Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
EXploration of TerREstrial Mobility and Ecology in Crocodylomorphs (EXTREME CROCS)

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: Environment and Geosciences
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-09-01
End date: 2027-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 276187.92
EU funding (EUR): 276187.92
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Fully understanding the ecology and evolution of extinct species requires analysis of their locomotor abilities, which are interactions with their environment that correlate with the morphology of the postcranial skeleton in complex ways. Locomotor abilities provide valuable insights into potential behaviors and ecological roles, such as how species hunted, avoided predators, selected habitats, and found mates. Crocodylomorpha, which nowadays comprises only 28 species of semi-aquatic ambush predators – namely crocodylians – is an important group for studying ecology and the processes of evolution over Deep Time, since Crocodylomorpha colonized a variety of environments and displayed a wide range of sizes and shapes for over 200 My. The aquatic clades Dyrosauroidea and Thalattosuchia, two notable examples of this rich diversity, exhibit clearly dissimilar anatomy, especially compared to modern crocodylians, implying strongly divergent locomotor abilities and behaviors, notably an inferior range of terrestrial gait. This divergence allows for functional hypotheses to be tested; hereby I hypothesize that habitat has a strong impact on the morphology of the crocodylomorph skeleton, which can be used as a basis to infer habitat on the scale of Crocodylomorpha (through quantitative proxies). As such, the primary goals of EXTREME CROCS are to use computational biomechanics, joint mobility analyses, and geometric morphometrics on entire skeletons to assess biomechanical form and function in extinct Crocodylomorpha and explore how the morphology of the appendicular skeleton is linked to terrestrial and swimming locomotor abilities. I will produce 3D musculoskeletal whole-body models of six species and use these to compute predictive simulations of optimal locomotor performances. These simulations will unveil the ranges of possible terrestrial behaviours (e.g. sprawling, high-walk, galloping), while intervertebral and limb joint mobilities will attest swimming abilities.

Keywords: palaeobiology,crocodile,biomechanics,locomotion,modeling,simulation,morphometrics
Network Synergies in Tissue Homeostasis and Stromal Prevention of Inflammatory Disease. (NEXUS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Immunity, Infection and I mmunotherapy
Panel description: The immune system , related disorders  and their mechanisms , biology of infectious agents and infection, biological basis of prevention and treatment of infectious diseases , innovative imm unological tools and approaches , including  therapies
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2021-STG, 2021)
Start date: 2022-07-01
End date: 2027-06-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499514.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499514.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Inflammation has evolved to protect us from the outside world. However, in doing so, it consumes large amounts of energy and causes collateral damage, thus requiring strict control on multiple levels. While the mechanisms that govern inflammation once ongoing are well defined, we lack basic knowledge of the processes that regulate its actual onset in vivo. Only by understanding the mechanisms that orchestrate tissue stress responses and defend against unwanted inflammation will we pave the way for new therapeutic approaches in future precision medicine: Not only treating inflammation once it is active, but preventing inflammatory disease from developing in the first place. I hypothesise that prevention of inflammation can be accomplished at the level of tissue homeostasis and cooperative stromal biology. The stroma that underlies any given tissue is not a passive scaffold. Instead it comprises a functional network that regulates key aspects of tissue physiology as an adaptive and self-organising system ("homeostat"). Resident tissue macrophages (RTM) - the tissue’s very own regulators of inflammation - are physically connected to this homeostat and thereby directly integrated into its cooperative signalling grid. Hard-wired communication mechanisms and synergies allow RTM-stroma networks to operate as a functional syncytium, a hitherto unknown operating system that coordinates stress responses and actively prevents the onset of inflammation. Here, I propose a pioneering tissue biology approach to decipher the stromal homeostat. By combining unique bioimaging with computational 3D reconstruction and multidimensional profiling, I will quantitatively unravel complex cell interactions to explain the mechanisms and implications of stromal network communication in a living tissue. Thereby, I aim to elucidate homeostat-operating principles and establish top-down control of inflammatory tissue checkpoints in order to apply them to clinically relevant inflammatory diseases.

