Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Similarities and differences between neural stem cells and cancer stem cells (CANCER STEM CELLS)

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-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2011-01-01
End date: 2012-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 161161.0
EU funding (EUR): 161161.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Not all cancer cells are born equal. It could be demonstrated that tumors are formed by different cell types, mostly exhibiting a limited potential of proliferation. Further, it was shown that malignant tumor behaviour is fuelled by a minority of key-players harbouring the ability to form new tumors after transplantation. Such tumor founding cells share multiple characteristics with stem cells, and thus, are often called “cancer stem cells (CSC)”. With this regards, most anticancer treatments fail to be curative because they focus on the large cell population, but not on CSC. This illustrates the need to develop more efficient therapies. However, such developments should be preceded by (1) better understanding of the mechanisms controlling normal stem cell fate decisions, (2) identification of the mechanisms that differ between CSC and their normal counterparts. In the present project, we plan to characterise mechanisms implicated in self-renewal and differentiation of neural stem cells (NSC) and to compare these data with brain tumor stem cells (BTSC). For this, we aim to establish microarray based transcriptomic and miRNA signatures of NSC, and of cells for which neuronal and astrocytic differentiation has been induced. To these signatures, we want to compare the transcriptomic profiles of BTSC, and thus, to isolate common and differentiating molecular events. The transcriptomic profiling will be completed by studying the impact of specific chemical compounds on stem cell behaviour. In fact, identifying drugs that artificially induce stem cell differentiation might be useful to induce differentiation and exhaustion of the CSC population. Finally, we aim to establish in vitro and in vivo models to verify the functional aspects of the obtained data. Together, our data would have an extensive impact on understanding the mechanisms implicated in NSC fate decisions and in BTSC development, a first step towards the development of efficient therapies.

Keywords: cell biology,neural stem cells,differentiation,brain tumor stem cells,molecular profiling
Interfacing organic electronics with biological cells (BIOORGANICS)

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-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-09-01
End date: 2012-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 175162.4
EU funding (EUR): 175162.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The emergence of organic electronics – a technology that relies on carbon-based semiconductors to deliver devices with unique properties – represents one of the most dramatic developments of the past two decades. A rapidly emerging new direction in the field involves the interface with biology. The “soft” nature of organics offers better mechanical compatibility with tissue than traditional electronic materials, while their natural compatibility with mechanically flexible substrates suits the non-planar form factors often required for implants. More importantly, their ability to conduct ions in addition to electrons and holes opens up a new communication channel with biology. The experimental work will explore the fundamentals of communication at the interface between conducting polymers and living cells. Specifically, this project will examine the merits of organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) as the “input” devices from the cellular world: devices that translate ionic fluxes from electrically active cells into electrical signals in the transistor channel. The fellow will seek to understand the mechanism behind recording the electrical activity of cells with OECTs and to use this knowledge to design OECTs that record action potentials in an efficient and chemically-sensitive manner. Through collaborations with the microelectronics industry and partners in life sciences, the applications of OECTs in biomedical implants and sensors will be exploited.

Keywords: biomaterial engineering,electrical engineering,materials engineering,technological sciences
Aromatic Foldamers for Single Molecule Electronics (FOSIMEL)

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-2009-IIF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-03-01
End date: 2012-02-29
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 166645.6
EU funding (EUR): 166645.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Recent work has demonstrated 1°) the synthetic accessibility of rigid, rod-like, helically folded aromatic amide oligomers of very large size – up to 48 units, over 12 kDa, and 7 nm long; and 2) the ability of short segments of the same oligomers to transport electrons at very fast rates via a super exchange mechanism. This project plans to investigate the potential of such unusual synthetic objects as building blocks in molecular electronics. The research plan involves several parallel tracks concerning the synthesis of very long foldamers, their functionalization with electron acceptors and donors or with groups for surface attachment, and the physical studies of electron transport by these objects using photophysical techniques and single molecule studies on surfaces. The applicant has experience in organic materials for electronic applications. She will join, and bring her expertise to, a host laboratory in France specialized in foldamer design, synthesis and structural characterization. The characterization of electron transport will be carried out in collaboration with several other well established groups in the Netherlands. A return phase is programmed to the original Institution in China with which the host laboratory already possesses an on going collaboration on foldamer design and characterization.

