Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : Spermotile (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Norinnova (Norway) — Pays : Norvège — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 10000.0 €

ERC starting grant 3D nanoMorph has achieved groundbreaking results that open an unprecedented opportunity for assisted reproduction technologies (ARTs). ARTs require selecting sperms with high fertilization potential - this is characterized by morphology, motility and kinematic parameters of sperms indicating their progressive motility. Current optical solutions for sperm selection can investigate only morphology, nature of motility and kinematics in terms of speed. Our groundbreaking solution enables studying the motion of sperm with unprecedented super-resolved details, which can be used to derive advanced kinematic features. The ART market is growing at an annual rate of 7.8%. Our population is aging, people are planning families at later ages, and fertility is deteriorating due to occupational, environmental and lifestyle factors. Thus, it is becoming a societal challenge to maintain population growth. This PoC grant aims to take the next step in transforming my groundbreaking research into innovation of commercial and societal value.
Projet ERC : FuseSeq (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut Karolinska — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 120000.0 €

Current advanced short-read sequencing technologies and third generation long-read sequencing technologies are still not capable of full molecule reconstruction in a high throughput manner due to their limited read length and throughput respectively. This project aims at bridging the gap between long reads and high throughput by developing a fragment labelling system compatible to high-throughput short-read Illumina sequencing technology. The labelling system consist of tags that can be incorporated into the target nucleic acid sequences using Tn5-transposase and can be subsequently used to create fragments from the target molecule, allowing the generated fragments to retain information of their original position in the target molecule, thus the reconstruction of the sequence of the original, individual target molecules from them. This technology has considerable market potential due to its relatively high ease of market entry as it can be incorporated in existing library preparation techniques for next generation sequencing since many of them readily use Tn5 transposase for fragment generation. Additionally, the ability to be able to link the short, high accuracy reads generated by high throughput next generation sequencing technologies can have a large interest in the field of genomics, by allowing the complete reconstruction of diploid human genomes by tackling more difficult, highly repetitive genomic segments, in the field metagenomics, by enabling the assembly of more complete genomes from clinical samples, and also in the field of transcriptomics, by providing information about isoform- and allelic-specific expression through the reconstruction of full length transcripts.
Projet ERC : SPHERO-NASH (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut Karolinska — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 100000.0 €

NASH is the progressive form of NAFLD that underlies the development of fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The global prevalence of NASH is estimated at 1 billion individuals. NASH is a major cause of death, now the major reason for liver transplantations and the disease is an important cause of hepatocellular cancer (HCC). Currently, there are no FDA-approved drug therapies available. Within the ERC project Hepaspher, a new liver model was developed in which human hepatocytes and non-parenchymal cells are grown in a 3D spheroid structure that phenotypically closely resembles human liver in vivo with respect to transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome for up to 35 days. This model has proven to be of valuable use for the development and treatment of liver diseases such as steatosis, cholestasis, hepatitis, insulin resistance, and fibrosis. In the SPHERO-NASH project, we focus on a more complex system whereby both inducers and mechanisms of NASH formation, drug-induced inhibition of NASH as well as studies of extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation including collagens and the role of ECM degradation control in the development and treatment of NASH can be studied. For this purpose HTS based screening in the SPHERO-NASH spheroid system will take place utilizing both siRNA target libraries and chemical inhibition libraries at HepaPredict AB with a proposed delivery of novel compounds/targets that can be further processed in drug developmental projects. We propose to commercialize the SPHERO-NASH model itself but also to commercialize targets and compounds found by siRNA and compound screening that regulate NASH formation and degradation. We aim to assess and demonstrate the commercial value to the pharmaceutical industry by building a strong knowledge transfer strategy. The SPHERO-NASH model thus has great fundamental and commercial potential in NASH drug discovery and development.
Projet ERC : SILORGS (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut Karolinska — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

