Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : 2D-CHEM (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : Palacký University, Olomouc — Pays : Rép. Tchèque — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1831102.5 €

The suite of graphene’s unique properties and applications can be enormously enhanced by its functionalization. As non-covalently functionalized graphenes do not target all graphene’s properties and may suffer from limited stability, covalent functionalization represents a promising way for controlling graphene’s properties. To date, only a few well-defined graphene derivatives have been introduced. Among them, fluorographene (FG) stands out as a prominent member because of its easy synthesis and high stability. Being a perfluorinated hydrocarbon, FG was believed to be as unreactive as the two-dimensional counterpart perfluoropolyethylene (Teflon®). However, our recent experiments showed that FG is not chemically inert and can be used as a viable precursor for synthesizing graphene derivatives. This surprising behavior indicates that common textbook grade knowledge cannot blindly be applied to the chemistry of 2D materials. Further, there might be specific rules behind the chemistry of 2D materials, forming a new chemical discipline we tentatively call 2D chemistry. The main aim of the project is to explore, identify and apply the rules of 2D chemistry starting from FG. Using the knowledge gained of 2D chemistry, we will attempt to control the chemistry of various 2D materials aimed at preparing stable graphene derivatives with designed properties, e.g., 1-3 eV band gap, fluorescent properties, sustainable magnetic ordering and dispersability in polar media. The new graphene derivatives will be applied in sensing, imaging, magnetic delivery and catalysis and new emerging applications arising from the synergistic phenomena are expected. We envisage that new applications will be opened up that benefit from the 2D scaffold and tailored properties of the synthesized derivatives. The derivatives will be used for the synthesis of 3D hybrid materials by covalent linking of the 2D sheets joined with other organic and inorganic molecules, nanomaterials or biomacromolecules.
Projet ERC : GreenOnWaterCat (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Entité participante : Paderborn University — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499875.0 €

The target of the research program, GreenOnWaterCat, is to revolutionize the understanding of green “on-water” catalysis and to unravel its microscopic origin. To enable these goals to be reached, several novel theoretical methods will be developed and implemented that will enable for unprecedented large-scale quantum molecular dynamics simulations, where both the electronic and nuclear Schrödinger equations are solved simultaneously. In addition, these methods will also allow the efficient computation of various state-of-the-art vibrational spectroscopies “on-the-fly”, at essentially no additional computational cost. Furthermore, new analysis techniques permit to assign the spectra and explain their correlation with the atomic structure in order to gain invaluable insights and eventually grasp the relationships between the dynamics and structure of “on-water” catalysis and vibrational spectroscopies. Since the latter offers a convenient connection to experiment, the unique results are of utmost value in order to explain the experimental findings. In consequence, new synthetic processes based on the “on-water” phenomenon will be proposed and investigated. The expected results will be most helpful so that water will soon become not only a viable, but also very attractive solvent in the design of novel synthetic processes and to make it even more useful for industrial applications. Beside the development and implementation of novel computational methods, which will be made publicly available, the additional outcomes expected are as follows: • To conclusively explain the underlying mechanism of the “on-water” rate phenomenon for the first time • To elucidate the experimental measurements and characterize the corresponding atomic structure • To propose novel synthetic processes which exploit the “on-water” concept, such as catalysis at the organic/metal oxide interface • To investigate the possibility of “on-water” catalysis using two water-insoluble solid reactants
Projet ERC : POLARIS (Horizon 2020, appel 2020, Proof of concept grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Condensed matter physics
Entité participante : Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : ETH Zurich
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The technology for the growth of thin oxide films has reached the same level of atomic control as in the case of semiconductors. Yet, in contrast to semiconductors, oxides exhibit novel phases and functionalities like magnetic or electric order or dramatic changes of electrical resistance. One such functionality is the spontaneous formation of an electric polarization, called ferroelectricity, that is considered as basis for novel types of smart devices or energy-efficient functional components in CMOS devices. The infatuating technological potential of ferroelectric oxide heterostructures drives materials scientists to master their synthesis, understanding and control. Optimizing the ferroelectric performance is tedious, however. From the post-growth invasive and destructive analysis of prototypes, conclusions are drawn on the optimum heterostructure design and growth parameters. Monitoring the heterostructures while they are assembled in the growth chamber would provide immediate and direct feedback on the relation between growth and function and could thus immensely speed up the iterative process. The present lack of the according technique poses a restricting market factor. Here we will use a laseroptical process called second harmonic generation (SHG – doubling of the laser frequency) to track the emergence of the ferroelectric state directly, during the assembly of the oxide heterostructure in the growth chamber. Probing occurs in situ, non-invasively and non-destructively throughout the deposition process. With our Proof of Concept proposal POLARIS, we will cast such "in-situ SHG" into the prototype for a marketable system that is simply flanged onto the growth chamber. It is a technique with a high robustness against the sometimes harsh environmental conditions of a lab or, later on, a factory hall. Its ease of use will be similar to that a laser pointer.

