Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Harnessing the Dark Side of Protein Folding: Manipulating Aggregation for Recombinant Protein Production (DARKSIDE)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Applied life sciences and biotechnology
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-11-01
End date: 2019-10-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1639400.0
EU funding (EUR): 1639400.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Nearly all desirable biological activities, whether for the purposes of nutrition, pharmacology, biofuel production, or waste disposal, can be carried out by proteins. Nature has furnished a vast array of bioactive and biocatalytic tools, and with the advent of rational protein design nearly any imaginable bioactivity is at our fingertips. There is, therefore, a pressing need for cost-effective, safe, and easily scalable strategies for generating Recombinant Proteins (rProteins). The main bottleneck for mass-producing a whole host of valuable biologically active rProteins is the difficulty of recovering functional proteins from expression hosts. This difficulty stems largely from the lack of sufficient know-how for manipulating protein biogenesis in the cell. The key component of protein biology, whether in the context of rProtein production or cell viability, is enabling a protein to achieve its proper folding state. Most proteins do not fold on their own – they require the assistance of a vast network of folding managers, or chaperones. The cellular chaperone machinery not only assists protein folding, it also carries out quality control, ensuring that proteins that are damaged or unable to fold for other reasons are properly disposed of through degradation or protective aggregation. The aim of this proposal is to understand the protein biosynthetic pathway in sufficient detail, so as to be able to manipulate its overall function. My eventual goal is to exert control over folding and aggregation in order to produce higher yields of functional rProteins in eukaryotes. The biotechnological strategy will consist of: 1. Manipulating aggregation to remove damaged endogenous proteins from the folding proteome, thus diverting more resources to the folding of rProteins; 2. Manipulating the allocation of cellular chaperone resources between folding, degradation, and aggregation; 3. Utilizing aggregates to produce substantially higher amounts of functional rProteins.

Keywords: recombinant protein production,protein aggregation,protein folding,protein quality control
Investigating Directed Information (DIRECTEDINFO)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Systems and communication engineering
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-08-01
End date: 2019-07-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1224600.0
EU funding (EUR): 1224600.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This research investigates a new measure that arises in information theory called directed information. Recent advances, including our preliminary results, shows that directed information arises in communication as the maximum rate that can be transmitted reliably in channels with feedback. The directed information is multi-letter expression and therefore very hard to optimize or compute. Our plan is first of all to find an efficient methodology for optimizing the measure using the dynamic programming framework and convex optimization tools. As an important by-product of finding the fundamental limits is finding coding schemes that achieves the limits. Second, we plan to find new roles for directed information in communication, especially in networks with bi-directional communication and in data compression with causal conditions. Third, encouraged by a preliminary work on interpretation of directed information in economics and estimation theory, we plan to show that directed information has interpretation in additional fields such as statistical physics. We plan to show that there is duality relation between different fields with causal constraints. Due to the duality insights and breakthroughs in one problem will lead to new insights in other problems. Finally, we will apply directed information as a statistical inference of causal dependence. We will show how to estimate and use the directed information estimator to measure causal inference between two or more process. In particular, one of the questions we plan to answer is the influence of industrial activities (e.g., $\text{CO}_2$ volumes) on the global warming. Our main focus will be to develop a deeper understanding of the mathematical properties of directed information, a process that is instrumental to each problem. Due to their theoretical proximity and their interdisciplinary nature, progress in one problem will lead to new insights in other problems. A common set of mathematical tools developed in

Keywords: causal inference,causality,channel capacity,communication,entropy,feedback capacity,directed information,estimation,information theory,gambling
Fast transformation between episodic and semantic memories: Interactions between the hippocampal formation and related regions and their breakdown in Alzheimer’s disease (TRANSMEM)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: The Human Mind and its complexity
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2019-04-30
Duration (months): 63.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1169788.0
EU funding (EUR): 1169788.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Our memories define who we are and allow us to live independently. Conscious memory is commonly split into two components; “episodic memory” for events that are specific in time and place, and “semantic memory” for our conceptual knowledge about the world. The acquisition of both episodic and semantic memories depends upon the hippocampal formation (HF) and its interactions with other brain regions. Disruption to this brain system causes dramatic memory impairment, notably in the case of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Current theories propose that episodic and semantic memory are either neuroanatomically inseparable, are independent, or that there is a gradual transformation from episodic to semantic over time. These theories fail to account for experimental evidence demonstrating the dynamic nature of human memory. TRANSMEM comprises a series of experiments designed to test a novel hypothesis; that semantic memory comprises high-level “structures” as well as “elements”, and memories for events are rapidly transformed between episodic and semantic representations and vice versa. In doing so, TRANSMEM will answer fundamental questions about the human mind, such as “Why do we remember certain things but not others?”, and “How do we store and retrieve our memories for the past?” Innovative methods, including the use of video clips and virtual reality, will be used to investigate memory for realistic materials. In a fully interdisciplinary approach, I will employ cutting-edge fMRI techniques and neuropsychology to establish how the HF interacts with other brain regions to mediate these transformations and how these processes break down in AD. Completion of the TRANSMEM project will lead to major advances in research and practice in experimental and clinical psychology, cognitive and behavioural neuroscience, neurology, and will be of interest to all scholars of the complexities of human mind.