To develop new drugs for treatment of diabetes, there is an immediate need for an in vivo approach allowing the assessment of β-cell function and survival in the living organism non-invasively, longitudinally and at single-cell resolution. We therefore transplant genetically engineered sensor islet organoids into the anterior chamber of the eye of mice for functional microscopic imaging. Using the cornea as a natural body-window, following their engraftment various aspects of β-cell function and survival can be readily imaged in these organoids. Functional studies demonstrate that engrafted islet organoids in the eye respond to the diabetic milieu of diabetic mouse models. We have extensively in vitro tested fluorescent biosensors that reflect key-events in β-cell function and survival. Following intraocular transplantation of mouse and human islet organoids expressing biosensors in their β-cells into healthy or diabetic mice, they will allow non-invasive, longitudinal in vivo monitoring of 1) glucose responsiveness, 2) Ca2+ handling, 3) functional β-cell mass, and 4) proliferation. Based on the in vitro tested biosensors, the major objective is to establish a robust pharma-industry in vivo imaging platform for validating newly developed diabetes treatment lead-compounds in early drug development. This screening service shall be performed on a commercial basis. The milestone of this proposal, to be achieved within 18 months, is the validation of the sensor islet organoid-based in vivo platform for testing the effects of new potential diabetes medicines on human β-cell function and survival in normal and diabetic mice.
Projet ERC : FMMF-AI (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université hébraïque de Jérusalem — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HUJI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Matrix multiplication consumes huge amount of resources: computing time and energy, primarily in AI applications. The industry has recognized the need for faster and more energy-efficient matrix multiplication with state-of-the-art solutions in software (e.g., DGEMM of Intel's math kernel library (MKL) for CPU and NVIDIA's CUDA for GPU) and hardware (e.g., Google's TPU and Intel / Habana labs Gaudi accelerator). Unfortunately, all present solutions employ a wasteful cubic-time algorithm. We have developed methods that provide speedup for matrix multiplication in SW and in HW. The novel developments of Prof. Oded Schwartz and his strong team are based on years of research, and are protected by several patents. The funds are requested to pursue business opportunity.
Projet ERC : CQDplay (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université hébraïque de Jérusalem — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HUJI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Displays are all around us. They are in smartphones, laptops, TVs, and cars and have become entwined in our everyday life with new features being added, such as the Augmented Reality technology. The market strives for constant improvement in display technology performance, with better colors, thinner formats, and new functionalities. The market share of Quantum Dot (QD) displays is constantly growing because of the pure colors emitted from colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals which enable a more vibrant and colorful viewing experience. Yet, the current QD displays are inefficient, not bright enough, consume relatively high energy, and have limited pixel resolution. In the ERC grant we have developed a generic method of binding and fusing two QDs into a new class of CQDM (Coupled QD Molecules). This opened the path for the synthesis of novel CQDMs with varying semiconductor nanocrystal monomers (e.g. size, shape, and composition). Herein, we propose to develop this concept towards the commercialization of CQDMs as unique and novel materials for innovative high quality displays. Such CQDMs, with two different cores each tuned to a different color, have the ability of dual-color emission, red and green, which can be controlled electrically. A pixeled layer of these novel materials can be inserted as the emissive layer in any of the present- and future-day display technologies, providing brighter and more stable and efficient displays alongside a much simpler production process compared to patterned separate red-green QD pixels. Preliminary discussions with leading companies and investors have highlighted this potential signifying that the development of this technology can be of significant industrial value. We plan to pursue this within the ERC-PoC grant by two main work packages focusing on the development of both the technological and business aspects aiming towards spinning-off a company or research and license agreement with a suitable chosen strategic partner.
Projet ERC : CancerFLCloneSeq (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université hébraïque de Jérusalem — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HUJI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Intra-tumor genetic heterogeneity imposes a great challenge on cancer therapy. Resistance to molecularly targeted therapies and chemotherapy can arise from selective growth of pre-existing sub-clones that carries drug-resistance mutations, altered metabolic and/or epigenomic states, providing a survival advantages. Early detection of these subclonal states can thus significantly aid cancer therapy. However, attempts to profile various types of primary cancer cells using single-cell techniques are relatively poor. One of the major limitations is the significant dropout rate (i.e., loss of alleles) observed in single-cell RNA-seq. It severely affects our ability to leverage single cell RNA-seq to accurately profile somatic mutation, to reveal cancer driver mutation and even extract low/mid-level expressed genes and splicing. For that reason, most of the efforts to expose mutations that are critical for cancer growth and can subsequently lead to more effective treatment are based on the sequencing of bulk populations. However, due to the noise introduced by PCR, sequencing and alignment processes, bulk sequencing is limited to identify mutations with a frequency higher than 5%. Here we propose to develop a novel 3D clone-based full-length RNA-seq profiling technology. A preliminary version of this technology for digital profiling of mRNA, already allowed us to significantly improve sensitivity comparing to gold-standard single-cell RNA-seq methods. Using this preliminary version on clones of lung adenocarcinoma, we revealed novel cancer stem like subpopulation that could not be detected using regular single cell RNA-seq maps. Altogether, improving the ability to detect rare mutations (<5%), splicing events and transcriptional variation between cancer cells, will be an extremely powerful tool for early diagnosis of cancer and effective means to improve personalized based drug treatment decision making.
Projet ERC : PHOTOCURE (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Institut Karolinska — Pays : Suède — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 50000.0 €