Keywords: foldamers,electron transfer,supramolecular structures,nanochemistry
ANALYSIS OF PML/RARA ONCOGENIC COMPLEX IN ACUTE PROMYELOCYTIC LEUKEMIA (APL)

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-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-11-01
End date: 2012-10-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 166145.6
EU funding (EUR): 166145.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) appears to be primarily a monogenic disease characterised by a specific t(15 ;17) translocation that fuses the PML and the RARA gene to generate a PML/RAR fusion protein. PML/RARA is a transcriptional repressor, and RARA homo-dimerisation through the coiled coil of PML was believed to be the basis for repression via enhanced binding of co-repressors. Clinically, APL is exquisitely sensitive to retinoic acid (RA), arsenic trioxide and cAMP. This cardinal feature of the disease has been used to model its pathogenesis by analyzing the response to therapy of primary cells in vivo and ex vivo. Our aim is a further understanding the pathogenesis of acute promyelocytic leukemia, in particular the molecular bases of its response to RA, arsenic and cAMP. This will be essentially achieved through the analysis of the phenotype and transcriptome of cells or animals expressing PML/RARA mutants, by applying innovative approaches in cellular and molecular biology, such as purification of tagged proteins and ChIP. We propose two main objectives: - Partners identification of the oncogenic PML/RARA complex. Subsequently, we will analyse the functional domains of the complex and the changes in the complex induced by RA, arsenic and cAMP. - Analysis of PML/RARA-dependent target gene repression. We will compare between different PML/RARA mutants in respect to the chromatin or DNA status of the target gene promoters. This project addresses new therapeutic targets in APL and other types of cancer where RARA is implicated. It is a multidisciplinary project that involves a highly valuable education for the candidate in new scientific aspects related to her research field.

Keywords: health sciences,oncology,anticancer therapy,pharmacological sciences,clinical pharmacology,haematology,cell biology,molecular biology,applied biology
Behavior of molybdenum and its isotopes during alteration of the oceanic crust (MOLYALOC)

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-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-03-01
End date: 2012-02-29
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 172240.8
EU funding (EUR): 172240.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Alteration of ocean crust is a fundamental on-going geological process. High-temperature alteration of the ocean crust occurs at the ridge, while diffusive, low temperature alteration is present off-ridge. Both alteration processes produce secondary minerals and change the primary chemical and isotopic signal of the oceanic crust. These signals can be brought into the mantle as altered oceanic crust enters a subduction zone and produces mantle inhomogeneities. As molybdenum is low in abundance in the mantle, but high in abundance in seawater with a distinct isotopic signal from each other, it is a promising element to study these processes. Prior to study deep cycling of molybdenum via ocean island basalts, detailed understanding of the behavior of molybdenum during alteration is needed. In this framework, we propose a study to identify the major molybdenum-bearing phase as well as the processes influencing the molybdenum isotope signal of the altered oceanic crust. Two cross-sections through the oceanic crust will be studied for this purpose, ODP Site 1256 and Macquarie Island (14 Ma and 7 Ma old, respectively). In-situ molybdenum concentrations and whole rock molybdenum isotope measurements are planned to understand on- and off-ridge alteration in the oceanic plate. This research will be groundbreaking, using molybdenum as a novel tracer to better constrain the behavior of on-/off-ridge alterations and to quantify the Mo-isotopic composition of the oceanic crust potentially entering the subduction zone.