Keywords: episodic memory,semantic memory,hippocampal formation,alzheimer's disease,dementia
Transforming Citizenship through Hybrid Governance: The Impacts of Public-Private Security Assemblages (SECURCIT)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Institutions, values, beliefs and behaviour
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2019-07-31
Duration (months): 64.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1484656.0
EU funding (EUR): 1484656.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project is an anthropological study of how citizenship is being reconfigured through hybrid forms of governance. It will research these transformations by focusing on public-private ‘security assemblages’, with particular emphasis on the role of the private security industry. Much recent scholarly debate has focused on shifting modes of governance in a context of neoliberal globalization. Specific attention has focused on how governance is increasingly achieved through networks or assemblages of state, corporate and voluntary actors. Such assemblages of state and non-state actors blur the lines between public and private, and between local, national and transnational. This research will extend this debate by investigating the implications this form of governance has for how different groups enact and experience citizenship, concentrating on public-private security assemblages as hybrid, multi-scalar governance structures. It will examine how forms of ‘differentiated citizenship’ are produced, and how political subjectivities shift, as a result of these forms of security governance. These transformations in citizenship will be analyzed through a multi-sited, comparative analysis of security assemblages in Jerusalem (Israel), Kingston (Jamaica) and Nairobi (Kenya). The project will research the composition, operation and regulation of public-private security assemblages, with special attention to the global mobilities of security experts and expertise. In each setting, the project will study the practices and discourses that structure relations between state and non-state security providers, clients and those seen as threats. It will focus on the ‘security encounter’ between these different actors, in which new social relationships and subjectivities are produced. The project is expected to lead to the development of an anthropological theory of security governance with both theoretical and applied relevance.

Keywords: citizenship,security,anthropology of the state,neoliberalism,global mobilities,assemblages,ethnography
Optogenetic dissection of motor cortex dynamics and pathways (OPTOMOTORPATH)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Neurosciences and neural disorders
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-11-01
End date: 2020-10-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1498890.0
EU funding (EUR): 1498890.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Within a densely interconnected network, selective communication can be achieved only if neuronal inputs and outputs are functionally segmented and if only one segment is selected for a given time and neural population. We focus here on this process in the primary motor cortex (M1) which projects to a variety of brain structures involved in motor generation and suppression as well as somatosensory perception. We propose to investigate what kind of information is sent to two of M1’s main target brain areas – the striatum and the somatosensory cortex by separate or partially overlapping neural subpopulations. To dissect the two pathways we will apply new optogenetic projection and stimulation strategies and combine them with controlled behavior and electrophysiological recordings conducted with advanced optoelectronic probes. The goal is to neurophysiologically characterize the two populations in a specially designed Go/NoGo task with sensorimotor component and understand their functional relevance for motor behavior. For causally defining the optimal stimulation frequencies for a specific task period, we will make use of real-time feedback by measuring ongoing oscillatory patterns and enhance or phase shift the synchronized activity in motor cortex and its targets. In particular, we will focus on beta and gamma band oscillations. While beta band activity has been mainly associated with the suppression of movements and with postural maintenance as well as sensorimotor integration and planning, elevated gamma band activity has been reported often during movement initiation and attention. We hypothesize that the best suited resonance frequencies differ between the two communication paths to S1 and striatum and that they might change across trial phases. Apart from the impact on basic science, finding out about the details of sensorimotor integration and the role of synchronization may lead to a better understanding of motor disorders, e.g. Parkinson’s disease.

