Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
PP2C phosphatases as regulators in development and stress-pathways: Identification of protein complexes and molecular pathways by (phospho)proteomics/metabolomics. (PROMET)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2009-03-01
End date: 2011-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 166982.27
EU funding (EUR): 166982.27
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Protein phosphorylation has been recognized as one of the most versatile mechanisms that underpin several critical adaptive and developmental processes in plants serving as fast and accurate process to message signals within the cells to generate nuclear responses. Advances in functional dissection of canonical signalling pathways demonstrate that protein phosphatases and their substrate kinases are key determinants in developmental decisions and plant stress tolerance. Plant protein phosphatases of PP2C-type are essential components opening new approaches for deciphering the very early events in cell signalling. This project, aided by the combinations of multidisciplinary cutting-edge technologies, such as proteomics, phosphoproteomics, bioinformatics, molecular biology and metabolomics, is expected to precisely identify the protein associations assembled upon stress conditions and developmental processes through PP2Cs in the model plant Arabidopsis. Research and training in highly developed technologies are expected to stimulate European competitiveness in resolution of cell signalling mechanisms by proteomic tools, uncover the links to metabolic pathways and reinforce further innovations with significant scientific impacts. “ProMet” is introducing EU priority research directions and topics, providing the advanced excellence in molecular biology, proteomics and metabolomics to carry out interdisciplinary technical developments important not only for plants but for life sciences in general. Uncovering the functions and targets of signalling components phosphatases that control key developmental and stress signalling pathways is an essential task that finally affects the environmental issues, future innovations and socio-economic impacts.

Keywords: proteomics,metabolomics,mass spectrometry,signal transduction,pp2c phosphatases,stomata,stress-signaling,protein interactions,map kinases,bioinformatics.
A Synthetic Molecule that can Walk down a Track! (MECHPROCMOLS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Incoming Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-2-IIF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-09-01
End date: 2010-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 178874.06
EU funding (EUR): 178874.06
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Nature’s conversion of chemical energy into directed molecular motion has inspired the design of many synthetic molecular architectures aimed at performing function on the molecular scale. Synthesis of small molecule analogues of these much more intricate biological systems may allow man to model the efficiency, and possibly develop processes that parallel the effectiveness of energy transfer in natural systems. The proposed research outlines the synthesis and operation of a synthetic “walker” and “track” conjugate, which is designed to result in synthetic molecular processive motion induced by appropriate stimuli, much like that of Kinesin and Dynein which are linear motor proteins (driven by ATP hydrolysis) that engage in processive motion intracellularly . Organic synthesis of the components and self-assembly of the conjugates by transition metal coordination chemistry will gain us access to the desired synthetic targets. Invoking stimuli responsive molecular movement of the “molecular walker” component along the “molecular track” component will be achieved by exploiting the ligand-coordinate bond with various acid/base and oxidation/reduction states, while progress of the “walker” moving along the “track” will be monitored by NMR, MS, UV-Vis, and FRET.

Keywords: supramolecular chemistry,coordination chemistry,molecular processivity,functional molecules,molecular transport
FUNctional-structural plant models for improved estimation of crop and soil status based on REmote Sensing Observations (FUNRESO)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-08-22
End date: 2009-08-21
Duration (months): 12.0
Total project cost (EUR): 117432.82
EU funding (EUR): 117432.82
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The present proposal aims at developing a novel approach for improving the accuracy of estimation of crop and soil variables from remote sensing, which is today limiting for a number of applications as in precision agriculture. The approach is based on the coupling of a dynamic functional crop model to a 3-D canopy structure model. This will allow to take explicitly into account the 3-D architecture of plants while including the effects of water and nitrogen stress and to assimilate directly the reflectance data into the 4-D (3-D plus time) model. Improvements in remote sensing information retrieval accuracy are expected by a) implicit and explicit inclusion of prior knowledge of vegetation parameters, allowing attenuation of problems due to the ill-posed nature of information retrieval from remote sensing and b) better accuracy of canopy reflectance simulations due to the improved realism of such models as compared to classical turbid medium approaches. The research work will be carried out at one of the leading research groups in the world in this sector, the INRA CSE Unit in Avignon (France), and will take advantage of the existing functional structural 4-D models available at the host institution as well as model inversion procedures and experimental results and databases developed by the CSE team.

