Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Assessing the role of ribosomes and mRNA translation in shaping the inflammatory response (RiboInflam)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting 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: France
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2018-STG, 2018)
Start date: 2019-01-01
End date: 2024-12-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499720.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499720.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Inflammation is a highly regulated process that acts as a first line of defense against pathogens infections. Triggered by cellular pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) that recognize specific microbial components and endogenous or exogenous non-microbial components, activation of inflammation induces a dynamic and coordinated gene expression program that leads to the production of cytokines and chemokines to attract effector cells to the site of infection. Although a robust inflammatory response is required for efficient clearance of pathogens, uncontrolled or prolonged inflammation can lead to inflammatory disorders such as septic shocks or to autoimmune diseases like lupus. Most studies have focused so far on the transcriptional control of the inflammatory gene expression program. However, post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms involving mRNA splicing, mRNA decay or translation have also been described to control the inflammatory response. Among these, regulation of mRNA translation allows for rapid and reversible modulation of gene expression but its precise role and control mechanisms in the inflammatory response remain poorly understood. Using innovative technologies, our project aims at characterizing the role of ribosomes and mRNA translation in regulating the inflammatory response. In particular, we propose to identify the complete set of of ribosome accessory proteins and to determine their role in the context of “specialized ribosomes” with specific regulatory activities. We will also study the cross-talks between ribosomes and other cellular processes such as mRNA decay and uncover the role of mRNA editing in regulating translation during the inflammatory response. From this work, we expect to identify new regulatory mechanisms that orchestrate inflammation as well as cellular factors that could represent new therapeutic targets for the design of drugs modulating inflammation.

Keywords: inflammation,macrophage,innate immunity,ribosome,translation
Laser-spectroscopic sensing device for diagnostic assessment of sinusitis (SINUSLIGHT)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology
Theme: Biotechnology
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Sweden
Call: Dedicated support to biotechnology SMEs closing the gap from lab to market (H2020-SMEINST-1-2016-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2018-01-01
End date: 2018-06-30
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The aim of the SINUSLIGHT project is to develop a business plan for the continued development and commercialisation of a hand-held medical device, based on laser spectroscopy, to be used within health-care to aid in diagnosing sinus related problems, e.g. sinusitis. The device provides information on the open/air filled sinus cavity size, the oxygen concentration in the cavity and thereby the ventilation status of the sinus. The improved diagnosing possibilities provided by the device can provide an objective test and improve the care and reduce the unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics. The technology has already been clinically evaluated in a research study of 40 sinus cases with good success in correlation with the golden standard CT. Even though antibiotics are seldom needed nor medically motivated for sinusitis, the prescription remains high. A reason is that it is difficult to objectively diagnose sinusitis. It would clearly be very valuable to have a better, simple tool for a quick evaluation of sinus related problems. Such a tool would help the physician making a correct diagnosis and better select which patients really need referral to CT examination and whether antibiotics are needed or not. The technology of GPX Medical, named GASMAS (gas in scattering media absorption spectroscopy), is unique in that it can, non-intrusively, measure gases situated in enclosed, non-transparent cavities. The technique is based on transmitting low power laser light with the sensor positioned on the surface of the object. This provides the unique possibility to measure the concentration of gases in body cavities, such as the sinus cavities, non-invasively. The eye-safe spectroscopic laser technique is used to measure the content of oxygen gas and water vapour in the sinus cavities. A measurement is performed within a few seconds, and the result is immediately displayed.

