Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : StemProteostasis (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Entité participante : University of Cologne — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1500000.0 €

By 2050, the global population over the age of 80 will triple. Thus, research for improving the quality of life at older age can be of enormous benefit for our ever-aging society. To address this challenge we propose an innovative approach based on a combination of stem cell research with genetic experiments in C. elegans. Mechanisms that promote protein homeostasis (proteostasis) slow down aging and decrease the incidence of age-related diseases. Since human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) replicate continuously in the absence of senescence, we hypothesize that they can provide a novel paradigm to study proteostasis and its demise in aging. We have found that hESCs exhibit increased proteasome activity. Moreover, we have uncovered that the proteasome subunit RPN-6 is required for this activity and sufficient to extend healtshpan in C. elegans. However, the mechanisms by which the proteasome regulates hESC function remain unknown. Our first aim is to define how the proteasome regulates not only hESC identity but also aging and the onset of age-related diseases. Moreover, one of the next challenges is to define how other proteostasis pathways impinge upon hESC function. We hypothesize that, in addition to the proteasome, hESCs differentially regulate other subcellular stress response pathways designed to protect them from disequilibrium in the folding and degradation of their proteome. We will perform a comprehensive study of proteostasis of hESCs and mimic this network in somatic cells to alleviate age-related diseases. Finally, we will determine whether loss of proteostasis promotes somatic stem cell (SC) exhaustion, which is one of the most obvious characteristics of the aging process and contributes to tissue degeneration. By using mouse models we will examine whether sustained proteostasis delays neural SC exhaustion. Our research will have an impact in several fields such as stem cell research, neurogenesis, proteostasis, aging and age-related diseases.

Mots-clés : proteasome,proteostasis,neurogenesis,cell reprogramming
Projet ERC : CALC (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The Human Mind and Its Complexity
Entité participante : Max Planck Society — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : MPG
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499437.5 €

By comparing the languages of the world, we gain invaluable insights into human prehistory, predating the appearance of written records by thousands of years. The traditional methods for language comparison are based on manual data inspection. With more and more data available, they reach their practical limits. Computer applications, however, are not capable of replacing experts' experience and intuition. In a situation where computers cannot replace experts and experts do not have enough time to analyse the massive amounts of data, a new framework, neither completely computer-driven, nor ignorant of the help computers provide, becomes urgent. Such frameworks are well-established in biology and translation, where computational tools cannot provide the accuracy needed to arrive at convincing results, but do assist humans to digest large data sets. This project establishes a computer-assisted framework for historical linguistics. We pursue an interdisciplinary approach that adapts methods from computer science and bioinformatics for the use in historical linguistics. While purely computational approaches are common today, the project focuses on the communication between classical and computational linguists, developing interfaces that allow historical linguists to produce their data in machine readable formats while at the same time presenting the results of computational analyses in a transparent and human-readable way. As a litmus test which proves the suitability of the new framework, the project will create an etymological database of Sino-Tibetan languages. The abundance of language contact and the peculiarity of complex processes of language change in which sporadic patterns of morphological change mask regular patterns of sound change make the Sino-Tibetan language family an ideal test case for a new overarching framework that combines the best of two worlds: the experience of experts and the consistency of computational models.

Mots-clés : historical linguistics,sino tibetan linguistics,comparative linguistics,language history
Projet ERC : Atto-Zepto (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Fundamental constituents of matter
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2023375.0 €

By enabling the conversion of forces into measurable displacements, mechanical oscillators have always played a central role in experimental physics. Recent developments in the PI group demonstrated the possibility to realize ultrasensitive and vectorial force field sensing by using suspended SiC nanowires and optical readout of their transverse vibrations. Astonishing sensitivities were obtained at room and dilution temperatures, at the Atto- Zepto-newton level, for which the electron-electron interaction becomes detectable at 100µm. The goal of the project is to push forward those ultrasensitive nano-optomechanical force sensors, to realize even more challenging explorations of novel fundamental interactions at the quantum-classical interface. We will develop universal advanced sensing protocols to explore the vectorial structure of fundamental optical, electrostatic or magnetic interactions, and investigate Casimir force fields above nanostructured surfaces, in geometries where it was recently predicted to become repulsive. The second research axis is the one of cavity nano-optomechanics: inserting the ultrasensitive nanowire in a high finesse optical microcavity should enhance the light-nanowire interaction up to the point where a single cavity photon can displace the nanowire by more than its zero point quantum fluctuations. We will investigate this so-called ultrastrong optomechanical coupling regime, and further explore novel regimes in cavity optomechanics, where optical non-linearities at the single photon level become accessible. The last part is dedicated to the exploration of hybrid qubit-mechanical systems, in which nanowire vibrations are magnetically coupled to the spin of a single Nitrogen Vacancy defect in diamond. We will focus on the exploration of spin-dependent forces, aiming at mechanically detecting qubit excitations, opening a novel road towards the generation of non-classical states of motion, and mechanically enhanced quantum sensors.

