Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Investigating impact of schizophrenia-associated non-coding variants on enhancer activity using brain organoids (JS_SCZ)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Society and Enterprise panel
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Austria
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018, 2018)
Start date: 2020-09-01
End date: 2022-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 186167.04
EU funding (EUR): 186167.04
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

What makes us susceptible to a genetic disease is a central question in human genetics. Although, coding mutations have revealed the mechanisms of many genetic diseases, the same approach is not adequate to unravel the etiology of complex diseases such as schizophrenia (SCZ). Genome wide association studies revealed that the majority of SCZ-associated polymorphisms map to the non-coding regions and possibly alter gene expression. However, the functional consequence of these polymorphisms on gene regulation remains largely unknown. Although the onset of SCZ symptoms occurs in late adolescence, SCZ patients show differential expression of neurodevelopmental genes and defects in neuronal maturation. Therefore, it is postulated that the SCZ phenotype is a late manifestation of defects in neurogenesis and neuronal maturation. Based on the neurodevelopmental model of SCZ, I hypothesize that these SCZ-associated non-coding variants disrupt the function of enhancers active during neurogenesis/ neuronal maturation. Therefore, using cortical organoids as an experimental system, I plan to investigate 1) Which SCZ-associated non-coding polymorphisms are located in neurodevelopmentally active enhancers. 2) Whether and how these non-coding variants affect enhancer function. To this end, I will perform massively parallel reporter assay to inspect the enhancer activity of both control and mutant sequences of SCZ-linked cis regulatory elements in the neural progenitors and neurons of the developing cortical organoids. This assay will reveal any effect of non-coding variants on the level, cell type or developmental stage of reporter transcription. This effect can be then verified by analyzing the expression of associated genes to reveal how common, low disease-risk alleles contribute to SCZ-susceptibility. Furthermore, this novel combination of organoids and functional genomics will pave the way for investigation of non-coding variation for diverse human diseases and traits.

Keywords: enhancers,organoids
Light-activated carriers for the controlled delivery of therapeutic peptides in posterior segment eye diseases (Light4Sight)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Chemistry
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018, 2018)
Start date: 2019-11-01
End date: 2021-10-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 224933.76
EU funding (EUR): 224933.76
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In 2016, the global sales of biopharmaceutical drugs (protein, peptides) in ophthalmic applications exceeded $8 billion and is estimated to increase to $35.7 billion by 2025. The growth of the ophthalmic drug market is primarily driven by an increasing aged population suffering from age- and lifestyle-related diseases such as macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, among others. These diseases cause moderate or complete vision loss, resulting in significant reduction in quality of life. Consequently, innovative approaches for the effective delivery of biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of chronic intraocular diseases are required. Currently, intravitreal injection of drugs is the most acceptable and effective method to treat vitreoretinal diseases. By placing the drug in the posterior eye, it evades the ocular barriers common in topical and systemic delivery, allowing higher drug doses to reach the target site. However, treatments require frequent injections to maintain adequate intraocular concentration, which are invasive, increase the risk of adverse effects and pose significant treatment burden on patients and healthcare providers. Thus, alternative ways to deliver these drugs that require less frequent administration need to be developed. Light4Sight aims to develop a novel delivery platform consisting of self-assembling nanocarriers incorporating therapeutic peptides and suspended within a light-sensitive supramolecular hydrogel. The hydrogel can be injected in the vitreous and release of nanocarriers be activated through the irradiation of visible light. This approach provides several benefits: 1) minimizes the use of repeated injections reducing treatment burden; 2) reduces burst release of the nanocarriers avoiding potential dose related toxicity; 3) on-demand release to match patient needs; 4) allows high drug loading for long-term therapy; 5) protects peptide drugs from rapid clearance in the vitreous increasing their half-life.

Keywords: hydrogels,peptides,hyaluronan,self assembly,nanocarriers,controlled and targeted delivery,light,vitreous,posterior segment ocular diseases
Novel algorithm for treatment planning of patients with osteoarthritis (ALGOA)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Finland
Call: ERC-Proof of Concept-2016 (ERC-2016-PoC, 2016)
Start date: 2018-01-01
End date: 2019-06-30
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common joint disease affecting over 40 million Europeans. Most common consequences of OA are pain, disability and social isolation. What is alarming, the number of patients will increase 50% in developed countries during the next 20 years. Moreover, the economic costs of OA are considerable since 1) direct healthcare (hospital admissions, medical examinations, drug therapy, etc.) and 2) productivity costs due to reduced performance while at work and absence from work have been estimated to be between 1% and 2.5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in Western countries. We have developed an algorithm that is able to predict the progression of OA for overweight subjects while healthy subjects do not develop OA. When employed in clinical use, preventive and personalised treatments can be started before clinically significant symptoms are observed. This marks a major breakthrough in improving the life quality of OA patients and patients prone to OA. Our discovery will directly lead to longer working careers and lesser absence from work, and will result subsequently increased productivity. Moreover, the patients are expected to live longer due to reduced disability and social isolation. Moreover, the discovery provides economic long-term relief for the health care system, which is burdened by increasing geriatric population and stringent economic environment. With our tool, as an example, by eliminating 25% of medical examinations annually due to overweight or obesity in Finland (150.000 patients), we estimate to decrease annual direct costs by 140M€ and indirect costs by 185M€. In the PoC project we will carry out technical proof-of-concept and perform pre-commercialisation actions to shorten the time to market. The ultimate goal after the project is to develop our innovation towards a software product, aiding the OA diagnostics in hospitals and having commercialisation potential amongst medical device companies.

