Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Empowering expectations for health and disease: training the immune and endocrine system (EXPECT HEAL-TH)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: The Human Mind and its Complexity
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-09-01
End date: 2019-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1981009.0
EU funding (EUR): 1981009.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Expectations about health and disease induce immune and endocrine responses and directly affect health and treatment outcomes. However, there is an urge to understand the mechanical underpinnings how expectations affect immune and endocrine responses and how this knowledge can be used for therapeutic interventions. My research group studies the main expectancy learning mechanisms for itch and pain as a generic expectancy model across symptoms and conditions. We recently showed that dual expectancy learning processes (i.e. conditioning and suggestions) are most powerful for itch symptoms, corresponding with findings for other symptoms and conditions. Based on these studies, I propose a groundbreaking dual expectancy learning approach, testing whether combined expectancy learning processes (i.e. both conditioning and suggestions, offered with personalized cues and exposure to relevant stressors) affect most profoundly the immune and endocrine system, in turn affecting health and disease outcomes. The major aim is to unravel the central mechanisms of how peoples’ expectations affect immune and endocrine responses and related health outcomes, through the use of pioneering multidisciplinary methods in healthy and clinical populations. First, we systematically train immune and endocrine responses and relate them to psychological, neurobiological and genetic mechanisms. Second, we test these manipulations for physical health challenges (e.g. inflammatory or allergic histamine reactions) in healthy subjects and patients. Third, we study the long-term effects in chronic inflammatory itch and pain conditions (e.g. replacing anti-inflammatory pharmacotherapies, reducing side effects). This interdisciplinary, cross-boundary project progresses key theoretical knowledge of the central expectation mechanisms for immune and endocrine responses. Findings open new horizons for health prevention and therapeutic interventions for various inflammatory conditions and physical symptoms.

Keywords: expectations,itch,pain,placebo,psychobiology
Mechanotransduction in Cell-to-Cell Communication (MECHCOMM)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Diagnostic Tools, Therapies and Public Health
Countries involved: Sweden
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-06-01
End date: 2020-04-30
Duration (months): 71.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2292100.0
EU funding (EUR): 2292100.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Cell-to-cell communication pathways coordinate cellular functions in multicellular organisms. Cells that are nearest neighbours can communicate through specific interactions between ligand and receptor proteins present in their respective cell membranes. The objective of this research program is to address the hypothesis that the physical context of the ligand/receptor interaction contributes to defining the fundamental mechanisms of action of cell-to-cell communication pathways and their cellular outcomes. The research program relies on the development of tools that provide well-defined physical inputs to cells, not confounded by simultaneous changes in chemical inputs. Therefore, beyond state-of-the-art developments in nanotechnology are here integrated with cell biology. In particular, DNA origami technology is applied to the development of ligand nanoclusters with customized spatial organization and mechanical properties. These ligand nanoclusters are used to probe the roles of physical properties of the ligand presentation on the activation of intracellular signalling pathways. We will focus on the ephrin/Eph cell-to-cell communication pathway, which regulates embryonic development and the homeostasis of adult organs. ephrin/Eph signalling is commonly disrupted in cancer, showing tumour suppressing or tumour promoting character. The mechanisms that generate the diversity of outcomes of the ephrin/Eph pathway are largely unknown. We will use DNA origami/ephrin ligand nanoclusters to investigate whether the spatial organization and mechanical properties of ephrin ligand assemblies impact Eph receptor function and contribute to generating diversity in the pathway. Our novel approach is readily transferrable to the study of other signalling pathways. We aim to generate a knowledge foundation for the roles of mechanotransduction, the conversion of physical to biochemical signals, in cell-to-cell communication mediated by membrane-bound ligands and receptors.

