Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Molecular mechanisms underlying the development of insulin resistance: role of betaine supplementation. (IRBETAINE-CIG)

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: 2011-09-01
End date: 2015-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a growing global epidemic and new prevention and therapeutic strategies are urgently needed. Insulin resistance is present in high-risk individuals years before the onset of T2D, making the characterization of the complex pathophysiology of insulin resistance a key element of future prevention efforts. The overall goal of our project is to identify and characterize novel molecular mechanisms underlying the development of insulin resistance to find specific targets for prevention and therapeutic strategies. Our analysis of the plasma metabolome of humans at risk for T2D suggests that reductions in betaine levels can contribute to insulin resistance. Consistent with this hypothesis, preliminary studies show that betaine supplementation improves insulin sensitivity and whole-body energy expenditure in a mouse model of diet-induced obesity. First, we propose to determine the mechanisms mediating the beneficial effects of betaine on insulin sensitivity in a diet-induced obese mouse model. For this purpose, C57BL/6 mice will be fed either chow or high-fat diet with or without betaine supplementation. Whole-body and tissue-specific betaine effects will be analyzed to characterize the mechanisms of betaine action. Second, we will apply next generation sequencing of mRNA to analyze the muscle transcriptome associated with high fat feeding and betaine supplementation. As metabolic and molecular changes induced by betaine will be intimately linked to insulin sensitivity, this technique will identify novel genes, alternative splicing isoforms and pathways potentially involved in the development of muscle insulin resistance. This project will constitute a critical first step for future studies aimed at determining whether betaine supplementation is effective in preventing insulin resistance and progression to T2D in humans. Furthermore, it will identify novel targets for designing prevention and therapeutic strategies for the development of T2D.

Keywords: type 2 diabetes,insulin resistance,obesity,diabetis risk,diabetes prevention,metabolism,skeletal muscle,mitochondria,betaine
Onset of Star Formation: Connecting Theory and Observations (SFONSET)

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: 2012-12-01
End date: 2016-11-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Star formation is one of the most active areas of both theoretical astrophysics and observational astronomy. The formulation of a theory of star formation is essential not only for understanding the origin of our own solar system and, ultimately, of life itself, but also for the development of a theory of galaxy formation and evolution. We propose a comprehensive study of observational signatures of a variety of prestellar molecular cloud core models, aimed at probing the initial conditions of star formation and the origin of protostars. We will conduct this study in three steps. First, we will follow the dynamical evolution of molecular cloud cores using different models (such as pure hydrodynamical collapse; magnetically modulated collapse; and collapse with and without the effect of rotation). Second, we will couple these models to a network of chemical reactions that will self-consistently follow the relative abundances for ~100 molecular species, by solving the chemical reactions simultaneously with the dynamical equations. Third, we will couple these calculations to both continuum and line radiative transfer solvers, which will enable us to produce both maps and spectra of core models. Finally, the convolution of our results with the instrumental capabilities of different observatories (such as Herschel and SOFIA) will produce sets of mock observations, which will allow us to: (a) assess the potential of observations with different instruments to differentiate between models for the dynamics of prestellar cores; (b) propose specific observations with maximal scientific return in the discrimination between dynamical models; and (c) for existing observations, offer interpretation in terms of their consistency with each dynamical model examined.

Keywords: astrophysics,cosmic chemistry,computational physics
Can Natural Disasters Incite Terror? (NDTERROR)

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: 2011-08-01
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