Antibiotic-resistant bacterial skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) are difficult to diagnose and treat, prolonging hospital stays and lowering quality of life. Chronic wounds harbour antibiotic-resistant microorganisms that form biofilms, leading to conditions like diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs). Approximately 50% of DFUs become infected, making them the most prevalent and costly diabetes complication, with a higher mortality and morbidity risk from lower limb amputation. There is an urgent need to develop effective, localised solutions for treating SSTIs that do not depend on antibiotics, especially against complex biofilms like those occurring in DFU cases.  In this Proof of Concept project, we will evaluate a PHOTOCURE wound patch: a porous nanothin Ag/TiOx film with visible-light photocatalytic activity that produces superoxide radicals to effectively eradicate biofilms in the SSTIs context. The patch boasts enhanced mechanical stability for durability and sustained activity across multiple irradiation cycles, offering a viable option for recurrent treatment. PHOTOCURE patch presents a more efficient drug-free alternative to conventional antibiotic treatments, with reduced adverse effects, addressing the escalating challenges of antibiotic and multidrug resistance.  The project will validate the antimicrobial efficacy of TiOx-polymer nanocomposite patches against both single and multiple-species biofilms relevant to chronic SSTIs, notably DFUs, using ex vivo and in vivo human-relevant models. Subsequently, we will devise a comprehensive IP strategy, secure initial patents, and conduct thorough market and competitor analyses within the antimicrobial wound care dressing sector. Finally, we will outline a detailed business case for advancing the PHOTOCURE prototype to market.

Mots-clés : antimicrobial resistance,wound dressings
Projet ERC : AGROSTERICS (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Vienne — Pays : Autriche — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Uni Wien
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The advent of agriculture has played a decisive role in humankind’s ability to create localized settlements, which has consequently led to the development of complex societies. With increases in human population, the need for reliable large-scale agriculture grew. Sustenance of modern society is a significant societal challenge and relies heavily on two factors: fertilization and crop protection. While the Haber-Bosch process, and related concepts, have contributed to solving the former, crop protection remains a key issue. Significant innovation in many key areas is necessary to enhance the effectiveness of crop protection, as the invention of economically viable processes for the creation of novel types of crop protection agents will play a decisive role in enabling agriculture to sustain the world’s population. In a project supported by the ERC CoG VINCAT, Nuno Maulide and his group (at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Vienna, Austria) have made groundbreaking discoveries that could significantly impact the production of agriculturally relevant compounds. The goal of the ERC PoC project AGROSTERICS is to implement this technology to ultimately demonstrate its efficacy and to develop an appropriate market analysis and IP strategy
Projet ERC : CArLA (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
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 : 150000.0 €