Mots-clés : optomechanics,nanomechanics,casimir force,quantum optics,ultrasensitive force sensors,spin qubit
Projet ERC : STIGMATICS (Horizon 2020, appel 2014, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : The study of the human past
Entité participante : University of Antwerp — Pays : Belgique — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UAntwerp
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 884725.0 €

By far most of the historical studies on the 'golden age' of the stigmatics have focused on medical debates and religious treatises. This project wants to move beyond the traditional historiographical emphasis in at least three ways. First of all, it will focus on the popular perception of stigmatics in the nineteenth and early twentieth century and examine how they became symbolic figures of political and religious causes. Secondly, we will study the interaction of the 'victim souls' with their communities and examine how they were turned into 'living saints' through religious practices and discourse, and how some of them were eventually even beatified and canonized. Thirdly, we will address them as carefully constructed religious commodities (celebrities) and rebalance the research on the selling of religion that has adopted a top-down perspective and focused primarily on the popularization of authorized cults rather than on the impact of the commercialization from the bottom-up. Combining these three aspects in studying the stigmatics, the project will enhance our understanding of the role of (new) media and consumption practices in religious change and the construction of religious identities. As each of these emphases calls for a study that takes into account chronological and geographical differences, we will adopt a comparative approach and examine five of the countries where most of the (hundreds of) stigmatics have been attested (Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Belgium). This will allow us to trace larger trends as changes in the type of stigmatic (e.g. bedridden silent 'sign' or a socially engaged charismatic leader) and moments and locations of increased attention (e.g. political crises). However, since this was the era of an internationalized Catholicism the countries will not be studied in isolation and special attention will be given to transnational attraction (e.g. pilgrims) and the related differences in promotion and perception.
Projet ERC : TCAPS (Horizon 2020, appel 2017, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy
Entité participante : Cancer Research UK — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CRUK
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1066319.29 €

CD8 T cells are vital for our response to infection, directly killing infected cells and stimulating other cells of the immune system. Major health problems world-wide involve deregulated T cells, including lymphomas, leukaemias, auto-immune disorders and organ transplant rejection. Damaging deficiencies of T cells are found in old-age. T cell development and response to pathogens is driven by regulated transcription and translation, however the mechanisms orchestrating this gene regulation are largely unknown, and are likely provide novel opportunities for therapeutic intervention. Our preliminary data reveals that a potent structure in gene expression, the mRNA cap, which co-ordinates RNA processing and translation initiation, is crucial for the development and activation of CD8 T cells. Regulation of mRNA cap formation is a novel concept in gene regulation in T cells, and also has not been studied in vivo previously. Our findings suggest the existence of an mRNA cap code, in which the different mRNA cap methylations regulate different genes and cellular functions. In TCAPS we will reveal how the mRNA cap code orchestrates CD8 T function. We will determine how the mRNA cap structures are regulated during CD8 T cell differentiation using the latest mass spectrometry technologies. We will determine the role of each mRNA cap methyltransferase in CD8 T cell gene expression during differentiation, using conditional knock-out mice in conjunction with enzyme biochemistry, RNA sequencing and quantitative mass spectrometry. We will determine the biological function of the mRNA cap methyltransferases in CD8 T cell survival and activation using immunological assays. TCAPS will also provide the first insight into the role of the mRNA cap code in vivo. The mRNA cap code is likely to be operational throughout mammalian physiology and therefore TCAPS will contribute significantly to our understanding of regulated gene expression in mammals.

