Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Decoding and targeting the PGE2-MEF2A axis in tumor-associated macrophages (MEFHISTO)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment 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: Italy
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2022-COG, 2022)
Start date: 2023-09-01
End date: 2028-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2000000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2000000.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Inflammation is a complex spectrum of processes whose outcomes range from cell killing to tissue regeneration. In this context, a major goal in immune oncology is the development of treatments that stimulate cytotoxic immunity while limiting repair in the tumor microenvironment (TME), as these approaches have the potential to synergize with available immunotherapies and provide benefit to otherwise resistant patients. Pancreatic cancer is a largely incurable disease, in which aberrant inflammation and profound immune suppression conspire to sustain disease initiation, progression, and immune escape. Accumulating evidence supports the view that tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are key orchestrators of the balance between cytotoxicity and regeneration, and thus represent promising therapeutic targets in pancreatic cancer. In MEFHISTO, we aim at elucidating the molecular control, the functional implications, and the therapeutic potential of the PGE2-MEF2A axis, a newly described pathway enabling selective control of inflammatory gene expression in macrophages. By combining advanced genomic analyses in human samples, functional experiments in preclinical models, and mechanistic studies in key cell types, this Proposal will expand our knowledge of the organizing principles of innate immune responses in tumors. The ensuing results may lead to novel combinatorial treatments for diseases, such as pancreatic cancer, that are refractory to immunotherapy.

Keywords: macrophages inflammation genomics
Development of a general strategy for the conversion of pyridines into benzonitriles (DEPYR)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Chemistry
Countries involved: Germany
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-11-03
End date: 2027-11-02
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 202125.12
EU funding (EUR): 202125.12
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Bioisosteric replacement is crucial to drug discovery. However, substituting a central core ring structure generally requires de novo synthetic sequences due to the lack of “ring-replacing” strategies that can be used at a late-stage. This project will focus on finding a solution to the challenge of converting pyridines into benzonitriles. This is a desirable “ring replacement” in medicinal chemist and benzonitriles can mimic pyridines' properties and are effective bioisosteres. However, current methods to convert pyridines to benzonitriles are limited to de novo synthetic approaches. This project seeks to develop a novel strategy converting pyridines into benzonitriles. This will be achieved in just three steps by (1) pyridine N-oxidation, followed by (2) photochemical deconstruction into a nitrile-containing linear diene, which (3) is primed for Diels-Alder cycloaddition to reconstruct the aromatic benzonitrile. This strategy will constitute a divergent platform for the diversification of high-value pyridine products and also a novel retrosynthetic tactic for the reparation of complex benzonitriles. This research squarely fits within a recent new research direction the Leonori group where photochemistry is used to alter the structure of aromatic molecules. The completion of such an innovative and ambitious project at RWTH Aachen University will be facilitated by generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge, and will enhance the Researcher future career following the training plan envisioned.

Keywords: photochemistry,diels alder cycloaddition,dearomative ring opening
Proteasomal degradation of toxic intracellular amyloid-beta protein by nanobody-enabled proximity to ubiquitin ligase (Protambbody)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Finland,Germany
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2023-01-01
End date: 2025-06-30
Duration (months): 30.0
Total project cost (EUR): 269418.0
EU funding (EUR): 269418.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

The amyloid-beta (Aβ) protein arises from the sequential proteolytic cleavage of Aβ precursor protein (APP). The accumulation of Aβ oligomers has been regarded as the causal factor of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Basal metabolic production of the Aβ peptide is typical in healthy people, and its production rate is normally lower than its rate of clearance. In AD, the uncontrolled accumulation of toxic forms of Aβ stemming from problems in its clearance and degradation results in memory loss, chronic neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. AD is a leading cause of disability and death both in Europe and the world, and currently has no cure or clinically-proven disease-modifying therapies. There are over 10 million new cases of dementia each year worldwide (up to 80% of which are due to AD), implying one new case every 3.2 seconds. In Europe, about 10 million people currently suffer from this disease and about 50 million in the world; with these estimates projected to double by 2050. Thus, the identification of novel disease-modifying therapies has become very critical to eradicating AD from Europe and the world. My project proposes a radically novel approach in the AD field of utilizing the body’s cellular waste disposal system to selectively degrade Aβ peptide, the causative agent of AD. This is in sharp contrast to the current approach of immunization against the Aβ peptide, which has repeatedly failed to yield any cure or disease-modifying therapies for AD. This project will aim to identify the specific cytotoxic Aβ peptides responsible for neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in human induced pluripotent stem cells and target these peptides for degradation by the ubiquitin proteasome system. Emphasis will be on the cytotoxic Aβ peptides of intracellular origin as emerging targets in AD. This research will be conducted at the University of Helsinki, Finland, followed by a non-academic placement at Roche Diagnostics GmbH.

