G-Statistics will propose new mathematical structures and theorems to characterize their properties. It will also implement novel generic algorithms and illustrate the impact of some of their efficient specializations on selected applications in life sciences. Surveying the manifolds of anatomical shapes and forecasting their evolution from databases of medical images is a key problem in computational anatomy requiring dimension reduction in non-linear spaces and Lie groups. By inventing radically new principled estimations methods, we aim at illustrating the power of the methodology and strengthening the "unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" for life sciences.

Mots-clés : computational anatomy,statistics on manifolds and lie groups
Projet ERC : M and M (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Advanced grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : University of Bristol — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2495578.0 €

Is the human mind a symbolic computational device? This issue was at the core Chomsky’s critique of Skinner in the 1960s, and motivated the debates regarding Parallel Distributed Processing models developed in the 1980s. The recent successes of “deep” networks make this issue topical for psychology and neuroscience, and it raises the question of whether symbols are needed for artificial intelligence more generally. One of the innovations of the current project is to identify simple empirical phenomena that will serve a critical test-bed for both symbolic and non-symbolic neural networks. In order to make substantial progress on this issue a series of empirical and computational investigations are organised as follows. First, studies focus on tasks that, according to proponents of symbolic systems, require symbols for the sake of generalisation. Accordingly, if non-symbolic networks succeed, it would undermine one of the main motivations for symbolic systems. Second, studies focus on generalisation in tasks in which human performance is well characterised. Accordingly, the research will provide important constraints for theories of cognition across a range of domains, including vision, memory, and reasoning. Third, studies develop new learning algorithms designed to make symbolic systems biologically plausible. One of the reasons why symbolic networks are often dismissed is the claim that they are not as biologically plausible as non-symbolic models. This last ambition is the most high-risk but also potentially the most important: Introducing new computational principles may fundamentally advance our understanding of how the brain learns and computes, and furthermore, these principles may increase the computational powers of networks in ways that are important for engineering and artificial intelligence.

Mots-clés : symbolic,non symbolic,neural networks,connectionism,object recognition,word identification