Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Study of attosecond electronic wavepacket dynamics in molecules using High Harmonic Generation. (MOLWAVE)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-04-10
End date: 2014-04-09
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 193594.8
EU funding (EUR): 193594.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Advanced studies of atomic and molecular systems require very precise probes with a few Angström space resolution and a few attosecond time resolution. High Harmonic Generation (HHG) satisfies these two requirements in a single tool: during this process, an intermediate step is the formation of an electronic wave packet in the continuum, whose central wavelength and duration perfectly match the spatial and temporal resolution required. HHG also provides a powerful source of ultrashort coherent XUV radiation for photoionization studies. The aim of this project is to investigate electronic wave packet (EWP) dynamics in molecules by combining different methods using the HHG process. It will be split in 3 tasks: (1) Investigation, using the self-probing scheme, of the EWP dynamics resulting from tunnel ionization in small Hydrocarbons, for instance ethylene (C2H4) or ethane (C2H6); this will be done in particular through a full mapping of the harmonic phase obtained by combining RABITT and harmonic interferometry experiments. This will allow precise determination of the shape and location of the hole created during tunnel ionization. (2) Measurement of the amplitude and phase of the photoionization dipole matrix elements of the same molecules by ionization with an attosecond pulse train within a weak IR field; moreover, the influence of resonant states on the ionization process will be investigated by scanning the XUV-wavelength across a resonance. This should give access to the attosecond time delay of the photoelectron emission in the two-color ionization process. (3) Implementation of a multicolour setup by mixing 400 nm, 800 nm and 1600 nm pulses to achieve a better control of the continuum electron wave packet in the HHG process. This will extend considerably the range of applicability of the self-probing scheme. All this will lead finally to a better understanding of the underlying processes and give multiple insights into the attosecond dynamics in molecules.

Keywords: non-linear optics,strong-field physics,molecular physics
Impact of neuronal exosomes-delivered microRNA and proteins on the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (EMIRAD)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Belgium
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-05-01
End date: 2014-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 177000.0
EU funding (EUR): 177000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Exosomes are small vesicles which mediate cell-cell communication by transporting across the extracellular environment specific “packages” of RNA and proteins. Importantly, exosomes carry translation initiation factors (TIFs) and miRNAs, a class of short non-coding RNAs with regulatory activity on the expression of the transcriptome of a cell. In the brain, exosome-delivered miRNAs and proteins are thought to be involved in the coordinated modulation of gene expression required for the long-term modulation of synaptic connections in a neuronal circuit. A deregulation of this exosome-mediated mechanism would then result in the synaptic dysfunction and loss of connectivity typical of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Indeed, aggregates of amyloid-β (Aβ) and of microtubule associated protein Tau disrupt synaptic activity in the brain of AD patients and lead to neurodegeneration by yet unknown mechanisms; moreover, the presence of Aβ and Tau deposits spreads along interconnected brain regions and correlates with disease progression. Using in vitro rodent primary neuron cultures as a model, we propose to characterize the cellular functions of exosome-delivered miRNAs and TIFs, to investigate the impact of Aβ and Tau aggregates on the exosome-mediated communication between neurons and to elucidate the role of exosomes in the spreading of intracellular Aβ and Tau aggregates between neurons. The relevance of a deregulation of exosomes in AD will also be studied in exosomes isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid of AD patients. The identification of AD-specific alterations in exosomes derived from AD patients compared to those isolated from elderly controls will highlight excellent AD biomarker candidates. Moreover, elucidation of the molecular mechanisms mediated by exosomes that are altered by AD-relevant protein aggregates will offer the possibility to identify novel therapeutical targets to treat this disease.