Mots-clés : mrna,t cell
Projet ERC : CHEMO-RISK (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Entité participante : Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UFZ
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1496030.0 €

CHEMO-RISK aims for a novel scientifically sound chemical risk assessment paradigm that integrates exposure and effect assessment of a broad range of chemicals into a single procedure and provides information relevant to ecosystem and human health. The key innovation is polymer “chemometers” that will be equilibrated with their surroundings and deliver information on the pollutant’s chemical activity in the environment, biota, and humans. A chemometer functions analogously to a thermometer, but instead of the temperature, it yields a measure of chemical activity. Chemical activity in turn indicates the thermodynamic potential for, e.g., partitioning, biouptake and toxicity. CHEMO-RISK aims at breaking the current paradigm in environmental risk assessment of single chemicals that disregards bioavailability, ignores mixture effects, lacks site-specificity and is difficult to extrapolate to human health. The chemometer extracts will be investigated using top-notch (a) GC and LC/Orbitrap chemical analysis to characterise the pollutant mixtures and (b) cell-based reporter gene bioassays to determine mixture effects covering baseline toxicity, specific (e.g., endocrine disruption) and reactive (e.g., genotoxicity) modes of toxic action and adaptive stress responses. Within CHEMO-RISK, the following important research questions will be tackled: (A) Which processes drive the enrichment of pollutants in aquatic biota on a thermodynamic basis? (B) How do pollutants distribute within an organism, and which effects do they elicit at the key target sites? (C) Can we apply everyday-life items such as eyeglass-nose pads to replace invasive sampling in human health risk assessment? (D) To which degree can non-target analysis of chemometer extracts explain the observed toxicity profiles across media? By combining all these research efforts, CHEMO-RISK will provide a unified risk assessment paradigm with risk-based trigger values distinguishing acceptable from unacceptable effects.

Mots-clés : chemical activity,chemometer,pollutants,chemical exposure,toxic effects,bioassays,aquatic environment,sediment,water,biota,humans,tissue,blood,bioaccumulation,unified risk assessment
Projet ERC : CHROMOTOPE (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Social Sciences and Humanities
Panel : Cultures and cultural production
Entité participante : University of Oxford — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : Partner
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 604492.0 €

CHROMOTOPE will offer the very first analysis of the changes that took place in attitudes to colour in the 19th century, and notably how the ‘chromatic turn’ of the 1850s mapped out new ways of thinking about colour in literature, art, science and technology throughout Europe. Britain’s industrial supremacy during this period is often perceived through the darkening filter of coal pollution, and yet the industrial revolution transformed colour thanks to a number of innovations like the invention in 1856 of the first aniline dye. Colour thus became a major signifier of the modern, generating new discourses on its production and perception. This Victorian ‘colour revolution’, which has never been approached from a cross-disciplinary perspective, came to prominence during the 1862 International Exhibition – a forgotten, and yet key, chromatic event which forced poets and artists like Ruskin, Morris and Burges to think anew about the materiality of colour. Rebelling against the bleakness of the industrial present, they invited their contemporaries to learn from the ‘sacred’ colours of the past – a ‘colour pedagogy’ which later shaped the European arts and crafts movement. Building on a pioneering methodology, CHROMOTOPE will bring together literature, visual culture, the history of sciences and techniques and the chemistry of pigments and dyes, with high-impact outcomes, including one major exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, a thorough pigment analysis of Burges’s Great Bookcase and the creation of an online database of 19th century texts on colour. This project will not only give invaluable insight into hitherto neglected aspects of 19th century European cultural history, it will also reveal the central role played by chromatic materiality in the intertwined artistic and literary practices of the period. This will in turn change the way the relationships between text and image, as well as the materiality of the text itself, may be envisaged in literary studies.

Mots-clés : colour,polychromy,pigments,dyes,chemistry of colour,victorian literature and painting,arts and crafts,material studies,text and image studies,reception studies,gender studies
Projet ERC : 2D-4-CO2 (Horizon 2020, appel 2018, Starting grants)
Domaine scientifique : Physical Sciences and Engineering
Panel : Products and processes engineering
Entité participante : Centre national de la recherche scientifique — Pays : France — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CNRS
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 1499931.0 €

CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) holds great promise for conversion of the green-house gas carbon dioxide into chemical fuels. The absence of catalytic materials demonstrating high performance and high selectivity currently hampers practical demonstration. CO2RR is also limited by the low solubility of CO2 in the electrolyte solution and therefore electrocatalytic reactions in gas phase using gas diffusion electrodes would be preferred. 2D materials have recently emerged as a novel class of electrocatalytic materials thanks to their rich structures and electronic properties. The synthesis of novel 2D catalysts and their implementation into photocatalytic systems would be a major step towards the development of devices for storing solar energy in the form of chemical fuels. With 2D-4-CO2, I propose to: 1) develop novel class of CO2RR catalysts based on conducting 2D nanosheets and 2) demonstrate photocatalytic conversion of CO2 into chemical fuels using structure engineered gas diffusion electrodes made of 2D conducting catalysts. To reach this goal, the first objective of 2D-4-CO2 is to provide guidelines for the development of novel cutting-edge 2D catalysts towards CO2 conversion into chemical fuel. This will be possible by using a multidisciplinary approach based on 2D materials engineering, advanced methods of characterization and novel designs of gas diffusion electrodes for the reduction of CO2 in gas phase. The second objective is to develop practical photocatalytic systems using van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures for the efficient conversion of CO2 into chemical fuels. vdW heterostructures will consist in rational designs of 2D materials and 2D-like materials deposited by atomic layer deposition in order to achieve highly efficient light conversion and prolonged stability. This project will not only enable a deeper understanding of the CO2RR but it will also provide practical strategies for large-scale application of CO2RR for solar fuel production.