A novel and important issue in contemporary security policy is the implication that natural disasters have on terrorism within a state. Natural disasters create possible vulnerabilities which may in turn damage the legitimacy of a government in the eyes of both its people and any opposition groups. Whether this weakness is one which terrorist groups choose to exploit remains an empirical question. I will study this question using a structured methodology and detailed information on terrorism, natural disasters, and other relevant economic and demographic variables of 165 countries between 1970 and 2007. This project will provide identification and empirical quantification of the effect of natural disasters on terrorism, explore the different possible mechanisms at play, analyze the timing and geospatial correlates (e.g. whether the effect of the severity of a disaster on a country’s terrorism reflects changes only in that country’s susceptibility or if the effect spills over to neighboring countries as well), whether there are differing effects by various disaster types (e.g. climatologic and meteorological versus geophysical and hydrological), and whether or not foreign aid after a disaster help mitigate severity and thus decrease the disaster’s effect on terrorism, or to the contrary exacerbate violence by finding its way into the hands of rebel groups. The understanding of these relationships will have direct policy implications with respect to the most effective and appropriate strategies for mitigating terrorist actions during disaster recovery, an area which has not been previously explored.

Keywords: empirical identification,quantification,causal effect,natural disasters,terrorism,econometrics,policy implications,mitigation strategies,social sciences,economics,climate,public policy
Light-Matter Interaction in Smart Optical Materials (META-PHOT)

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: Germany
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

It is well accepted that the future progress in many areas such as optical telecommunications, nonlinear optics, optical imaging, and light emission devices will sensitively rely on the availability of novel and/or strongly improved optical materials. Metamaterials have recently opened an exciting gateway to reach unprecedented physical properties and functionality unattainable from naturally existing materials. The artificial “atoms” and “molecules” in metamaterials can be tailored in shape and size, the lattice constant and inter-atomic interaction can be precisely tuned, and “defects” can be designed and placed at desired locations. The recent demonstration of negative refraction in bulk optical left-handed metamaterials is only one excellent example of new exciting physics arising from these materials. Yet such demonstrations are only the tips of the iceberg of what might possible with artificially engineered optical materials. This project sets to explore the revolutionary physics of optical metamaterials, covering nonlinear optical phenomena and wave dispersion engineering, adaptive polarization control of waves using chiral metamaterials with real time reconfigurations, optical loss compensation, and modification of light emission. The unique properties of metamaterials arising from their specific configurations opening up exciting new venues for device development in the fields of all-optical data processing, optical meta-nanocircuits, light collection for solar energy harvesting, superlenses for perfect imaging, perfect mirrors, and electromagnetic cloaks. The project will investigate the possibilities of enhanced light-matter interaction and novel nonlinear optical processes in metamaterials. It will cover fundamental investigations of the origin and the design of effective nonlinearities, as well as their potential for optical devices. The findings will be combined with new design methodologies such as Transformation Optics and Hybrid Optical approaches.

Keywords: physical sciences,nanotechnology,applied optics,experimental physics
Novel Tools for Early Childhood Predisposition to Obesity (SELECTIONPREDISPOSED)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Diagnostic tools, therapies and public health
Countries involved: Norway
Call:  (ERC-2011-ADG_20110310, 2011)
Start date: 2012-09-01
End date: 2018-08-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2299549.0
EU funding (EUR): 2299549.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

An estimated 22 million children worldwide under age five are overweight. In these children, obesity is a primary indicator for development of type 2 diabetes and possibly cancer. I present a research program, SELECTionPREDISPOSED, to identify novel obesity-risk genes as tools for detection of early childhood obesity making possible a selective prevention program in predisposed children. I will use records and blood samples from children and their parents in the Mother-Child Cohort of Norway, the Health Survey of Nord-Trøndelag and the Norwegian Birth Registry and cross-correlate the databases for genetic research. I hypothesize that children large at birth with enhanced infantile growth may be predisposed to obesity by genetic factors. Obesity-linked genes are likely to include a mix of variants associated with glucose, insulin and fat metabolism and may be identifiable in population studies using biobanks and end-point registries. The state-of-the-art approach is to identify diabetes- or obesity-associated genes in subjects with disease. My approach is to investigate subsets of children with high and low birth weights and BMIs at age six. Using cutting-edge genetic techniques like GWAS, copy-number variation and massive parallel exome and epigenome sequencing I will correlate the genetic information with clinical data in large national end-point registries by a case-control design subsequent replication in large data sets and control for environmental confounders by cross-correlation to the national birth registry. I want to change the field by working with predisposed children in order to influence the ratio between those that may and may not develop obesity and diabetes. In this way my team will develop contextual tools of a groundbreaking nature. This “tool-kit” may make it possible to identify and implement in predisposed children, an early low-cost prevention program to slow down and reverse the development of obesity and prevent diabetes and possibly cancer.