Keywords: neurobiology,alzheimer's disease,microrna,mirna,exosome,synapse,transcellular spread
Developing a versatile and efficient microbial PUFA producer (MICROPUFA)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-05-01
End date: 2014-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 255069.4
EU funding (EUR): 255069.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Polyunstaurated fatty acids are long chain fatty acids that include among them the essential omega-3 (n-3) and omega-6 (n-6) acids. The requirement for humans to ingest these as part of a balanced diet is due to the inability to synthesise the pre-cursors of these compounds, linolenic acid (n-3) and linoleic acid (n-6). Once ingested these pre-cursors are then metabolised into a number of key compounds that play vital roles in inflammation, cardiovascular health and normal brain and visual function. In addition it is also beleived that by ingesting the correct ratio of n-3:n-6 acids has many beneficial effects including reduced risk of heart disease and mental health issues. The benefits of supplementary feeding with n-3 and n-6 fatty acids has been studied extensively in infant nutrition. Studies have shown that supplementing infants food with n-3 and n-6 fatty acids can increase attention span, learning capabilities and even increased IQ over children in control groups. Due to these effects it is now reccomended that all infants diets are supplemented with n-3 and n-6 fatty acids. The main source of dietary fatty acids is in seeds, oils and oily fish with fish oil being the most easily adsorbed and metabolised. However, due to the fact that some people do not like to eat fish products, the unsustainablilty of fish stocks and the growing worry about contaimination of the food chain with noxious chemicals much effort has been directed towards a safe, reproducible and environmentally friendly way of producing fatty acids from oleaginous fungi. The fungus Mortierella alpina makes large amounts of fatty acids. This organism has been used commercially for a number of years and has the potential to make large amounts of pure n-3 and n-6 fatty acids. However, due to the lack of robust molecular tools the full potential of this organism has not been achieved. In this project we will devlop the molecular tools to utilise M. alpina as a factory for n-3 and n-6 production.

Keywords: fungus,genetically modified organisms,polyunsaturated fatty acids,m. alpina
Gold(I)-catalyzed decarboxylation in direct decarboxylative C-H arylation (AUPDCHARYL)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-09-01
End date: 2014-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 200371.8
EU funding (EUR): 200371.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In the present research project we propose the development of new and innovative methodologies for organic synthesis, namely biaryl synthesis, by the combination of different metal-promoted processes. More specifically, the project will be built up on the very efficient procedure for gold-promoted decarboxylation of aromatic carboxylic acids, recently developed by the host group, giving place easily to arylgold(I) species. As we detail below, the transmetallation of these aryl units from gold to other metal (likely palladium) capable of performing an orthogonal transformation as C–H activation would allow the direct cross-coupling of (hetero)arenes (via C–H activation) and aromatic carboxylic acids (via C–CO2H activation, see Scheme 1) without any pre-functionalization. Such a methodology will significantly improve the current methodologies for the synthesis of biaryl motifs (ubiquitous in natural products, pharmaceuticals and organic materials) offering a more direct, economic and significantly greener approach. Replacing the use of organometallic compounds (frequently expensive, not trivial to prepare and giving place to large amounts of metal salt residues) by carboxylic acids (common functional groups in organic compounds, giving place to only CO2 as side product) will make cross-coupling processes more applicable both at laboratory and industrial scales and will very importantly reduce –virtually eliminate– their environmental impact.

Keywords: organic synthesis,organometallic catalysis,gold,palladium,c-c activation,decarboxylation,c-h activation,biaryl synthesis,green chemistry
Deterministic processes, community organisation and ecosystem function (FUNCTION)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Outgoing Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IOF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-05-21
End date: 2018-04-15
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 352392.1
EU funding (EUR): 352392.1
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The impact of global change on biodiversity loss has major implications for ecosystem functioning and human well-being. Ecosystem functions such as decomposition of plant litter are emergent properties of the plant litter faunal community. Research into the relationship between the attributes of a community (e.g. diversity) and the emergent functions of that community (e.g. decomposition), otherwise known as the diversity-function relationship, has predominately used manipulative or reductionist experiments to identify mechanisms that drive function. In order to manage natural resources for ecosystem service delivery however, we need to understand the diversity-function relationship in natural ecosystems. This project will use community phylogenetic structure to explore deterministic processes driving plant-litter arthropod community organization, and examine the influence of community organisation on plant-litter decomposition and nutrient flux using stable isotopes to characterize resource use. Both will be achieved using a unique and highly resolved natural experimental system on Little Barrier island, New Zealand. The project Dr Griffiths proposes will benefit from training she will receive in (a) bioinformatics and phylogenetics, (b) stable isotope approaches to quantifying cryptic food webs, and (c) plant nutrient composition. The value of these multiple disciplines will be advanced through integration into an ecosystem functioning framework using Dr Griffiths’s established expertise. This mutually beneficial project will promote long-term collaborations. The training will add considerable value to the future research areas Dr Griffiths intends to address; enhancing ecosystem functioning and services in managed and natural ecosystems. The European Research Area will benefit from the quality of the collaborations, research and dissemination activities proposed, and through Dr Griffiths’s long-term research addressing issues of European and global importance.