Keywords: ephrin,eph,signalling,dna origami,self-assembly,spatial distribution,lateral mobility,cancer.
Can metabolic states induced by diabetes and obesity promote cancer? (METABOLISMCONNECT)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Belgium
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-10-01
End date: 2017-09-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Continuous research on cancer has unraveled genetic alterations and subsequently signal transduction pathways changed in a cancer cell, thereby it emerged that many of the genetic factors commonly altered in cancer cells often target metabolic genes. An altered metabolism allows cancer cells to sustain their proliferative needs. Yet, whether altered metabolic fluxes and metabolite concentrations, which define the metabolic state of a cell, are only a consequence or can be a cause of cancer is a major question in the field. The hypothesis that certain metabolic states can precondition a cell for cancer is supported by epidemiological studies showing that patients suffering from diabetes or obesity have an increased risk to develop cancer and an increased cancer mortality rate. We propose to elucidate whether certain metabolic states promote liver cancer, which is in 30% of the cases associated with diabetes and obesity. We will measure metabolite concentrations and metabolic fluxes in tumorigenic versus non-malignant liver cells in vitro, to systematically identify metabolic states that are sufficient to drive an oncogenic transformation in the liver. Subsequently, we will map them in vivo onto metabolic states quantified in a diet and carcinogen induced mouse model, with the final goal to unravel the causal link between the increased liver cancer risk and the metabolic syndrome. Elucidating this metabolic interface will provide a mechanistic understanding of tumor initiating events in patients suffering from the metabolic syndrome. It will subsequently lead to new therapeutic strategies to prevent increased tumor events and cancer driven mortality rates in such patients.

Keywords: cancer metabolism,oncogenic transformation,metabolic syndrome,diabetes,obesity,metabolomics,fluxomics,systems biology
COLONISATION AND CULTURAL DIVERSIFICATION IN UNFAMILIAR LANDSCAPES (UP-NORTH)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: The Study of the Human Past
Countries involved: United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-10-01
End date: 2020-09-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999509.6
EU funding (EUR): 1999509.6
Participants: 3
Project status: CLOSED

This project explores the relationship between climate change and human behaviour. During the harshest conditions of the last ice age European human populations abandoned northern latitudes, with their range contracting to southern regions. By the time ice sheets retreated and large areas of land became available for resettlement there had been a hiatus of at least 7000 years. This project examines the recolonisation of these Northern regions which took place during a period of rapid climate change, the last major global warming event on earth. As people move eastwards and northwards increasing diversification is seen in their stone and bone tool industries which indicate human development. This project examines whether climate a) drove the human dispersal and development, b) played a more indirect role, or c) was of little significance to humans at this time. State-of-the-art scientific techniques (radiocarbon dating, DNA, stable isotope, clumped isotope and charcoal ring width analyses) will be used to create integrated chronological, palaeoclimatic and palaeoecological frameworks that are directly linked to the Late and Final Palaeolithic archaeological record. Temporal and spatial trends in climate change, prey abundance and behaviour, and technological development will be compared and considered in light of regional and global climate trends and archaeological evidence for hunting strategies, human mobility and landscape use. Such data will provide an insight into the conditions Palaeolithic people experienced and how this influenced their perceptions of the landscape they inhabited and the decisions they made.
Investigating the causes and consequences of replication stress in mammalian health (RSHEALTH)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Cellular and Developmental Biology
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2020-02-29
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1997819.0
EU funding (EUR): 1997819.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

DNA damage (DD) is the cause of several diseases, including cancer, and it is also linked to the organ decline that arises in ageing. Yet, the contribution of different sources of DD to these processes is not understood. Sources of DD such as chromosome breaks, eroded telomeres or oxidative stress are been heavily investigated. For establishing my group, I decided to focus on a source of DD that arises every time a cell replicates its DNA, and which is known as replication stress (RS). In short, RS stands for the excessive accumulation of single-stranded DNA at replication forks that, due to its recombinogenic nature, can initiate genomic rearrangements. Consistently, RS is now known to be a key source of genomic instability in human tumors. In mammalian cells, a signalling cascade initiated by ATR and Chk1 kinases suppresses RS. Unfortunately, the essential nature of these kinases significantly limited the study of the RS-response in mammals. In the initial years of our lab we have developed several tools that facilitate the study of RS in mammals. These include a cellular system where ATR can be activated at will, potent and selective ATR inhibitors, and mice with reduced or increased levels of ATR and Chk1 kinases. These tools have allowed us to start exploring how RS impacts on cancer and ageing, as well as to investigate the potential of targeting ATR for cancer therapy. Yet, the field of RS is still poorly developed, and many basic questions are still in the need of answers. This application outlines a plan for our research in the next five years, and explains how I propose to investigate RS at molecular, cellular and animal levels. Whereas I plan to capitalize on the tools (published and unpublished) that we have generated within the last few years, I also propose several innovative strategies for the study of the RS-response in mammals. This grant would allow us to consolidate our still young group as a solid laboratory for the study of RS in mammals.