Keywords: amyloid beta,nanobody,ubiquitin ligase
Automated Realtime detection and Identification of Avian and chiropteran species for compliance and monitoring in the wind power sector (ARIA)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Accelerator
Destination: Other destinations
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Norway
Call: EIC Accelerator 2024 - Short application (HORIZON-EIC-2024-ACCELERATOR-01, 2024)
Duration (months): 20.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2000000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2000000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Meeting the 2030 and 2050 climate targets requires a faster deployment of wind energy. According to the REPowerEU plan, EU wind energy must grow from 190 GW to at least 480 GW in 2030. The EU needs 37 GW a year on average, but it just installed 16.2 GW in 2023. Recently, the importance of EU energy independence has become ever clearer, and any delay in wind farm implementations is consequently also a direct threat to the EU from this perspective. This development must be managed sustainably, preventing negative impacts on the biodiversity and reconciling both energy production and birds’ and bats’ habitats. We have developed ARIA, out patent-pending solution to leverage the power of AI, computer vision, and domain-specific knowledge to collect data from birds and bats in onshore and offshore environments. ARIA can collect data 24/7, including both detections up to 3,000m and classification of 85 species of up to 1,500m distance with off-the-shelf high-definition cameras. Our solution is highly scalable by using commercial high-definition daytime and thermal cameras with our proprietary AI-based software. With ARIA, wind developers improve their field surveys for planning and permitting and ensure compliance with biodiversity protection laws, as piloted with companies like Ørsted, Equinor, Iberdrola and Vattenfall. ARIA will ensure full compliance with the strictest regulations, avoiding hefty fines and minimizing potential turbine curtailment (shutdowns) and decommissioning orders. In most cases, the root cause of such incidents is an incomplete data collected during the pre-construction field surveys. Thanks to this EIC Accelerator project, we will mature ARIA, shortening the time to market. Spoor plans to increase the staff from 18 FTEs to 32 FTEs by project end. We estimate €0.4 million of revenue in 2024 and expect to generate €79 million in 2030 as we reach 1,223 operational cameras using ARIA for pre- and post-construction of wind farms.

Keywords: biodiversity protection,birds,bats,ornithology,regulation,permitting,wind power,wind energy,renewable energy,collision avoidance,image analysis,video analysis,edge computing
Accelerating the Validation of Predictive Liquid Biomarkers for Frontotemporal Dementia Diagnosis and Subclassification (PREDICTFTD)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Health
Theme: Health
Destination: Tackling diseases and reducing disease burden
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Netherlands,Italy,Lithuania,Spain,Germany,Switzerland,Finland,United Kingdom,Luxembourg
Call: Validation of fluid-derived biomarkers for the prediction and prevention of brain disorders (HORIZON-HLTH-2024-DISEASE-03-two-stage, 2024)
Start date: 2024-12-01
End date: 2029-05-31
Duration (months): 54.0
Total project cost (EUR): 8167216.46
EU funding (EUR): 7994911.46
Participants: 15
Project status: SIGNED