Keywords: remote sensing,agronomics,crop sciences,plant physiology,3 d modelling
TRANSITION METALS IN CARBON NANOSTRUCTURES (TRANSCARB)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2009-03-01
End date: 2011-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 178307.05
EU funding (EUR): 178307.05
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This is a research proposal of Dr Maria Gimenez for a Marie Curie Fellowship in the Carbon Nanomaterials group, University of Nottingham. Maria is a talented young inorganic chemist coming from a leading university in Spain, and who has a strong expertise in molecular magnetism, which will be invaluable for this research programme. During her stay in the Dr Khlobystov’s group she will learn unique experimental skills and methodology, which she will be able to transfer back to Spain. In this proposal transition metals chemistry will be applied for controlled assembly of fullerene dimers and magnetic quasi-1D chains inside carbon nanotubes, materials intended for nano-electronics and quantum information processing (QIP) applications. For example, individual endohedral fullerenes (such as N@C60) possess unique magnetic properties highly suitable for QIP applications. However, the assembly of multi-qubit systems by conventional methods of synthetic chemistry has proved to be extremely challenging. In this project we address this problem by applying the versatile and controllable chemistry of transition metals to fullerenes and nanotubes. The role of transition metals is twofold: (1) the metal centres are expected to provide efficient communication between electron spins in fullerene dimer architectures (two-qubit systems), and (2) the magnetic metal clusters are expected to serve as effective probes for the internal cavities of carbon nanotubes which can help to establish the mechanisms of the nanotube-electron spin interactions. The bonding of metal centres to carbon nanostructures is less disruptive than traditionally used covalent bonding. Therefore, transition metals are expected to have no detrimental effects on the intrinsic properties of fullerenes or nanotubes, but are anticipated to enhance the functional properties of these materials and to unlock their full potential for practical applications in electronic devices.

Keywords: carbon nanomaterials,endohedral fullerenes,single-walled carbon nanotubes,molecular magnetism,magnetic nanowire,quantum information processing,magnetic information storage.
Action Potential Dynamics in a Lipid Nanotube - A Minimal Model of the Neuron (ARTIFICIAL-NEURON)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Incoming Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-2-IIF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-11-01
End date: 2010-10-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 164777.73
EU funding (EUR): 164777.73
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The active propagation of electrochemical signals is widespread in biological organisms because of the need for efficient, rapid communication. Open questions about signaling remain because experiments with actual neurons are constrained by the neuron’s complex structure and intricate feedback. The goal of this project is to develop a minimal model of the neuron in which the active propagation of electrochemical signals can be readily studied. A Giant Unilamellar Vesicle (GUV) containing voltage-gated potassium channels will serve as the “soma” for this synthetic neuron. A long, membrane tube will be drawn out from this GUV to form an “axon”, and signal propagation along it studied with electrophysiology and fluorescence techniques. Predictions about the fundamental limits of biological signaling will be tested by measuring the speed and fidelity of the action potential as parameters including the diameter of the membrane tube, resting membrane potential and density of ion channels are varied. As intermediate goals, we will determine if membrane curvature induces protein sorting, and will also study how the shape and fluctuations of the GUV membrane are coupled to the activity of the ion channels. This project will contribute significantly to our understanding of active membranes and action potential dynamics. In the future, the skills and techniques learnt during the project may be applied to other complex processes such as signaling in networks, pacemaker activity and signal amplification cascades.

