Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Organic Solar Cells - Go! (OSC-GO)

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: 2014-03-01
End date: 2018-02-28
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Organic solar cells (OSC), a part of the larger emerging field of organic electronics, have the potential to become a very cheap, large area and flexible photovoltaic technology that can in principle scale up fast to terawatt in installed capacity. However, to tap their potential, many questions on the scientific fundamentals need to better understood. The underlying theme of this project is advance the understanding of OSC and making OSC become a reality. To achieve this goal, the project will generate knowhow in three strands of research and bring together in stable OSC with high efficiencies: molecular p- and n-doping of organic semiconductors, structure-property relationships, and degradation mechanisms of OSC. To address these fundamental questions and carry out reliable experiments, this research will use highly purified small molecules, molecular doping technology, and the excellent control of vacuum processes for the deposition of thin organic films. These are the same technologies that made commercial organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) a reality, and recent results for OSC point in a similar direction, showing that this unique approach not only allows for solid fundamental studies, but also world record OSC. This research will address key question of how molecular p- and n-doping works and how to improve it, how the chemical structure of molecules influences the optoelectronic properties of OSC made with them and how to derive better working molecules, how the degradation of OSC takes place and how it can be slowed down, and how to bring these results together to stable OSC with high efficiencies, and at the same time generating knowhow that is of benefit for the future of organic electronics in general.

Keywords: organic solar cells,organic electronics,molecular doping,structure-property relationships,device characterisation,device stability,vacuum deposition
Secretion of inflammatory mediators from eosinophils and their tissue residing cell-free granules: mechanisms and implications in inflammation (EOSINOPHIL SECRETION)

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: Israel
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2015-01-01
End date: 2018-12-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Eosinophils, both as end-stage effector cells and as Th2-immunomodulators, have the capacity to secrete varied inflammatory mediators, such as, cytokines and enzymes that are stored in their cytoplasmic secretory granules. Among them are the cationic proteins: major basic protein, eosinophil peroxidase, and the eosinophil RNases. In the last decade several studies, both in vitro and in vivo, have revealed a pivotal role for eosinophils and their granule content in immunomodulation, host defence and in pathology of eosinophil-associated diseases, such as allergy and asthma. Eosinophil secretion of granules content (e.g. degranulation) and the deposit of its cationic proteins are associated with a range of inflammatory disorders. Degranulation typically by means of piecemeal degranulation, is a controlled and selective process. In addition, at sites of inflammation, cytolysed eosinophils release cell-free granules, that reside in inflamed tissue. Recently, studies by me and my colleagues have revealed that beside secretion from intact cells, cell-free granules released from human and mouse eosinophils during lysis have the ability to secrete their content in response to cytokine stimulation in a cell free context. However, the mechanisms of these two methods of secretion and the key factors that participate in the degranulation process in intact eosinophils and especially in cell-free granules are poorly understood. The current proposal aims to explore the physiological functions of the newly discovered mode of secretion from eosinophil-derived cell free granules in allergic airway inflammation and the mechanisms by which integrins cooperate with elements of the cytoskeleton machinery in regulating chemokine-mediated degranulation in eosinophils. These studies will enhance our understanding of eosinophil degranulation, on the molecular and pathopysiological levels, and will provide potential targets for new directed therapies to treat eosinophil-associated diseases.

Keywords: degranulation,cationic proteins,mbp,epo,rnase,ecp,edn,allergy,adhesion,cytoskeleton,microtubules,rho,rac,gtpase,signaling,granulocytes
Supporting Teams in Mass Casualty Incident Management: Empirical and Analytic Research for Optimizing Augmentative Technology - Design Methodologies and Tools (IMTS MCIM)

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: Israel
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-08-01
End date: 2018-07-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

