Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Killing Senescent Cells as a Novel Method to Eliminate Nevi (KILNEV)

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: Netherlands
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2018-04-01
End date: 2020-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 165598.8
EU funding (EUR): 165598.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Melanoma is the most aggressive type of skin cancer, and its spread to distal tissues is often a death sentence. Immunotherapies have led to increased survival rates but they are extremely expensive and efficient for approximately only 25% of patients. Therefore research into new methods to prevent or arrest the progression of melanoma is urgently needed. Nevi are pigmented lesions on skin which consist of a clonal mass of melanocytes in a state of proliferative arrest termed ‘senescent’. This state prevents further hyperplasia, but if mutations occur in proteins required to maintain senescence, cells can re-proliferate and progress into melanoma. Selectively clearing senescent melanocytes may therefore be an effective strategy to improve current preventative measures against melanoma. This project will use a combination of interdisciplinary techniques to identify and target molecular components that confer survival to senescent melanocytes. First, I will use whole-transcriptome analysis to identify novel genes associated to cell survival. Second, genes of interest will be validated via siRNA mediated gene silencing in vitro using techniques in molecular biology to assess viability and apoptosis. Third, selected targets will be validated in vivo using a unique novel mouse model established in the host laboratory where nevi can be induced and senescent cells can be quantified by luminescence. Successful identification of these targets may lead to future development of new therapies which help reduce the health and economic impacts of malignant melanoma.
Biologic Lycopene from Tomatoes (BioLyco)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Italy
Call: SME instrument (H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1, 2018)
Start date: 2019-02-01
End date: 2019-07-31
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Licofarma aims to be the first company to bring on the market Organic Lycopene, produced without chemical solvents from fresh organic-certified tomatoes, through a unique, internationally patented process technology. Lycopene is an antioxidant compound very important for human health, preventing a number of life-threatening and chronic diseases. Despite its benefits, Lycopene has two problems: it has to be taken through diet, as the body cannot produce it, and current production processes involve chemical solvents and toxic impurities. Licofarma patented technology extracts Lycopene from organic- quality tomatoes without any chemical solvents, using only CO2 in supercritical conditions. The end product has unmatched quality features: absence of toxic agents and impurities, high bioavailability, high antioxidant and cancer-prevention properties, high-quality food colouring, 100% natural and organic certification and environment-friendly and safe production process. Competitor products are Synthetic lycopene from chemical synthesis, which has lower cost, high presence of toxic agents and poor quality, and Natural lycopene from tomatoes, which has average cost, still toxic agents and lower quality than Licofarma’s product. Both products cannot be organic certified and have high impact on environment and safety. Organic Lycopene will be offered on the market in bulk form, for producers, and directly to consumers as ingredient of dietary supplements and ophthalmic products. The Lycopene production market value is foreseen at 84M€ in 2018 (300 tons/year) with yearly growth higher than 3%. Licofarma target is to reach an annual production of about 10 tons/year (3,2% share). The product will boost growth of the company, generating almost 40M€ cumulated revenues in 5 years and creating 16 new jobs. The total financial requirement amounts to about 5M€, of which 4.3M€ in tangible assets over 2 years, with an internal return rate of over 50% and Net Present Value of 14M€.

