Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Determination of the neural code, or how the brain processes and stores information, by recording and stimulating neural activity in awake behaving mice (MANIPULATENEURALCODE)

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-2012-IIF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-07-01
End date: 2015-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231283.2
EU funding (EUR): 231283.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

How do neurons in the brain process information from the outside world? Although generations of neuroscientists have focused on this question, it remains a mystery. The crux of the problem is to understand the neural code, or the rubric by which the brain converts information about the world into brain activity. Primary sensory cortices, where much of the transformation of information takes place, contain many different types of neurons embedded in dense networks, making it difficult to follow the flow of information. However, recent advances in optical techniques have drastically improved the precision with which neural activity can be recorded and stimulated, achieving fine-scale resolution of single action potentials in individual neurons across a population of many neurons. I propose to manipulate action potential sequences in the cortex of an awake behaving animal, which will elucidate facets of the neural code in a quantitative and direct manner. By training a mouse to behaviorally respond to whisker stimulation and recording the activity of the neurons in somatosensory cortex, I will uncover the specific neurons coding the stimulus. Then I will manipulate the activity of those neurons by combining the temporal precision of optogenetics with the spatial resolution of advanced two-photon microscopy. These techniques will allow me to activate single action potentials in individually selected neurons in three dimensions for the first time, which will allow me to explore the neural code quantitatively. Crucial questions that this proposal seeks to answer are: How many spikes in how many neurons that are behaviorally relevant to a stimulus are sufficient to generate a percept? How robust to noise is the neural code for touch? How important is timing to the neural code for touch? Answers to these questions will allow us to better understand some of the basic features of the neural code in primary sensory cortices, a major goal in neuroscience.

Keywords: l509 systems neuroscience,l504 sensory systems,neural code,rate code,spike timing,optogenetics,calcium imaging,behavior
CONTROL OF AROMA COMPOUNDS IN STRAWBERRY (IOF FLAVOR)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Outgoing Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IOF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-07-05
End date: 2016-07-04
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 352823.7
EU funding (EUR): 352823.7
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) fruit flavor and aroma are among the most appreciated quality traits by consumers; as such, the improvement of strawberry flavor is receiving increasing importance in breeding programs. However, breeding for better aroma, particularly in polyploid crops, presents many challenges and requires a previous knowledge of the genetic determinants controlling its variation. More than 300 volatile compounds have been detected in strawberry, although less than 20 contribute significantly to strawberry flavor. In a previous study we have identified QTLs controlling the content of 48 different volatiles, including the majority of those described as key for strawberry aroma. In this proposal we want to identify the molecular mechanism underlying some of the major QTLs. To achieve our goals we will use complementary approaches and leading technologies, such as saturated genetics maps of strawberry based in SSR and SNP markers, global transcript quantification by RNA-seq, metabolomic, biochemistry and molecular biology tools, including the development of transgenic strawberry plants for validation of identified loci. The Plant Innovation program at the UF offers an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach to flavor research and will facilitate the consecution of our objectives. This proposal will use an economically important crop, strawberry, to identify genes controlling important volatiles and validate whether markers linked to them are useful in other strawberry backgrounds. Because several volatile compounds are common to other important crops such as peach or ornamental species such as rose, the obtained results will facilitate advances in other species. We envisage that the identified genes or markers closely linked to them will increase the efficiency and precision of strawberry breeding programs and finally facilitate the development of new cultivars with enhanced flavor.

