Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
STEAM- Making Sense of Science through Art (STEAM)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: European researchers' Night
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: European Researchers' Night (H2020-MSCA-NIGHT-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2016-05-01
End date: 2017-11-30
Duration (months): 19.0
Total project cost (EUR): 364912.25
EU funding (EUR): 160000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

STEAM will adopt a novel multidisciplinary approach which utilities the medium of art and creative disciplines to communicate complex STEM concepts to a wide audience. The University of Huddersfield will be the primary site for the STEAM events which will showcase the research ongoing at universities and businesses across the Yorkshire Region, emphasizing specifically the pan-European research with which we are involved. STEAM will create a platform for public interaction through an exciting array of events, fun activities and presentations, where researchers from numerous and diverse disciplines will engage directly. The aim will be to engage with the general public, to illustrate to them the diversity, importance, and impact that this research has on everyday lives, and specifically young people to familiarize them with researchers in person to demystify any misconceptions they may hold and provide strong career role models. Two events are proposed (2016 and 2017) with the STEAM theme running across the two years, developments in research in 2017 will be emphasized to reflect the rapidly evolving nature of science.

Keywords: steam,stem,research,scientific research,art and design,career,public engagement
Unveiling the formation and evolution of galaxy clusters through the intracluster light and multidisciplinar techniques of image processing and big data analysis (CICLE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Reintegration panel
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Physics
Countries involved: Spain
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2020-04-01
End date: 2022-07-21
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 172932.48
EU funding (EUR): 172932.48
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The intracluster light (ICL) is defined as the luminous component of the clusters of galaxies which is formed by stars that are gravitationally bound to the cluster potential but do not belong to any galaxy in particular. Its properties give insights on cluster formation and evolution, determine the dynamical stage of the system, estimate its age, improve scaling relations, and constrain the cosmological parameters. Its study is limited because the ICL has a very low surface brightness and traditional techniques assume different a priori hypotheses that bias the final results. As a consequence, ICL studies are rare and often draw inconsistent (or even contradictory) conclusions and results. We developed and tested successfully the first algorithm to analyze images of galaxy clusters and measure ICL properties completely free of a priori assumptions, called CICLE. CICLE gathers mathematical tools of image modelling and characterisation, and algorithms of multiresolution analysis. Some of these tools were developed in-house and are multidisciplinar. Our goal is to carry out the first extensive, systematic, and consistent study of the ICL in groups and clusters of galaxies using CICLE and high-quality data from HST and the J-PAS project. We plan to split the study in three subprojects, according to the characteristics of the systems: i) massive clusters, ii) non-massive clusters and groups, and iii) fossil groups. This work would report: a) observationally, images and data of high scientific impact, attractive to different astronomical areas, b) analytically, new and versatile techniques of big data analysis, with potential to be widely used not only in Astronomy but also in other fields as Geophysics, Medicine, or Biochemistry, and c) scientifically, the first unbiased and large-scale characterization of the ICL and the discovery of the effect of this component on the process of formation and evolution of clusters of galaxies, still unknown.
Quantitative Tomography Using Coupled Physics of Waves (QUANTOM)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Products and processes engineering
Panel description: Product and process design, chemical, civil, environmental, mechanical, vehicle engineering, energy processes and relevant computational methods
Countries involved: Finland
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2020-COG, 2020)
Start date: 2021-06-01
End date: 2026-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2000000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2000000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Tomographic images are a valuable tool in various applications of medicine and biomedicine, industry and in security applications. Although efficient tomographic imaging techniques exist, development of new modalities that would overcome the limitations of the existing techniques are required. Overall, there is a need for development of new tomographic techniques that would provide quantitative information of unknown parameters of interest, such as tomographic images on the concentration of molecules. In particular, information on the reliability of the tomographic images is required. The objective of the project is to develop quantitative tomographic imaging technique based on coupled physics of waves. In coupled physics imaging, contrast and resolution originating from different physical phenomena are combined. In the project, light, microwaves and ultrasound, i.e. waves, will be utilised through photoacoustic, thermoacoustic and acousto-optic effects. These techniques will be developed to produce tomographic images with an outstanding quantitative contrast in the sense of statistical information and modelling of uncertainties, combined with superior resolution and imaging depth. Most tomographic imaging techniques are ill-posed problems that need to be approached in the framework of inverse problems. In the project, a Bayesian approach to ill-posed inverse problems, which supports the quantitative nature of the problem, will be taken. In the project, mathematical modelling and computational methods will be developed in close connection with experimental system development. The research is founded on a strong understanding of the underlying physics of coupled physics problems, knowledge on instrumentation on the related fields and experimental tomography, and state-of-the-art methods of computational inverse mathematics, that all come together in the PI’s research group.