Keywords: tomatoes,lycopene,biological,organic,natural,antioxidant,quality food colouring,extraction process,dietary,body care
The world’s first “digital data-fingerprint” for human blood samples. (S4DX)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Germany
Call: SME instrument (H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020-3, 2019)
Start date: 2020-04-01
End date: 2021-09-30
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1477250.0
EU funding (EUR): 1034075.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Smart4Diagnostics (S4DX) has developed the world’s first “digital human sample data-fingerprint” for human blood samples in pre-preanalytics. We aks for EIC-support to catapult this innovation into a market-changing product. S4DX detects and reduces pre-preanalytical errors at sample collection when patients are still present. This is a quantum leap in quality and safety for patients, doctors and laboratories. They receive reliable results and painful re-visits and re-collection of samples are avoided. With our innovation we change medical diagnostics from "trust-based” to “evidence-based”. We provide a complete dataset on the quality of each human sample from blood draw until analysis. Our solution provides the new pre-preanalytical data-standard for sensitive medical diagnostics in the future. S4DX “digital human sample fingerprint” will be the necessary data-baseline for highly sensitive tests (e.g. liquid biopsy). Market-entry in Europe with our MVP is planned for Dec. 2020. Our data will be used to refine our pattern-recognition algorithms and thus provide the basis for personalized and precision diagnostics. We collaborate with leading international partners. Roche Diagnostics and Sarstedt are technical advisors, leading European lab chains (Bioscientia/Germany, Medisupport/Switzerland and Certe/ Netherlands) are implementation partners; Würth Electronics provides access to manufacturers and supply chain partners. The company was founded in Jan. 2018, won the EIT-Health Wildcard as best eHealth start-up in Europe, the Hackathon of the TU Munich/Germany as best start-up and was chosen globally by the WHO as one of ten most promising start-ups in 2018. In April 2019 the Investment committee of the High-Tech-Gründerfonds voted unanimously to accept S4DX for further investment of 1 Mio. €, in July 2019 ACI/ Boston accepted us as one of six companies globally in the “Gold-Track-Program” for massive global scaling in healthcare.

Keywords: personalized medicince,precision analytics,medical diagnostics,medical decision making,artificial intelligence in diagnostics,patient empowerment,analytical pattern recognition
Metabolic control of RNA-protein and RNA-RNA interactions in cellular transformation. (M6Abolic-RNA-duplex)

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: United Kingdom
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2016-09-01
End date: 2018-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 195454.8
EU funding (EUR): 195454.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In the current paradigm of gene expression, the structure of messenger RNA (mRNA) is a key element of posttranscriptional control because it modulates interactions with RNA-binding proteins (RBPs). RBPs typically recognize RNA-binding domains to form ribonucleoprotein complexes that ‘commit’ mRNAs to specific functions, and mutated or deregulated RBPs are implicated in multiple neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. Yet, the knowledge on the dynamic regulation of ribonucleoprotein complexes in mammalian cells is limited, mostly because the ‘structure’ and ‘specificity’ of RNA-protein interactions are amply unexplored. Recently, the host laboratory developed a new technique – hiCLIP – which identifies the transcriptome-wide RNA secondary structures (RNA duplexes) bound by particular RBPs, paving the way for pioneering research on the ‘structural determinants’ of RNA function in mammalian cells. In this context, N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most prevalent internal modification in mRNAs with critical functions in RNA stability, and seminal studies recently showed that m6A ‘marks’ destabilize in vivo RNA duplexes in the mammalian transcriptome. However, i) how m6A ‘marks’ regulate RNA-protein interactions that rely on RNA secondary structures is unknown, and ii) there is no systems-level elucidation of which RBPs are sensitive to m6A. Importantly, the ‘maintenance’ of m6A levels requires metabolic substrates and the m6A protein machinery is implicated in obesity and cancer. Collectively, these evidences point to a structural role of m6A in RNA function, and raise the compelling notion that metabolic control of m6A may represent a ‘regulatory module’ of gene expression in mammalian cells. The research proposed herein is designed to reveal the ‘regulatory principles’ of RNA structures in cell physiology, and the prospective results are likely to provide far-reaching insights on the significance of this process for metabolism-related diseases and cancer.

