Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
IgY Technology: A Purification Platform using Ionic-Liquid-Based Aqueous Biphasic Systems (IGYPURTECH)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Products and process engineering
Countries involved: Portugal
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2019-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1386020.0
EU funding (EUR): 1386020.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

With the emergence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens the development of antigen-specific antibodies for use in passive immunotherapy is, nowadays, a major concern in human society. Despite the most focused mammal antibodies, antibodies obtained from egg yolk of immunized hens, immunoglobulin Y (IgY), are an alternative option that can be obtained in higher titres by non-stressful and non-invasive methods. This large amount of available antibodies opens the door for a new kind of cheaper biopharmaceuticals. However, the production cost of high-quality IgY for large-scale applications remains higher than other drug therapies due to the lack of an efficient purification method. The search of new purification platforms is thus a vital demand to which liquid-liquid extraction using aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) could be the answer. Besides the conventional polymer-based systems, highly viscous and with a limited polarity/affinity range, a recent type of ABS composed of ionic liquids (ILs) may be employed. ILs are usually classified as “green solvents” due to their negligible vapour pressure. Yet, the major advantage of IL-based ABS relies on the possibility of tailoring their phases’ polarities aiming at extracting a target biomolecule. A proper manipulation of the system constituents and respective composition allows the pre-concentration, complete extraction, or purification of the most diverse biomolecules. This research project addresses the development of a new technique for the extraction and purification of IgY from egg yolk using IL-based ABS. The proposed plan contemplates the optimization of purification systems at the laboratory scale and their use in countercurrent chromatography to achieve a simple, cost-effective and scalable process. The success of this project and its scalability to an industrial level certainly will allow the production of cheaper antibodies with a long-term impact in human healthcare.
The function of higher-order cortical and thalamic pathways during vision (HIGHERVISION)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Neurosciences and neural disorders
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2020-01-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499193.6
EU funding (EUR): 1499193.6
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

When interacting with the environment we depend on our perception of the world around us. Visual perception relies on information flow from the eye to the visual cortex, where it is relayed and transformed via a series of cortical processing stages. Most research so far has focused on feedforward processing of visual information. However, it is increasingly obvious that perception crucially depends on how sensory input is interpreted in the context of an animal’s behavioural state, goals and actions. These non-sensory signals may be relayed by prominent long-range projections from higher-order cortical and thalamic areas, whose contribution to vision remains largely unexplored. Recent advances in imaging techniques and genetic tools for visualizing and manipulating neuronal activity enable us for the first time to study directly what information is conveyed through these major alternative visual pathways in the behaving animal and how they influence the processing of feedforward sensory information to allow us to actively perceive and interpret the environment. Using state-of-the-art methodology combining in vivo imaging, electrophysiology, animal behaviour, virtual reality, genetic tools and targeted optogenetics using advanced optics, we will determine the functional role of (i) cortical feedback and (ii) higher-order thalamic signals during cortical processing of visual information in the behaving mouse. Specifically, we will investigate what information these projections convey to the visual cortex in anaesthetized and awake mice, whether they provide signals mediating the increased saliency of behaviourally relevant stimuli, and whether they enable the integration of sensory and motor information during locomotion and navigation. Together, the proposed work will answer fundamental questions about the role of these important but poorly understood visual pathways in active processing of visual input as animals interact with their environment.