Keywords: sinusitis,diagnostics,medical device,laser,optics,photonics
Musical and Poetic Creativity for A Unique Moment in the Western Christian Liturgy, c.1000-1500 (BENEDICAMUS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Cultures and cultural production
Panel description: Literary studies, cultural studies, study of the arts, philosophy
Countries involved: Norway
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2019-COG, 2019)
Start date: 2020-09-01
End date: 2026-12-31
Duration (months): 76.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1990328.75
EU funding (EUR): 1990328.75
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

BENEDICAMUS pursues a transformative focus on creative practices surrounding a particular moment in the Western Christian liturgy: the exclamation Benedicamus Domino (“Let us Bless the Lord”), which sounded in song several times a day from c.1000 to 1500. This moment was granted special musical licence c.1000: singers of plainchant melodies could choose to reprise a favourite tune from the Church music for the day, re-texting it with the words Benedicamus Domino. In consequence, Benedicamus Domino enjoyed unprecedented longevity and significance as a focus of compositional interest, prompting some of the earliest experiments in multi-voiced polyphonic composition c.1100, as well as a lasting tradition of popular, devotional carols in the 1300s and 1400s. Histories of music have principally told the stories of particular composers, genres, institutions, or geographical centres. BENEDICAMUS undertakes the first longue durée study of musical and poetic responses to an exceptional liturgical moment, using this innovative perspective to work productively across established historiographical and disciplinary boundaries. Encompassing half a millennium of musical and ritual activity, hundreds of musical compositions, poetic texts, and manuscript sources, it offers pan-European perspectives on a chronologically and geographically diverse range of musical and poetic genres never before considered in conjunction. It develops new methods of music analysis to uncover traces of ad hoc or improvisatory performative practices that were not explicitly recorded in writing, forging interdisciplinary contexts for thinking about artistic creativity and experimentation in a time-period where these concepts have been little studied. BENEDICAMUS engages with the beginnings of musical and poetic genres and techniques that were crucial in shaping practices still current today, and reflects on music’s enduringly complex relationship with spirituality, ritual, and the sacred.

Keywords: music,creativity,liturgy,ritual,history,poetry,middle ages,renaissance
Chemical assisted enrichment of 5-carboxycytosine that also allows for DNA sequencing at single base resolution. (CAC-seq.)

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: Chemistry
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2020-04-01
End date: 2022-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 212933.76
EU funding (EUR): 212933.76
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

5-carboxycytosine (5caC) has been robustly identified in mammalian DNA. It is known that this DNA modification plays a role in epigenetic demethylation processes. If 5caC has other epigenetically relevant functions is so far unknown. Due to its low abundance it is technically challenging to study this modification in biological samples. Identification of specific readers, recognition by the RNA polymerase II elongation complex, the presence in specific genomic loci as well as changing levels during differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) point towards an important biological function. A chemical tool that would clarify the role of 5caC in mammalian biology is so far missing. Since DNA modifications play a significant role in human diseases, understanding their functions offer new opportunities for novel treatment strategies. Chemical tools have advanced the field enormously in detecting and analysing newly discovered modified bases by rationally designed chemistry for specific labelling of a given modification. Chemical enrichment of DNA fragments enables mapping of the bases at 200-400 base pair resolution and has been used for a genome-wide mapping of several DNA modifications. To obtain single base resolution a separate modification specific sequencing method needs to be applied after enrichment. To avoid a multistep procedure I will develop a chemical enrichment method for 5caC that is directly coupled to single base resolution sequencing. In combination this provides a powerful chemical tool that has far reaching impact for other researchers in the field and finally enables scientific progress on 5caC.
Efficient Multibody Interactive Simulation for Soft Robotics (EMISSR)