Keywords: inverse problems,bayesian methods,quantitative tomography,uncertainty quantification,imaging from coupled physics,photoacoustic computed tomography,thermoacoustic tomography,scientific computing
Functional role of Epithelial–to–Mesenchymal Transition in the pathogenesis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (INFLEMT)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Reintegration panel
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Italy
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2021-07-01
End date: 2023-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 171473.28
EU funding (EUR): 171473.28
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) defines a group of chronic inflammatory disorders of the digestive tract, with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease being its two major clinical manifestations, affecting 2.5 million people in Europe. The high prevalence of IBD in Europe and the multiple clinical challenges associated with a significant degree of unresponsiveness to anti-inflammatory therapies and development of complications requiring surgical intervention demand a deeper understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underpinning IBD. This project aims to understand the role of the process termed Epithelial–to–Mesenchymal Transition (EMT), an embryonic cellular trans-differentiation program re-launched in many pathological conditions, in the pathogenesis of IBD. EMT has in fact been detected in the inflamed intestinal mucosa and surrounding fibrotic areas of IBD patients and experimental models of colitis, however whether EMT functionally contributes to the pathogenesis of IBD is poorly understood. The INFLEMT project aims to: 1) profile EMT in human IBD to identify its cellular features and correlation with the disease stage; 2) elucidate the impact of EMT on the integrity, functionality and regenerative capacity of the intestinal epithelial barrier; 3) explore the effects of EMT on fibrosis development and modulation of the immune response to assess its role in sustaining the chronic intestinal disease. These objectives will be pursued by utilizing patient-derived biopsies as well as novel mouse models to manipulate EMT in the intestinal epithelium. Comprehensive analysis, including RNA-sequencing and multispectral imaging, of the involved cellular and microenvironmental components (epithelial barrier, immune cells, fibroblasts) will be performed in acute and chronic colitis settings to mechanistically configure EMT as an epithelial injury response and a major functional driver in the pathogenesis of IBD.

Keywords: epithelial to mesenchymal transition,cell plasticity
Selective Recovery of Critical Raw Materials by Using Metal-Organic Framework Based Adsorbents (RUMBA)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Career Restart panel
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Chemistry
Countries involved: Spain
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2022-05-01
End date: 2025-05-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 259398.72
EU funding (EUR): 259398.72
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Selective recovery of Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) from underexploited mining side streams can contribute to reducing the European dependence on imports of these refractory metals. RUMBA: “Selective Recovery of CRMs (Nb, Ta, W) by Using MOFs Based Adsorbents” aims to improve the efficiency of conventional hydrometallurgical methods. These methods require the digestion of ores under strong acid or alkaline conditions and the recovery of CRM via liquid-liquid extraction. RUMBA innovative approach is based on the use of solid adsorbents known as Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs). MOFs are crystalline materials with porous and flexible frameworks. Their properties (porosity, flexibility, adsorption capacity, chemical and thermal stability) make them capable of extremely fast sorption with unprecedentedly high selectivity toward targeted ionic species. Despite their suitability for heavy metals capture, MOFs have never been used for recovering CRMs. RUMBA involves the first study of the interactions CRM-MOF to guide the design of frameworks with high affinity/selectivity toward target CRMs. Extraction experiments will be performed in samples from real mining streams. Additionally, the CRM-MOF systems will be studied for possible added-value applications of environmental relevance. The feasibility for succeeding in the scientific and training objectives pursued in RUMBA is supported by the strong expertise of the host institution (ICAMCyL) in advanced mining technologies and the solid background of the researcher in synthesis and characterization of MOFs. RUMBA offers the researcher the opportunity of resuming her research career through the exploration of a completely different application for materials she is familiar with. She will gain scientific skills in mineral processing, CRMs regulation, and catalysis. Furthermore, her profile will grow in IPR management and patent exploitation thanks to the supervisor expertise in mining industrial innovation.