Mots-clés : oxide electronics,thin film heterostructures,optical second harmonic generation,in situ,materials,processing diagnostics,ferroelectricity,electric polarization,pulsed laser deposition,laser
Projet ERC : Andrea (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Glycanostics sro — Pays : Slovaquie — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 61999.93 €

The technology validation was successfully completed indicating a great commercial potential, and the innovative and inventive aspects of the assay platform are now covered by the filed priority European Patent Office (EPO) patent applications. Validated glycoprofiling of the proteins now uses lectins in a format, fully compatible with clinical PSA assay kits. This PoC grant focuses on 1. Pre-clinical retrospective validation of the early stage biomarker of prostate cancer (PCa) and 2. Commercialisation of the PCa diagnostics kit. Pre-clinical (60 human serum samples) is ongoing and retrospective validation study (450 human serum samples) of the assay will be performed by statistical analysis using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The PoC describes all steps, which have been developed so far and all necessary steps, which need to be done for retrospective validation study, product development and commercialisation through our newly incorporated start-up Glycanostics Ltd. (www.glycanostics.com). We will provide PCa diagnostic test resulting in a second opinion to guide the right decision if the biopsy is needed. This will avoid the needless and unreliable biopsies and in the future rival an inaccurate PSA testing.

Mots-clés : prostate cancer,diagnostics,biomarkers,glycans,lectins,assay kit
Projet ERC : DirectThalamus (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : LMU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499914.0 €

The thalamus is the major gateway for sensory input to the brain, and, as such, has long been thought of as a mere sensory relay station. But accumulating evidence suggests that it is crucially involved in higher cognitive functions like memory formation and navigation. However, methodological obstacles still impede full understanding of the specific role of thalamus in human cognition. The core objective of DirectThalamus is to provide an advanced oscillatory model of subcortical processing as the neuronal basis of core cognitive functions. To this end, the project will address several key questions with the aim to identify and understand neuronal processing in the thalamus involved in human cognition: How does the human thalamus code and communicate information? And how does this contribute to spatial navigation and the formation and consolidation of memories? Using my unique expertise in innovative methodologies, I will exploit the rare opportunity to record and modulate intracranial electrophysiological activity in the human anterior thalamus. Together with intracranial recordings from the human hippocampus and comparative fMRI data from healthy subjects, these data will be used to test and establish a common coding framework for memory and navigation, highlighting contextual information processing as fundamental thalamic function. By directly recording and stimulating intracranial thalamic activity, DirectThalamus will provide novel and causal insight into thalamic mechanisms underlying core cognitive functions. The project will thereby push the boundaries of the state of the art in cognitive neuroscience towards a comprehensive understanding of cognition. Expanding the prevalent corticocentric focus on cognition to subcortical contributions will inspire new lines of research in fundamental and clinical neuroscience.