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) has a debilitating effect on patients and their caregivers and leads to substantial economic costs. 15-30% of patients have familial FTD caused by known pathogenetic mutations. For the other 70-85% of patients, termed sporadic FTD, diagnosis is slow (~3.6 years) with frequent misdiagnosis due to clinical, genetic and molecular heterogeneity. Thus, there is great need for biomarkers for early diagnosis of sporadic FTD and its pathological subtypes. In PREDICTFTD, we will validate a set of biomarkers and create a diagnostic tool for early diagnosis of familial and sporadic FTD, which will facilitate tailored support and symptomatic treatments and care. We will apply several new approaches to achieve this: 1) we combine 11 geographically diverse cohorts of sporadic and familial FTD with retrospective and prospective longitudinal liquid biopsy samples and extensive clinical and behavioural data; 2) we are the first to use multimodal clinical and liquid biomarker data to train an AI-algorithm as a diagnostic tool for quick and early clinical FTD diagnosis; and 3) we implement a novel robust two-stage strategy for biomarker and AI algorithm validation, where phase I validates biomarkers and algorithms on a cohort of genetic and autopsied cases and phase II assesses biomarker value for diagnosis of sporadic FTD and at-risk pre-symptomatic mutation carriers. We will apply this two-stage validation strategy to address three critical clinical challenges: i) To distinguish sporadic FTD from (non-) neurodegenerative disorders that show significant clinical/symptomatic overlap, ii) To robustly detect FTD pathological subtypes in sporadic FTD and iii) pre-symptomatic identification of FTD onset. Thus, PREDICTFTD will transform FTD diagnosis, offering potential for early disease confirmation, guiding treatment decisions, facilitating patient recruitment for clinical trials, guidance of patients and caregivers, and enabling preventive measures.

Keywords: frontotemporal dementia,liquid biomarkers,early detection,predictive ai,multimodal prediction
Understanding the Language of Life: Identifying and Characterizing the Language Units in Protein Sequences (LifeLU)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Computer Science and Informatics
Panel description: Informatics and information systems, computer science, scientific computing, intelligent systems
Countries involved: Türkiye
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2022-COG, 2022)
Start date: 2023-11-01
End date: 2028-10-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1982800.0
EU funding (EUR): 1982800.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Proteins play a key role in biological processes that govern and maintain life. Although they are three-dimensional entities, they can be represented in textual form as sequences of amino acids that largely determine their structures and functions. By analogy with natural (human) languages, we can consider proteins as written with a language, which we refer to in this proposal as the "language of life". Natural languages can be read and understood by humans. However, we cannot yet understand the language of life. We do not even know what the vocabulary is, i.e., what the basic language units are (analogous to words in human languages). Textual representation of proteins has enabled the application of natural language processing (NLP) techniques to the study of proteins, and breakthrough results have been achieved in various downstream tasks such as protein structure prediction. However, these efforts remain only at the "processing level" of the language of life. The main goal of this project is to go beyond the level of language processing and open new research horizons for understanding the language of life. Using my expertise in NLP and bioinformatics, I will pursue the following objectives: (i) develop innovative methods to determine the language units (i.e., the vocabulary) of the language of life; (ii) identify the characteristics of this language as well as its variability among species; (iii) develop novel methods to identify and characterize the functions of the language units. This research will lay the foundation for a new field of research, molecular language understanding, which aims to develop methods for understanding the messages encoded in molecular sequences. The ultimate goal of this project is to decipher the language of life, which will lead to groundbreaking consequences for understanding life and health, and will shed light to the development of novel prevention, diagnosis, and treatment strategies for diseases.

Keywords: bioinformatics,natural language processing,machine learning,protein sequence analysis,protein function prediction
Just Times? Temporalities and Uncertainties for Marginalised Groups in Cities (TimeCity)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Sweden
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-08-01
End date: 2026-04-30
Duration (months): 33.0
Total project cost (EUR): 222727.68
EU funding (EUR): 222727.68
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

This project will advance knowledge on how cities contribute to the production of time of marginalized groups. Cities are key nodes in the production of social inequalities of time, as places where national and global processes locate and where many precarious groups reside and their uncertainties are strongly reflected. This project analyses time of Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong and critically examines the role of the city in the production of time for this marginalized group. The study will reveal the spatio-temporal causes of urban marginalized migrants and its broader implications for research on time in Urban Sociology. The objectives are (O1) to analyse the temporalities at play in the lives of the migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, (O2) to analyse the lived experiences of time in the migration trajectories of Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong and retired migrant domestic workers in Metro Manila and (O3) to draw implications and develop a conceptual framework for the study of time of marginalized groups in Urban Sociology and publish this in high-impact journals. These objectives will be achieved using qualitative research among policy-makers, NGOs and other agencies, as well as Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong and retired domestic workers in Metro Manila. The project establishes a valuable exchange of knowledge and skills between the researcher and the Institute for Housing and Urban Research (IBF) at Uppsala University. The supervisor, Prof. Miguel A. Martínez, is a leading scholar in urban sociology and has worked on topics including migrant workers, citizenship and the production of urban space, while the researcher brings considerable complementary knowledge of the social theory of time in cities and everyday life. IBF provides an excellent multidisciplinary research environment, where the researcher will be able to gain skills and experience relevant to her career goal to obtain a position at a first-rate university in the EU.