Keywords: birth weight,childhood obesity,diabetes,cancer,genetic epidemiology,registry research,prevention,selective screening,snp,gene variant,copy-number variation,exome sequencing,epigenetics.
Molecular and Genetic Study of the human infections by Capnocytophaga canimorsus (CAPCAN)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Immunity and infection
Countries involved: Belgium
Call:  (ERC-2011-ADG_20110310, 2011)
Start date: 2012-07-01
End date: 2016-06-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1473338.0
EU funding (EUR): 1473338.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Capnocytophaga canimorsus are Gram-negative bacteria from the normal oral flora of dogs, which cause rare but severe infections in humans that have been bitten or simply licked. The most common syndrome is fulminant septicemia with peripheral gangrene. Mortality reaches 40 % in spite of antibiotherapy and amputations. My laboratory pioneered recently the study of this new pathogen. We engineered genetic tools, sequenced and annotated the genome and determined the surface proteome of a strain isolated from a fatal infection. This showed that C. canimorsus have abundant surface-exposed lipoproteins forming a new kind of feeding complexes, some of them specialized in deglycosylating glycoproteins from the host. This property allows C. canimorsus to feed by grazing oligosaccharides at the surface of human cells. The present research program aims at characterizing these deglycosylating complexes, unravelling their role in neutralizing the innate immunity and promoting growth within the host and finally characterizing their assembly at the bacterial surface. Genomic comparisons will help defining which of these many complexes play a critical role in human pathogenesis. Besides this, the lipopolysaccharide structure will be determined and genetically manipulated to understand its low endotoxicity and small anti-inflammatory effectors present in the culture supernatant of C. canimorsus will be identified. Growth in human blood of wild type and mutant strains will be monitored by isothermal microcalorimetry in the hope of developing a surrogate of animal model. Such a "virulence" model would allow to address the question whether all dog's strains are equally dangerous for humans. It would also open an avenue for testing differences in individual human susceptibility. All this knowledge will give new insights in this emerging pathogen and might lead to prevention of the disease caused by C. canimorsus

Keywords: microbial pathogenesis
Effects of ecological factors on bacterial communities of fleas (FLEAMICROBIOME)

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

RESEARCH PROBLEM: The identification of potential ecological factors that affect the dynamics between hosts, vectors, and their microbes could have a marked impact on our ability to prevent and control vector-borne diseases. Recent studies have suggested that interactions among microbes within the individual vector may affect the density of a pathogen, and its transmission rate and virulence to the host. However, factors that affect the microbial composition of vectors remain obscure. I will use a rodent–flea model to elucidate the effects of three candidate factors, host age and grooming behavior, and vector densities on a host, that are likely to impact microbial diversity of vectors. PROPOSED METHODOLOGY: Pyrosequencing—a recent developed technique in molecular biology—allows a comprehensive assessment of microbial communities. The current project will make use of this technique to compare between the microbial assembly of fleas that will be collected during a field survey from juvenile and adult rodents, and during two laboratory experiments, in which host grooming and flea densities will be manipulated. EXPECTED CONTRIBUTION: In this study, I will investigate the relationships between multiple functional groups, i.e., hosts, vectors, and their commensal, mutualistic, and parasitic microbes. This approach is expected to uncover key mechanisms that would not – and could not – be revealed by focusing on a single pathogen. The results of the study can also serve as a basis for assessing the local risk of transmission of flea-borne diseases to animals and people and predicting whether this risk will change in response to changes in flea densities, host behavior, and host-age distribution. The interdisciplinary basic and applied importance and timeliness of the research topic – together with the match between my profile and project –promise the success of this project and its contribution to European excellence and European competitiveness.