Keywords: l201 genomics - comparative genomics - functional genomics,l207 quantitative genetics,l202 transcriptomics,l204 metabolomics,l206 molecular genetics - reverse genetics and rnai
The role of histone chaperones during epigenetic reprogramming (CHAPERONES)

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-2012-IIF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2015-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231283.2
EU funding (EUR): 231283.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

During the life of an individual, large scale epigenetic reprogramming occurs twice: in zygote, shortly after fertilization and during the development of primordial germ cells. We have previously shown that both reprogramming events entail large scale chromatin remodelling connected with dynamic changes in the abundance of histone variants. Epigenetic reprogramming in germ line is characterized by the concomitant loss of histone variant H2A.Z and H3K9me3 and H3K27me3 histone modification marks. During the reprogramming in zygote, histone variant H2A.Z also disappears and there is a selective early incorporation of H3.3 histone variant into paternal chromatin. Histone chaperones are responsible for the incorporation and removal of histones, and Nap1l1 and Hira have been found enriched during epigenetic reprogramming in vivo. In the proposed project, we will generate Nap1l1 and Hira conditional knockout mouse models to investigate the exact role of these factors in epigenetic reprogramming in the developing germ line and in zygotes, respectively. Furthermore, using our genetic models, we will address the involvement of these chaperones in the development of early germ cells as well as in oocyte maturation and during early mouse pre-implantation development. Last but not least, we will also investigate the importance of Hira and Nap1l1 in the reprogramming processes in vitro - during nuclear transfer (SCNT), in cell fusion and iPS generation. Our findings will provide novel insights regarding the role of histone dynamics during epigenetic reprogramming and will add to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying reprogramming processes. Epigenetic reprogramming plays pivotal role in the dedifferentiation and the reversal of cell fate decisions, and hence the proposed projects will not only contribute to the improvements of iPSCs (induced pluripotent stem cells) protocols, but will also have implications for regenerative medicine as well as cancer therapy.

Keywords: epigenetic reprogramming,histone variants,histone chaperones,pgcs,embryos,nap1l1,hira
Feeding the roman army in the western Maghreb. Multidisciplinary approach for the study of the army's grain supply in the southern limit of the Roman Empire (province of Mauretania Tingitana) (FRAWM)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Outgoing Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Italy
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IOF, 2012)
Start date: 2014-02-20
End date: 2017-02-19
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 226989.6
EU funding (EUR): 226989.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The proposed research concerns a multidisciplinary study of problem of military grain supply and the role of the army in the Roman province of Mauretania Tingitana (present day Morocco) starting from the identification of the storage buildings in the military camps. In order to gain new knowledge of this complex cultural and political context, the study will be carried out in an interdisciplinary approach. A combination of archaeological, geological, geophysical methods and remote sensing with archaeobotany, epigraphical texts, and Roman history can help us identify the organisation of the the system of grain's supply. At the same time the storage buildings, compulsory requisition, taxation/tribute, staple diet and grain quality, the influence the army had on the local population and consequent changes in local economic and social patterns will be analysed. The Applicant proposes to carry out a three-year research: a two-year period at the "Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine (I.N.S.A.P.)" (Outgoing Host Organisation) of Rabat (Morocco) and a one-year stay at the “Ecole francaise de Rome (EFR)” (Return Host Organisation). Collaboration with the "Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine" guarantees the possibility to develop a real laboratory-based activity for the direct examination of military camps in the province. The results of the spatial analysis will give new information about the distribution and position of unknown warehouses and granaries, and will help further investigation in the field. This project will be of mutual benefit for the applicant and the return host organisation, and will enhance EU scientific excellence through new agreements with North African institutions for new fieldwork projects. Dissemination of results by scientific publications and organisation of a workshop will stimulate the creation of a researchers network working on the topic of this project in the Euro-Mediterranean area.

Keywords: ancient study,archaeology,western maghreb,mauretania tingitana,roman army,military camps,grain supply,geoarchaeology,remote sensing,geophysical prospection,archaeobotany,multi-disciplinary approach
Sex-linked loci, sexual specialization and local adaptation in Mercurialis annua complex (SEX-NGS)

