Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Innate and adaptive immune cell contribution to the pre-metastatic niche (BMDCMET)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-06-01
End date: 2013-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 184040.8
EU funding (EUR): 184040.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Breast cancer metastasis is a foreboding and prevalent disease for women around the world. Over 90% of breast cancer deaths are caused by metastatic disease emphasizing the urgency for more research in this area. While experimental evidence indicates that tumor cells must acquire specific genetic mutations to disseminate and colonize distant organs, these genetic alterations are not sufficient for successful metastasis formation. The microenvironment of metastatic organs must also be pre-conditioned and adapted prior to the arrival of tumor cells. In other words, metastasis is not a passive event – a ‘pre-metastatic niche’ must be established. Bone marrow-derived cells (BMDCs) play a critical role in this process by secreting soluble factors to direct the recruitment of disseminated tumor cells to specific sites. Experimental studies suggest that both innate and adaptive immune cells initiate the pre-metastatic niche, but involvement of particular BMDC populations is largely dependent on tumor type. Together, these data support the hypothesis that breast cancer metastasis is not a passive event, but is regulated by specific BMDC populations in target organs. The overall goal of this application is to examine the cellular and molecular changes that occur in pre-metastatic organs and determine which are crucial for metastasis formation using a novel breast cancer metastasis model developed by the Host laboratory. To assess this, I propose to 1) Perform an in depth kinetic characterization of disseminated tumor cell colonization of distant metastatic organs; and 2) Determine which BMDC population regulates the pre-metastatic niche and their functional significance to metastasis formation. Evaluating the specific role of BMDCs in the initiation of metastases will identify novel targets for breast cancer patients to prevent future metastatic development and/or combat established metastases.

Keywords: health sciences,tumor biology,metastasis,immune cells,laboratory animal science,oncology
Brain and Behavior of Math Cognition in bilinguals. Implications for dyscalculia. (BIMATH)

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: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-07-01
End date: 2013-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 224164.8
EU funding (EUR): 224164.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The extent to which mathematical representations and processing depend on language is a question of active debate. Some authors defend a key role of language in some mathematical operations, others posit a complete independence between these two domains. Bilingualism can help to elucidate this question due to the variety of number codes that a bilingual manages. Recently we have provided evidence on the importance of early learning in the nature of memory networks for arithmetic. We have demonstrated that the language of learning arithmetic is what establishes the strength and quality of these networks. Here we take these questions forward with three research objectives: 1) investigate whether the verbal code used by a bilingual has also an impact on the access to core number semantics, being the preferred code the language of learning math; 2) similarly, we explore whether the processing of a digit activates a verbal preferred code in a bilingual; 3) importantly, the third research objective extends all these questions to developmental dyscalculia. Based on our data we suggest that bilingualism can complicate this disorder and aim to provide empirical evidence on it. We will address these questions using a cognitive neuroscience approach, since the modeling of math in bilingualism is so far based just on behavioral data. We will combine behavioral, ERPs and fMRI to achieve our goals. The combination of these techniques will provide not only a late measure of performance (behavioral methods) but also high temporal resolution with information about underlying processes (ERPs) and high spatial resolution (fMRI) of brain areas activated when all these processes occur. Moreover, the project will complete the modifications we have been performing to the Encoding Complex model in bilinguals (Campbell and Epp, 2004) and we believe, will entail the more accurate and comprehensive study of the issue to date. Thus, the project has clear scientific and socio-educative impact.

Keywords: language,math,bilingualism,number semantics,language of learning,erps,fmri,behavior
Deep Ocean Dispersal and Evolution (DODE)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-04-01
End date: 2013-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 200549.6
EU funding (EUR): 200549.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The deep sea is the last great unexplored frontier on planet earth. In recent years, many hundreds of new species have been discovered in the deep sea. A key paradox in deep-sea biology is the degree to which deep-sea fauna are able to disperse. The prevailing paradigm has been one of cosmopolitanism, with animals having easy access to all ocean basins and cosmopolitan species traversing the world. However, this has been recently challenged and for many species there may be barriers to dispersal in the form of substrate specialisation, limited mobility or reproductive traits. This study will target one of the most abundant and species-rich groups, the polychaetes. To answer questions of dispersal and evolution in the deep sea we will study three contrasting groups of polychaetes. Firstly, polynoid (scale-worm) polychaetes are mobile with pelagic larvae that can drift some distances in ocean currents, although some polynoid species brood their offspring. Secondly, dorvilleid polychaetes which are mobile yet have direct developing larvae with a presumed limited dispersal ability. Finally, we will include the novel and recently-discovered diverse clade of ’bone-eating’ worms, Osedax, that are sessile and exist on the most specialised of habitats – whale bones on the sea floor. Using molecular data from material collected and planned to be collected in several ocean basins, we will construct phylogenies to evaluate the relationships within the three groups, and to determine levels of cryptic speciation and population connectivity in the deep sea. The results will have major consequences for our understanding of dispersal in the oceans, population connectivity, and the drivers of biodiversity in the deep sea.