Keywords: natural sciences,isotope geochemistry,altered oceanic plate,molybdenum,macquarie island,odp site 1256,fluid-rock interaction
Study of the stellar-mass to super-massive Black Hole connection (GBH-AGN CONNECTION)

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-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-05-01
End date: 2012-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 164540.8
EU funding (EUR): 164540.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The main focus of this project is the study of the accretion (ejection) process onto black holes (BH). In particular, all the sources powered by accretion onto a BH will be studied, i.e. X-Ray Binaries (XRB) and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and their connections searched. The variability of the continuum emission and of the different emission/absorption components (with particular attention to the reflection) will be studied using &apos;new techniques&apos; such as the covariance spectrum, Fourier resolved spectroscopy, the rms-spectra, time and flux resolved spectral variability and flux flux plots. The comparison will be performed on on &quot;eqwivalent&quot; time-scales. The variability of several XRB will be studied during all the hysteresis evolution along the hardness-intensity diagram and compared to the results obtained with AGN. The big picture is to compare the spectral variability behaviours of XRB and AGN in order to understand which are the driving physical parameters explaining the different observed phenomenologies of the same accretion process (accretion onto BH) at work in the core of all AGN and GBH. The researcher is expert in the spectral variability of AGN, has skills, experience, scripts to speed up the analysis and already on hand many results on the AGN side. The host institution is world recognised as expert in XRB, jet, timing and AGN/XRB connection related studies and physics. A two year fellowship will provide the reseacher with a deep knowledge of the XRB physics and the University of Southampton with highly skilledman power to perform the research they are most famous for. The results of the studies will deepen our understanding of the accretion/ejection process, the black hole physics and check the possibility to prove the physical laws under the strong field limit and will be important for new generation scientific missions (like i.e. IXO).

Keywords: astrophysics,relativity,black holes,galactic black holes,active galactic nuclei,x-ray astronomy,spectral variability,x-ray binaries,accretion,jets,gbh/agn and accretion/ejection connections,timing
Impact of temperature on the vulnerability of Mediterranean seagrasses to phatogens (TEMSPATH)

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: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-09-06
End date: 2012-09-05
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 154417.0
EU funding (EUR): 154417.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The increasing rate of global warming predicted for the coming decades will significantly impact coastal ecosystems. Habitats of particular concern in light of the predicted temperature increase are seagrass meadows, which are sensitive indicators of coastal and estuarine health. Another potential threat to seagrasses are pathogens. Pathogens are present in seagrasses around the world and have been responsible for large seagrass losses in the past. In the Mediterranean, the presence of pathogenic organisms in seagrass tissue has not yet been shown to increase seagrass mortality, but it is thought that pathogens pose a significant risk of seagrass decline under deteriorating environmental conditions. While recent efforts have been made to examine the effects of increasing temperature on seagrasses, the occurrence of pathogens is not well studied, and we know little of what combined effects these stressors may produce. In this proposal, I use seagrasses, a recognized sensitive indicator of environmental change, to develop a first effort at evaluation of future global scale changes that result from interactions of temperature and a pathogenic protist Labyrinthula sp. The hypothesis to be tested in this project is that increased temperature makes seagrasses more vulnerable to pathogens and that the combined effects of pathogenic infection and warming would be additive and cause seagrass mortality at lower temperatures than is observed for healthy seagrasses. I will carry out a field study and a series of laboratory experiments to examine the interactive effects of warming and pathogens.

Keywords: marine ecology,seagrasses,global warming,pathogens
The effect of international ties on launch sequence and launch pricing decisions in the pharmaceutical industry (INTTIES)