Keywords: metabolism,rna structure,rna binding proteins,rna methylation,cellular transformation
Engineering of hybrid cells using lab-on-chip technology (HybCell)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Panel description: Biotechnology using all organisms, biotechnology for environment and food applications, applied plant and animal sciences, bioengineering and synthetic biology, biomass and biofuels, biohazards
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2015-CoG, 2015)
Start date: 2016-07-01
End date: 2021-12-31
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1971250.0
EU funding (EUR): 1971250.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The overall aim of the here described projects is to learn fundamental characteristics of cellular organization and compartmentalization, in particular the role of the lipid membrane, and to exploit this knowledge for engineering minimal cells with a great impact in the context of synthetic biology and also for pharmaceutical and medical applications. The first major objective aims at combining natural cell membranes with synthetic membranes to form defined hybrid systems with the size of cells or cell organelles. This approach has the intriguing advantage that the membrane receptors or channels are reconstituted in the hybrid cell and remain functional. In consequence, signaling pathways of a cell can be mimicked and therefore, the vesicles can be addressed similar to a cell or can serve as cell-free sensor. The second major objective addresses the challenge to build multi-compartment systems. In a defined number and formulation, smaller compartments are enclosed in a larger vesicle and carry other constituents than the lumen of the larger host vesicles (catalysts or enzymes, respectively; DNA; buffer systems; other active biomolecules). With the acquired fundamental knowledge on membrane permeability and fusion, multi-step reactions can be conducted, where several compartments are involved, just like in a living cell. The key methods to address these challenges are based on lab-on-chip technology that provide the unique potential to systematically investigate membrane properties by allowing precise formation, positioning, manipulation and analysis of the membranes; together with many more advantages such as the fast and controlled fluid supply, the possibility of tailoring the chemical surface patterns and surface topology and the application of electrical fields. Microfluidic platform will allow going far beyond the existing methods in membrane research, so that controlled bottom-up formation of simple to more and more complex systems becomes possible.

Keywords: lab on chip technology,microfluidics,artificial cells,minimal cells,lipid membrane
Intelligence-Driven Urban Internet-of-Things Ecosystems for Trustworthy and Circular Smart Cities (IDEAL-CITIES)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Research and innovation staff exchange
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Cyprus,Poland,Greece,Greece,France,United Kingdom
Call: Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2018-07-01
End date: 2023-12-31
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1611000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1611000.0
Participants: 6
Project status: SIGNED

IDEAL-CITIES aims to develop, demonstrate and evaluate an open modular platform for building adaptive Internet-of-Things and Participatory Sensing (IoTPS) based Smart City applications, supported by Big Data analytics and Cloud services. IDEAL-CITIES outcomes will increase urban life quality, safety and inclusivity by enabling citizens and authorities to produce and exchange contextualised distributed intelligence and information in real-time, in a trustworthy and sustainable manner. The IDEAL-CITIES platform will foster the development and uptake of novel IoTPS-based Smart City applications and enhance the associated market base, by demonstrating new feasible ways for providing IoTPS applications and services which can contribute to urban citizen’s well-being and the cities’ circular economy. The IDEAL-CITIES platform will be demonstrated in the context of two fully-fledged IoTPS Applications, with a focus on mobility for the impaired and on citizen safety, in close cooperation with involved communities (a non-profit organisation for the blind and partially-sighted and four municipalities, respectively), validating the utility of the proposed platform and approach.

Keywords: internet of things,iot security and privacy,circular economy,participatory sensing,pattern driven intelligence
Unified, holistic medical data collection and analysis platform (UNITY)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Germany
Call: SME instrument (H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1, 2019)
Start date: 2019-05-01
End date: 2019-08-31
Duration (months): 4.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Due to the new EU Medical Device Regulations, the medical device industry needs to continuously obtain more and more accurate clinical data. However, due to limited resources, high costs and long clinical trial durations this data may not be obtained, resulting in (temporary) removal of proven medical devices from the EU market, while new devices may only be available in the EU with significant delay. Hence, the industry is desperately searching for solutions to accurately document clinical evidence of existing and new treatment options in a time and cost-efficient way. We are Raylytic, a German SME from Leipzig, specialised in clinical trials and radiographic image analysis. Since 3 years we have identified the described new business opportunity and started developing UNITY: a unique medical data collection and analysis platform that integrates traditional data collection (clinical data, patient outcome, lab data) with medical image analysis. Thanks to our advances in computer vision and medical image analysis technology, UNITY will be the next state-of-the-art solution, tapping into the clinical diagnostics, imaging software and pharmaceutical trials markets. The impact of UNITY for our clinical trial clients is a cost reduction of up to 40% for the execution of clinical trials. We have identified a favourable regulatory and reimbursement pathway. With the described project we intend to prepare UNITY for FDA and CE market clearance and subsequent successful market launch by 2022. After the project and upon regulatory approval, we intend to directly follow up and sell UNITY to hospitals as a hardware-vendor independent computer-aided diagnosis solution, as they will be using the platform already in clinical trials. Through this project (estimated ROI of 14.2), the company aims to boost its competitiveness, by increasing its revenues to €3 Million and its team to 25 employees by the first year of commercialization.

