Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Extracting electrical current from organic compounds in wastewater (BIOANODE)

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: Sweden
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2012-04-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In a microbial bioelectrochemical system, bacteria convert organic matter directly into electrical current. This makes it possible to use the energy content of dissolved organic matter in wastewater to drive electrochemical processes. A bioelectrochemical system consists of two electrodes, an anode and a cathode. Living bacteria oxidize organic matter and transfer electrons to the anode. The electrons flow through an external circuit to the cathode where a compound is reduced. The conditions at the cathode determine the output of the system. For example, we can produce electrical energy, energy-carriers such as hydrogen and methane, and valuable chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide and caustic soda. The aim of this research project is to investigate the design, control, and operation of the bioanode. Depending on the output of the system, we have varying restraints and opportunities for control of the bioanode. We will use mathematical modeling and laboratory experiments to investigate two types of bioelectrochemical processes. In Type 1, the product at the cathode is in focus and the bioanode is simply used to lower the energy consumption of the production process. In Type 2, energy recovery from the wastewater is in focus and the goal is to capture as much as possible of the energy bound up in organic matter. This research project will fill an important knowledge gap in the field of bioelectrochemical systems and contribute to the practical application of this new technology.

Keywords: bioanode,bioelectrochemical systems,experimental reactors,mathematical modeling,microbial oxidations,wastewater treatment
Chromophore-Sensitized Up-Conversion in Lanthanide Materials (CHROMSENSUC)

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: 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

This proposal seeks to demonstrate and understand a new class of materials for up-converting infrared (IR) radiation into the visible range through linear radiation-matter interactions, exploiting the optical and electronic properties of trivalent rare-earth ions and organic-based light harvesting compounds. It is known that materials doped with lanthanide ions are capable of combining low energy excitations into higher states via excited state absorptions and energy transfer, resulting in visible or UV emission upon IR excitation. However, the primary absorptions are partially forbidden, which results in a low performance or the requirement of relatively high exciting power. Our aim is to exploit the fact that organic chromophores can have very high absorption coefficients, several orders of magnitude greater than the lanthanide ions, and can act as primary sensitizers by transferring the excitation to them, thus providing an effective increase in absorption and hence, in up-conversion. Following recent discoveries on the nature of the organics to be employed towards this end, we will pursue a twofold strategy. On one hand we will study up-converting organolanthanide polymers incorporating IR chromophores and on the other hand, hybrids based on well known, efficient lanthanide-doped inorganics in combination with IR absorbing organic dyes. The inclusion of chromophore-containing dyes will be done though chemical methods during the synthesis or via coating of nanostructures to exploit inter-molecular and inter-domain energy transfer. We will aim at design rules through opto-structural correlations derived by spectroscopic and characterization experiments at ambient and high pressure of the un-sensitized and sensitized materials. The study and approach are expected to impact on the multidisciplinary Material Science community due to the applications in optical and solar cell technologies as well as Biology due to potential uses in labeling and therapy.

Keywords: solid state physics,spectroscopy,optical and dielectric properties,lanthanides,inorganic chemistry,organometallic chemistry,hybrids,up-conversion,chromophores,high pressure,opto-structural correlation
Interactions in Three-dimensional (3D) in vitro environments of Nanoparticles and Cells (3DINVITRONPC)

