Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : PhotoTherEpi (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : University Hospital Bonn — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499375.0 €

As photo-activatable drugs (PDs) can be precisely controlled in space and time, caged and switchable photoactivatable drugs (CPDs, SPDs) are rapidly emerging as potential therapeutics for varied forms of cancer, vision loss, diabetes, or pain disorders. Despite their potential, PDs have not been exploited for epilepsy, a common, often debilitating neurological disorder. As 30% of epilepsies are medically intractable, and antiepileptic drugs often cause multi-organ side effects, PDs could break new therapeutic ground. PDs can be applied on demand, and locally activated/inactivated in single or multiple epileptic brain areas in a targeted fashion. This minimizes systemic side effects, and allows the application of potent drugs from other fields yet unthinkable in routine epileptology (e.g. general anesthetics). Importantly, being small molecules, different PDs can be combined or easily exchanged, and do not require protein expression. Using current and new PDs, we aim to control epileptic networks in vivo in a realistic epilepsy mouse model, and resected human brain tissue from patients with intractable epilepsy. Aim 1 will quantify antiepileptic potency of a range of PDs in human tissue using field potential and patch-clamp recordings, and cellular scale 2-photon imaging. In aim 2, PDs will be evaluated in vivo using wireless video-EEG, imaging and light-fiber-targeted drug photoactivation in chronically epileptic mice. Further, by use of caged immunomodulators, we will explore disease-modifying capacity of targeted PD photoactivation in epileptogenesis and chronic epilepsy. PhotoTherEpi will establish targeted photopharmacology as a versatile, and powerful new approach to control focal epilepsy, which could jumpstart a new branch of translational epilepsy research. The approach could obviate the need for resective surgery in many cases, and be used in multi-focal epilepsy. Importantly, it may be clinically tested in the foreseeable future.

Mots-clés : epilepsy,epileptic networks,photopharmacology,calcium imaging
Projet ERC : TempCOdE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Entité participante : University Hospital Bonn — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

A fundamental challenge for the brain is to extract relevant information from an ever changing external world. Natural odours are in a constant state of flux. Turbulent airflow shapes odours into spatiotemporally complex plumes that carry information about the olfactory scenery and provide vital clues about the location of, for example, food sources or predators. How the mammalian olfactory system extracts information about space from temporal odour dynamics, however, is still not well understood. Recent methodological advances in presenting dynamic odour stimuli, neural activity recordings and machine-vision algorithms now offer the exciting opportunity to address this fundamental question. Using a multidisciplinary approach, this project will uncover how temporally complex odour information is processed across the olfactory system and how odour dynamics give rise to behaviour.  We will first investigate how temporally complex odour information is represented across key structures of the mammalian olfactory system using in vivo physiology. This will provide important groundwork for the next step, elucidating the cellular and circuit mechanisms underlying the encoding of dynamic odours in the early olfactory system. Finally, we will study which features of temporally complex odours are used for navigation behaviour by simultaneously recording and correlating the animal’s respiration sampling strategy, the dynamic odour profile encountered by the animal and neural activity from early and higher order olfactory areas in freely moving mice.  By combining cellular and systems neuroscience with behavioural investigations, we aim to directly assess how mammals use olfaction to extract information about space from time. I strongly believe that this innovative research programme will generate novel and highly generalizable insights into how naturalistic sensory information is processed and that it will uncover neural mechanisms that give rise to our perception of the world.

Mots-clés : olfaction,sensory processing,temporally complex odours,olfactory guided navigation,plumes
Projet ERC : INTREPID (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Entité participante : Université d'Oviedo — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499375.0 €

The discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) closes a central chapter of the standard model (SM) of particle physics while raising several questions, such as the nature of dark matter, an explanation to neutrino masses, or the origin of baryon asymmetry in the Universe. The answer to those questions could be linked to the production of beyond the SM (BSM) particles which may have long lifetimes, compared to SM particles at the weak scale. If these long-lived particles (LLPs) were to be produced at the LHC, they would yield non-standard signatures which require dedicated identification algorithms. A complex filtering (trigger) system running sophisticated algorithms allows to decide, in real time, whether a given event of interest should be saved for data analysis or discarded. The general goal of this proposal is to enhance the trigger capabilities to enable the discovery of LLPs and thus find evidence of BSM physics exploring innovative technologies that may be of use in future facilities. With several years before the start of the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), it is now the perfect time to explore alternative trigger architectures and technologies not considered in the plans of the collaboration and that could not be explored otherwise. To this end, I will use a multidisciplinary approach involving advanced Machine Learning techniques and top-of-the-line ultra-fast processing platforms to propose an innovative solution that will improve the capabilities of future trigger systems. The foreseen studies might be the only way in which LLPs can be discovered at the HL-LHC. Any manifestation of such particles will revolutionise the field of High Energy Physics and help to answer several fundamental questions regarding the energy scale and nature of the BSM physics. Beside progressing in the frontiers of science, the designed techniques can be of great use for industries requiring real-time processing of large data-volumes to extract features.