Keywords: neuronal circuits,visual processing,in vivo imaging,behavior,optogenetics
Theory and Practice of Advanced Search and Enumeration (TAPEASE)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Computer science and informatics
Countries involved: Finland
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2019-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1145078.0
EU funding (EUR): 1145078.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Computer science is permeated with canonical hard problems that, a priori, have a fundamentally combinatorial structure, such as the graph coloring problem, the Steiner tree problem, the Hamiltonian cycle problem, the k-clique problem, and so forth. Accordingly, it would perhaps be quite reasonable to expect that currently the asymptotically fastest solution techniques would rely on the canonical combinatorial algorithms toolbox, such as carefully tailored combinatorial (backtrack/branching) search and case-by-case analysis, combined with, say, advanced data structures. However, this is not the case. Indeed, currently the fastest known exact/parameterized algorithms for each of the aforementioned problems (and beyond) rely on a mixed bag of advanced _algebraic_ techniques ranging from fast matrix multiplication to sieving e.g. via Möbius inversion and polynomial identity testing. This, in essence, signals that the development of systematic algorithmic principles and tools to cope with exponential-sized combinatorial spaces associated with hard search and enumeration problems is rather in its infancy. The proposed project aims to improve our understanding how such spaces can be systematically transformed and filtered using advanced algebraic and combinatorial techniques. The results of the project are of foremost interest in fundamental research in improving our understanding of computation, but potential exists also for breakthroughs that affect the computing practice, for example in connection with specific canonical tasks such as matrix multiplication or frontier applications such as motif problems in bioinformatics.

Keywords: theory of computation: design and analysis of algorithms--parameterized complexity and exact algorithms,mathematics of computing,discrete mathematics
Econometric Analysis of Interaction Models (INTERMETRIX)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Individuals, institutions and markets
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-10-01
End date: 2018-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1028780.0
EU funding (EUR): 1028780.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Equilibrium models are one of the pillars of Economics. This proposal focuses on methodological and empirical studies of estimable game theoretic and social interactions models where observed outcomes are assumed to be determined in equilibrium. Ignoring this simultaneity in estimation and inference is likely to mislead conclusions and produce flawed counterfactual analyses. One pervasive feature in many interaction models is the existence of multiple solutions for various payoff configurations, and this is an aspect that carries over to estimable versions of such systems. Overlooking this possibility or assuming an uninformed equilibrium selection process potentially opens the door to severe misspecifications and erroneous conclusions. Another notable complication in the analysis of interaction models is computability: with a large number of players and sizeable set of outcomes and/or states, the search for an equilibrium solution can be daunting. The research projects contemplated in this proposal address one or both of these aspects in various different settings. Those projects contain methodological and substantive contributions. The work involves advances in the econometric analysis (identification and estimation) of interaction models and empirical implementation of the devised methodologies to questions of interest. Given the widespread and increasing use of such econometric models, the projects contemplated here will have a fundamental impact. I divide the projects into three main subtopics: 1) Identification and inference in games with multiple equilibria, 2) Social interactions and network models, 3) Dynamic interaction models.
Quantitative network-level analysis of stochastic cell fate decisions (STOCHCELLFATE)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Cellular and Developmental Biology
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-10-01
End date: 2018-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1495920.0
EU funding (EUR): 1495920.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In a developing embryo, each cell has to assume the correct cell fate to yield a viable adult organism. It has become clear that the signaling networks that control development are heavily influenced by molecular noise, i.e. stochastic fluctuations on the molecular level. Intriguingly, in many organisms cell fates are assigned in a stochastic manner. Such stochastic cell fate decisions are thought to exploit molecular noise, using positive feedback loops to amplify noise into an all-or-nothing cell fate decision. Yet, how a stochastic process results in robust cell fate assignment without errors is poorly understood. To address this question, we propose to study stochastic cell fate decisions in the nematode C. elegans using a new quantitative, physics-inspired approach. To this end we will use two innovative techniques to quantify the stochastic dynamics of the signaling networks controlling the cell fate decisions. First, we will use single molecule Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization to measure gene expression with unparalleled single-mRNA resolution. Secondly, we will construct a novel microfluidic setup that for the first time will allow high-throughput timelapse microscopy of developmental processes in live C. elegans animals at the single cell level. Using these techniques in combination with mathematical modeling, we will elucidate the core features of the signaling network essential for robust stochastic cell fate assignment. We will apply this approach to study two stochastic cell fate decisions occurring in gonad development: 1) the so-called AC/VU decision, a classical stochastic cell fate decision that is well-characterized on the molecular level, allowing us to fully focus on how feedback loops reliably amplify noise into all-or-none cell fate decisions. 2) Stochastic vulva precursor cell specification. In this relatively underexplored system, we will apply our insight gained in studying the AC/VU decision to identify the essential feedback loops.