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: 2012-02-01
End date: 2016-01-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The applications for nanoparticles (NPs) in medicine have rapidly increased in recent years; some examples are drug delivery, medical imaging, in vitro biosensors and cancer treatment. Typically, the biological assessment of NPs is carried out first in vitro (in a 2D petri dish) and then in small animals in vivo (3D). This whole process is costly and time consuming; similarly to that is required for the drug development, 11-15 years and $500 to $800 million to reach the market. An intermediate step between (2D) in vitro and (3D) in vivo assays could provide relevant information, decreasing the total cost of the biological assessment. 3D in vitro assays mimic biologically relevant tissues in an economical and rapid manner; although, current 3D in vitro methods entail complex engineering steps. 3DinvitroNPC focuses on a simple and innovative strategy to create 3D in vitro cell cultures using sheets of porous materials and embedding living cells and NPs within those materials. 3D cell cultures require a material non-toxic for cells and highly porous to allow cells to grow within its microstructure. This project explores aerogels of biomaterials to create 3D in vitro novel scaffolds that are biodegradable and transparent. Combinations of cells and NPs in the 3D in vitro constructs permits the assessment of viability and functionality of NPs in relevant biological environments which is critical for using NPs in medical applications. Gold NPs and FexOy-NPs will be assessed, the first as model NPs and the latter as magnetic label of cells. FexOy-NPs internalized by cells, magnetically label the cells. Localization of magnetic cells using a magnet placed outside the body is a recently developed medical method non-invasive for tissue recovery after cerebral ischemia. For this purpose, the platform of 3DinvitroNPC will evaluate magnetic cells within the on-purpose developed 3D cell scaffolds.

Keywords: nanotechnology,nanobiotechnology,biochemical technology,chemistry,inorganic chemistry,polymer chemistry,biomaterial engineering,bioassays,biomedical materials
The transcriptional network of the zinc-finger factor ZEB1 and its function in the embryonic nervous system and glioma development (ZEB1)

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: Portugal
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2012-03-01
End date: 2016-02-29
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Current interest in neural stem cells derives from the prospect of using them in brain repair strategies, but also to understand neurodevelopmental pathologies. This will require, however, a significant improvement of our understanding of the gene expression programs associated with their maintenance and differentiation, and how these are regulated. Recently, several lines of evidence suggest a regulatory function for the zinc-finger transcription factor ZEB1, both in embryonic neural stem/progenitor cells, and in human tumours of neural origin. Here we propose to use a multidisciplinary approach, combining mouse genetics and genomics, to characterize the function of ZEB1 in neural development. A thorough phenotypic analysis of ZEB1 loss-of-function mouse models will be performed, with a special focus on its role in neural progenitors. This will be complemented with the genome-wide characterization of its transcriptional network, using a combination of genomic location analysis with expression profiling. Moreover, a detailed comparison of the ZEB1 transcriptional programs in human foetal- and glioma-derived stem cells will be carried out, providing important insights into ZEB1 function in tumour initiation and development.

Keywords: neurobiology,zeb1/zfhx1a,neural stem cell,transcriptional program,chip-seq,ko mouse
The impacts of global environmental change for marine biotic interactions and ecosystem functioning (GLOBEF)

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: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2012-04-01
End date: 2017-01-18
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Oceans cover 70% of our planet, provide 90% by volume of its biosphere, support 50% of global primary production and provide vital ecosystem services, including climate regulation, carbon sequestration and the provision of protein, on which large proportions of the global population rely. The Earth’s oceans are, however, increasingly subject to multiple interacting anthropogenic stressors. At the global scale, ocean acidification and global warming, considered two of the 21st century’s grand challenges, potentially pose the greatest threat to ecosystems and the goods and services they provide. However, regional scale stressors, such as eutrophication and over-fishing, are interacting with these global scale stressors, leading to non-linear ecosystem responses. To date, there is little understanding of the combined impacts of these stressors on marine organisms or the processes that structure marine ecosystems. The proposed research seeks to directly address this knowledge gap by undertaking a series of novel, integrated, robust manipulative experiments, at a hierarchy of spatial (local to global) and temporal scales (short to medium term), to determine the combined impacts of multiple climate (global warming and ocean acidification) and non-climate (eutrophication) stressors on marine biodiversity, community interactions and ecosystem functioning. Outcomes from this research will provide the first quantitative evidence of how multiple, interacting global environmental change stressors will affect the strength and direction of biotic interactions, ecosystem functioning and through interdisciplinary collaborations, changes to food-web dynamics and the economic sustainability of our oceans. Without a multi-species, ecosystem-level understanding of marine biological responses to global environmental change, adaptive management policies that are so vitally needed to ensure the sustained use of the Earth’s marine resources, will not be fit-for-purpos