Mots-clés : electrocatalysis,2d materials,heterostructures,photocatalysis
Projet ERC : CONQUEST (Horizon 2020, appel 2015, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Radboud University Nijmegen — Pays : Pays-Bas — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

CONQUEST: Enabling advanced medical imaging CONQUEST is formed around a new imaging technology platform. The basis is the newly developed nanoparticles function as contrast agents for a variety of imaging modalities that are presently used in healthcare such as ultrasound and MRI. In particular, the nanoparticles are a completely novel type of contrast agent for ultrasound imaging. The high stability and long shelf life of the particles combined with visibility in ultrasound could allow application of ultrasound imaging in areas currently dominated by more expensive, more difficult and slower imaging modalities such as MRI, PET or SPECT (nuclear imaging techniques). Moreover, ultrasound is already widely available, does not involve ionizing radiation and is the most “user-friendly” clinical imaging modality. Furthermore, the unique properties of the CONQUEST nanoparticles may allow its targeting to regions of inflammation, including malignant tumours and unstable atherosclerotic plaques. Initially, we will focus on the application of CONQUEST agents to the diagnosis of focal liver lesions. Currently, through the linked ERC StG, GMP-grade particles are available and approved for testing in a cell therapy clinical trial. In all, at the end of this proposal, we expect to have solid in vivo proof of the viability of the agent in focal liver lesions (selected as our first application based on market research), and a strengthened IP position. This will put CONQUEST in a strong position to acquire the large amounts of funding necessary for full clinical validation, and the eventual introduction of new applications and new products. Thus, with this technology platform we can create a new market (for multimodal imaging agents), improve efficiency and reduce costs in healthcare.

Mots-clés : personalised medicine,in vivo imaging,ultrasound,19f mri,multimodal imaging,inflammation,tumours,atherosclerosis,unstable plaques,cell therapy,cell tracking
Projet ERC : CORALASSIST (Horizon 2020, appel 2016, Consolidator grants)
Domaine scientifique : Life Science
Panel : Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Entité participante : Newcastle University — Pays : Royaume-Uni — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 2023119.0 €

CORALASSIST spans the disciplines of evolutionary biology, restoration ecology and proteomics and examines the role assisted gene flow (AGF) can play in sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem services in the face of climate change. AGF involves the deliberate movement of individuals or gametes within their natural range to facilitate adaptation to environmental change. Corals reefs provide an excellent model for testing AGF as a conservation tool because reef building corals are foundation species and are highly vulnerable to thermal stress. Selective breeding and translocation of thermotolerant individuals may lead to reductions in recipient population fitness due to resource trade-offs with other fitness traits, such as growth and fecundity. The overall aim of CORALASSIST is to establish the feasibility of implementing AGF in coral reef ecosystems using a combination of selective breeding, proteomics and innovative translocation techniques. CORALASSIST will address four primary questions: 1) Are there resource trade-offs between increased thermotolerance and other fitness traits in corals? 2) Which physiological and proteomic traits correlate with increased individual thermotolerance in corals? 3) Are phenotypic traits for thermotolerance heritable? 4) Can AGF and selective breeding lead to persistent shifts in thermotolerance in recipient populations? Phenotypic traits will be measured in permanently tagged individuals within selected coral populations to examine the relationships between thermotolerance and key fitness attributes. For the first time, state of the art proteomic approaches will be used to elucidate the physiological basis for increased levels of thermotolerance in corals. Innovative translocation methods will be used in tandem with selective breeding techniques to carry out the first long term assessment of heritability of thermotolerance and to test the feasibility of large scale AGF to assist conservation of coral reef ecosystems.

Mots-clés : coral reef,ecological restoration,climate change,assisted gene flow