Keywords: replication stress,dna damage response,atr kinase,chk1 kinase,mouse models,cancer,ageing.
Making Selves, Making Revolutions: Comparative Anthropologies of Revolutionary Politics (CARP)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Institutions, Values, Beliefs and behaviour
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-06-01
End date: 2019-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1854472.0
EU funding (EUR): 1854472.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

What kinds of self does it take to make a revolution? And how does revolutionary politics, understood as a project of personal as much as political transformation, articulate with other processes of self-making, such as religious practices? Comparative Anthropologies of Revolutionary Politics (CARP) seeks fundamentally to recast our understanding of revolutions, using their relationship to religious practices in diverse social and cultural settings as a lens through which to reveal revolutions’ varied capacities for self-making. Developing a comparative matrix of revolutionary settings in the Middle East, Latin America and elsewhere, CARP’s core objective is to investigate the differing permutations and dynamics of revolutionary ‘anthropologies’ in the original theological sense of the term, i.e. charting revolutionary politics in relation to varying conceptions of what it is to be human, and of how the horizons of people’s lives are to be understood in relation to divine orders of different kinds, in order to reveal how revolutions come to define what persons may be, deliberately setting the social, political, cultural and ultimately ontological coordinates within which people are made who they are. Bringing close ethnographic investigation to bear on conceptions of revolution, statecraft, and subjectivity in political theory, CARP will produce comprehensive political ethnographies of nine major case-studies, comparing systematically the relationship between revolution and religion in a selection of countries in the Middle East and Latin America. Four smaller-scale case-studies from Europe and Asia will add complementary dimensions to this comparative matrix. Providing much-needed empirical materials and analytical insight into the dynamic comingling of political and religious forms in the making of revolutionary selves, CARP’s ultimate ambition is to launch the comparative study of revolutionary politics as a major new departure for anthropological research.

Keywords: revolution,religion,self-making,middle-east,latin america.
Computational modelling of structural batteries (STRUBA)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Products and Processes Engineering
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (ERC-2013-CoG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-06-01
End date: 2019-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1968053.0
EU funding (EUR): 1968053.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Competition in consumer electronics has pushed the boundaries of technological development towards miniaturization, with weight/size limitations and increasing power demands being the two most stringent requirements. Although almost all the components of any portable device become smaller, lighter and more powerful by the months, electrochemical technology is far from presenting us with the ideal battery. From a different perspective, the equation mobile device = casing + electronics + battery could be simplified by merging the structural function of the casing with that of the energy source of the battery into a structural battery. This approach would immediately reduce weight and size of our mobile devices. This project aims at investigating the effect of electrochemical-mechanical interactions on the mechanical performance of structural batteries. Understanding and controlling mechanical degradation in structural batteries is of prime importance given the dual structural-electrical function of these devices. In fact, the main concern when dealing with structural batteries is whether the internal stresses caused by external loads will influence the performance of the battery, and, conversely, whether the functioning of the battery will have a detrimental effect on its mechanical properties. The complexity of these processes can only be addressed with dedicated computational techniques. This project offers a unique opportunity for the design and implementation of the first multiphysics and multiscale computational framework for the analysis of structural batteries. Macroscale processes originating at the level of a basic components will be elucidated through physically-based constitutive laws. The overall impact of this project will be felt across many research communities. Apart from the energy storage community, the developed tools and procedures will influence research and development related to many fibre-reinforced composites.