Keywords: molecular evolution,systematic zoology,deep-sea ecosystems,marine biodiversity,taxonomy
Bone Multi-modal Automated Trabecular Histomorphometry (BONEMATCH)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2012-05-15
End date: 2014-05-14
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 183606.4
EU funding (EUR): 183606.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Osteoporosis is defined as a state of low bone density with underlying alterations in bone microarchitecture leading to an increased fracture risk. The incidence of osteoporosis is rising globally and produces increasing costs to national health care systems since osteoporotic patients are prone to low trauma fractures. Osteoporotic fractures are not only a matter of decreased bone density, but are also associated with alterations in the microarchitecture of the trabecular structure within the bone due to dynamic processes of bone rebuilding and resorption. In clinical practice, histomorphometric analysis of iliac crest biopsies is the current method of reference in the assessment of bone microarchitecture. Bone biopsy, however, is an invasive procedure which allows a limited number of follow-ups while providing limited information about the larger scale bone micro-architecture. Micro computed tomography (microCT) and very recently High-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) have enriched bone research by enabling a three-dimensional approach to bone imaging. A particular feature of HR-pQCT is the possibility to acquire high resolution in vivo images, thereby allowing for follow-up observations. At present, however, the resolution of HR-pQCT does not allow for direct inference of the cellular and re-modeling processes within the bone. The goal of this project is to bridge the gap between bone microarchitecture and local re-modeling processes of bone resorption and rebuilding by developing methods for detection of osteoclastic sites and eroded trabecular surfaces in microCT, and ultimately HR-pQCT images through multi-modal analysis using to bone histology images. Such detection will have a clinical impact by improving the ability to target therapy and drugs based on the underlying nature of the disease. In addition, localization of these sites could be used to improve biological bone models at the cellular, tissue, and structural levels.

Keywords: osteoporosis,histomorphometry,biomedical engineering,image processing,medical informatics,machine learning
Interdisciplinary advances on behavioural theories of financial risk-taking: Innovative insights from a video-ethnography of live trading in global reinsurance markets (ETHNOGRAPHYOFRISK)

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: United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IOF, 2010)
Start date: 2012-03-23
End date: 2015-03-22
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 313339.8
EU funding (EUR): 313339.8
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

This project will develop the applicant into a leader in the topic of social and material influences on financial risk-taking in the reinsurance industry. The reinsurance sector is dominated by European players that hold 64% of the industry’s global market share. Hence, in this sector, Europe must establish globalisation on its own terms, developing thought leaders to take their place on the world stage. The fellow has a unique dataset on this industry, of unparalleled scale and depth, comprising audio and video ethnography of live trading in 23 firms across the London, continental Europe and Bermuda markets. This dataset can be used to generate important interdisciplinary advances in behavioural theories of risk. However, there are few techniques for robust analysis of video data, requiring expanded skills and methodological innovation. She will therefore work with an interdisciplinary team of world-leading scholars in economic sociology, technology studies and ethnography at a top US university, Cornell, in order to generate the following results: 1. A book and academic papers built upon interdisciplinary frameworks at the intersection of economic sociology, technology studies and ethnography, which advance behavioural theories of risk-taking beyond current economics-based approaches. 2. Better understanding of how cultural variation in risk-trading practices shapes financial markets, which counteracts the Anglo-American assumptions that dominate existing theory. 3. Methodological innovation in ethnography, which requires a step change to meet the opportunities afforded by the increasing availability of portable digital video technology and home analysis software 4. Development of a rising European scholar into a thought leader on behavioural approaches to financial risk management, who comments knowledgably on the European reinsurance sector, and is internationally acknowledged for innovative methodological approaches to these important global issues.

Keywords: social sciences,video ethnography,socio-materiality,strategy-as-practice,ethnography,sociology of finance,live-trading,reinsurance sector,social shaping of technology,micro-structure of markets
Investigating the neural mechanisms of feature-based and spatial attention in a network model of two coupled brain areas (ATTENTIONLOOP)

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: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-06-01
End date: 2013-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 167180.8
EU funding (EUR): 167180.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Attention is the ability to focus the processing resources of the brain onto relevant sensory information. This cognitive ability allows us to perceive attended aspects of the environment with enormous precision without being overwhelmed by irrelevant information. Recordings from neurons in the cortex of monkeys performing attentional tasks have demonstrated attentional modulation of sensory neurons in attend-to-location and attend-to-feature tasks (“spatial” and “feature-based” attention). The neural activity in sensory areas is not only modulated by attentional top-down signals but also by sensory-driven bottom-up processes such as neural adaptation. Despite extensive research on these phenomena, an explanation of attention at the level of single neurons and neural networks has remained elusive. The goal of the proposed project is to integrate bottom-up and top-down processes in a computational model in order to progress in the mechanistic understanding of visual attention. We propose using a multidisciplinary approach, based on a tight interaction of modeling and experiment. Experimental data from direction selective neurons of the visual cortex, which have been recorded by our collaborators, will guide the development of a biophysical network model and the model will, in turn, facilitate the data analysis. The model will consist of two cortical areas, one devoted to the active maintenance of information (working memory circuit in prefrontal or parietal cortex) and the other one responsive to novel stimuli (visual cortex, endowed with adaptation mechanisms). We expect the model to clarify the contribution to attentional modulation of interactions within and across cortical areas. In particular, we aim to investigate (1) the underlying mechanisms of bottom-up and top-down processes, (2) the interaction of spatial and feature-based attention, and (3) the influence of attention on the oscillatory synchronization and variability of neuronal responses.