Keywords: critical raw materials,mining technology,extractive metallurgy
Super-enhancer modules controlling plasticity and response to therapy in pancreatic cancer (PDASwITch)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Spain
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2020-09-01
End date: 2022-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 160932.48
EU funding (EUR): 160932.48
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Recently discovered subtypes in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) have potential to better guide the choice of therapy. However, this is challenged by the lack of robust data, patient heterogeneity, tumour cell plasticity, dynamic crosstalk with surrounding cells, and post-chemotherapy induced alterations. A few transcription factors may act as drivers of specific PDAC subtypes and changes in there expression through aberrant activation of super-enhancers may lead to ‘’subtype switching’’. However, the effect of the tumour-microenvironment on enhancer-driven gene expression programme to promote ‘’subtype switching’’ in pancreatic tumour cells remains largely unexplored. Hence, with this proposal I aim to provide in-depth characterization of this dynamic crosstalk combining reporter tracing through fluorescent labelling of subtype-specific transcriptional drivers of tumour cell states with powerful high throughput single-cell technologies, and super-enhancer single cell profiling which will translate to a clinical study of neoadjuvant chemotherapy with sequential tumour sample profiling. This work will ultimately provide a platform for the development of methods to precisely determine the "phenotypic" state of PDAC cells and aid in designing new agents to target these processes, with the ultimate goal of converting non-responder to responder tumours and improve patient outcome.

Keywords: pdac,plasticity,tumour microenvironment,super enhancers,therapy
Eliciting Mucosal Immunity to Tuberculosis (EMI-TB)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Health, demographic change and wellbeing
Theme: Preventing disease
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Spain,Italy,Spain,Spain,Italy,Germany,Sweden,Czechia,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,Mozambique,United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call: Vaccine development for poverty-related and neglected infectious diseases: tuberculosis (H2020-PHC-2014-single-stage, 2014)
Start date: 2015-01-01
End date: 2019-06-30
Duration (months): 54.0
Total project cost (EUR): 7999920.11
EU funding (EUR): 7993660.0
Participants: 14
Project status: CLOSED

Tuberculosis (TB) is a global health problem, killing 1.5 million of people every year. The only currently available vaccine, Mycobacterium bovis BCG, is effective against severe childhood forms, but it demonstrates a variable efficacy against the pulmonary form of TB in adults. Many of these adult TB cases result from the reactivation of an initially controlled, latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection. Effective prophylactic vaccination remains the key long-term strategy for combating TB. Continued belief in reaching this goal requires unrelenting innovation in the formulation and delivery of candidate vaccines. It is also based on the assumption, that the failure of recent human vaccine trials could have been due to a sub-optimal vaccine design and delivery, and therefore should not erode the key principle that a TB vaccine is an attainable target. This proposal focuses on mucosal vaccination, which has been considered in the past, but not implemented efficiently. The innovation of the proposal is focused on several important aspects of vaccine development and testing, including the use of novel technologies for vaccine delivery, novel ways of specific targeting of mucosal immune cells and tissues, the use of polypeptides incorporating early and latent MTB antigens and putative CD8+ T cell epitopes, and application of novel tools for identifying early predictors and correlates of vaccine-induced protection. The overall objective is to design a vaccine that will induce a broad-ranging immune response to MTB both systemically and in the mucosa of the lungs, and provide the currently missing links in protective immunity to this pathogen.

