Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
The Cosmic Soul: Renaissance Humanism and Natural Philosophy (THE COSMIC SOUL)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-09-01
End date: 2012-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 208399.2
EU funding (EUR): 208399.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

I am proposing to spend two years at the Center for the History of Philosophy and Science (CHPS) at the Faculty of Philosophy of Radboud University Nijmegen (the Netherlands). There, I propose to carry out a large research project and at the same time to acquire a number of new skills in the domains of teaching, editorship, organization and research methodology. I have good reasons for believing that my planned publications, together with my expanded curriculum, will allow me to compete successfully for a university position in Europe at the end of my fellowship. My research project, which will culminate in my third book-length monograph, aims to investigate the impact of Renaissance humanism on the development of natural philosophy (a traditional discipline that included physics, biology, astronomy, etc.) in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In particular, I shall investigate Renaissance and early modern ideas concerning the provenance of life and their link to notions of universal animation, of the ‘world soul’, and of celestial as well as divine causation. Although the history of this ‘cosmic dimension of the soul’ is not only a fascinating subject, but also very central to our understanding of early modern thought, it has been strangely neglected in the available scholarship. My proposed research topic requires an interdisciplinary approach, as it involves the histories of philosophy, of science, of theology and of medicine. The CHPS at Nijmegen is, in Europe, probably the best place for such a project, because of the presence of eminent historians of both philosophy and science in its staff. My proposed sojourn at the CHPS will combine the research just sketched with the acquisition of skills that are strictly related to my research.

Keywords: history of science,modern philosophy,renaissance humanism,natural philosophy,the world-soul,heaven,scientific revolution
Detachment Faults in Ophiolites (DEFORM)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-06-01
End date: 2012-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 173240.8
EU funding (EUR): 173240.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

It is now recognised that large detachment faults underlie up to 50% of the length of the slow-spreading rate portions of the mid-ocean ridge system. These fault systems have been the target of numerous scientific drilling expeditions. Although many millions of dollars have been spent in these endeavours, they have revealed little about the accommodation of strain on the detachment faults and in the underlying rocks. The principal reason for this lack of progress is the difficulty of conducting structural geological investigations on 1-D drill core samples. This potentially may be overcome by examining ancient examples of oceanic detachment faults in ophiolites, which are slices of oceanic lithosphere that have been emplaced tectonically onto continental margins and which expose ocean floor structures in 3-D over areas of many tens of km2. This project will focus on a recent candidate for a detachment system within the Jurassic Mirdita ophiolite of Albania. An integrated field-based structural and palaeomagnetic investigation will test the hypothesis that this example provides an analogue for modern oceanic detachment systems. We will: (i) systematically back-strip successive tectonic events that have affected the ophiolite, in order to recover primary seafloor relationships; (ii) determine whether relative tectonic rotation has occurred across the detachment fault, a defining feature of modern examples; and (iii) quantify the role of large- and small-scale faulting in accommodating displacement within the detachment system. The project will provide the IEF with: (i) extensive training in field-based structural analysis, directly complementing his existing expertise in palaeomagnetic methods, thereby allowing him to conduct future investigations in more complex tectonic environments; and (ii) engagement with the international oceanic scientific drilling community, opening future opportunities to move into oceanic geodynamic research.

Keywords: oceanic detachment faults core complex ophiolite albania
Functional study of MicroRNAs in the starlet sea anemone Nematostella vectensis (Cnidaria; Anthozoa) (NEMATOSTELLAMICRORNA)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Austria
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2011-09-15
End date: 2013-09-14
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 170981.2
EU funding (EUR): 170981.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are RNAs of ~21-24 nucleotides with pivotal regulatory roles in various developmental and physiological pathways. They inhibit the translation of mRNAs and thus constitute a “tuning” system for controlling post-transcriptional expression. While the understanding of miRNAs function in bilaterians such as flies, nematodes and mammals is expanding rapidly, little is known about miRNAs in other animals. The starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis is a rising model which enables developmental biology studies in the non-bilaterian phylum Cnidaria under lab conditions. Recently, 40 miRNAs were found in N. vectensis but only one of them is a clear homologue of a bilaterian miRNA (miR-100). As the cnidarian miRNA collection seems significantly smaller than the bilaterian one, it is possible that the evolution of translation-control through miRNAs is responsible for the increase in morphological complexity observed between the basal cnidarians and highly diversified bilaterians (e.g. vertebrates and insects). We aim to study the miRNA expression patterns and function in Nematostella. Specifically, we will use in-situ hybridization, morpholino injection and transgenic manipulations to fulfill these aims. Once we have identified a miRNA whose knockdown results in a noticeable phenotype we will use various bioinformatic and experimental approaches to reveal and verify its target mRNAs. Since the last common ancestor of bilaterians and cnidarians has lived approximately 600 million years ago, common features in miRNAs and modulation of translation revealed in this work may be considered ancient. Intriguingly, it is possible that since this ancestor probably had simple body morphology and few cell types, the cnidarian miRNAs and their function resemble those of the common ancestor.