Keywords: tissue biology,stromal communication,network communication,resident tissue macrophages,prevention of inflammation,histocytometry,anti inflammatory threshold,arthritis,in vivo,intravital imaging
Design and creation of a yeast platform for synthesis of chiral amines by enzymatic cascades (YcascadE)

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: Netherlands
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2025-03-01
End date: 2027-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 203464.32
EU funding (EUR): 203464.32
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The development of green and robust technologies for the conversion of renewable feedstock into high-value chemicals is of great interest and challenging for the chemical industry. Although L-α-amino acids can be sustainably produced from renewable feedstock by fermentation, these amino acids are rarely being used as starting material for the chemical synthesis of high-value chiral molecules due to the lack of efficient and highly selective biocatalytic methodologies . In this project, I will design and develop a modular approach for biocatalysis in vivo enabling the conversion of natural amino acids into enantiopure alpha-chiral amines and amino-alcohols, which are important intermediates or final products for the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and fine chemical industries. Saccharomyces cerevisiae will be selected as the host organism for the biocatalytic pathway because its genome is well-known, is suitable for large scale operation, and will allow to obtain higher productivity than using bacterial strains. A library of integrative plasmids expressing the enzymes will be constructed and transformed to S. cerevisiae to obtain a yeast cell factory. The system will be optimized both on the genetic level and on the bioprocess level. The working plan will include an interdisciplinary approach involving molecular biology techniques together with metabolic engineering as well as optimization of conditions for biotransformation. Additionally, analytical chemistry methodologies for determination of yield, purity and enantiomeric excess of the products and intermediates will be required. While the state-of-the-art proves the feasibility of the project, by using our proposed approach with resting S. cerevisiae cells, we expect to make a major break-through in the field in terms of increase productivity (e.g., space-yield; space-time-yield; total yields from substrate) and, moreover, a wider applicability of the resulting platform due to the modularity approach.

Keywords: enzymatic cascades,biocatalysis and biotransformations,saccharomyces cerevisiae,amines
HealthyPlants: A systematic survey of cultivated plant viruses and cereal virus reservoirs. (HealthyPlants)

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: Ireland
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2024-02-01
End date: 2026-01-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 199694.4
EU funding (EUR): 199694.4
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Plant viruses continue to be one of the main threats to European agriculture, exacerbated by climate change, evolution of pesticide resistance, and loss of crop protection chemistries. Europe has ambitions of creating a more sustainable food system with a goal of reducing pesticide usage by 50% by 2030 as part of the European Farm to Fork Strategy. Achieving these goals requires robust integrated pest-management (IPM) approaches and real-time decision support systems (DSS) for farmers. In disease management there is a strong reliance on rapid, sensitive, and specific diagnostic tools built on a clear understanding of viral diversity. HealthyPlants will use high-throughput sequencing to (i) complete the first systematic survey of viruses of cultivated plants in Ireland and establish a baseline upon which to build improved diagnostic tools, (ii) establish the importance of arable margins and hedgerows as cereal virus reservoirs, and (iii) identify viruses on newly imported crops with potential phytosanitary risks. HealthyPlants will deliver the first database of viral sequences of cultivated plants on the island of Ireland, an open-access platform to support development of robust diagnostics within Europe.

Keywords: cereals,sequencing,phytosanitary,plant viruses
Single-Molecule Acousto-Photonic Nanofluidics (SIMPHONICS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Systems and Communication Engineering
Panel description: Electrical, electronic, communication, optical and systems engineering
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2021-STG, 2021)
Start date: 2022-06-01
End date: 2027-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499395.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499395.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Reading biomolecular signatures and understanding their role in health and disease is one of the greatest scientific challenges in genome and proteome biology. Yet, complete protein analysis at the single-molecule level remains an unmet milestone. This pursuit is fundamentally hindered by the huge dynamic range of protein expression in cells and the insufficient spatio-temporal resolution of current analysis methods. Next-generation single-molecule techniques that can precisely manipulate and sequence proteins in space and time are urgently needed to reach this goal. Among these, nanopore platforms are at the forefront, leading in terms of read length, throughput and sensitivity. However, the major challenges associated with translocation speed control and the precise-readout in solid-state nanopore devices, remain prohibitive. In SIMPHONICS, I will resolve these issues by developing the first integrated platform that combines nanopore transport measurements, spatially modulated acoustic wavefields and single-molecule fluorescence time traces to confine, scan and optically fingerprint proteins in a non-invasive and massively parallel manner. The feasibility of this method will be established by attaining three main objectives: 1) Confining and controllably manipulating individual molecules using acoustic nanotweezers; 2) On-demand engineering of 2D material optical emitters as ultrabright fluorescent probes for energy transfer based detection, and 3) Identifying proteins/peptides from their optical signatures in multi-color Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) during acoustophoresis. With this powerful and unique platform, I will harness the vast potential of acousto-photonic interactions in monolithic nanopore devices. Successful achievement of the project objectives will result in a high-throughput and non-destructive protein fingerprinting platform and signify a considerable leap forward in our quest to unravel the human proteome.

