Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
NOVEL MECHANISMS INACTIVATING CHECKPOINT RESPONSE (CHECKPOINT-INACT)

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-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2011-11-01
End date: 2015-10-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Eukaryotic cells need to preserve the integrity of their genomes. Conditions resulting in increased genome instability, defined as the generation and amplification of mutations and chromosomal aberrations, are associated with cancer predisposition and human pathologies. The DNA damage checkpoint acts as a surveillance mechanism that safeguards genome integrity in response to genotoxic insults. While the processes leading to DNA damage checkpoint activation have been extensively studied, little is known about mechanisms mediating its inactivation, which is essential to restore normal cell physiology and overcome genotoxic insults. A genome-wide genetic screen performed by the research group identified novel Checkpoint Inactivating Factors (CIFs). These have been implicated in inactivation via proteolysis and subcellular sorting of several substrates but were previously not been implicated in the checkpoint response. Noteworthy, human orthologs of these factors have been involved in malignant transformation and cancer development. In this project genetic, genomic, molecular biology and proteomic approaches will be used to characterize the role of these novel CIFs in the cellular response to genotoxic insults. The project also aims at identifying and characterizing CFI’s targets within the checkpoint pathway. The research proposed will contribute to elucidate how eukaryotic cells revert checkpoint activation to maintain genome integrity, thus providing a framework for the development of new therapeutic agents. CIG funding will be invested in human resource in order to boost the project’s efficacy.

Keywords: dna damage checkpoint,genome integrity,protases,ubiquitination,genetics,genomics,molecular biology
Multi Atomistic Monte Carlo Simulation of Technologically Important Crystals (MASTIC)

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-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2011-08-01
End date: 2015-07-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In order to continue with the size reduction of transistors it is necessary to use complex implantation conditions such as amorphizing implants. Models predicting the resulting dopant profile reduce the number of experiments necessary to design the best process to obtain the desired properties. In the case of development of materials for fusion applications, models are crucial since, as of today, there are no experimental facilities to reproduce the same conditions that the materials will withstand in a fusion reactor. Therefore, extrapolations must be made from different irradiation conditions (fission reactors or ion implantation). These materials are different, but the basic mechanisms are the same: production of defects, diffusion of these defects and interaction with other defects, impurities or the material microstructure. In the case of microelectronics these effects must be followed for a time scale of minutes, while in fusion it is necessary to model years of operation. Using the atomistic Object and Lattice Kinetic Monte Carlo techniques (OKMC, LKMC), tools that can achieve the scales and ranges involved, this project improves the scientific understanding, generates efficient models for technology development and provides a simulation workbench to optimize the use of SiGe, SiC (microelectronics) and Fe, FeCr (nuclear). Several atomic configurations will be included in LKMC to study the amorphous/crystalline transitions of Si-based materials and the formation of defective crystals during the transition. Binary alloys will be included in a OKMC scenario to study the evolution of defects under different conditions, to be used for SiC, SiGe and FeCr materials. Finally, parallelization techniques will improve the scope of KMC applications. The knowledge gain with this project improves the performance of last generation Si-based transistors, and the use of FeCr as a blanket material in the ITER and future DEMO project as well as other fusion reactor concepts.

Keywords: materials engineering,nuclear engineering,electronic engineering,modelling tools,cmos technology,physics of semiconductors,solid state physics,computational physics
Coherent spin manipulation in hybrid nanostructures (COSPINNANO)

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: Hungary
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2011-09-01
End date: 2015-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The rapid development of novel nanoelectronic devices utilizing the spin degree of freedom of the charge carriers and thus reaching beyond the limitations of traditional semiconductor based technologies is one of the central issues in nowadays spintronics. A special emphasis is put on the fabrication and investigation of hybrid nanostructures exploiting the complementary benefits of metallic, semiconducting, magnetic as well as the recently explored, low dimensional carbon based systems (carbon nanotubes, graphen). The proposed project aims to design various hybrid nanostructures defined by optical and electron beam lithography and to develop novel schemes for determining spin-related material parameters (g-factor, spin diffusion length, spin-injection efficiency and spin transfer torque) via transport measurements. This is essential in order to explore electron spin dynamics, decoherence and relaxation for multifunctional applications (fast switching elements, combined logical and storage devices, quantum dot based semiconductor spin qbits) and to determine conditions for coherent spin-transfer in nano/micro-circuits as well as methods of detection of spin currents. These experiments help to understand and control the coherent spin states of individual charge carriers, which is fundamental for the field of quantum computation in a solid state environment. The host institute possesses all the necessary nanofabrication facilities and the high-end cryogenic background for the successful implementation of device fabrication and low-level magnetotransport measurements. The host has also pioneered the measurement technique for determining spin-polarization and spin transfer torque in nanoscale magnetic systems with a resolution down to the scale of atomic junctions.