Mots-clés : large hadron collider,high luminosity large hadron collider,trigger,field programmable gate arrays,adaptative compute acceleration platforms,long lived particles,muon,graph neural network,machine learning,real time processing
Projet ERC : CRIMLATAM (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Entité participante : Université Northwestern — Pays : Etats-Unis — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 29745.0 €

The impact of criminal organisations—gangs, mafias, drug cartels—in otherwise democratic societies can be severe. With the goal of profiting from illicit markets, they can control communities’ lives through criminal governance. As a result, they affect the quality of democracy by exacerbating vulnerabilities and forging anti-democratic preferences. Yet, we have a limited understanding of how criminal governance operates in these settings.  CRIMLATAM breaks new ground in political science by developing a new theory and empirical analysis to show how states’ capacity to provide welfare constrains criminal governance. Current theories, devised for weak, absent, or repressive states, cannot explain why criminal organizations operate in states with high capacity for welfare provision, nor can they make predictions about the nature of criminal governance in these unexpected places. This project posits that when there is an expansive welfare state, residents rely on its services and can also manage everyday life without resorting to criminal groups. Expansive welfare constrains criminal organizations’ actions limiting the scope of criminal governance.  Methodologically pioneering, the project relies on the systematic in-depth analysis of three unexpected cases: the cities of Puerto Limón in Costa Rica, Rosario in Argentina, and Santiago in Chile. It combines qualitative fieldwork with network-scale-up methods and list experiments embedded in a survey. It focuses on accessing hard-to-reach populations who experience criminal governance but whose voices and perspectives are largely missing from research, resulting in limited validity, reliability and impact of current knowledge.  The project will significantly improve our understanding of one of the most serious and persistent challenges for democracies today by demonstrating that governments can make choices, largely related to social welfare and security policy, that reduce the societal impact of criminal organisations.

Mots-clés : politics of crime criminal governance
Projet ERC : MAD Control (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : Helmut Schmidt University — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HSU
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1357435.69 €

The extremely popular engineering field of drug-eluting biodegradable scaffolds for regenerative medicine, cancer treatment and cardiovascular therapies has largely failed to ensure therapy at the right place, at the right time and with the right dose. Control of actuated drug release is the grand challenge to solve. Previous attempts struggled because, at this time, no technology is able to cope with the influence of scaffold alterations with degradation. MAD Control will establish a multifunctional platform for biodegradable cardiovascular scaffolds and (i) make model-based predictions of degradation states from real-time imaging, (ii) reveal which actuation is best for targeted drug release in the actual degradation state, and (iii) uncover how to generate this actuation. The platform comprises magnetic nanoparticles in hybrid scaffold materials, tailored for a double function: sensors for magnetic particle imaging, and actuators for drug release with magnetic fluid hyperthermia. The imaging results are matched with degradation states based on prediction models to be created, and magnetic fluid hyperthermia is induced in a multimodal device to be developed. Control is achieved by coupling material data streams, acquired through automated and comprehensive in-situ measurements of the hybrid materials’ properties, with modelling and control algorithms. Thus, the multifunctional platform promises a theranostic breakthrough: On-demand release of a precise amount of drugs that can be deliberately chosen. Targeting efficacy is finally measured in vivo, after extensive in-vitro testing. The outcome of this project will be truly transformative, opening new possibilities for research and development of bio¬degradable implants as well as of magnetic transport and release systems for active agents, and it is never limited to cardiovascular applications.