Keywords: natural sciences,decomposition,phylogenetics,stable isotopes,ecosystem function,nutrient flux,arthropod community,plant litter
A Transition Metal Approach to Benzylic Fluorination (BENFLU)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-04-01
End date: 2014-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 200371.8
EU funding (EUR): 200371.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The number of active ingredients in the pharmaceutical industry, the health sector and modern crop protection that contain a benzylic fluoride or a fluorine substituent directly adjacent to a heteroaryl motif is significant and extrapolation of current trend indicates a definite growth to be expected through the 21st century. Many of these biologically important compounds with the fluorine substituent on a stereogenic centre targets must be made available enantiopure. This includes compounds that are labelled with 18F, the positron emitting radionuclide of choice for Positron Emission Tomography (PET). Despite the importance of these fluorinated target motifs, only few synthetic methodologies are reported in literature, most of them with limitations in terms of scope and selectivity. Transition metal catalysed processes are ideally suited for a mild and selective C-F bond formation but are still very rare, in part due to the fact that C-F reductive elimination is a notoriously difficult transformation. In this context, last year, Gouverneur et al. reported the first palladium-catalysed allylic fluorination, which has been proved to be feasible for 18F labelling. Doyle reported a stereocontrolled variant of this transformation. On the basis of these exciting results, this proposal offers to develop a new approach for the stereoselective preparation of a broad range of benzylic fluorides inclusive of enantiopure derivatives; the strategy is based on a transition metal catalysed C(sp3)-F bond cleaving or bond forming process.

Keywords: health sciences,fluorine chemistry,metal-catalysis,asymmetric catalysis
Virtual Birationality (VIRTBIR)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-07-23
End date: 2014-12-16
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 200371.8
EU funding (EUR): 200371.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This proposal concerns enumerative invariants. These record the number of curves in a space X that have specified properties. They carry a great deal of subtle information about the geometry of X, and they are also important in string theory, where the curves represent worldsheets of strings propagating in the spacetime X. The connection with string theory sheds great light on the structures formed by curve-counting invariants, and suggests that the different types of enumerative counting invariants are closely related. In this project, we will develop new tools to compare enumerative invariants and new methods to calculate them.

Keywords: natural sciences,algebraic geometry,moduli spaces,gromov-witten invariants
Molecular mechanisms of synapto-dendritic cargo trafficking (NEUROTRAF)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2013-04-01
End date: 2015-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 183805.8
EU funding (EUR): 183805.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Activity-dependent modulation of synapses is the core mechanism of synaptic plasticity and underlies learning and memory processes in the brain. Understanding dynamic changes at synapses requires a deeper insight in the molecular machinery involved in the transport and trafficking of postsynaptic proteins. Recent studies suggest that the cytoskeleton (microtubule and actin) and molecular motors (kinesin, dynein and myosin) play an essential role in the targeting and delivery of cargos to synapses. Moreover, it has been shown that defects in synaptic cargo transport are common feature of many human neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases. One of the limiting factors to study synaptic cargo trafficking in living neurons is the lack of appropriate molecular and imaging tools. Recent developments in super-resolution microscopy as well as the progress made in nanotechnology yield many new possibilities to study synaptic trafficking processes in neurons. In this proposal, we will address key issues in synapto-dendritic protein transport by developing novel molecular tools and imaging systems in living neurons. These tools will be utilized to answer a number of fundamental questions: 1) What is the contribution of specific motor proteins to dendritic transport? 2) Do microtubule motors enter dendritic spines and transport cargos in and out? 3) What is the mechanism of cargo movement between neighboring spines? The expected outcomes of this project will contribute fundamental insights into trafficking processes in neurons and deepen our understanding of the molecular dynamics of synapses.