Keywords: osteoarthritis,prediction,prevention,health economics,finite element modeling,image analysis,knee joint,medical imaging,healthcare,personalized medicine
Reliable Electromechanical actuator for PRImary SurfacE with health monitoring (REPRISE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Smart, green and integrated transport
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Clean Sky 2
Action type: Innovation actions
Partnership: CS2 (Art-187)
Countries involved: Italy,Italy,United Kingdom
Call: Electromechanical actuator for primary moveable surfaces of small aircraft with health monitoring (H2020-CS2-CFP02-2015-01, 2015)
Start date: 2016-07-01
End date: 2021-06-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1309062.5
EU funding (EUR): 995468.75
Participants: 3
Project status: CLOSED

The REPRISE project responds to the call JTI-CS2-2015-CFP02-SYS-03-01. The objective of the project is the design and development of an innovative electromechanical actuation system with health monitoring for primary-control-surface of a small aircraft. It is well-known that the electromechanical actuation will lead to weight saving and life-cycle cost reduction but some critical issues of this technology need to be addressed. The REPRISE project will thus be focused on overcoming these issues and improving technology performance, reliability and safety using new technologies and health-management algorithms. Project activities will start testing an available EMA (electromechanical actuator) and ECU (electronic control unit), which meets in general the requirements reported in the CfP, on an available test rig until mechanical failures occur. These tests will allow the development of a Health Monitoring System (HMS) able to detect degradations of the mechanical components before they will evolve into failures. New sensors will be added, to those already embedded into the available EMA, to verify their capability to detect part degradation. The EMA will be then redesigned in order to improve reliability and reduce weight and envelope through the introduction of new technologies into EMA/ECU, new sensors and the HMS. Finally, the improved EMA and ECU will be tested to demonstrate both performances and effectiveness of HMS. Pointing at the success of the project, the REPRISE consortium strength lies in the association of different expertise, from different type of active members (SME, academia and industry). This association will benefit to all involved partners by sharing resources, skills and competencies on a high technological field with a major growth potential. From a wider point of view, this challenging project opens the small aircraft market sector to cutting edge technologies and will be beneficial to the whole aeronautical market as well.

Keywords: health monitoring,mea more electric aircraft
Behavioral and Policy Implications of Rational Inattention (INATTENTION)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Panel description: Economics, finance and management
Countries involved: Czechia
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2015-STG, 2015)
Start date: 2016-04-01
End date: 2021-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 950424.0
EU funding (EUR): 950424.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This proposal outlines agenda which aims to improve our understanding of policies in environments with cognitively limited agents. It seeks to extend and apply the theory of rational inattention developed in macroeconomics. Citizens are inattentive to details of tax codes, government bureaucrats cannot inspect all data about people in need, and voters are highly uninformed about politicians’ campaign platforms. The agenda is specifically targeted at applications where human inability to digest all available information has strong implications for public policy formation. It falls into three broad parts. First (macroeconomics), the proposed research will develop a new model of risk-sharing in a typical modern-macro setting with heterogeneous agents. Instead of incentive constraints, the imperfections will be driven by the government’s or citizens’ inability to process all available information. What are the properties of the resulting system of redistribution? Why do taxes often take a simple form? Can minorities be left behind because they attract less of the government’s attention? Second (behavioral economics), it will extend the rational inattention theory to model how agents simplify multidimensional features of the environment. Among many applications, the theory is likely to provide an alternative explanation for mental accounting, when people have separate budgets for different types of expenditures (critical to consumption decisions, especially of the poor), and for salience of different elements of the tax code. Third (political economy), it will develop a unified framework to study implications of voters’ rational inattention (selective ignorance) for the outcomes of political processes, such as for popular demand for misguided policies, public good provision, and the complexity of announced platforms. Voters’ information acquisition and fragmented information processing will be studied in a field experiment.