Keywords: community ecology,species interactions,disease ecology,rodents-fleas-microbes
Non-muscle Myosin II orchestrates the inflammatory response by integrating adhesive and cytokine signaling and the mechanical properties of the inflammatory microenvironment (MYOII-INFLAM)

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

This research aims to understand how inflammatory cues regulate the cellular responses of different cells implicated in inflammation. The main hypothesis is that non-muscle myosin II (NMII) is a central integrator of the different types of extracellular signals produced during the inflammatory response. The precise goal of the present proposal is to understand the regulation and function of the three NMII isoforms in the migration of cells implicated in inflammation, chiefly blood immune cells and cells that drive tissue repair and remodelling (fibroblasts) and vascularization (endothelial cells). This research will address the following objectives: 1) Identify specific kinases, phosphatases and regulatory sites that regulate NMII activation and assembly in a cell type-, stimulus-, isoform- and spatiotemporal-dependent manner. 2) Determine the signalling events and pathways through which the NMII isoforms control the response to inflammatory cues. 3) Elucidate whether the differences in expression and regulation of NMII underlie the different roles of these cells during inflammation. Successful completion of these objectives will provide novel insights on the basic cellular mechanisms of inflammation and bears potential to identify new therapeutic targets.

Keywords: health sciences,inflammation,cell migration,cytoskeleton,myosin ii,phosphorylation
Compact, high-energy, and wavelength-diverse coherent mid-infrared source (ASEL-MID-IR)

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: 2011-09-01
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 mid-infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum is an active field of laser science with imminent applications ranging through diagnostic medicine, free-space communications, process control, and trace gas detection. Given the wealth of applications within this spectral window, the technology for mid-IR sources of coherent radiation is still in development. Existing techniques for mid-IR lasers employ solid-state heterostructure devices, gas lasers, mid-IR lasing media, and nonlinear frequency conversion. The latter approach is a reliable method to harness the available near-infrared laser technology and nonlinear media for efficient mid-IR generation. We envision a compact, high-power, and wavelength-diverse implementation for a mid-IR source, based on a near-infrared, Q-switched diode-pumped solid-state laser and both the second- and third-order optical non-linearities. Through use of stimulated Raman scattering and optical parametric oscillation, we discuss methods to generate multi-line, tunable emission at 3-6 micron wavelength range. We also outline the scalability and the benefits of the proposed design for multi-band applications, where many distinct wavelengths could be utilized. Details regarding the project planning and the expected impact are also given.

Keywords: physical sciences,applied optics,experimental physics,optics,solid state physics
GreenRoute: A web based platform which help individuals and companies move commodities with the most environmental friendly way, minimizing emissions and transportation cost (GREENROUTE)

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: 2011-08-01
End date: 2014-07-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 75000.0
EU funding (EUR): 75000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

EU-15 greenhouse gas emissions (GHG emissions) decreased in all sectors between 1990 and 2006 except in the transport sector, where an increase of 26% was documented (EC, 2008). The objective of the proposed research, henceforth referred to as “GreenRoute”, is to develop a Decision Support System (DSS) for a web based platform which will help individuals and companies move commodities in the most environmental friendly way, minimizing environmental externalities (e.g. CO2 emissions) and transportation costs. The developed platform which is the final outcome of GreenRoute will use existing information systems (e.g. geographical, weather, real time traffic information systems) and emission calculation models as a basis to apply the main three scientific outcomes of GreenRoute project. The first scientific outcome will be the development of a function that assigns a score to each arc of EU transportation network referred to as the arc environmental externalities score (EESarc). The second scientific outcome will be the development of a revised version of existing emission calculation models where the EESarc function will be incorporated and used as a correction coefficient. Finally, the third scientific outcome will be the development of a novel approach for solving the general Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) whose objective is to find the most environmental friendly route.

Keywords: enviromental routing,optimization,modelling,operations research,road engineering,simulation engineering,atmospheric pollution,environmental policies,carbon dioxide,internet platform