Keywords: nanopores,2d material photophysics,biophysics,acoustofluidics,protein fingerprinting,single molecule techniques
Strengthening Clinical Trial Regulatory and Ethical review Oversight in East Africa (ACCESSAFRICA2)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Health
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Global Health EDCTP3
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Partnership: EDCTP3 (JU-JTI)
Countries involved: Ethiopia,Norway,Uganda
Call: Strengthening regulatory capacity for supporting conduct of clinical trials (HORIZON-JU-GH-EDCTP3-2022-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-07-01
End date: 2026-06-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 600000.0
EU funding (EUR): 600000.0
Participants: 5
Project status: SIGNED

There is an increase in the number of drug development clinical trials conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), including vaccine development studies for poverty-related diseases (PRDs) underway in SSA. These increases have not been matched with increase in regulatory support and ethical review for such studies in SSA. Specific gaps exist in skills and knowledge in providing adequate regulatory oversight, ethical review and pharmacovigilance for such studies, efficiency of the regulatory and ethical review processes. With sequential processes of review requiring a prolonged period before approvals are granted, there is dissatisfaction with the the time interval from submission to decision, within the research community. Additionally, mechanisms for reporting adverse events to both the ethics committees and national regulators are not well developed. The Aim of AccessAfrica 2 is to improve ethical review and regulatory capacity for clinical trials in two Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries, with specific focus on the review and oversight of reported adverse events during clinical trials, improve efficiencies of the NECs and NRAs, and equip them with skills and knowledge for oversight for novel research designs. AccessAfrica 2 is a embedded in the Eastern Africa Consortium for Clinical Research (EACCR), and EDCT funded network, and is continuation of AccessAfrica project which was funded by EDCTP. We propose to address the identified gaps through the three objectives and four work packages. We will establish a consensus driven consortium with partners leveraging each others strength to achieve the objectives. We propose to incorporate the AVAREF guidelines in the regulatory and ethical review guidelines of the partners, and work with the Kenya Pharmacy and Poisons board to improve the pharmacovigilance for research capacity in the partner countries.

Keywords: national research ethics committee,capacity building
Temporal higher-order interactions in neural dynamics (temporalHOI)

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: Physics
Countries involved: Italy,France
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-05-01
End date: 2027-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 276633.26
EU funding (EUR): 193643.28
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Networks and graphs have been fundamental in modelling complex systems, yet their focus on pairwise interactions limits their ability to fully capture the dynamics of systems like the brain, where coordinated activity among multiple neurons is essential for functioning. Higher-order interactions (HOIs), which represent the collective interplay of groups of nodes, have become increasingly recognised as crucial for understanding both brain function and other complex systems. However, while HOIs have shown promise at the mesoscopic level, their relationship to microscale neural mechanisms remains largely unexplored. This project aims to address this gap by introducing a mathematical framework designed to characterise the temporal dynamics of HOIs in neuronal activity. By reconstructing higher-order networks from simulated neuronal dynamics, the project will model these interactions to offer a novel perspective on how the brain processes information over time. Validation of the framework will be carried out using high-resolution neuronal recordings, such as Neuropixels data, which provide unparalleled accuracy in observing "genuine" higher-order interactions within neural circuits. Given the challenges associated with direct neuronal data, we will also develop methods to infer HOIs from indirect data sources, such as calcium imaging. This approach will be fine-tuned to ensure that the inferred interactions closely align with the statistical patterns observed in Neuropixels recordings. This dual strategy enhances the robustness and generalisability of the framework, making it applicable across various data types. By offering a comprehensive characterisation of HOIs in brain dynamics, this project will not only deepen our understanding of neural processing but also open new avenues for cross-disciplinary research. Upon completion, an open-source software package will be released, ensuring the methods and tools developed are accessible to the broader scientific community.