Keywords: microrna,animal embryology,cnidaria,evolutionary developmrntal biology
Temporal regulation of starch degradation in CAM plants (CAMSTAR)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2011-01-01
End date: 2012-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 180103.2
EU funding (EUR): 180103.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) is a photosynthetic adaptation to arid environments where water-use efficiency and biomass productivity is optimized by taking up CO2 at night when evapo-transpiration rates are low. These desirable traits hinge on effective temporal coordination of the metabolic processes that determine the supply and demand for carbon over the day/night cycle. Data from the host lab has indicated that; a) starch availability is a key determinant of the amount of CO2 taken up at night by CAM species and b) the internal circadian clock may play a key role in apportioning carbohydrates reserves for growth during the day whilst retaining sufficient starch for sustaining CO2 uptake at night. Recent in-depth sequencing of the transcriptome of Kalanchoë fedtschenkoi, a CAM species amenable to genetic manipulation, provides a timely and novel opportunity to test the functional significance of enzymes implicated in starch degradation and their regulation via the clock for optimizing the photosynthetic performance and growth of CAM plants. The MC candidate will use existing clock transformants of K. fedtschenkoi and will also genetically modify the expression of certain genes that have been implicated in starch degradation in CAM plants. The aims of the project are; 1) to determine if the unique nocturnal demands for carbohydrate in CAM are accomplished by using a different pathway for starch degradation compared to that found in C3 plants and 2) to establish the role of the clock in maintaining carbon balance in CAM in terms of the metering of starch reserves between growth and as substrates for nocturnal CO2 uptake under varying environmental conditions. This multidisciplinary program addresses several priorities within FP7 pertaining to abiotic stress tolerance in plants and is of high importance for contributing knowledge to assist in developing more drought resistant crops and for informing the potential use of CAM species as feedstocks for bioenergy

Keywords: natural sciences,agricultural science (climate change)
Novel Organoselenium Catalysts for Green Chemistry (NOSCAT)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Incoming Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IIF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-05-01
End date: 2012-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 181103.2
EU funding (EUR): 181103.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Organic Chemistry is mainly dealing with the synthesis of molecules. In order to be able to do this efficiently, one must have reasonable insight into the way in which bonds between atoms can be formed or broken and how molecules can react with each other. In our research proposal we make use of the special properties of an interesting class of molecules containing selenium atoms. The properties of these selenium-containing molecules are wide spread and we propose to investigate their use in different areas. In this proposal we describe the development of reactions using only catalytic amounts of these reagents. This means that one catalyst molecule will have the potential to create thousands of new molecules with special properties. The development of these new selenium reagents and their application in a certain type of reactions, the electrophilic addition reaction to carbon-carbon double bonds and oxygen-transfer reactions, form the main part of this proposal. The development of reaction sequences with these reagents as catalysts will be studied in much more detail and further optimisation of the selenium reagents are necessary for an efficient performance in the catalytic reactions. The use of &apos;green&apos;, peptide-based catalysts is a novel and special feature for selenium reagents. Applications of these methodologies to the synthesis of target structures are further points of interest and will be focussed upon towards the end of the project.