Keywords: biophysics,membrane biophysics,neurobiology,action potential,active membranes,model systems
Enzymatic synthesis of organic molecules in alternative solvents (HIPENZO)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-07-01
End date: 2010-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 169957.94
EU funding (EUR): 169957.94
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The growing awareness of the pressing need for greener, more sustainable technologies has focused attention on the use of atom efficient catalytic methodologies for the manufacture of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The use of alternative reaction solvents such as supercritical fluids or fluorous biphasic systems that are readily recycled has therefore become the focus of significant research that could circumvent the problems associated with many of the traditional volatile organic solvents. Thus novel and effective methods for reactor design, enzyme recovery and recycling are receiving increasing attention. New approaches to tackling these issues form the main objectives of this Proposal. The use of immobilized enzymes in the form of Cross-Linked Enzyme Aggregates (CLEAs) in supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) or fluorous reaction media including the use of ‘combi-CLEAs’, two enzymes that catalyse complementary reactions for one-pot two-step conversions in both batch and continuous reactions forms one major task. The use of hydrophobic-ion pairing of enzymes with perfluorinated surfactants to solubilise them in scCO2 and fluorous solvents and thus allow homogeneous catalysis to occur is the focus of the second task. The oxidases catalyzing the mild and clean formation of H2O2 from dioxygen will be investigated. This H2O2 will then be used in epoxidation and Baeyer-Villiger chemistry, either on the product of the oxidase reaction or a second substrate. Enzyme catalyzed polymerization reactions in scCO2 and fluorous solvents will also be investigated including the formation of perfluorinated polymers that may have unique physical and chemical properties. This fellowship will bring together strong research background of Dr. I. Lapenaite with excellent training opportunities at the University of Nottingham. This team aims to deliver significant breakthroughs in the development of new environmentally sustainable processing of organic materials.

Keywords: clean synthesis,enzyme,immobilization,clea,hydrophobic ion pairing,enzymatic,biocatalysis,epoxidation,atom-efficient,polymerization,supercritical fluids,fluorous solvents
Simulation of directed self-assembly of nanocrystals. (NANOSYM)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2009-06-07
End date: 2011-06-06
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 160658.97
EU funding (EUR): 160658.97
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The aim of the proposed research is to use novel Monte Carlo simulation techniques in order to gain insight into the factors that control the nucleation and growth of crystals of charged nano-colloids. Recent experiments (Shevchenko et al, Nature 439, 55(2006)) have shown that it is possible to grow a wealth of different crystal structures from binary mixtures of charged nano-colloids. However, the factors that determine which crystals will grow and which ones will remain microscopic in size are, at present, not understood. It is clear that both the charge and the size ratio of the nano-colloids plays a role. We aim to use a combination of different simulation techniques to predict the stability and nucleation barrier of such nano-colloidal crystals. Understanding these factors is important because nano-particle crystals can find applications in nanoelectronics, plasmonics, high-density data storage, catalysis, and biomedical materials. In our study, we will developed suitable models for the interaction between the nano-colloids. Subsequently, we will use a combination of various computational schemes (umbrella sampling, parallel tempering, forward flux sampling), to compute the barrier that determines the rate of crystal nucleation and the free energy of possible (meta)stable intermediates.

Keywords: crystallization rates,monte carlo,umbrella sampling,classical nucleation theory,nucleation barrier,kinetic prefactor,colloidal crystals
TESTING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF AID ALLOCATION USING EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICS (TAAWE)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-10-01
End date: 2010-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 161792.99
EU funding (EUR): 161792.99
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Official Development Assistance (ODA) represents the major flow of resources from rich to poor countries. In 2005, $107 billion of ODA were disbursed by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) to less developed countries. Of these, $56 billion were provided by EU members. According to the literature, despite substantial amounts of aid that low income countries have received in the past decades, the expectation that aid boosts investment and growth in recipients has not been met. The limited effectiveness of aid to reach the intended objectives has encouraged greater attention on whether current practices in aid implementation and allocation processes are appropriate, given imperfections that characterize markets in poor countries. More recent academic theory, primarily developed in European academia, has shown that donors are not able to design appropriate aid contracts: recipients do not perceive sufficient incentives to make aid effective. The aim of this research is twofold: first, theoretically, to design “incentive compatible” contracts between donors and recipients and explore in detail whether the screening process undertaken by donors can be improved. Second, given the poor quality of data for developing countries, the objective will be to test the assumptions and evaluate the policy implications of the theoretical model, by means of appropriate economic experiments. The Marie Curie fellowship will offer a unique opportunity to reach the above objectives, by allowing Dr. Isopi, whose research activity has focused primarily on contract theory applications to foreign aid, to spend time at the Nottingham School of Economics and benefit from the research expertise in two of the most highly regarded Development and Experimental Economics research centres in Europe. The analyses and policy implications from the research will be relevant for the European Community, given the considerable role played EU members in the international cooperation environment.