Mots-clés : magnetic nanoparticles,biodegradable hybrid materials,magnetic fluid hyperthermia,magnetic particle imaging
Projet ERC : INFUSED (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Systems and Communication Engineering
Entité participante : IBM Research - Zurich — Pays : Suisse — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Organismes privés (hors enseignement)
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499800.0 €

A major challenge for deep learning inference is the high energy demand required to retrieve large amounts of synaptic weight data from memory. One promising approach to address this is the use of conductance-based devices, such as non-volatile phase-change memory, to develop chips with stationary synaptic weights. However, two key obstacles remain: enhancing the computational capabilities and increasing the energy efficiency of these devices. INFUSED tackles both issues through groundbreaking device innovation. By utilizing the physics of ultra-scaled materials, it pushes energy efficiency closer to its theoretical limits. Moreover, it introduces dual neurally-plausible temporal dynamics, combining fast adaptive responses with slow, gradual conductance changes. This reimagines traditional neural network elements like the perceptron for more energy-efficient AI inference.  INFUSED specifically aims to:  ☞ Develop a breakthrough device design method to encode slow weights efficiently by reducing electrical contacts and active volumes to unprecedented scales—below 10 nm², and using 1-nm-thick van der Waals films. These weights are programmable with energy in the tens of femtojoules, offering up to a 100x improvement over current industry devices.  ☞ Design a reconfigurable volatile memory to encode fast weights within the slow weights. This innovative method uses field-effect properties of the ultra-scaled volumes. These weights exhibit non-linear temporal dynamics, consuming energy in the picoWatt range, with timescales spanning microseconds to hours, adaptable to AI tasks.  ☞ Demonstrate a mixed hardware-software implementation of biologically inspired algorithms leveraging fast and slow dynamics. New neural architectures are developed and benchmarked against mainstream neural networks, as well as against hardware substrates like parallel computing architectures (e.g., GPUs), in complex vision tasks.

Mots-clés : in memory computing,memristive devices,neuromorphic computing,phase change materials,memory devices,field effect physics,bio inspired algorithms
Projet ERC : OriSha (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and Processes Engineering
Entité participante : Fondazione per la ricerca biomedica avanzata ets — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : VIMM
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 361421.75 €

How an organism takes shape is a longstanding challenHow an organism takes shape is a longstanding challenge in modern biology and medicine. Understanding how, during the 3D embryo development, different molecular players, such as genetic programs, morphogens, and forces work together to build the shape of the body is still far to be understood, especially for humans. In recent years, some progress has been made to understand the inaccessible state of human development through models of human embryos derived from pluripotent stem cells. Although they brought very exciting findings, this approach failed in reconstructing the dynamic of the proper axes formation and 3D spatially ordered structure of tissues. OriSha will provide a ground-breaking technology to control over time and space the early stage of human shaping by modulating in an in vitro model the biochemical and biophysical properties of the microenvironment. I will develop a hydrogel-microfluidic system to accurately and dynamically deliver liquid instructive signals coupled with 3D shape-controlled organoid technology to guide the geometry during morphogenesis and recapitulate the very early and inaccessible stages of human embryo development. With this technological approach, I will instruct gradients of signalling molecules by imposing morphogens into the targeted tissues with unprecedented temporal and spatial resolution. To demonstrate the unique potential of this approach I will focus my interest on the development and morphogenesis of the neural tube that is the primordium of the central nervous system. Thanks to my cutting-edge approach, for the first time I will have the opportunity to investigate the correlation between the spatio-temporal dynamics and the 3D tissue patterning and self-organization during human embryonic development. The proposed project has the potential to become the new gold-standard for in vitro human developmental modelling, completely overcoming the need of human embryos.
Projet ERC : THYROMOL (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Molecules of Life: B iological  Mechanisms , Structures  and Functions
Entité participante : Human Technopole — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : HT
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1498750.0 €

Metabolic functions in vertebrates are ruled by thyroid hormones, produced by the thyroid gland and secreted into the bloodstream. Thyroid hormone levels modulate growth, development and many other key processes across the lifespan, and their impairment severely affects human health. Despite extensive studies, controlling hormone levels in vivo remains a major challenge. Synthesis of thyroid hormones occurs extracellularly, via iodination of thyroglobulin. They must then undergo endocytosis before they can be released into the bloodstream. Yet, most thyroglobulin forms a colloid matrix within the gland, enabling iodine and hormone storage for the body. How these three mechanisms are balanced to provide physiological levels of hormones to the organism remains an outstanding question. Using an integrative structural biology approach, the proposed research will focus on unravelling the molecular mechanisms underlying the major checkpoints of thyroid hormone synthesis. My research group will combine electron cryo-microscopy with biochemical and light microscopy tools to study thyroid hormone regulation at different scales: from in vitro reconstituted systems to native thyroid organoids. First, we will elucidate how thyroglobulin iodination modulates hormone yields and modifies thyroglobulin structure. Second, we will determine the mechanism of thyroglobulin endocytosis regulated by two main receptors. Third, we will decipher the mechanism of storage and depletion of the thyroglobulin storage matrix. These approaches will allow us to reproduce the complexity of thyroid hormone synthesis at high resolution and in a native environment. My expertise in structural biology and my pioneering work on thyroglobulin puts me in an ideal position to carry out this work. The expected outcome and method development of this research will open a new front in thyroid structural biology and inspire alternative strategies for the control of thyroid hormone synthesis in vivo.