Keywords: systems biology,computational biology
Carbonic anhydrase: where the CO2, COS and H2O cycles meet (SOLCA)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Earth system science
Countries involved: France
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2019-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1701882.0
EU funding (EUR): 1701882.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Quantifying the carbon storage potential of terrestrial ecosystems and its sensitivity to climate change relies on our ability to obtain observational constraints on photosynthesis and respiration at large scales. Photosynthesis (GPP), the largest CO2 flux from the land surface, is currently estimated with considerable uncertainty. A recent estimate of global GPP was based on an atmospheric budget of the oxygen isotope composition (d18O) of atmospheric CO2 that strongly relies on the oxygen isotope exchange rates with leaf and soil water pools. This isotopic exchange is rapidly catalysed by carbonic anhydrase (CA) in leaves and to a lesser extent in soils. Soil CA activity was neglected in global CO18O studies until the project PI showed recently that CA activity in soils played an important role for determining the magnitude of global GPP using CO18O. The overall goal of SOLCA is to understand better the environmental and ecological causes behind the variability in CA activity observed in soils. A first hypothesis is that soil CA activity responds to thermal and osmotic stresses. This will be tested by probing CA activity of soil monoliths from around the world using a non-invasive gas exchange technique developed by the PI. Because probing soil CA activity from CO18O gas exchange data requires a knowledge of the d18O of soil water and CO2 diffusion processes, we will utilise additional tracers of CA activity: CO17O and carbonyl sulphide (COS) that will also be measured as they follow the same diffusional pathway as CO2 and are also taken up by CA. A second hypothesis is that soil CA activity can be predicted knowing only global indices of the soil microbial community. This will be tested using state-of-the-art molecular techniques to explain changes in CA activity levels. This project will construct novel algorithms for using additional tracers of the global CO2 budget and will lead to a revised estimate of terrestrial GPP.

Keywords: soil,enzymes,atmospheric chemistry
AEROSPACE HOUSING FOR EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS (SEALEDBOX)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Joint Technology Initiatives (Annex IV-SP1)
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Clean Sky
Action type: Article 171 of the Treaty
Partnership: CLEAN-SKY (Art-185)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (SP1-JTI-CS-2012-03, 2012)
Start date: 2013-08-01
End date: 2015-05-31
Duration (months): 22.0
Total project cost (EUR): 294510.64
EU funding (EUR): 220882.99
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The amount of electronically controlled tasks in modern aircraft is increasing steadily and the overall weight of an aircraft has reached a magnitude that requires an analysis to obtain mass reduction. Conventional electronics enclosures are made from metal. Most of the boxes fielded today offer a monolithic architecture in the form of closed box packed with electronics and lots of connectors at the front or the back with corresponding heavy cable harness. The proper housing protects the electronics against the environment, ensures EMC and supports the thermal management. In order to reach higher power density and lower costs the optimisation of the housing is a must. Modern structures built in composite technology are able to provide important mass savings with respect to conventional designs. The advantages of high performance composites are many, including lighter weight, the ability to tailor lay-ups for optimum strength and stiffness, improved fatigue life, corrosion resistance and, with good design practice, reduced assembly costs due to fewer detail parts and fasteners. The objective of the present project is the development of an integrated solution for a lightweight hermetic sealed power electronic housing for unpressurised area with cost neutrality and according to DO160. The final objective is the reengineering of the flat top and bottom covers of the housing in order to demonstrate the technical and economical viability of composite materials as housing materials for extreme environments. The aluminium vertical walls providing the attachment points to the electronic components and to the covers will be maintained in the prototype design. Thus, a hybrid composite-aluminium enclosure will be developed and validated against the requirements fulfilled by the current full aluminium design. The aim is to reduce 40 % the weight of the covers made currently of anodized aluminium with electrically conductive bonding areas (Alodine 1200).