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-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-07-01
End date: 2014-08-31
Duration (months): 14.0
Total project cost (EUR): 149545.78
EU funding (EUR): 149545.78
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The sexual and genetic systems of a plant species directly regulate how genes are transmitted across generations. Accordingly, their study is of central importance to understand plant evolution. Populations of widespread plants normally have higher fitness at their home site than in other parts of the range. However, the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying local adaptation are not well understood yet. How do plant populations adapt to a rapidly changing world? Why and how separate sexes evolve and are maintained in plants? What are the consequences of broad variation in sexual systems for plant survival at different spatial scales (local, widerange)? I will conduct innovative and multidisciplinary research, using state-of-the-art sequencing technology, to investigate how natural selection brings about local adaptation in plant populations with contrasting sexual (separate vs. combined sexes) and genetic (diploidy vs. polyploidy) systems. To address these questions, I will study the ecological genomics of local adaptation in the Mercurialis annua s.l. species complex. This species complex shows an unusually broad variation in its sexual and genetic systems, as well as large phenotypic geographical variation, thus providing an outstanding model to study, at the genomic level, the role of mating and genetic factors on local adaptation. My pursuit of these objectives will make a substantive contribution to high-level science, as this project will shed light on some fundamental questions in plant sexual evolution (e.g. the genetic control of sexual-system transitions) and, more generally, on how plants adapt to rapidly changing environments. Additionally, this project will provide a profitable training opportunity at a critical period in my career. Born in 1972, I am a junior group leader who, if properly trained to boost my capacities, will be able to develop influential cross-disciplinary research and to consolidate a European Research Area excellence group.
Dehydrocoupling of Phosphine-Boranes: Mechanistic Studies, New Catalysts, and the Development of Novel Polyphosphinoboranes (TJIM)

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-2012-IIF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-03-01
End date: 2015-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 221606.4
EU funding (EUR): 221606.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Current development of polymeric phosphine-borane materials prepared by dehydrogenation is hampered by higher temperatures required in the catalytic process and poor polydispersity exhibited in the resulting polymers. Furthermore, the scope of both catalysts and substrates is currently limited, which inherently restricts the potential material properties of target polymers. The development and exploitation of improved, highly active, catalysts, as promoted by in depth mechanistic understanding, is therefore vital for this promising field to progress further. The resulting materials will have significant potential for future technological applications, with a broad scope ranging from elastomers, thermoplastics, pre-ceramics, to lubricants. The proposal intends to bring Dr. Titel Jurca, a highly talented young Canadian, to the Ian Manners group at Bristol the UK to perform a combination of phosphine-borane coordination chemistry, mechanistic studies, and subsequent modifications to catalyst systems to facilitate the development of well-defined catalytic processes for the targeted synthesis of novel monomeric, oligomeric and polymeric phosphinoboranes. The combination of the expertise of Dr. Titel Jurca in main group chemistry, transition metal coordination chemistry, and catalysis obtained during his Ph.D. and undergraduate studies with that of his host, Prof. Ian Manners at Bristol, UK in main group polymers, dehydrocoupling catalysis, and polymer materials science will be vital to allow for the project’s ambitious goals to be tackled.

Keywords: dehydrogenation,catalysis,main group chemistry,inorganic polymers
In depth characterization of bio-mimetic lipid membrane structures generated by dip-pen nanolithography (DPNLIPIDMEMBRANES)

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-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-10-01
End date: 2015-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 168794.4
EU funding (EUR): 168794.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Dip-pen nanolithography with lipids (L-DPN) has become a unique tool for the fabrication of structured lipid membranes. Biological membranes are heterogeneous structures composed of a combination of lipids, which gives the membrane its two-dimensional structure and fluidity, and proteins, which provide the membrane diverse biological functions. DPN uses the tip of an atomic force microscope to directly deposit, by physisorption, the phospholipid ink onto a substrate. Depending on the surface wetting properties, the phospholipid ink tends to stack three dimensionally on the surface or rather spreads to form thin homogeneous membranes. In addition, the phospholipid ink may contain admixings of different functionalized lipids, so that e.g. proteins tagged accordingly can be selectively bound to the lipid patterns. This results in fluid, multivalent biomimetic-patterned membrane systems that are suitable model systems to study biological processes. An outstanding challenge in L-DPN is to monitor and elucidate the whole process from writing and self-organization in air to the reorganization of the stacks under water in details. Special attention should be paid to phase separation phenomena: it is still an open question, whether ink mixtures get transferred in equal proportions from tip to substrate and whether an homogeneously distribution of admixing can be generally assumed within the generated structures. The aim of the proposed project is a detailed study and characterization of all processes involved in the generation and details on the organization of bio-mimetic phospholipid membrane stacks generated by DPN. Within this aim, the patterning behaviour of phospholipids in L-DPN will be studied systematically, a structural model of membrane stacks generated by L-DPN will be provided using a unique combination of microscopy techniques and a time resolved analysis of lipid spreading in liquid and of binding events on the lipid structures will also be performed.