Keywords: optogenetics,projections targeting,motor cortex,pathway stimulation,sensorimotor integration,movement initiation and suppression,beta and gamma oscillations
Artificial Mitochondria for Health (MITOCHON)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Physical and Analytical Chemical sciences
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-12-01
End date: 2019-11-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1378000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1378000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Mitochondria are cell organelles that provide the energetic requirements of the body. The majority of cellular ATP is produced by the membrane protein ATP synthase through a proton gradient across the mitochondrial inner membrane. Alterations in ATP synthase biogenesis can result in severe mitochondrial diseases affecting tissues with high energy requirements as brain and muscles. Mitochondrial diseases affect approximately 20 million people in the EU, causing 35 % of deaths during the first year of life of newborns. However, the available therapeutic approaches, are still extremely limited and there is no specific treatment for ATP synthase deficiencies. To improve the treatments currently available for mitochondrial diseases, the project will focus on the realization of artificial mitochondria (AM). Based on artificial lipid vesicles, AM will be fabricated by means of microfluidics methods, a powerful tool able to produce identical replicas of a given bio-inspired membrane-object. ATP synthase will be expressed and assembled within the lipid bilayer by encapsulating cell-free protein expression systems. To test the ability of AM as in-situ energy fabrication systems, targeting-AM will be endocytosed inside cultured cells and ATP synthesis will be triggered by taking advantage of the proton gradient provided by endosomes. Finally, by enclosing other plasmids encoding for diverse proteins, AM can be used as energy-factoring pockets to elicit protein expression just when internalized within cells. This novel approach may constitute an advanced new concept in gene therapy to more effectively create breakthroughs in improving human health.
Unconventional Principles of ThermoElectric Generation (UPTEG)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Systems and communication engineering
Countries involved: France
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-10-01
End date: 2019-07-31
Duration (months): 70.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499506.8
EU funding (EUR): 1499506.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The performance of thermoelectric generation has long since been limited by the fact that it depends on hardly tunable intrinsic materials properties. At the heart of this problem lies a trade-off between sufficient Seebeck coefficient, good electrical properties and suitably low thermal conductivity. The two last being closely related by the ambivalent role of electrons in the conduction of both electrical and thermal currents. Current research focuses on materials composition and structural properties in order to improve this trade-off also known as the figure of merit (zT). Recently, evidences aroused that nanoscale structuration (nanowires, quantum dots, thin-films) can improve zT by means of electron and/or phonon confinement. The aim of this project is to tackle the intrinsic reasons for this low efficiency and bring TE conversion to efficiencies above 10% by exploring two unconventional and complementary approaches: Phononic Engineering Conversion consists of modulating thermal properties by means of a periodic, precisely designed, arrangement of inclusions on a length scale that compares to phonon means free path. This process is unlocked by state of the art lithography techniques. In its principles, phononic engineering offers an opportunity to tailor the phonon density of states as well as to artificially introduce thermal anisotropy in a semiconductor membrane. Suitable converter architecture is proposed that takes advantage of conductivity reduction and anisotropy to guide and converter heat flow. This approach is fully compatible with standard silicon technologies and is potentially applicable to conformable converters. The Micro Thermionic Conversion relies on low work function materials and micron scale vacuum gaps to collect a thermally activated current across a virtually zero heat conduction device. This approach, though more risky, envisions devices with equivalent zT around 10 which is far above what can be expected from solid state conversion.

Keywords: thermoelectricity silicon phononic thermionic material engineering
Molecular Characterization of the microRNA Life-Cycle (MIRLIFE)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Molecular and Structural Biology and Biochemistry
Countries involved: Austria
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2020-01-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499631.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499631.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Small silencing RNAs regulate gene expression in nearly all eukaryotes and have enormous biotechnological and therapeutic potential. MicroRNAs belong to the larges family of trans-acting gene regulatory molecules in multicellular organisms. In flies and mammals, they control more than half of the protein-coding transcriptome, and act as key regulators of organismal development, physiology, and disease. Here, we propose to study the molecular mechanisms that regulate microRNA homeostasis. We aim to understand how distinct small RNA profiles are established and maintained to coordinate the expression of more than half of all protein coding genes in flies and mammals. Our studies will provide insight into the processes that regulate the function of miRNAs, determine possible causes for aberrant miRNA levels, that have been associated with human diseases, and provide guidelines how to efficiently inhibit miRNA function for analytical and therapeutic purposes. We aim to identify and characterize the molecular determinants of microRNA stability, to dissect the pathways that promote the sequence-specific degradation of microRNAs, and to understand the biological consequences and therapeutic potential of small RNA decay. We will develop novel tools to obtain a view on the intracellular dynamics of RNA silencing pathways, in order to determine the molecular features associated with small RNA biogenesis and decay. Because of its genetic and biochemical tools, we will use Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism. We will employ a combination of bioinformatics, cell-free biochemical experiments, cell culture methods, and in vivo genetics. What we learn in flies we will test in vitro in mammalian cell extracts, in cultured human cell lines and in vivo in mice to identify where these processes are conserved and where they diverge. Overall, our goal is to determine fundamental biological mechanisms of RNA silencing, a phenomenon with enormous biological and biomedical impact.
Coatings for Composite Aero-engine structures (COMPOCOAT)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Joint Technology Initiatives (Annex IV-SP1)
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Clean Sky
Action type: Article 171 of the Treaty
Partnership: CLEAN-SKY (Art-185)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (SP1-JTI-CS-2012-03, 2012)
Start date: 2013-08-01
End date: 2016-04-30
Duration (months): 33.0
Total project cost (EUR): 710075.0
EU funding (EUR): 532556.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The COMPOCOAT project will develop a new surface protection system for the development of composite aero-engine aerofoil structures with metallic leading edge. The surface protection system will be based on TWI’s CompoSurfTM family of coating technologies and provide erosion protection for the metallic leading edge and thermal protection for the composite body. In addition to the surface protection system, the Comeld® joining process will be utilised for achieving high strength bonding in the metal-composite interface. The leading edge itself will comprise of two fishbone shaped parts that will facilitate further strength to the bond. The two parts will be welded together by laser, ensuring aerodynamic surface at the edge tip. The operating temperature for the new aerofoil structure will be in excess of 360°C. Out-of-Autoclave (OoA) processing will enable the rate manufacture of the demonstration parts, thus improving the cost effectiveness of the production.

Keywords: aero-engines,composite processing,surface protection systems,composite aerofoils,thermal barrier coatings,composite-metal joining,laser welding