Keywords: social sciences
Track-etched Single Nanopores: Advanced Characterisation and New Applications (NANO-CHAPP)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Outgoing Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Ireland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-1-IOF, 2007)
Start date: 2009-07-01
End date: 2012-06-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 236211.96
EU funding (EUR): 236211.96
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This fellowship aims to develop the career of the researcher to the point where he is in a very strong position to start his own research group and secure funding to do so. This will be achieved by complementing his existing scientific knowledge to give him a broad and well rounded-expertise on nanopore fabrication, characterisation and applications, giving him training in complementary skills such as proposal writing, teaching and management, allowing him to build collaborations and making him well-known throughout his research field through publications, collaboration and conference attendance. A second aim of the fellowship is to transfer back to the European Union the leading scientific expertise on characterisation, modelling and application of track-etched nanopores only available at the Siwy Research Group at the University of California Irvine, USA, and to build long term collaborative links from this group and institution to the return host, the Photodetection and Imaging Research Group at University College Cork, Ireland. The scientific research and training objectives for this fellowship focus on single nanopores of diameters 2–50 nm, which are currently being explored for a wide range of applications, from single-molecule DNA analysis to biotoxin sensing to creating ionic equivalents of electronic diodes and transistors. The specific objectives are a) to advance existing knowledge on track-etched nanopores by methodically characterising track-etched nanopore properties—essential for the commercial production of these nanopores that will soon be demanded as applications develop to the practical stage, b) to construct the first ever ionic circuits, based on the ionic diodes and transistors in development at the Siwy Research Group, and c) to develop an ionic diode based specific-sequence single molecule DNA sensor capable of detecting single DNA molecules with a specific sequence, at a rate much faster than competing techniques.

Keywords: heavy-ion-track-etched solid-state nanopores,nanoscale ion transport,ionic devices,nanodevices,nanofluidics,ionic circuits,nanosystems,surface physics,surface chemistry,nanobiotechnology,dna analysis
Structure and Ultrafast Dynamics of Water and the Hydronium Ion at the Air/Water and Mineral/Water Interfaces using Time Resolved 2D-Vibrational Sum Frequency Spectroscopy (AIRMINWATSFG)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Incoming Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-2-IIF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-08-01
End date: 2010-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 167697.15
EU funding (EUR): 167697.15
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Molecular level descriptions of the structure and dynamics of water and the hydronium ion are essential to understand quantitatively the dispersion of contaminants in groundwater, the role of aqueous aerosols in atmospheric chemistry and the optimal design of biomaterials. The structure of water and the stabilization of the hydronium ion at interfaces is a function of a hydrogen bond network. Each hydrogen bond in the network breaks and reforms on picosecond timescales. Current work describes structure in these systems by measuring the interfacial water and hydronium OH stretch frequency range using vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy (VSFS). Generally VSFS is time averaged: each data point in a spectrum involves several seconds of data collection. This approach necessitates loss of molecular information (in reality water structure evolves on picosecond timescales) and makes comparison to simulation, where trajectories have a maximum length of tens of nanoseconds, challenging. The proposed experiments overcome this obstacle by examining the air/water and mineral/water systems using femtosecond time resolved two-dimensional VSFS (tr2D-VSFS). This method allows the quantification of hydrogen bond (as a function of frequency) and hydronium lifetime in interfacial water. The measurement of these quantities at a variety of interfaces will allow general insight into the structure of aqueous complexes at interfaces, directly connect with simulation and help supply an experimental molecular level picture of the air/water and mineral/water intefaces that has been lacking. tr2D-VSFS is a specialized technique (employed currently by 1-2 research groups in the world). The impact of this proposal rests on the combination of an Earth Scientist with a peculiar background (nonlinear optics and computational chemistry), a host research group at the forefront of chemical physics and a host institute well prepared to support such a multidisciplinary collaboration.

Keywords: environmental chemistry,geochemistry,surface chemistry,biomaterial engineering,colloid chemistry,rock/water interface