Keywords: composite housing,sealed,lightweight,electronics box
Rapid Permafrost Thaw in a Warming Arctic and Impacts on the Soil Organic Carbon Pool (PETA-CARB)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Earth system science
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-11-01
End date: 2018-10-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1786966.0
EU funding (EUR): 1786966.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In a warming Arctic, frozen soil organic carbon (SOC) stored in permafrost will increasingly become vulnerable to thaw and mobilization. Over millennia, permafrost soils accumulated about 1672 Petagram of SOC, about twice the carbon currently in the atmosphere. Rapid permafrost thaw (thermokarst) releases fossil SOC as greenhouse gases, constituting a positive feedback to global warming. However, complex landscape, hydrological, and ecological feedbacks necessitate quantification of landscape scale carbon pools and fluxes in Arctic permafrost regions. A globally important question is whether permafrost soils will turn from a natural carbon sink into a source. The project combines remote sensing based change detection, mapping, and spatial data analysis for permafrost landscapes, quantitative field studies, and modelling of thermokarst processes to quantify the size and vulnerability of deep permafrost SOC pools to rapid permafrost thaw and resulting impacts. The three research topics are: (1) Systematic measurement of rapid permafrost thaw, (2) Determining deep permafrost SOC stocks and carbon accumulation rates, and (3) Quantification of deep permafrost SOC pools and vulnerability assessment. The project will provide for the first time quantitative data on rapid permafrost thaw over large regions, provide first-time data on the size of SOC pool components related to thermokarst, substantially enhance previous SOC pool estimates for Yedoma deposits and arctic river deltas, and characterize overall permafrost SOC distribution and vulnerability to thaw. It will answer the question of how climate change affects permafrost SOC pools and how permafrost thaw feeds back to climate.

Keywords: permafrost,carbon cycle,carbon pools,hydrology,physical geography,land surface subsidence,climate change,climate system feedbacks,arctic,vulnerability,disturbances
Cytoplasmic Dynein: Mechanisms of Regulation and Novel Interactors (DYNEINOME)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Cellular and Developmental Biology
Countries involved: Portugal
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2019-10-31
Duration (months): 68.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1367466.0
EU funding (EUR): 1367466.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The megadalton cytoplasmic dynein complex, whose motor subunit is encoded by a single gene, provides the major microtubule minus end-directed motility in cells and is essential for a wide range of processes, ranging from the transport of proteins, RNA, and membrane vesicles to nuclear migration and cell division. To achieve this stunning functional diversity, cytoplasmic dynein is subject to tight regulation by co-factors that modulate localization, interaction with cargo, and motor activity. At present, our knowledge of the underlying mechanisms remains limited. An overarching goal of this proposal is to gain an understanding of how interactions with diverse adaptor proteins regulate dynein function in space and time. We choose the nematode C. elegans as our model system, because it will enable us to study the biology of dynein regulation in the broad context of a metazoan organism. The nematode’s versatile genetic tools, its biochemical tractability, and the powerful molecular replacement technologies available, this makes for a uniquely attractive experimental system to address the mechanisms employed by dynein regulators through a combination of biochemical, proteomic, and cell biological assays. Specifically, we propose to use a biochemical reconstitution approach to obtain a detailed molecular picture of how dynein is targeted to the mitotic kinetochore; we will perform a forward genetic and proteomic screen to expand the so-far limited inventory of metazoan dynein interactors, whose functional characterization will shed light on known dynein-dependent processes and lead to novel unanticipated lines of research into dynein regulation; we will dissect the function and regulation of the most important dynein co-factor, the multi-subunit dynactin complex; and finally we will strive to establish a novel C. elegans model for human neurodegenerative disease, based on pathogenic point mutations in a dynactin subunit.