Keywords: higher order interactions time series analysis neuronal models temporal networks neuroimaging neuropixel calcium imaging complex systems complex networks computational topology networks
Connecting the dots going backwards: An epigenetic memory recorder to trace ancestry during mouse gastrulation. (EpiDevoTimeMachine)

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: Netherlands
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2023-09-01
End date: 2025-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 187624.32
EU funding (EUR): 187624.32
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

During development, a cell's fate will become increasingly restricted, facilitated by the combined activity of transcription factors and epigenetic modifiers. Single-cell RNA sequencing has greatly improved our appreciation of the transcriptional dynamics underlying lineage specification. However, we still do not fully comprehend how epigenetic modifiers guide this highly dynamic process, as methods that enable us to accurately concatenate a cell's past and present epigenetic state with its current lineage identity are missing. Here, I propose to investigate the combined dynamics and interdependencies of transcription and the polycomb-group of proteins during the differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells into gastruloids. First, I aim to deploy a protocol that enables the simultaneous quantification of both layers in the same single cell to disentangle epigenetic from transcriptional heterogeneity. Second, I aim to develop a molecular memory system to record the past epigenetic profiles of single cells. This system will be based on the expression of proteins fused to a bacterial Dcm methylase, which will allow for the timed recording and faithful transmission of historic epigenetic profiles. Combined with quantification of transcription of the same single cell, this will enable us to directly integrate past epigenetic states with the current identity of single cells. The proposed work here will therefore allow us to directly assess the role of epigenetic modifiers on establishing cell fate choice and will have important implications on our understanding of the regulation of mammalian development.

Keywords: development epigenetics single cell gastruloids memory
Nanoparticle-mediated ocular delivery of novel NAD-boosting small molecules for ophthalmic disease. (NanoNAD)

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: Sweden
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-04-01
End date: 2027-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 252180.0
EU funding (EUR): 252180.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Metabolic decline may be a critical, and treatable, pathogenic component of glaucoma. Glaucoma is one of the most prevalent neurodegenerations worldwide, affecting 80 million patients worldwide. There are no neuroprotective therapies. We have discovered metabolic and mitochondrial dysfunction in the retina and optic nerve which occur prior to neurodegeneration in glaucoma. One of these early changes is a decline in the important metabolite nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), which critically regulates neuronal survival in glaucoma. Preventing NAD decline pharmacologically or through targeted gene therapies robustly prevents neurodegeneration. We are now actively generating novel NAD-generating compounds based on our initial studies. Neuronal NAD production is an ideal target for neuroprotective drug discovery for neuroprotection in glaucoma and other axon degenerations. The goal of this research project is to develop clinically translatable nano-enabled neuroprotective strategies for glaucoma. I will focus on these novel strategies involving compounds that increase NAD metabolism developed by the Williams lab and formulated in nanocarriers by the Sotiriou lab. These will be translated into practical, effective agents that provide long-term effects in the retina. The current challenges we face are: (1) ocular delivery without toxicity, (2) high pay-load delivery, (3) delivery with sustained release. To overcome these, the Williams and Sotiriou labs will collaborate, where I will: (1) rationally design biocompatible nanocarriers by flame spray pyrolysis, (2) load these nanocarriers with novel NAD-generating drugs, (3) evaluate their NAD-generating capacity in vivo and the resulting neuroprotective effects. With this project, I will combine the expertise from the two laboratories to facilitate the integration of visual neuroscience, pharmacology, and nanoscale drug delivery systems to develop clinically translatable therapies for ophthalmic disease.

Keywords: glaucoma,retinal ganglion cells,nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide nad,mitochondrial metabolism,nanoparticle,drug delivery