Keywords: finite element method,generalized finite element method,computational mechanics,fibre-reinforced composites,battery,fracture,multiscale modelling
Improving the Physics in Ice Sheet Models (IMPISM)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2017-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The aim of this project is to generate new understanding of glacier and ice-sheet dynamics. Specifically, it will improve theoretical models of the physical processes occurring at the base of the ice, and develop the means to integrate these into large-scale simulations used to forecast ice melting and sea level rise. This will provide a vital step forward in the capabilities of these models to describe and predict the rapid changes that are observed. It will be achieved by developing and solving detailed small-scale models, identifying the fundamental couplings to large-scale ice dynamics, and upscaling the results of the models to derive appropriate parameterizations for use on the larger scale. The results will enable more reliable forecasts of future sea level and a deeper understanding of how ice sheets work. The project will bolster wider efforts at Oxford to understand the climate system and the impacts of climate change. It will form a core focus and launch pad for further expansion of the mathematical geoscience group, developing inter-disciplinary exchange between mathematicians, physicists and climate scientists, within the UK and internationally.

Keywords: mathematical geoscience,fluid dynamics,glaciology,multi-phase flow,geophysical fluid dynamics,phase changes,scientific computing,sea level rise
Bottom-up Approaches to Machines dedicated to Bayesian Inference (BAMBI)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Destination: Future and Emerging Technologies
Action type: Collaborative project
Countries involved: France,Israel,Belgium,Portugal,France
Call:  (FP7-ICT-2013-C, 2013)
Start date: 2014-01-01
End date: 2016-12-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3334510.0
EU funding (EUR): 2520176.0
Participants: 5
Project status: CLOSED

We propose a theory and a hardware implementation of probabilistic computation inspired by biochemical cell signaling. We will study probabilistic computation following three axes: algebra, biology, and hardware. In each case, we will develop a bottom-up hierarchical approach starting from the elementary components, and study how to combine them to build more complex systems. We propose Bayesian gates operating on probability distributions on binary variables as the building blocks of our probabilistic algebra. These Bayesian gates can be seen as a generalization of logical operators in Boolean algebra. We propose to interpret elementary cell signaling pathways as biological implementation of these probabilistic gates. In turn, the key features of biochemical processes give new insights for innovative probabilistic hardware implementation. We propose to associate conventional electronics and novel stochastic nano-devices to build the required hardware elements. Combining them will lead to new artificial information processing systems, which could, in the future, outperform classical computers in tasks involving a direct interaction with the physical world. For these purposes, the BAMBI project associates research in Bayesian probability theory, molecular biology, nanophysics, computer science and electronics.

Keywords: bayesian probability,molecular biology,nanophysics,computer science,electronics
Thermodynamics of Mesoscopic Quantum Systems (THERMIQ)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Destination: Future and Emerging Technologies
Action type: Collaborative project
Countries involved: United Kingdom,Spain,United Kingdom,Italy,Germany,Switzerland,Austria
Call:  (FP7-ICT-2013-C, 2013)
Start date: 2014-01-01
End date: 2016-12-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2778040.0
EU funding (EUR): 2110564.0
Participants: 7
Project status: CLOSED

A quantum technology going beyond microscopic borders will be confronted with aspects of thermodynamics that are yet to be understood. This is important, both from a fundamental perspective and with a view to development of quantum devices. Here we propose a comprehensive research programme — which we dub TherMiQ — aimed at developing a general framework that brings together thermodynamics and the physics of mesoscopic open quantum systems. The programme builds on an active interplay between theoretical and experimental work. Specifically, we pursue three scientific lines: 1. To provide unambiguous definitions of thermodynamical quantities that are genuinely quantum. 2. To construct mesoscopic thermal engines able of realising heat, mass and entropy transport at the quantum level. 3. To test the foundations of quantum mechanics through thermodynamical concepts. TherMiQ will provide the theoretical backbone for a new generation of experiments in mesoscopic systems. In particular, we will focus on a) Entropic transformations and heat exchange processes in quantum-optomechanical devices and their hybridized versions comprising the interface with simple atomic systems and levitating nanoparticles; b) The construction of thermodynamical cycles and super efficient machines using ultracold atoms placed in controllable optical potentials; c) The design and implementation of schemes for thermometry of strongly correlated quantum systems through novel diagnostic tools. Our programme will build on an information-theoretical approach and aims to provide a clear route towards the development of a self-consistent, experimentally viable apparatus for exploring and eventually exploiting quantum thermodynamics.

Keywords: quantum thermodynamics quantum information science ultra-cold atomic systems cavity quantum optomechanics open-system dynamics