Keywords: homogeneous catalysis,carbon chemistry,stereoselective synthesis
Structural study of a potassium channel, KirBac3.1, using electron microscopy (KIRBAC)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-05-01
End date: 2012-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 172740.8
EU funding (EUR): 172740.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Ion channels, proteins that allow the passage of ions across the membrane, have crucial roles in many important physiological processes, such as nerve and muscle excitation, cell proliferation, hormone secretion and blood pressure regulation. Thus, defects in their function cause serious diseases. Moreover, their position on the cell surface, their heterogeneity and the localized expression in particular tissues make ion channels an attractive target for many drug therapies. The study of structures and functions of ion channels may elucidate their working mechanisms and allow an efficient drug design. Potassium channels are a family of ion channels involved in the diffusion of K+ ions through the cell membrane and widely distributed in most cell types. The inwardly rectifying potassium (Kir) channels comprise a superfamily of K+ channels that regulate membrane potential and K+ transport in many cell types. In order to completely elucidate how K channels open and close it is essential to obtain a structure for the same channel in both the open and closed states. The aim of the present project is to harness cryo electron crystallography to determine the structure of KirBac3.1 channel, at sufficient resolution to identify transmembrane helices and secondary structure motifs, with a view to understand how Kir channels open and close. In the case of KirBac3.1 open state, it is possible to produce relatively large 2D crystals that can be used to calculate the 3D structure from high tilted angle images. But the growth of these large crystals is not yet reproducible. So, for the present project, the applicant, Dr. R. De Zorzi, will join the research group of Dr. C. Vénien-Bryan of the Oxford University and will test various 2D crystallization conditions in order to produce reliably lager 2D crystals. Afterwards, the researcher will take pictures of the 2D crystals with the microscopes of the Oxford and Basel laboratories, in collaboration with Prof. H. Stahlberg (Basel).

Keywords: electron microscopy,potassium ion channels,electron crystallography,protein structure,biochemistry,membrane proteins
System for Immunological Modelling as an Ultimate tool to Link Adjuvant function To Adaptive immune responses (SIMULATA)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Belgium
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-06-02
End date: 2012-06-01
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 220500.0
EU funding (EUR): 220500.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The aim of the proposal is to construct an in vitro model of human cellular immune responses and to address fundamental questions on the link between vaccine adjuvants and the adaptive immune response. One emerging concept of adjuvant-stimulated immune activation is that monocytes are recruited from the blood to the injection site and differentiate into either macrophages or dendritic cells (DCs). The DC then migrate to the draining lymph nodes to activate adaptive immunity. The first objective is to construct an in vitro model to recapitulate this sequence of events and to study how adjuvants shape the adaptive immune response. This will be done through analysis of cytokine and chemokine induction and phenotypic characterization of DC activation. The second objective is to determine how innate activation in the in vitro model translates into primary CD4 T cell responses. This will be done using a candidate HIV vaccine as a model vaccine and focusing on the magnitude and the quality of the response using intracellular cytokine staining. Quality will be assessed through the polyfunctionality of HIV-specific CD4 T cells with particular emphasis on the production of IL-21 and MIP-1b by HIV-specific CD4 T cells. IL-21 is essential to prevent exhaustion of CD8 T cells during chronic infection and MIP-1b has an autoprotective effect of virus-specific CD4 T cells. The third objective is to evaluate how adjuvants affect recall responses in the context of antigenic variation. We will use different avian influenza H5N1 vaccines as models and focus on the link between quality and cross-reactivity of the CD4 T cell response - how do adjuvanted and non-adjuvanted ‘fish’ from a pool of antigenically related memory CD4 T cells. We will take advantage of the fact that the same individual can be immunized in vitro with either adjuvanted or non-adjuvanted vaccine, allowing direct comparison of the cross-reactive T cell receptor repertoires as a function of adjuvant.

Keywords: health sciences,medical sciences,medicine,immunology,vaccines
High Temperature Nanoindentation and Micropillar Compression as Methods for Studying the Deformation Behaviour of Hard Coatings (HIGHTEMPPROP)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2011-10-01
End date: 2013-03-31
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 130430.6
EU funding (EUR): 130430.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The aim of this project is to explore the use of high temperature nanoindentation and micropillar compression as methods for studying the deformation behaviour of hard coatings. The development of methods for material testing at high temperature is particularly important in hard coatings as the drive for dry machining at ever greater rates increases the service temperatures of materials whose flow stresses are both rate and temperature dependent. The fellowship will allow a scientist from one of the world-leading groups in the field of advanced hard coatings based at Montanuniversität Leoben, Austria, to cooperate with a group in the University of Cambridge, where both techniques have been used to study the deformation behaviour of brittle materials over a range of temperatures and which was the first to demonstrate the possibility of micropillar compression at elevated temperature.