Keywords: time,temporalities,domestic workers,precarity
Synthetic nucleic acid co-transcriptional networks as diagnostic and therapeutic tools (CO-TRANS-NET)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences
Panel description: Analytical chemistry, chemical theory, physical chemistry/chemical physics
Countries involved: Italy
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2024-STG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-01-01
End date: 2029-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499750.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499750.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

WHY: The heterogeneity of tumors often makes their diagnosis and treatment a very hard task. A single tumor can have many different diagnostically-relevant molecular markers which can also be used to monitor the efficacy of treatment. Innovative, simple, cost-effective, and quantitative analytical tools for diagnostic and therapeutic applications are urgently needed to ensure rapid and appropriate patient care. WHAT: CO-TRANS-NET project addresses this need by developing synthetic nucleic acid units that can respond to a wide range of tumor biomarkers and can provide innovative tools for biosensing and therapeutics through cell-free in-vitro transcription. HOW: The ground-breaking idea of CO-TRANS-NET is to harness the high programmability of synthetic nucleic acids together with the high sensitivity and versatility of cell-free systems to develop co-transcriptional networks that, in one pot, through nature-inspired recognition mechanisms, can respond to a variety of targets including proteins, small molecules and antibodies and trigger in-vitro transcription of functional RNA. The transcribed RNA can provide a measurable signal or produce a therapeutic drug. CO-TRANS-NET aims to develop single theranostic nanodevices in which cancer diagnosis and theraphy can be simultaneously achieved- This goes beyond the state of the art and represents a breakthrough in the field of diagnostics, biosensing, synthetic biology and nucleic acid-based therapeutics.

Keywords: dna nanotechnology,analytical diagnostic tools,cell free systems,synthetic biology,rna binding aptamers,co transcriptional networks,rna based therapeutics
Impact of gut microbiota targeted dietary intervention on obesity: A precision medicine approach (GRADIENT)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Spain
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2025-09-01
End date: 2027-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 181152.96
EU funding (EUR): 181152.96
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The main objective is to analyze the impact of dietary hypocaloric interventions based on their capacity to generate ketone bodies in different degrees of intensity: using Intermittent fasting, KetoDiet in comparison with the classical MedDiet, in individuals with obesity, and their influences on the gut microbiota, resistome, host metabolism, and the possible genetic and epigenetics links. We aim to contribute with the advance in the development of a precision medicine approach in obesity to decrease the prevalence of obesity and its associated comorbidities, and to evaluate the impact of dietary interventions as an alternative approach to antimicrobial resistance. To achieve our goal, we will study in a randomized cross-over group of individuals with obesity: A) Analyse the effect of dietary interventions (MedDiet, intermittent fasting (IF) and KetoDiet) on the gut microbiota composition and the relationship with anthropometrics, metabolic, inflammatory and epigenetics driven factors at short term (1 month) B) Analyse the effect of dietary interventions (MedDiet, IF, KetoDiet) on the gut microbiota composition and the relationship with epigenetics factors at medium-term(3 months) C) Evaluate the impact of the gut microbiota targeted dietary interventions (MedDiet, IF and KetoDiet) at short- and medium-term on the gut resistome and relate it with the inflammatory milieu of the host. Our results will help to improve the treatment of metabolic diseases associated to obesity using a precision medicine approach based on the influence of diet interventions on the gut microbiota, gut resistome, host response and environmental factors. The outcome of this project will have an impact in the health sector by improving mental health and physical health of all overweight and obese individuals, in the economy sector by reducing the need of surgical approaches to achieve weight loss, reducing the risk of development obesity-related complications and overuse of antimicrobials.

Keywords: gut microbiota,diet,obesity,precision medicine,microbiome,resistome,metabolomics and epigenetics