Keywords: dip-pen nanolithography,dpn,phospolipid membranes,bio-mimetic membranes
String Phenomenology at the Era of LHC (STRINGPHENOATLHC)

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-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-10-01
End date: 2015-12-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 168794.4
EU funding (EUR): 168794.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The field of research in this project is string theory and the associated phenomenological effects. The applicant aims, on one hand, to investigate how the Standard Model is embedded in orientifold vacua of string theory and establish the low energy theories of such vacua and, on the other hand, to analyse phenomenological implications of such embedding in view of new experimental data expected from LHC at CERN. The way that Standard Model is embedded in string vacua is one of the most important open problems in string theory and progress in this direction will open the Pandora’s box for the phenomenological implications of such vacua. In the framework of D-brane compactifications, the applicant aims to focus on the analysis of non-perturbative effects, (non-) abelian discrete gauge symmetries, moduli stabilization and low string scale scenarios. Main focus will be the phenomenological implications of these aspects of D-brane compactifications, especially in the light of experimental data recorded at LHC. The field of research involved in this proposal is String Phenomenology, which is stronger in Europe compared to other areas worldwide. It is to the advantage of Europe to keep the leading position in this field, whose input will come from a European centre (CERN) through LHC, the largest experimental project of all times that records exciting data at this moment by the first report on the existence of the Higgs particle. Until now, the applicant has shown skill, perseverance and independence and within the stimulating environment of a top institute like II. Institute of Theoretical Physics of Hamburg University he will get the final touches in his professional maturity and will be capable of qualifying for a tenure track faculty position in an academic institution in Europe.

Keywords: string theory,string phenomenology,moduli stabilization,d-brane compactifications,light stringy states,lhc physics
Toward a Situated Analysis of Musical Improvisation: A Case Study of South Indian Ritual Music (AMIIR)

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-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-10-01
End date: 2015-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231283.2
EU funding (EUR): 231283.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The present project focuses on the analysis of musical improvisation in South Indian ritual art-music, i.e. the music of oboe/shawm and drum players of the periya mēḷam orchestra. It aims to develop innovative methods, techniques, and tools in order to analyse musical improvisation as a performative and creative process –aesthetically, emotionally and socially significant. Although it would provide an in-depth study of improvisation in which musical along with religious and social functions of Hindu high-castes ritual performance will be addressed, it is above all an attempt to pursue theoretical efforts to demonstrate that musical improvisation is not an allegedly inexplicable phenomenon and can be –at least partially– analysed and explained, by resorting to the hypothesis that a musical act which arises within an improvised performance constitutes at once an opportunity and a frame for the later development of the music that is being played. Furthermore, through a constructive analysis of improvised performances, it aims to assess the strengths and weaknesses of existing theoretical approaches. Our goal is therefore to confront theoretical debates with practical analysis. Our methodology will draw on a wide range of disciplines, notably ethnomusicology, historical musicology, cultural and cognitive anthropology, ritual and performance studies, and sociology. Our analytical method will make use of aural transcription, sequential and paradigmatic analysis, elements of Schenkerian analysis, and will integrate the most advanced software programs specialised in musical analysis. Performers will be involved as far as possible in the research so as to point out quickly problems that challenge any attempt to reconstruct the processes of improvisation.

Keywords: ethnomusicology,performing arts,anthropology,asian studies