Keywords: mucosal,correlates,immunity
Impact and interaction of prophage elements in bacterial host strains of biotechnological relevance (PRO_PHAGE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Panel description: Biotechnology using all organisms, biotechnology for environment and food applications, applied plant and animal sciences, bioengineering and synthetic biology, biomass and biofuels, biohazards
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2017-STG, 2017)
Start date: 2018-01-01
End date: 2023-06-30
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1482672.0
EU funding (EUR): 1482672.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Phages, viruses that prey on bacteria, are the most abundant and diverse inhabitants of the Earth. Temperate bacteriophages are able to integrate into the host genome and maintain as prophages a long-term association with their host. Illustrated by the development of mutually beneficial traits, this close interaction between host and virus has significantly shaped bacterial evolution. However, the immense genetic resources of phage genomes still remain almost unexplored. For the transition to a sustainable bioeconomy, we strongly depend on microbes as hosts for the production of value-added compounds. PRO_PHAGE will exploit recent advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS), single-cell analysis, and high-throughput (HT) phenotyping to evaluate the impact of phage elements on host fitness and to use this knowledge for the improvement of future metabolic engineering approaches. By combining an explorative approach with subsequent molecular analysis of selected targets, PRO_PHAGE will deliver novel insights into this genetic resource and will reveal the risks and potential for metabolic engineering by pursuing four major objectives. 1) Based on a comprehensive bioinformatic analysis, the impact of phage elements will be studied by HT phenotyping of selected strains. 2) The regulatory interaction of phage and host will be analysed by focusing on host-encoded xenogeneic silencing proteins and their role in the integration of foreign DNA. 3) The spontaneous activation of phage elements will be studied at the genomic scale to decipher molecular triggers and their impact on host gene expression. For this purpose, a novel workflow combining fluorescence-activated cell sorting and NGS will be developed, which will be broadly applicable for studying microbial population dynamics at unprecedented resolution. 4) Finally, the insights obtained will be benchmarked for metabolic engineering approaches in order to generate robust and flexible chassis strains for industrial product

Keywords: bacteriophages,prophage,phage bacteria interaction,virus,metabolic engineering,signal transduction
Functional genetics of Wolbachia proliferation and protection to viruses (WOLBAKIAN)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy
Panel description: The immune system, related disorders and their mechanisms, biology of infectious agents and infection, biological basis of prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, innovative immunological tools and approaches, including therapies
Countries involved: Portugal
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2017-COG, 2017)
Start date: 2018-07-01
End date: 2024-06-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999500.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999500.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Wolbachia are arguably the most prevalent intracellular bacteria in animals, infecting filarial nematodes and up to 66% of arthropod species. Wolbachia are maternally transmitted and can induce a large range of strong phenotypes on their hosts. However, very little is known on how they induce these phenotypes and how they interact with the host at the molecular level. One main difficulty with this system is that Wolbachia have been genetically intractable. We will study how Wolbachia confers protection to viruses, a phenomenon that is currently being applied to fight dengue and Zika viruses. We also aim at understanding how these endosymbiont titres are regulated, a crucial aspect of their biology. We will identify host and Wolbachia genes that regulate these processes by performing classical genetic screens in Drosophila and develop a new method to perform a forward genetic screen in Wolbachia. Our previous analysis of natural variants of Wolbachia will also be extended in order to identify alleles associated with differential growth and antiviral protection. We will characterize candidate Wolbachia genes, from the previous analysis and current results in the lab, by performing a new method to obtain loss-of-function mutants in target Wolbachia genes. We will also focus on putative effector proteins of Wolbachia with the purpose of identifying cellular location, induced phenotypes, and host interacting proteins. Drosophila genes will be characterized by classical genetic methods in this model organism. The identification and characterization of Wolbachia and host genes involved in antiviral protection and Wolbachia proliferation will provide key insights to these basic biological problems. Moreover, the knowledge generated and new Wolbachia variants may have an application in the fight against arboviruses transmitted by mosquitoes and human diseases caused by filarial nematodes.

Keywords: host microbe interactions,endosymbionts,wolbachia,drosophila,innate immunity,antiviral protection,insect