Mots-clés : thyroid hormones,cryo em,in situ cryo et,thyroglobulin,iodination,organoids,endocytosis,extracellular matrix
Projet ERC : OMEN (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Earth System Science
Entité participante : Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia — Pays : Italie — Rôle : Partner
Acronyme de l'entité : INGV
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 273050.0 €

Earthquakes are one of the most expressive phenomena of our planet, able to suddenly reshape the surface of the Earth and affect countless lives every year. Any effort towards earthquake forecast and hazard mitigation must rely on a profound comprehension of seismogenesis. However, earthquakes are phenomena that emerge from a complex, dynamic system of mechanisms that operate at inaccessible depths within the Earth. The impossibility to directly observe the birth of an earthquake (i.e., the “nucleation”) frustrates our effort to have new breakthroughs on their physics. The overarching goal of OMEN is to directly observe the mechanisms of earthquake nucleation to allow for a step-change in our understanding of seismic slip and its potential precursors. OMEN will overcome the current experimental approaches that rely only on the indirect measure of sample properties and/or use of rock-analogue materials. With an innovative rock-deformation apparatus and the use of transparent high-tech glass, I will be able to simulate and, for the first time, film the birth of earthquakes in natural fault rocks at hypocentral conditions. This method, in combination with several investigation techniques (visible and infrared footage, acoustic emissions, deep learning-assisted image analysis etc.), will offer unprecedented detail on the processes during the preparation and propagation of seismic slip. In particular, I will shed new light on how the complexity of natural rocks affect the dynamics, resulting into the formulation of a new, more reliable physical framework for the description of earthquake nucleation. Laboratory and theoretical results will be upscaled to nature thanks to the integration of microstructural and field studies of natural faults. OMEN is the unique opportunity to open a literal window into the dynamics of earthquakes, shifting the paradigm from an empirically quantitative documentation to a direct and truly quantitative observation.

Mots-clés : rock mechanics,earthquake,nucleation,fault,friction,experiments,fabric,machine learning,video footage
Projet ERC : PRIME (Horizon Europe, appel 2021, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Entité participante : University Medical Center Utrecht — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UMC
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499968.75 €

Treatment options are insufficient for the majority of genetic metabolic diseases. Methylmalonic acidemia (MMA) is one such severe metabolic disease. With current therapeutic strategies, patients still develop metabolic decompensations, brain damage, kidney failure, and have a lifelong risk to acutely become blind. Repair of the genetic cause of disease would revolutionize outcomes for these patients, especially with increasing detection in neonatal screening programs. This makes it possible to correct the cause of disease prior to the onset of irreversible damage. However, efficiency, safety, versatility and delivery of precise gene editing is not yet sufficient for in vivo gene-correction therapies.  The aim of this proposal is to develop an in vivo gene-editing therapy program for patients with metabolic diseases targeting the liver, where most metabolic genes are highly expressed. As a proof-of-principle, I will repair genetic causes of MMA, validate this in personalized cells and mouse models, and lay the groundwork for human trials.  To this end, I will: (1) Generate a clinically applicable gene-editing technique. I recently demonstrated that the novel gene-editing technique prime editing could accurately correct different mutations in patient-derived organoids. Using an innovative reporter and patient-derived organoids, I will develop prime editing into an efficient and safe strategy that can correct >90% of patient mutations. (2) Create a system for in vivo delivery of the prime-editing machinery with lipid nanoparticles to target the liver, using patient-derived liver organoids and an existing MMA mouse model. (3) Develop a roadmap to tailor gene-correction therapies to individual patients, using the reporter with the patient mutation and mutational context, patient-derived organoids, and a mutation-specific animal model for a common MMA mutation. This foundational work will lay the basis for broad clinical application of precise gene-editing therapies.

Mots-clés : gene editing,metabolic disease,liver,organoids