Mots-clés : memory,oscillations,navigation,thalamus,cognition,intracranial eeg,deep brain stimulation
Projet ERC : SPECTRUM (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Mathematics
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 : 824853.75 €

The theme of this proposal is the study of random operators associated with some geometric structure, and the influence of the geometry on the spectral properties of the operator. Such operators appear in problems from theoretical physics, and lead to new and interesting mathematical structures. One circle of questions is related to random operators, which describe the motion of a quantum particle in a disordered medium, such as random band matrices. The behaviour of the particle is influenced by the underlying geometry, as quantified by the (non-rigorous) Thouless criterion for localisation in terms of the mixing time of the classical random walk; in the context of random band matrices, the predictions of the Thouless criterion are supported by additional (non-rigorous) arguments. These predictions have so far not been rigorously justified; an exception is my own result, validating it at the spectral edges. One of our goals is to develop new methods, which would be applicable in the bulk of the spectrum, for random band matrices and other operators with geometric structure. Another circle of questions is given by random processes taking values in large random matrices. The spectral properties of the random matrix at every point of the underlying space are described by the random matrix theory; but how does the spectrum evolve along the underlying space? The richness of this question is apparent from the one-dimensional case of Dyson Brownian motion. We intend to study the local eigenvalue statistics of general matrix-valued random processes with multi-dimensional underlying space; to give a complete description of the random processes which appear in the limit, first for the spectral edges and then for the bulk of the spectrum, and to explore the appearance of these processes in a variety of basic questions of mathematical physics.

Mots-clés : random operators,spectral theory,random matrices
Projet ERC : QBH (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
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 : 1759064.0 €

The thermodynamic behavior of black holes is a precious clue in unravelling the microscopic structure of quantum gravity. High precision computations of quantum black hole entropy provide a new window into the fundamental microscopic theory of gravity and its deviations from classical general relativity. Traditional methods of quantum field theory have proved to be not well-suited to perform these computations. Two breakthroughs in my recent work establish new ground for progress. On one front, a new method to sum up all perturbative quantum contributions to the entropy of a large class of black holes has been developed. This gives rise to the first exactly solvable model of a quantum black hole. On a second front, a longstanding theoretical obstacle called the wall-crossing problem has been cleared in my recent work on the microscopic description of black holes in string theory. The newly-developed field of mock modular forms is shown to be the correct framework to address questions of exact black hole entropy. This makes a large class of microscopic models amenable to analytic control, many of which were previously beyond reach. These developments open up a new line of research that I propose to pursue along two intersecting avenues. First, I aim to extend the computations of exact quantum black hole entropy towards models of realistic black holes. Second, I aim to advance the theoretical understanding of quantum black holes by investigating the deeper origins of mock modular symmetry. As a concrete application, I aim to establish that newfound group-theoretical structures called “moonshine” symmetries are physically realized in quantum black holes, thus opening up connections between two exciting fields of research previously thought to be distinct. Together, the broad goal is to explain black hole microstructure through systematic computations of exact quantum entropy, and to investigate its consequences on the fundamental microscopic theory of gravity.

Mots-clés : black hole entropy,string theory,supersymmetric localization,automorphic forms
Projet ERC : CoaExMatter (Horizon 2020, appel 2019, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Entité participante : University of Groningen — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : RUG
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

The threads produced by velvet worms are remarkably sticky and stiff; the beak of a jumbo squid is extremely hard; and spider silk is incredibly tough. The extraordinary material properties found in these natural systems have been of interest to researchers for a long time. However, only recently, biologists discovered that a crucial element in the processing of many of these materials are coacervates, which are concentrated macromolecular phases that form upon liquid liquid phase separation from the initial solution. An understanding is emerging that the liquid coacervate phases enable extrusion of the material and allow for conformational changes within the material before solidification. Thus, the coacervate nature is crucial for obtaining extraordinary property profiles in these natural materials. Here I propose to mimic this environmentally benign processing of coacervate extrusion for the development of completely new synthetic materials. Previous work in my group has led to the development of bio-inspired synthetic coacervates with well-controlled architecture and composition, and of various tools to study their mechanics. Here, I will take advantage of this expertise to develop unique material systems by extruding synthetic coacervates and by using the induced mechanical stress to obtain alignment and conformational changes. Analogous to the wide variety of materials found in natural systems that commence as a coacervate, this processing principle may be applicable to a wide variety of synthetic material classes. In this research program coacervate extrusion will be used to produce fibers, rods or scaffolds composed of: polyelectrolyte complexes, liquid-crystal elastomers, peptide-polymers, protein-polymers and nanocomposites. This bio-inspired processing principle of coacervate extrusion will lead to materials with unexplored property profiles and holds great promise for the development of novel high performance materials obtained by green processing.