There is an increase in mass casualty incidents and disasters resulting from nature disasters (e.g., super-storms, forest fires, earth-quacks and tsunamis, floods, etc.), accidents (oil spills, industry-related explosions, or train derailments, etc.), or terror attacks (e.g., 9-11, the London and Madrid bombing, etc.). Managing such incidents requires the well-coordinated rapid response of multi-agency and multi-professional teams (e.g., police, fire-fighters, emergency medical services, hazardous materials professionals, etc., from various local, national, and international agencies). The command and control (C2) of such incidents requires tight coordination among all involved agencies and teams such that each does their job and all together resolve the situation with minimal damage to lives and property. Effective C2 requires all to have timely and reliable information to be aware of the situation at all times and understand it. However, adequate information flow can breakdown during information gathering and transfer within and across teams and agencies. This can in turn degrade situational awareness and coordination, and result in poorer incident management. There is a need to understand better the factors influencing information flow and situational awareness within and across teams in mass casualty incident management in order to develop and assess solutions that can facilitate the incident management. The goal of this proposed project is to understand and improve teamwork, in general, and information flow and shared situational awareness, in particular, in mass casualty incident management.

Keywords: multi-casualty incident management,incident management teams,disaster management,command and control,teamwork,team cognition,situational awareness,cognitive engineering,augmentative technology
The interpretive function and syntactic category of noun classes (NOUN CLASSES)

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: Israel
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2019-03-01
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

A central goal of modern linguistic theory is to find out what properties are shared, and what properties are different across human languages. Following Chomsky (1981, 1988), the shared properties are attributable to Universal Grammar, i.e. our innate capacity to learn a human language, and following Borer (1984) the variable ones are due to cross-linguistic differences in inflectional elements or grammatical markers. The proposed research project pursues this broadly defined question, but focuses specifically on different kinds of noun class markers and in particular how animacy based noun class markers differ from gender-based ones in their interpretive function and syntactic category. I explore the hypothesis that these formatives may realize the category responsible for either CLASSIFICATION or CATEGORIZATION, two functions that interact closely with one another, and assumes that the choice between them will have subtle, but important grammatical consequences. Taking a cue from the clausal domain, I will explore the hypothesis that these are the nominal counterparts of v (pronounced “little v”) and INNER (SITUATION) ASPECT, cf. Rijkoff 1991, Wiltschko 2011, Megerdoomian 2000. I propose to undertake comprehensive case study of Blackfoot, a language with animacy-based noun classes, in conjunction with comparative studies of other languages that differ from Blackfoot in their utilization of noun classes. In particular, I will compare Blackfoot to Hebrew, a language with gender based noun classes. The hypotheses I develop from this comparative approach will be tested against a range of other languages, which differ from the focal languages with respect to noun class assignment. In this way I hope to achieve a better understanding of the distinctive properties of Blackfoot’s animacy-based grammatical system, and to increase our understanding of the universal functions of categories “little n/v” and inner aspect across phrases and across languages.

Keywords: generative grammar,universal grammar,syntax,morphosyntax,animacy,gender,blackfoot,features,functional categories,viewpoint aspect,situation aspect
Markers and mechanisms of sensory disconnection (STATEDEPENDENTPROCES)

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: Israel
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-06-01
End date: 2018-05-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Sleep entails sensory disconnection, a state where external stimuli fail to elicit a meaningful behavioral response and do not affect perceptual awareness. While during NREM sleep and anesthesia thalamocortical neurons are bistable and the thalamus may not relay sensory signals effectively to the cortex, disconnection persists throughout REM sleep with its wake-like activity, as well as during other physiological and pathological states. This proposal seeks to reveal the markers and mechanisms of sensory disconnection and determine to what extent sleep and cognitive factors bring about similar disconnection. I hypothesize that sensory disconnection is a result of neuromodulatory changes, leading to a functional decoupling between early sensory cortex and higher order cortices. Specifically, reduced locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) activity may be a key mechanism, possibly affecting high-order thalamic nuclei and preventing ascending signals from effectively driving high-order cortical neurons. The proposed research will employ a combined approach in animal models (to experimentally dissect the underlying mechanisms and obtain detailed recordings of neuronal activity) and human studies (for carefully teasing apart cognitive factors, obtaining perceptual reports, and performing whole-brain imaging). I will address the following specific aims: (Aim1) identify markers of sensory incorporation vs. disconnection during physiological sleep/wake using auditory stimulation, (Aim2) reveal the underlying mechanisms by optogenetics (rodents) and pharmacological imaging (humans), and (Aim3) compare the effects of cognitive variables on sensory processing to those of vigilance states and the experimental manipulations. Understanding sensory disconnection will help reveal how states of behavior and activity affect cortical processing in health and disease, thereby addressing a fundamental open question in sleep research and system neuroscience.