Causal AI is widely perceived as crucial in the current AI landscape as it allows capturing causal effects amongst features in data, rather than simple correlations. Causal discovery is an important aspect of machine learning as it paves the way towards achieving Causal AI. It amounts to extracting causal graphs from data, encoding the structure of causal relations amongst features in data. There is a gap in the state-of-the-art in AI as concerns causal discovery, in that most approaches are black-boxes, hard to understand and explain, and unable to engage domain experts to integrate and possibly contest the learnt graphs when they are misaligned with human knowledge and values. CArLA aims at developing a platform for transparent, explainable, interactive and contestable causal discovery, based upon an existing principled methodology and prototype, as well as XAI techniques, developed within the ERC Advanced ADIX project. CArLA’s platform will support understanding the causal discovery process from data and experts while being able to influence it. Any developer or user of applications in high-stakes domains will benefit from using this uniquely trustworthy platform. CArLA aims to develop two demonstrators of the beneficial use of the platform in the high-stakes domains of healthcare and finance, to pave the way to commercialisation with a spinout.
Projet ERC : PredRegNetworks (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université hébraïque de Jérusalem — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HUJI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a heterogeneous disease, associated with mortality and severe morbidity, and affecting hundreds of millions of people around the globe. Despite some misconception accepted in the public, current models to predict the onset of T2DM have insufficient power, and are generally limited to individuals that already progressed into pre-diabetes states, at which the assignment of disease-preventing treatments is largely ineffective. Clinical-level prediction power (AUC>0.9) among non-diabetic individuals would enable effective pre-emptive strategies, but the way to produce such predictions remined unknown. Based on a new understanding of enhancer-silencer regulatory networks, I have developed a new class of supreme epigenetic biomarkers. Disease-prediction models that built on the basis of these novel understanding and biomarkers, significantly overpower the best currently-available prediction models. Importantly, these pioneering models can identify the people at risk well before the appearance of any clinical symptoms. Strong preliminary evidence signified the potential to develop the first clinical test to identify the risk to develop T2DM and associated diseases among non-pre-diabetic individuals at the required prediction power, and in time to deliver effective disease-preventing treatments. Validation of these results and demonstration of the effectiveness of the new clinical-level test will allows the directions of the effective (though expensive) preventing treatments to the people at risk, thus dramatically improve the way we are dealing with this harmful disease.
Projet ERC : AIHLiquidBiopsy (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université hébraïque de Jérusalem — Pays : Israël — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HUJI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The identification of the causative agent and mechanism of liver disorders is essential for effective treatment. The diagnostic challenge is differentiating autoimmune hepatitis, drug induced liver damage, and other non-viral causes of liver disease. Current diagnostic guidelines require in many cases liver biopsy followed by monitoring response to treatment before conclusive diagnosis. Our objective is to replace liver biopsy in the parenchymal liver disease settings with a minimally invasive liquid biopsy from a blood sample.  We have developed cfChIP-seq, a liquid biopsy that enables detection of gene activity in the cells contributing to cell-free DNA. Cell-free DNA is mostly chromatin fragments — DNA-protein complexes. These carry post-translational epigenetic marks that are closely connected to gene regulation and activity in the cell of origin. By capturing fragments marked with active transcription and sequencing their DNA, we map genome-wide activity of genes in the cells contributing to circulating cell-free DNA.  Liver damage results in increased contribution of liver cells to circulating cell-free DNA. Moreover, our preliminary results show that we can detect differences in the cfChIP-seq signal from different liver pathologies and that these differences involve genes associated with the relevant liver damage mechanisms. We plan to develop methods for differential diagnosis of autoimmune liver diseases such as autoimmune hepatitis and other parenchymal liver diseases. This will be supplemented by a multi-center cohort of patients to train and validate these tools. Together these will establish a pre-clinical evaluation of the capabilities of the assay in differential diagnosis and enable development of a product that would change the way we diagnose these diseases. This product will improve the quality of diagnosis, reduce the number of liver biopsies, risk to patients and costs, and provide more detailed follow-up during treatment.