Keywords: marine ecology,marine climate change impacts,global warming,ocean acidification,biodiversity,ecosystem functioning,community ecology,global environmental change
Targeting the ubiquitin-proteasome system and ubiquitin-like protein conjugation pathways for non-genotoxic therapy of cancer (TARGET-PPIS)

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: Poland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2012-04-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The principal objective of our broad, translational research is to determine structural attributes and to develop small-molecule compounds for new, emerging, cancer-related protein-protein interactions in the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) and ubiquitin-like protein (UBL) conjugation pathways. We use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and X-ray crystallography techniques to structurally characterize protein-protein interactions (PPI) and to develop small-molecule inhibitors for these PPIs. The UPS and UBL proteins studied by us are: the oncogenic E3 ligase Mdm2, which regulates levels of p53, the deubiquitinating enzyme (DUB) USP2a, and the UBL protein Hub1, which has been recently shown to control alternative splicing by non-covalent binding to the Snu66 spliceosomal protein. The E3 ligases and DUBs are considered to be the most important components of the ubiquitin conjugation system; this is because they directly bind to their target proteins and thus control substrate specificity. Hub1 connects the UBL pathway to the regulations of splice site usage and alternative splicing. Malfunctions in alternative splicing patterns are known to cause, among others, premature aging and cancer. The tumour suppressor p53 protein, "the guardian of the genome", has an overarching role in protecting the organism from cancer. In order to escape the safeguard system mediated by p53, nearly all human cancers have compromised the effectiveness of the p53 pathway. The restoration of the impaired function of the single gene, p53, by disrupting the Mdm2- p53/Mdmx-p53 interactions, offers a fundamentally new avenue for anticancer therapy across a broad spectrum of cancers.

Keywords: natural sciences,cancer,therapy,inhibitor,structure,protein-protein interaction,structural biology,tumour suppressor,ubiquitin,p53,mdm2,deubiquitinase,usp2,hub1,nmr,x-ray
Nanowired Scaffolds for Cardiac Tissue Engineering (NW CARDIAC TISSUES)

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: 2012-04-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is the most common cause of death in the Western world, accounting for more than 741.000 deaths each year in the European Union with yearly costs in excess of € 45 billion. Myocardial infarction (heart attack; MI) captures a significant segment of IHD population and is associated with sudden death as well significant morbidity and mortality. Currently the only cure for end-stage heart failure is cardiac transplantation. As cardiac donors are scarce, there is an urgent need to develop new strategies for regeneration. One experimental approach to treat defected organs is tissue engineering. Engineered cardiac patches to replace scar tissue after MI are produced by seeding cardiac cells within 3D biomaterials. However, success of this approach can be jeopardized by a lack of supporting microenvironment for the organization of a thick tissue and lack of electrical conductivity within the construct, both leading to impaired electrical signal propagation. Another limitation is the lack of an appropriate cell source. In the current proposal we first aim to engineer a 3D microenvironment mimicking the natural ECM of the myocardium. This synthetic matrix will be embedded with gold nanowires to increase electrical signal propagation between cardiac cell bundles. In the second step the ability of this unique microenvironment to support the culture and organization of human cardiac stem cells to a functional mature tissue will be explored. Finally, we will investigate the potential of the nanowired cardiac patch to improve the infarcted heart function. The proposed study has a potential to present a breakthrough in tissue engineering, and could help develop conductive cardiac patches to replace scar tissue after MI and repair congenital heart diseases. Moreover, the approach proposed here could even allow an entirely new strategy to repairing damaged cardiac conduction systems.