Mots-clés : bio inspiration,coacervation,fibers,polyelectrolytes,structure property relationships,spinning
Projet ERC : CHROMATADS (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Entité participante : University of Tübingen — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 719047.08 €

The three-dimensional organization of the genome, which strikingly correlates with gene activity, is critical for many cellular processes. The evolution of molecular techniques has allowed us to unveil chromatin structure at an unprecedented resolution. The most intriguing chromatin structures observed in animals are TADs (Topologically Associating Domains), which represent the functional and structural chromatin domains demarcating the genome. Structural proteins such as insulators proteins, on the other hand, have been shown to play crucial roles in mediating the formation of TADs. However, major structural factors relevant to chromatin structure are still waiting to be discovered in land plants. My preliminary work shows that TADs are widely distributed across the rice genome, and motif sequence analysis suggests the enrichment of plant-specific transcription factors at TAD boundaries, which jointly give rise to an exciting hypothesis that these proteins might be the long-sought-after insulators in land plants. By using various state-of-the-art molecular and computational tools, this timely project aims to fill a huge gap in plant functional genomics and substantially advance our understanding of three-dimensional chromatin structure. This project consists four major aims, which collectively will uncover the identities of plant insulator proteins and generate insights into the dynamics of structural chromatin domains during stress adaptation. Aim 1 will identify and characterize the stability and plasticity of functional chromatin domains in the rice genome during temperature stress adaptation. Aim 2 will identify insulator elements and other structural features of chromatin packing in the Marchantia polymorpha genome from a structural genomics approach. Aim 3 will establish the role of candidate proteins as plant insulators. Lastly, Aim 4 will generate functional insights into the molecular mechanism by which plant insulators shape the three-dimensional genome.

Mots-clés : chromatin,hi c,insulator protein
Projet ERC : GermlineAgeingSoma (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : University of East Anglia — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UEA
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2000000.0 €

The trade-off between survival and reproduction lies at the core of the evolutionary theory of ageing. Removal of germ cells extends somatic lifespan implying that reduced reproduction frees up resources for survival. Remarkably, however, the disruption of germline signalling increases lifespan without the obligatory reduction in fecundity, thus challenging the key role of the survival-reproduction trade-off. Recent breakthroughs suggest that protection and repair of the genome and the proteome of the germ cells is costly and compromised germline maintenance increases mutation rate, which can reduce offspring fitness. Thus, expensive germline maintenance can be a missing link in the puzzle of cost-free lifespan extension. This hypothesis predicts that when germline signalling is manipulated to increase investment into somatic cells, the germline maintenance will suffer resulting in increased mutation rate and reduced offspring fitness, even if total fecundity is unaffected. I propose a research program at the interface of evolutionary biology and biogerontology that focuses on phenotypic and evolutionary costs of germline maintenance. First, I will genetically manipulate germline signalling to boost investment into soma and estimate mutation rate and competitive fitness of the resulting offspring using Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes. Second, I will employ experimental evolution in nematodes to assess the long-term evolutionary costs of increased germline maintenance. Third, I will use germline transplantation in zebrafish Dario rerio to directly test whether germline proliferation reduces investment into soma in a vertebrate. Understanding how increased investment into the soma damages the germline and reduces offspring fitness will provide a major advance in our understanding of ageing evolution and will have serious implications for applied research programs aimed at harnessing the power of germline signalling to postpone ageing.

Mots-clés : ageing,senescence,life history evolution,disposable soma theory,condition dependent mutation