Keywords: solid state physics,spintronics,nanotechnology,hybrid nanostructures,quantum dots,coherent transport,spin diffusion length,spin torque,andreev reflection
Dissecting the Genome-wide Action of Interferon Regulatory Factor 4 (IRF4) in Melanoma (ONCOGENEREGULATION)

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: Türkiye
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2011-08-01
End date: 2015-07-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Interferon regulatory factor 4 (IRF4) is a transcriptional regulator with critical roles in lymphocyte development and function. We have recently shown that cells from a poor-prognosis subtype of lymphoma and multiple myeloma show non-oncogene addiction to IRF4. Using integrative genome-wide strategies, we have identified the gene regulatory program that IRF4 controls in these cancers. In several studies, high IRF4 expression was consistently observed also in cells derived from the melanoma type skin cancers at both mRNA and protein level. A survey of multiple gene expression profiling studies show that IRF4 expression is significantly high in melanoma. In addition, several genome-wide association studies identified IRF4-linked polymorphisms contributing to pigmentation, nevi count and risk of developing melanoma. These studies, taken together with our first-hand understanding of IRF4’s crucial role in B-cell cancers, strongly implicate a direct role for IRF4 in melanoma. However, the extent and molecular mechanisms of the role of IRF4 in melanoma and melanocyte biology have so far not been reported. We are initiating a project to study the role of IRF4 in melanoma cells using cellular, molecular, and genome-wide approaches as the first segment of my research program aimed at investigating the critical gene regulatory and epigenetic networks in cancers. Specifically, we will study the requirement of IRF4 in the tumorigenicity of melanoma cells. Further, we aim to employ genome-wide expression and localization (ChIP-Seq) assays to identify the genes and downstream pathways controlled by IRF4 in melanoma, and test their roles in melanoma development and progression. Melanoma incidence has been on the rise, and advanced forms of melanoma are mostly resistant to current therapies, and deadly. This project is aimed at improving understanding of melanoma biology, and identification of novel genes and pathways that can ultimately be targeted for therapy.

Keywords: health sciences,interferon regulatory factor 4,irf4,genome-wide localization,chip-seq,gene expression,transcriptional regulation,rnai,non-oncogene addiction,drug targets,melanoma,skin,cancer
Cognitive and Electrophysiological Mechanisms of Visual Short-Term Memory Updating (VSTM UPDATING)

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-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2011-09-01
End date: 2015-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Most of our everyday activities require holding visual information in our minds and using it to guide our actions. Visual short-term memory (VSTM) is the system that provides this ability. Importantly, the information in VSTM should be continuously updated, in order to accommodate task-relevant input from the environment and remove irrelevant and outdated information. However, the cognitive and electrophysiological processes that underlie VSTM updating are still unknown. To this end, I have developed an updating version of the standard change detection paradigm that is used in VSTM research. The present proposal aims at using this paradigm to address three objectives. Objective 1: Specifying the behavioral characteristics of VSTM updating. The experiments in this part of the proposal will examine the cognitive processes that enable updating VSTM, namely, entering, changing and removing information. Objective 2: Examining the relationship between updating and the creation of a compound VSTM representation. Previous work and theory suggested that the items maintained in VSTM create a bound, unitary representation that includes the relational associations among them. This finding implies that whenever any of the items in VSTM is updated, the entire compound representation has to be updated or re-created. This part earch will investigate the involvement of VSTM updating in markers for binding among VSTM items. Also, it will examine the role of binding in creating long-term memory representations. Objective 3: Examining the electrophysiological correlates of VSTM updating. Previous work on VSTM used the event-related potential (ERP) methodology to identify a physiological marker for its capacity. This part of the proposal will use this marker to examine the electrophysiological activity that is related to updating VSTM, and in order to reveal the relationship between updating and VSTM capacity.

Keywords: cognitive science,experimental psychology,working memory,visual short-term memory,executive functions,updating,change detection
Secure Multiparty Computation in the von Neumann Architecture (VON NEUMANN MPC)

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-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2011-10-01
End date: 2015-09-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The ultimate aim of this project is to design and implement an efficient virtual machine that can be used in practice for generic secure multiparty computation (MPC). MPC is a way to convert any distributed computation that can be performed securely with the assistance of a trusted third party into a protocol that does not require any third parties, yet gives the same output and remains just as secure. The existence of MPC is one of the breakthrough results of modern cryptography. These results appear to be extremely relevant for problems in many areas - wherever there is tension between privacy, trust and functionality. In practice, however, there is very little real-world use of these techniques. Existing MPC techniques involve translating a function to be computed into a logical circuit. This architecture has some drawbacks, however, that we believe contribute to the scarcity of real-world use of these techniques. In particular, programs whose running time is potentially very long are infeasible to implement as circuits (since a circuit's size depends on the maximal running time of a program). Moreover, there are far more engineers familiar with programming than with the constraints of circuit design. In this project we propose to take a new approach to practical MPC: changing it from a ``hardware engineering'' problem (designing circuits) to one of ``software engineering'' (writing programs). The high-level idea is to develop a ``secure computation virtual machine'' in the von Neumann architecture: a virtual CPU and virtual RAM that can run programs in a similar way to a modern physical computer system. Such an architecture would allow secure programs to be compiled directly from standard programming languages (such as C or Java). The hope is that, once such a system exists, MPC will become accessible to the many software engineers who already know how to program but do not have time to learn new, MPC-specific languages or circuit design.