Keywords: sleep,auditory,electrophysiology,fmri,eeg,optogenetics,anesthesia,consciousness,cortex,thalamus,locus coeruleus,neuromodulation,norepinephrine,pupillometry,attention,perception
Computational Exploration of Directed Evolution rules for tuning enzymatic activities (DIREVENZYME)

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: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2018-02-28
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Biocatalysis is based on the application of natural catalysts for new purposes, for which the enzymes were not designed. Although the first examples of biocatalysis were reported more than a century ago, biocatalysis was revolutionized after the discovery of an in vitro version of Darwinian evolution called Directed Evolution (DE). Despite the recent advances in the field, major challenges remain to be addressed. Up to date, the best experimental approach consists of creating multiple mutations simultaneously but limit the choices using statistical methods. Still, tens of thousands of variants need to be tested experimentally. In addition to that, little information is available as to how these mutations lead to enhanced enzyme proficiency. Significant advances in computational tools have enabled the de novo design of enzymes catalyzing unnatural reactions making use of the so-called inside-out computational protocol developed by the groups of Prof. Baker and Prof. Houk. Despite the initial computational successes, the most active computationally designed enzymes still perform quite poorly in comparison with the natural and DE-engineered enzymes. This project aims to computationally unveil the molecular basis of improved catalysis achieved by Directed Evolution. In particular, quantum mechanics, Molecular Dynamics simulations, and QM/MM strategies will be used to study some selected DE-engineered enzymes. The strengths and weaknesses of the current version of the computational protocol will be explored, and a more efficient approach will be proposed. The development of more robust computational methods to predict amino-acid changes needed for activity is of the utmost importance as the need for experimentally probing randomized sequences would be greatly reduced, rendering the route to novel biocatalysts much more efficient. This might represent a cheap and environmentally friendly alternative for industries to produce active catalysts for any desired target.

Keywords: biocatalysis,directed evolution,computational design of enzymes,theozyme,rosettadesign,density functional theory (dft) calculations,molecular dynamic (md) simulations
Erk1/2 SIGNALING IN MEMORY CONSOLIDATION AND ALLOCATION (ERKMEM)

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: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2017-08-31
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 87500.0
EU funding (EUR): 87500.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The growing aging population of the EU predicts a steady increase in the health and economic burden of mental decline. Hence, the study of the molecular basis of long-term memory formation is a central topic in neuroscience with forseeable social implications. The Erk1/2 MAPK signaling pathway has been strongly implicated in the consolidation of episodic, hippocampus-dependent memories, and it also supports lasting forms of neuroplasticity. However, knowledge on neuronal Erk1/2 signaling is largely limited to mechanisms of activation. If left unchecked, Erk1/2 activation can be detrimental to cognition. It is therefore crucial to understand what intracellular processes rapidly inactivate Erk1/2 following stimulation by synaptic activity, and how they contribute to memory endurance and precision. Furthermore, although Erk1/2 couples to CREB activation, the role of CREB-mediated transcription in memory allocation is poorly defined. It is also not known how the multiple synaptic inputs innervating the hippocampus support memory-associated MAPK signaling. I propose to implement a multidisciplinary approach that will experimentally address these related gaps. We will explore novel forms of Erk1/2 regulation, from the role of tyrosine phosphatases to afferent neural projections and cellular ensembles. To achieve these goals, we will use a combination of transgenic mice, viral vectors for opto- and chemo-genetics, behavioral assays, biochemistry, and confocal imaging. These studies will yield basic insights into molecular mechanisms of memory and hippocampal physiology.