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: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Denmark
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2019-01-14
End date: 2021-01-13
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 212194.8
EU funding (EUR): 212194.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The aim of the EMISSR project is to create a novel multibody dynamics simulator for soft robotics. The originality of the project consists in a unified constraint based formulation that can couple rigid and flexible bodies in the same solver. The argument behind a simulator for soft robotics is the fact that traditional robots are not suitable for working in humans and their control has proven daunting especially for nonlinear underactuated systems. The new field of soft robotics is seeing great growth and investment around the globe and Europe needs to seize this economic opportunity. New dynamics simulations and control algorithms are needed for soft robots, that are made up of soft parts and biology inspired actuators. EMISSR wants to fill in this gap and aims to become a testbed for training control policies based on machine learning and other algorithms. In terms of performance and accuracy, EMISSR will be a high-fidelity interactive simulator, meaning that it will be extremely fast due to its multilevel solver and parallel implementation, while not sacrificing much of the accuracy needed for soft robotics applications. The frictional contact and deformable continua models will not make any unphysical approximations. The elements that will distinguish EMISSR from other existing projects are: two-way coupling of rigid and soft bodies, a fast multilevel iterative solver, stability for high mass ratios and transversal oscillations and robust contact information generation. These will be applied to making virtual replicas of soft robots (e.g. soft body parts, artificial muscles and tendons, pneumatic tubes), simulating their dynamics and testing machine learning based control policies for large numbers of degrees of freedom. At the same time, the training programme that UCPH offers matches my career development needs perfectly, allowing me to build upon my current competencies, not forgetting the opportunity to enhance my academic profile and teaching experience.

Keywords: multibody dynamics simulation,two way coupling,rigid and flexible bodies,multilevel iterative solver,high mass ratios,high fidelity,performance,soft robotics,machine learning,control
Autocatalysis: A bottom-up approach to understanding the origins of life (Autocat)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Panel description: New materials and new synthetic approaches, structure-properties relations, solid state chemistry, molecular architecture, organic chemistry
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2015-CoG, 2015)
Start date: 2016-05-01
End date: 2022-01-31
Duration (months): 69.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2278073.0
EU funding (EUR): 2278073.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The origin of life is not well understood, and is one of the great remaining questions in science. Autocatalytic chemical reactions have been extensively studied with the aim of providing insight into the principles underlying living systems. In biology, organisms can be thought of as imperfect self-replicators, which produce closely related species, allowing for selection and evolution. Autocatalysis is also an important part of many other biological processes. This project aims to develop new autocatalytic reactions where two simple chemical building blocks come together to give a more complex product, and then the product aggregates to give primitive cell-like structures or "protocells" such as micelles or vesicles. The protocells allow the starting materials to mix more efficiently, speeding up the reaction in time and giving rise to complex behaviour of the protocells. These reactions will serve as models that I hope will contribute to understanding how cell-like systems can emerge from simpler chemicals and be relevant to how life started on earth. This project will give the opportunity to study chemical systems that may be able to evolve in time, allow development of useful chemical models of important biological processes, and provide ‘bottom-up’ approaches to synthetic biology. This research will potential allow the study evolution in a new ways, develop technology useful to a number of scientific fields, and potentially shed light on the processes that allowed chemistry to become biology on the primitive Earth.

Keywords: autocatalysis,self reproduction,origins of life,protocells,phase behaviour,chemical evolution,systems chemistry,supramolecular
Towards solving myopia: from genes to pathways using an integrated approach (MYOP-PATH)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Panel description: Medical technologies and tools for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human diseases, therapeutic approaches and interventions, pharmacology, preventative medicine, epidemiology and public health, digital medicine
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2014-CoG, 2014)
Start date: 2015-09-01
End date: 2021-02-28
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2000000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2000000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Background: Myopia (near-sightedness) is a growing public health issue due to its rapidly rising prevalence. In particular high myopia carries a significant risk of blindness for which there are no treatment options. The disease etiology of this trait is complex and largely unknown. We recently identified a large number of disease loci and genes, which provide significant clues for pathogenic pathways. However, they explain only a limited proportion of myopia’s heritability, and the direct functional effects of risk variants, their interaction with environmental factors, and their potential for intervention are unknown. Aim: To identify disease mechanisms that underlie myopia and create starting points for therapy. Approach: 1. Decipher the genetic background of myopia, identify gene effects and influence of environment in humans. In very large consortia (~250,000 study participants) with ample data on epidemiology, myopia phenotype, and genomic markers, we will exploit the recent technological advances to analyze a large number of genetic variants including those altering protein function. We will annotate significant hits to major pathways, study gene effects on phenotype, identify retinal cell structures which drive myopiagenesis, investigate gene-environment interaction, and develop a prediction model for progression to high myopia. 2. Identify gene effects, influence of environment, and targets for intervention in animals. In mice and zebrafish which have been manipulated for high myopia risk genes, we will study ocular biometry, retinal anatomy, visual behavior, and molecular and biochemical effects of genes as a function of environment. Interventions tailored to altering gene effects will be explored. Impact: Integrating the results obtained from these genetic, epidemiologic, functional and molecular studies will advance our understanding of the underlying biology of myopia and help create novel therapeutic targets to reduce the burden of high myopia.