Keywords: medical data platform,medical image analysis,clinical data collection,patient data,clinical data,medtech,ehealth
A comparison of working memory characteristics in monkeys, apes, and humans. (RootsofWorkingMemory)

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: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2020-09-14
End date: 2022-10-15
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 212933.76
EU funding (EUR): 212933.76
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Working memory is a central component of complex human cognitive abilities such as learning, language comprehension, planning, reasoning, and cognitive control (Engle, 1999; Unsworth & Robison, 2014). It allows for a limited amount of information to be kept available for processing in the absence of sustained sensory input, and the proficiency with which individuals do so is positively correlated with individual differences in scores of fluid intelligence (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974; McElree, 2006; Smith, Jonides, & Koeppe, 1996; Unsworth & Engle, 2007). Although working memory has been identified as central to human intelligent behavior (Cole & Braver, 2012; Engle, 1999), little is known about its evolutionary origins and our understanding of how it operates in nonhuman primates is only beginning to emerge (Carruthers, 2013). Thus, comparative studies of working memory are needed to determine what similarities and differences exist in working memory between humans and non-human primates. Indentifying such similarities and differences will elucidate what evolutionary factors such as the development of language, or increased frontal lobe capacity, may have been critical for the development of working memory in humans, and help us understand the origins human-like intelligence more broadly.
Light-Field Controlled Molecular Reactions (LFC-MORE)

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: Netherlands
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2020-09-01
End date: 2022-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 175572.48
EU funding (EUR): 175572.48
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

It is a long-held dream of physical chemists to not only study, but also fully control chemical reactions. The research aim of this project is to control such reactions using the photon catalysis method. This technique uses a focused, high-power, non-resonant pulsed laser to create a high electric field. This field can interact with the dipole it induces in a molecule. With this so-called dynamic Stark effect, we can alter energy levels and potential energy surfaces of the molecule under study and thereby control the chemistry in the system. Our first goal is to apply this relatively new and state-of-the-art technique to control the chemistry in a small benchmark molecule. This will serve as a proof-of-principle experiment and give us a better understanding of the technique and the molecular mechanisms it affects. Afterwards, our aim is to control conical intersections in relatively large biochemically relevant molecules and to create light-field assisted molecular switches. The experiments will be conducted in a molecular-beam machine. Three lasers will interact with the molecules. The first one will provide the high electric field to control the chemistry, the second laser will excite the molecules and thereby start the chemical reaction, and the third one will ionize the reaction products. The resulting ions and electrons will be recorded using the velocity map imaging technique. We will use state-of-the-art combinations of detection methods to elucidate the controlled chemical reactions in a very high level of detail. The photon catalysis method has the potential to become a relatively easy to implement and general technique that could advance many experiments from the level of understanding to the level of controlling molecular processes. It allows us to manipulate properties of matter at the molecular level and it could become an important tool in the fields of quantum information, molecular nanotechnology, and photopharmacology, for instance.

Keywords: molecular beam,lasers,photon catalysis,velocity map imaging,photodissociation,dynamic stark effect,molecular switches