Keywords: cardiac tissue engineering,gold nanowires,cardiac stem cells,cell microenvironment,myocardium,extracellular matrix
Hydrogen Cyanide and Thiocyanate Transformations in Anoxic Aquatic Systems (THIOCYANOX)

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: 2012-04-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is a toxic compound, whose sources in natural aquatic systems are mostly of anthropogenic origin. Although a variety of organisms, most notoriously vascular plants, produces HCN, its release from natural sources is not considered to be an important source of HCN contamination of aquatic environments. Recent results of my research showed that concentrations of HCN, which are toxic to aquatic species, are released in the anoxic ferruginous and sulfidic sediments of the Delaware Great Marsh (DGM) from the roots of cord grass Spartina alterniflora. The main sinks for HCN in the DGM sediments are the formation of metallo-cyanide complexes and reaction with reactive zero-valent sulfur species, which lead to the formation of thiocyanate. I propose to conduct a study to clarify a) the prevalence of HCN release in various aquatic systems; b) which biogeochemical processes control the release and scavenging of HCN in natural aquatic systems; and c) the kinetics of chemical reactions underlying reactions of HCN in natural aquatic systems. In the first stage of the research representative examples of various types of oxygen-depleted aquatic systems (meromictic lakes, marine water bodies with restricted circulation, ocean upwelling zones and sedimentary pore-waters) will be assayed for the presence of relatively stable products of HCN transformations, i.e., thiocyanate and strong metallo-cyanide complexes. The next stage will include a detailed study of biogeochemical mechanisms of cyanide release and transformations in three selected systems. These studies will be accompanied by laboratory experiments to determine the rates of reactions between metallo-complexed and adsorbed cyanide with zero-valent sulfur species abundant in natural aquatic systems (e.g., solid sulfur, colloidal sulfur, dissolved sulfur, polysulfides, polythionates, thiosulfate and organic polysulfanes).

Keywords: hydrogen cyanide,thiocyanate,zero-valent sulfur,colloidal sulfur,dissolved sulfur,polysulfides,polythionates,thiosulfate,iron,metallo-cyanide complexes,ferrocyanide,anoxic aquatic systems
Genetic Control of Gene Expression in Cancer Risk (GENCAR)

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: Portugal
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2012-06-01
End date: 2017-03-18
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers affecting women, with more than 330,000 new cases diagnosed in the European Union in 2008. It is crucial to understand the genetic causes behind this fatal disease to better stratify women at higher risk and to reduce breast cancer incidence. Inherited susceptibility to breast cancer is largely due to polygenic variation, and only about 30-35% of familial cases are explained by known risk loci. The central aims of this proposal are to identify new genetic risk loci, by redesigning breast cancer susceptibility studies, and to unravel the role of cis-regulatory variation in disease risk and tumour biology. Recent data suggests that most unidentified risk loci are cis-regulatory, affecting the expression of both close and distant target genes. We propose a novel approach to identify susceptibility loci that focuses on variants with known regulatory potential. Differential allelic expression (DAE) is a robust technique to identify cis-regulatory loci, and we will perform the first case-control study using DAE as a quantitative trait. We also aim at understanding the interaction between cis-regulation and mutations, both germline and somatic. We have evidence that common BRCA2 and TP53 haplotypes correlate with different levels of gene expression, and we are interested in understanding how these modulate penetrance of BRCA2 germline mutations in carriers and the clinical characteristics of tumours harbouring somatic TP53 mutations. Our studies will impact on breast cancer incidence and understanding of tumour biology. The identification of novel breast cancer risk loci will improve individual risk assessment, stratification of patients at higher risk, pre-disease management and public health as whole. Dissection of biological mechanisms under-pinning risk will impart new understanding of tumour biology and will contribute towards developing future therapies.

Keywords: health sciences,functional biology,medical genetics,population genetics,cancer,breast,ovarian,risk,allelic expression,cis-regulation,mutation