Keywords: materials engineering,nanotechnology,thin film technology,mechanical properties,nanomechanical testing
Conducting organic materials for tissue engineering and drug delivery. (COMET)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Outgoing Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Ireland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IOF, 2009)
Start date: 2011-03-15
End date: 2014-03-14
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 244498.5
EU funding (EUR): 244498.5
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Tissue engineering aims to facilitate the re-growth of damaged or diseased tissues through the design of three-dimensional scaffolds and has implications for society in terms of treating spinal cord injuries and degenerative brain diseases. The overall objective of this research programme is to design, synthesize and develop new conducting and biodegradable scaffold materials with the capacity to deliver drugs or growth factors for applications in tissue engineering. To achieve this, three approaches are being considered. The first is the formation of nanoparticles and/or nanofibers of polypyrrole (PPy) with existing biodegradable polymers to form composites. Secondly, conducting polymer materials with both conducting and non-conducting segments will be developed. And finally, this objective will be examined using a natural polymeric material, melanin. These approaches will be achieved through a number of chemical and electrochemical techniques including electrospinning, electropolymerization and chemical vapour polymerization, as well as, organic synthesis and spin coating. These materials will also be studied in terms of their biodegradation rates, biocompatibility and their ability to promote cell attachment, cell proliferation and to stimulate nerve cell regeneration. In achieving this objective Dr. Hendy will develop new experimental skills, gain expertise in the synthesis of advanced polymeric materials for controlled drug delivery and tissue engineering and gain expertise in all aspects of a researcher’s role. In this area of biomaterials, MIT is the most prestigious University in the world, allowing Dr. Hendy to become exposed to new equipment, which in turn will help develop a host of new complementary skills; consequently this training, will have a key impact on both Ireland and Europe upon Dr. Hendy’s return.

Keywords: biodegradable,polymer,conducting,drug delivery,tissue engineering
GENOMICS-BASED INVESTIGATIONS INTO OROBANCHE-HOST INTERACTIONS (OROBANCHE)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Outgoing Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IOF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-10-01
End date: 2013-09-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 234337.9
EU funding (EUR): 234337.9
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Parasitic weeds are among the most destructive and difficult-to-control of all weeds and cause important crop losses across Europe and neighbouring regions. The intimate connection establishes by the parasite with the host vascular tissues makes unsuccessful the selective control of the parasite. Our ability to understand the complexities of this parasitic plant-host interaction is limited by a lack of knowledge about the parasite itself, especially with respect to parasite genomics. This proposal describes a research plan for Dr. Mónica Fernández-Aparicio to work in the laboratory of Dr. James Westwood at Virginia Tech, USA, with the aim of advancing our understanding of parasitic plants by capitalizing on the emerging discipline of plant genomics. Sequenced genes of weedy parasite species have simply not been available, hampering molecular/genomics research. This situation will change with the data emerging from the current Parasitic Plant Genomic Project which is carrying out in the host group. The candidate will be the first to take advantage of this new knowledge resource. The overall objective of research is to increase understanding of the molecular biology of Orobanche in order to generate new approaches to their control. This research will contribute to a revolution in studies of parasitic weed biology and control. Parasite genes will be targeted for post-transcriptional gene silencing by transmitting a silencing signals from the model host Arabidopsis, to its parasite O. aegyptiaca. For the first time, it will be possible to knock out expression of parasite genes to determine its function. In the knowledge gained by the applicant during the outgoing work will be applied in her returns by adapting genomic approach to a real problematic system in Europe legume-O. crenata and sunflower-O. cumana. The identification of common defence mechanisms in these two pathosystems will be the goal for the returning year.

Keywords: natural sciences,weeds,crop protection,applied biology,genomics