Keywords: rational inattention,imperfect information,mental accounting,heterogeneous agents,policy salience,inattentive voters
First long-lasting super-oxygenated water to promote post-exercise recovery and plant health, boosting crop yields sustainably (OxygeAte)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Norway
Call: SME instrument (H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1, 2018)
Start date: 2018-07-01
End date: 2018-09-30
Duration (months): 3.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Oxygen is important to every cell in every living organism to make energy and metabolize food, we all know that. The question is “how could we improve the intake of oxygen in cells and obtain extra benefits out of it?” The answer is easy, “by infusing and bounding Oxygen to water and get cells drink it”. However the solution is not that easy since Oxygen tends to evaporate to the atmosphere. Two growing industries have their attention on the super-oxygenation of water: i)the healthy beverage industry is searching for a booster on functional bottled water and ii)the smart farming industry searching for more precise and sustainable irrigation technics for farming. At NiToX we have developed OxygenAte, a first long-lasting super-oxygenated water to promote post-exercise recovery in humans and plant health in vegetables, boosting crop yields sustainably. In the NiToX process, the O2 molecules create a miniscule but stable chemical bond with minerals that are dissolved in the water. This basically means that O2 will remain dissolved in water for 4-6 months and oxygen concentration will be increased from 5mg/l, as in regular tap water, to 160mg/l in OxygenAte water. The global market for functional waters has experienced a continuous surge in the last five years, achieving 5,500 million liters and $12 billion in revenues globally in 2017. The market is poised to register a CAGR of 8.6% over the 2017-2022 period. The farming industry is constant search of more sustainable and efficient methods and with Nitox they will experience a seasonal yield increase (over 10%), lower crop times and increase of production at end of season (16%). With the Feasibility Study we expect to upscale our existing prototype and get to an industrial version of it that will allow us to achieve a forecast of gross profits of €15.2 million by 2023. We calculate a Return of Investment (ROI) of 4.5 in a five-year period and payback in year 3 (2021).
EPIGENETIC REGULATION OF INFLAMMATION IN NAFLD (EPIRIN)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Türkiye
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2015-05-01
End date: 2017-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 157845.6
EU funding (EUR): 157845.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a rapidly growing clinical problem, affecting a third of the European population. The transition of hepatic fat accumulation to inflammation is the key event taking place in the progression of NAFLD. This is controlled by a number of inflammatory and immune pathways including the activity of Natural Killer (NK) and Natural Killer T (NKT) cells. Progression from hepatic lipid deposition to inflammation and cirrhosis also follows a substantially variable course. It has been estimated that less than 10% of patients develop end-stage liver disease. Individual variability for disease progression is partly controlled by environmental factors and genetic background. However, it is not known how immune and inflammatory pathways are orchestrated by epigenetic mechanisms. The project hypothesises that “NK and NKT cells are programmed into inflammatory state by epigenetic modifications in progression from fatty liver to inflammation”. In this project, histone modifications and DNA methylation will be studied by genome-wide and loci-specific approaches in NK and NKT cells purified from animal models of NAFLD and a prospectively-designed human NAFLD cohort. Reversibility of these modifications will be investigated following the regression of liver disease in animal models and after the implementation of lifestyle changes in humans. Lastly, the therapeutic potential of targeting histone modifying enzymes by short hairpin RNA and small molecule inhibitors in NK and NKT cells for modulating inflammatory response will be investigated. The project will be the first comprehensive study investigating cross-talking epigenetic mechanisms in NK and NKT cells in NAFLD.

Keywords: non alcoholic fatty liver disease,natural killer cells,epigenetics,histone modifications,dna methylation
Cryogenic III-V electronics for improved quantum computers (CELESTE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2021-02-01
End date: 2023-07-19
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 203149.44
EU funding (EUR): 203149.44
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Quantum computers can revolutionize our society, but will require technological advances on multiple levels to do so. One such level is the classical electronics supporting the operation of the quantum processor. These electronics provide control and readout of the qubits, but also introduce noise into the system and must be integrated into the system in an efficient manner, in terms of power and space. In this proposal, I will aim to improve the scalability and performance of quantum computers by developing tailored cryogenic III-V electronics that leverage unique cryogenic effects to surpass the capabilities of traditional technologies. My work will cover two types of circuits representing low and high-risk targets, respectively: a cryogenic quantum well RF switch and a one-dimensional quantized ballistic LNA (1D-LNA). Due to the overlapping needs of the two circuits (in terms of the III-V materials and device fabrication), I will pursue them in parallel. My work will include cryogenic RF circuit design, cleanroom fabrication and cryogenic measurements, as well as manipulation of qubits using the fabricated circuits. The functionality of the circuits and their low-power and low-noise operation make them suitable for both superconducting and spin qubit technologies.

Keywords: cryogenic electronics
Study of neutral pion decays at the NA62 experiment at CERN (PIZERO_NA62)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Physics
Countries involved: Czechia
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018, 2018)
Start date: 2019-06-01
End date: 2021-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 156980.64
EU funding (EUR): 156980.64
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The project presented in this proposal will study decays of the neutral pion at the NA62 experiment at CERN. The main objectives of the project are the measurements of neutral pion transition form factor and the branching fraction of the very rare decay of neutral pion into an electron-positron pair by an analysis of the data sample collected by the NA62 experiment in years 2016-2018. The former observable is an important input to theoretical computations of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, while the latter represents a direct probe of the Standard Model of particle physics. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is a partner organization of this project, with the role of hosting the researcher during two one-month long secondments. This proposal includes both the transfer of knowledge to the host institution and the training of the candidate in new advanced techniques, such as artificial neural network application in pattern recognition. Various outreach activities are planned in the proposal, targetting general public and students from secondary schools.

Keywords: neutral pion decay,transition form factor,na62 experiment,cern