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: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-10-01
End date: 2012-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 153548.8
EU funding (EUR): 153548.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The aim of this project is to examine how companies go about launching innovations worldwide. Launch is the commercialization of a product i.e. the moment at which a new product enters a market/country for the first time. We focus on innovation in the pharmaceutical industry context as these innovations are new medicine. Examining commercialization is particularly relevant in the context of pharmaceuticals as, more than in any other industry, different launch timings/sequences mean different levels of access to medicine for society, which can be accompanied by a decrease in life quality or even death, dependent on the severity of the disease. With regard to launch, we are interested in drivers of the launch timing or more specifically, the launch sequence. The launch sequence represents the order in which new drugs are launched into the global marketplace (for example the European Union). In addition to the launch sequence, we are also interested in knowing the drivers of the launch price. The launch price is essential because it determines both patients’ access to medicine and it determines a nation’s health expenditures. An important characteristic of the pharmaceutical industry is the regulatory environment. Even within the European Union, a lot of differences exist with regard to regulatory regimes (Stremersch and Lemmens 2009). One particularly relevant regulation within the European Union (but also in other countries in the world) is the cross-country reference pricing system (external referencing). This entails that the launch price in one country is dependent on the launch prices in other countries. Public policy makers in every single country decide whether they oblige companies to look at launch prices in other countries. In addition to geographic, economic, and cultural ties, we will explore the role of cross national regulatory ties (external reference pricing) in international launch sequence and prices.

Keywords: marketing,innovation,pharmaceutical industry,regulation,launch,launch sequence,launch price,competition,european union,health sciences,social sciences
Search for new long-lived elementary particles decaying to tau leptons in the CMS Experiment (LONG-LIVED PARTICLES)

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: Switzerland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2011-07-01
End date: 2013-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 240482.4
EU funding (EUR): 240482.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

I intend to search for new long-lived elementary particles decaying to tau leptons in the CMS Experiment tracker volume. To accomplish this I will extend the capabilities of the current state-of-the-art detection systems for charged particle “tracking” to enable the inclusion of significantly displaced tau. Initiating such a search gives me the understanding of any limitations in the current system’s capabilities, and thus the insight for how to modify the tracking detectors to enable and enhance future searches. I plan also to contribute to the construction of the new tracking detectors by connecting this work, and CERN in general, to efforts I am leading in the UK to create a highly inter- and multidisciplinary centre of excellence in the area of detector systems.

Keywords: experimental particle physics,particle physics,elementary particles and fields
Defining the Role of Flap Endonuclease 1 Conformational Dynamics in Catalysis (HFEN1DYNAMICS)

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-2009-IIF, 2009)
Start date: 2011-01-01
End date: 2012-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 232427.2
EU funding (EUR): 232427.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Flap endonuclease 1 (FEN1) catalyzes the removal of 5’-flap structures generated by strand-displacement synthesis during lagging-strand DNA synthesis and long-patch base excision repair. Homozygous knockout of FEN1 in mice is embryonically lethal, whereas haploinsufficiency or catalytic deficiency due to mutation leads to rapid tumor progression, thereby illustrating the importance of FEN1 to genome stability. Despite its critical role in DNA replication and repair, a detailed mechanistic understanding of how FEN1 enzymes achieve substrate specificity and scissile phosphate selectivity without sequence information is still poorly understood. Detailed kinetic studies from the laboratory of Dr. Jane Grasby suggest that a concerted enzyme-substrate conformational change is essential to create a cleavage-competent FEN1-substrate complex. Testing such a hypothesis requires an arsenal of molecular, chemical, kinetic, biophysical, and structural techniques. Although such studies are already underway in the Grasby laboratory, one powerful tool missing from the ‘Grasby arsenal’ that would greatly compliment her current work is NMR relaxation dispersion (RD) experiments, which can identify at the atomic level sites in and quantify the time scale of motion. Combining NMR-RD data with biophysical data routinely obtained in her lab would allow for direct correlations between observed rates of reaction and conformation exchange processes occurring in the protein and substrate as has been done for RNase A. Although the University of Sheffield has the instrumentation and protein NMR expertise of Dr. Jeremy Waltho, the presence of a researcher experienced in both NMR and enzymology would increase the chances for success of and greatly expedite the completion of the project. As a graduate student and postdoctoral fellow, the coordinator gained experience in protein-nucleic acid NMR and enzymology, respectively, and thus, is well suited to this task.

Keywords: natural sciences,enzimology,structural biology,physical sciences,nuclear magnetic resonance,kinetics