Keywords: eye diseases,refractive error,complex trait genetics,population based cohort studies,retinal imaging,genome wide association,exome sequencing,zebrafish,genetically modified mice
Becoming Men: Performing responsible masculinities in contemporary urban Africa (Becoming Men)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Panel description: Political science, international relations, law
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2014-CoG, 2014)
Start date: 2015-09-01
End date: 2021-02-28
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999830.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999830.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This anthropological study examines the reconfiguration of masculinities in urban Africa over the last 30 years. Focusing on how practices and discourses of empowerment and equality shape male subjectivities, this study builds upon a significant body of nuanced research on masculinities in Africa. Since the mid-1980s academic and public discourses have depicted African masculinity as both precarious and predatory. Economic insecurity, urbanization, shifting gender norms, and growing gender parity have accompanied claims that African masculinity is ‘in crisis’. More recently, new stories of urban men embracing responsible fatherhood, condemning intimate partner violence, and demanding homosexual rights have emerged as exemplars of progressive possibility. To disentangle these seemingly competing claims about African masculinities and shed light on the scientific, political, and economic projects that shape them, this research theorises that the discourses and practices that pathologise and politicise masculinity are simultaneously performing and producing gendered selves on multiple scales in the name of gender equality. Recently, ‘male involvement’ has become a rallying cry throughout the vast global development assemblage, around which governments, NGOs, research networks, activists, and local communities fight gender inequality to promote health, economic development, and human rights. In this research, a range of male-involvement initiatives provides a lens through which to study how masculinities are diversely imagined, (re)configured, and performed through men’s engagements with this assemblage, in both its local and global manifestations. Multi-sited ethnographic research will focus on six cities where the PI has active research ties: Nairobi and Kisumu, Kenya; Johannesburg and Durban, South Africa; and Dar es Salaam and Mwanza, Tanzania.

Keywords: masculinity,urban africa,performance,subjectivity
Scalable automation for flexible production systems (ScalABLE4.0)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Sweden,France,Denmark,Portugal
Call: Digital automation (H2020-FOF-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2017-01-01
End date: 2020-06-30
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4005550.0
EU funding (EUR): 3999050.0
Participants: 8
Project status: CLOSED

The main objective of the ScalABLE 4.0 project is the development and demonstration of an open scalable production system framework (OSPS) that can be used efficiently and effectively to visualize, virtualize, construct, control, maintain and optimize production lines. The OSPS aims to provides this through a) a tight integration of the enterprise information systems with transformable automation equipment paired up with b) the necessary open APIs for optimized solutions on all hierarchy levels. The development of this OSPS framework is an answer to the growing demand of manufacturing companies to have efficient tools enabling them to optimize the organization of their production lines ‘on the fly’ and that have approached members of the consortium over the past few years. Two of these companies (PSA and Simoldes Plasticos) are part of the consortium and are at the center of this proposal. To assure full generality of the framework, they have defined two highly challenging use-cases against which the OSPS will be verified, tested and demonstrated on site and under industrial conditions. This will be achieved by a tight integration between (a) advanced robots production devices , (b) a highly advanced model for the plant, (c) decision support technologies (d) advanced networked interfaces and plug and produce technologies. The expected economic impact is considerable and easily measurable in the demonstrator: by dynamically scaling the production resources to the current production volume and variant, both end-users will demonstrate substantial savings generated by the adaptable production capacity. For instance, the pilot engine production plant at PSA would be able to save approx 10 M€ just for the ramp-up of a single line.

Keywords: scalable production systems