Keywords: neuroplasticity,memory formation,signal transduction,hippocampus,mouse
Targeting Leukemia Stem Cells (STEMTARGET)

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: Sweden
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2018-02-28
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Targeting Leukemia Stem Cells The major goals of STEMTARGET is to identify novel targets on leukemic stem cells (LSCs), generate novel insights into LSC biology, and to initiate the development of LSC-directed therapeutic antibodies. The research will focus on three specific aims: (I) To characterize novel cell surface targets on LSCs, identified by in vivo RNA interference screens. (II) To utilize an in-house developed cytokine screen for identification of cell surface targets selectively important for LSCs. (III) To measure receptor expression in patient samples and demonstrate proof of concept for therapeutic effect with antibody-treatment of leukemic mice. Background: In adults, AML has a poor prognosis, and novel therapies are needed. In order to be maximally effective, an important goal for the development of novel treatments is to target all leukemia cells with the ability to self renew and maintain the disease indefinitely, a population termed LSCs. During Dr Järås postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, Boston, he and coworkers developed a potent in vivo shRNA screen and used it to identify therapeutic targets in LSCs, towards both small molecules and blocking antibodies could be directed. In addition, Dr Järås has developed a cytokine screen for identification of cell surface targets selectively important for LSCs. In STEMTARGET, Dr Järås and coworkers will perform further shRNA screens and cytokine screens for the identification and characterization of candidate therapeutic targets on LSCs. Monoclonal antibodies targeting identified cell surface targets will be generated and proof of concept experiments for therapeutic targeting will be performed by treating mice with established leukemia. Successful completion of this research program will identify novel targets on LSC, and provide initial validation of therapeutic potential.

Keywords: leukemia stem cells,antibody,aml,receptor
RHUM-RUM: Imaging a mantle plume under the hotspot of La Réunion (RHUM-RUM)

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: 2014-10-01
End date: 2019-04-02
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

RHUM-RUM is a seismological experiment designed to image an oceanic mantle plume – or lack of plume – from crust to core beneath La Réunion Island, and to understand these results in terms of material and heat flows. The Réunion hotspot is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, and its hotspot track leads to the Deccan Traps of India, one of the largest flood basalt provinces on Earth, which erupted 65 Ma ago. The genesis and the origin at depth of this mantle upwelling are controversial, and La Réunion stands exemplarily for the entire class of hotspot-type volcanism that occurs mostly in the world's oceans, far removed from plate boundaries. It remains unclear whether oceanic hotspots are fed by deep mantle plumes, and whether plumes are significant contributors to the solid earth's heat budget. Since 2011, we have deployed 57 broadband seismometers on the ocean floor, complemented by 37 seismic stations on the surrounding land masses of Madagascar, Mauritius, the Seychelles, and the Iles Eparses. RHUM-RUM is a French-German cooperative effort that pools the marine resources, funding, scientific expertise, and local infrastructure needed to realise this large experiment. Thus RHUM-RUM has become the largest effort worldwide to image a plume under an oceanic hotspot. As the German PI of RHUM-RUM, I am in danger of losing previously raised German funding for the data analysis stage, as I am about to move from Munich to Oxford. The Career Integration Grant can help me facilitate the mobility of a postdoctoral associate and a PhD student to enable the close collaboration and supervision originally intended. My research project will use the most advanced methods of waveform tomography – several of which were developed by me and my group – to turn the RHUM-RUM waveform data set into 3-D body-wave tomographies that image through the entire mantle column under La Réunion, in order to shed light on the hotspot’s long-lived heat source.

Keywords: geophysics,geodynamics,seismology,seismic tomography,global tectonics,mantle plumes,hotspots