Keywords: computer engineering,computer science,cryptography,multiparty secure computation,efficient implementations
Development of a three-dimensional Reconstruction Algorithm for Phase Contrast Breast Tomosynthesis (PHASETOMO)

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: Bulgaria
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2012-09-01
End date: 2016-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Breast cancer remains the most common cause of death for women below seventy years of age. In Europe, one in ten women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. Early diagnosis is recognised as a critical factor that can improve the chance of survival. X-ray mammography is currently considered best practice for screening and early diagnosis of breast carcinoma. However, a significant number of breast cancers remain undetected when using conventional 2D mammography imaging, due to insufficient soft tissue contrast and the effect of overlying anatomical structures. A method that combines the advantages of the phase contrast imaging and digital breast tomosynthesis may result in high contrast tomograms with well outlined breast cancer margins. This project will aim to develop, test and validate a three-dimensional reconstruction algorithm for phase contrast digital breast tomosynthesis. The overall objective will be pursued through the following specific objectives that will be addressed in a number of highly innovative tasks of design, modelling, numerical simulations and experimental work: (a) Development of a simulation tool for generation of phase contrast images over limited angular range; (b) Development of a three-dimensional algorithm for phase contrast breast tomosynthesis; (c) Validation and further refinement of the algorithm with computer models of ground truth phantoms as well with physical phantoms that will be exploited at laboratory environment. The availability of three-dimensional reconstruction algorithms dedicated for phase contrast breast tomosynthesis will provide a possibility to study the potential of this novel technique to enhance contours of different breast soft tissues, thus resulting in clearly visible three dimensional soft tissue morphology.

Keywords: computational physics,modelling tools,3 d modelling,image processing,biomedical engineering,health sciences
Enabling Seismic Design Decision-Making under Uncertainty (IDESIGN)

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: Greece
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2011-09-01
End date: 2015-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

A robust methodology for performance-based seismic design is proposed that encompasses advanced analysis techniques under a common probabilistic framework to allow seismic design decision-making in the presence of uncertainties. Such a design method, whereby a structure is designed to satisfy a range of performance objectives paired with specific seismic hazard levels, has become the object of intensive research in the wake of the staggering economic losses witnessed in recent seismic events. Despite current advances in the adjacent field of performance-based assessment, and the emergence of displacement-based methods, no clear path has yet been defined on how to apply such results in design without considerable computational effort. At present, this necessitates a cumbersome process of analysis and redesign cycles that will slowly converge to a satisfactory, albeit largely non-optimal, structure. The task becomes more challenging when attempting to include the influence of epistemic uncertainties inherent in the structural model, analysis method and seismic loading. We will explore ways to offer a robust method for performance-based design using either static or dynamic nonlinear analysis techniques that can be readily used for practical applications and consequently implemented into seismic design code provisions. The fundamental building blocks will be (a) the formulation of standardized 2D and 3D mechanical models, (b) the quantification of the effect of uncertainties due to the modeling parameters and the analysis method used, (c) the use of a simplified closed-form probabilistic framework (d) the calibration versus optimal solutions and the estimation of the degree of conservatism involved in comparison to accurate assessment techniques. The ultimate goal is to develop a practical, yet accurate and safe, state-of-the-art performance-based design methodology, that will result to advantageous structural designs compared to the traditional force-based approaches.

Keywords: structural engineering
Functional materials through surfactant self-assembly (FUMASSY)

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: Finland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2012-01-01
End date: 2015-12-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

I seek the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant grant to support my effort to establish a new independent research group lead by me in the Department of Chemistry at Aalto University School of Chemical Technology, Finland. I am a young Finnish researcher, who after finishing her doctoral studies in December 2004, moved to United States for her post-doctoral research and ever since has been successfully pursuing a research career in top US research environments currently in Yale University and before that in Princeton University. Research in the Sammalkorpi group will apply computational and theoretical methods toward engineering drug delivery, biosensing, and separation membrane systems based on surfactant self-assembly. Amphiphilic surfactant aggregates and their capacity to change form, structure, and dynamics lie at the heart of many natural and synthetic processes. For example, lipid and detergent micelles, vesicles, and membranes play a key role both in cellular and synthetic molecular transport and regulation [Schmidt, Nature (2002); Hubbell, Science (2003)]. The same molecules form tunable coatings, lubrication layers, and novel nanoscale functional soft materials [Min et al., Nature Materials (2008); Hillmyer, Science (2007); van Hest, Nature (2009)]. My initial research will focus on two areas with common themes of molecular self-assembly and the key influence of aggregation on system dynamics: 1) small interfering RNA (siRNA) delivery via micellar and vesicular carriers and 2) novel functional materials based on functionalized carbon nanotubes in amphiphilic surfactant aggregates. I apply the Marie Curie Career Integration funds for 4 years to improve the chances of success I have on establishing this ambitious new line of research in the Department of Chemistry at Aalto University.

Keywords: biomaterial engineering,computational chemistry,surfactant,drug delivery,functional membranes