Keywords: neuroscience,dendrites,synapses,cytosceleton,neuronal trafficking,cargo sorting,microtubule,molecular motors,endosomes,plasticity,ampars,nmdars,live imaging techniques,quantum dots
Efficient Synthesis of N-Heterocycles using Ynamides as Diazo Equivalents (DIAZOFREE)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-03-01
End date: 2014-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 200371.8
EU funding (EUR): 200371.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Diazo groups are the most commonly used precursors for the controlled formation of very widely employed metal carbenes. However, the potential hazards associated with their use, coupled with the synthetic inefficiency and structural and functional group restrictions that are imposed from their installation, are limiting. This project is aimed at developing, studying and applying an alternative diazofree approach to access versatile metal carbenoid intermediates. New methodologies will result in valuable N-heterocyclic structures widely found in functional materials and many biologically active natural products, pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. The proposed gold-catalysed novel transformations of ynamides will be combined with recent advances in copper catalysis for a short, efficient and general two-step synthetic strategy to prepare a wide variety of functionalised N-heterocycles from simple amine derivatives and (pseudo)alkynes. After establishing the reactivity concept, which will further the understanding of a new area of transition-metal catalysis, the wider synthetic applicability of this strategy will be explored. The potential value and impact of this method will be demonstrated to the wider synthetic community by its specific utility in target-led synthesis. Alongside the scientific impact of the research, the incorporated outreach activities will increase public awareness of the relevance of such research, generate enthusiasm in younger generations to pursue interest in science, and establish a generally accessible resource on gold catalysis. The skills and experience generated in this manner will complement the scientific leadership, communication and knowledge-transfer ability which will be established alongside the practical and intellectual skills and expertise in transition-metal catalysis and methodology that develop from this project.

Keywords: homogeneous catalysis,organic chemistry,n-heterocycles,ynamides,gold catalysis,carbenoid chemistry,efficient synthesis
Morphosyntactic language skills in deaf children with a cochlear implant: a cross-linguistic study on Dutch and German (MORLAS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Belgium
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-07-01
End date: 2013-09-30
Duration (months): 15.0
Total project cost (EUR): 110625.0
EU funding (EUR): 110625.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Nowadays, many profoundly deaf children are given access to auditory information by means of a cochlear implant (CI). Thanks to this device, these children are able to develop oral speech and language. However, there are still many open questions about the nature of speech and language skills of CI children. Previous research has focused mainly on perceptual achievements, while far less attention has been paid to speech and language production, i.e. to how well do CI children speak? Moreover, little is known about the “long term” development, i.e. what is the language achievement of CI children when they are at school age? This is especially relevant in view of the fact that more and more CI children are being integrated into the main stream school system. The aim of this project is to investigate speech and language skills of CI children entering primary school. The project will focus on CI children’s achievements in a major aspect of language, its morphosyntax. Gaining command of the full range of morphosyntactic features of a language requires highly sophisticated processing abilities and still constitutes a major challenge even for normally hearing children when they enter primary school. Furthermore, the project will compare CI children’s speech and language skills in two different languages, Dutch and German. This cross-linguistic perspective will allow to see whether CI children’s achievements vary depending on the specific language the child is exposed to. The study participants (10 CI children and 10 normally hearing peers, in each language) will be recruited from schools in Flanders (Belgium) and in Vienna (Austria). In both countries, children will be tested using a comparable research methodology and approach. The project will not only contribute to understanding the effects of a perceptual deficit on language learning, but will also help to develop standard language tests and adequate intervention programs for this new child population.

Keywords: linguistics,psycholinguistics,child language acquisition,hearing impairment,cochlear implants,morphosyntax,cross-linguistic comparison