Keywords: computational biology,neuroinformatics,neurosciences
Epigenetic regulation of Alzheimer's disease related genes (EPIREGAD)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-10-01
End date: 2012-09-30
Duration (months): 12.0
Total project cost (EUR): 101274.8
EU funding (EUR): 101274.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other dementias affect over 7 million individuals in Europe. There is, as yet, no treatment to halt or reverse disease progression despite huge investments into research. The accumulation of the amyloid beta-peptide (Abeta), derived from the amyloid precursor protein (APP) in the brain, is a key factor in the development of AD but the roles of other APP metabolites are poorly understood. This project will focus on one of these metabolites, its intracellular domain, AICD, and the mechanism for its nuclear trafficking and gene transcriptional regulation, especially of the Abeta-degrading enzyme, neprilysin (NEP), which maintains Abeta homeostasis. These studies will focus on the differential contributions of the three APP isoforms to AICD production, nuclear trafficking and gene regulation, and will use a variety of neuronal and non-neuronal models to analyse epigenetic changes mediating NEP expression including chromatin composition of the NEP gene in active and downregulated states and whether APP isoform effects are direct or indirect. In parallel, other putative AICD-responsive genes will be compared (aquaporin, GSK-3beta). This will allow us to formulate strategies for up-regulation of key neuroprotective genes in disease leading to potential new therapeutic approaches. The project will provide the Research Fellow with broad experience in molecular neuroscience (from bioimaging and protein trafficking to chromatin analysis and gene regulation) in a well-founded, integrated and multi-disciplinary environment for AD research.

Keywords: epigenetics,alzheimer's disease,amyloid beta-peptide,neprilysin,amyloid precursor protein,secretases,aicd,app isoforms,histone deacetylases,development,brain,ischemia
Molecular Design of Electrically Conductive Covalent Organic Frameworks as Efficient Electrodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries (ELECTROCOFS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Materials Engineering
Panel description: Advanced materials development: performance enhancement, modelling, large -scale preparation, modification, tailoring, optimisation, novel  and combined use of materials, etc.
Countries involved: Portugal,Spain
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2021-STG, 2021)
Start date: 2022-07-01
End date: 2027-06-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1498619.0
EU funding (EUR): 1498619.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

A major breakthrough in chemistry and materials science has been the development of Lithium-Ion Batteries (LIBs), which show great potential for storing energy from renewable sources and as the power sources for electric cars. However, commercially available LIBs are based on transition metal oxide cathodes, presenting limited energy density and raising relevant environmental concerns. Organic materials have received much attention as alternative electrodes because of their high theoretical capacity, resources availability and sustainability. In particular, Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs) have emerged in the past few years as promising organic electrode materials due to their high stability, high ionic conductivity and outstanding chemical and structural versatility. Low electrical conductivity remains the main bottleneck for real applications of COFs as electrode materials, usually addressed by adding in large amounts of conductive carbon additives that decrease the energy density of the battery. The overarching objective of this project is to design and synthesize new conductive redox-active COFs as cathode materials to enhance LIBs electrochemical performance. The specific goals are: a) To design a new family of stable redox-active COFs built from unexplored building blocks to achieve an optimal balance between capacity, electrical conductivity and porosity. b) To investigate the role of the linkages, building blocks, doping, pressure, anisotropy and morphology on the electrical conductivity, unravelling the fundamental mechanisms of charge transport in COFs. c) To manufacture and test lithium batteries using conductive COFs cathode materials, assessing the influence of the processing techniques on the electrochemical performance.

Keywords: covalent organic frameworks electrical conductivity energy storage lithium ion batteries
Decoding and Treating Cancer-Induced Cachexia (Decode-And-Treat)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Panel description: Medical technologies  and tools for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human diseases, therapeutic approaches and interventions , pharmacology, preventative  medicine, epidemiology and public health , digital medicine
Countries involved: Italy
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANTS (ERC-2024-ADG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-11-01
End date: 2030-10-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2500000.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

One third of cancer death are due to cachexia, a metabolic syndrome characterized by fat and lean mass loss. The loss of muscle mass and strength is considered the most important clinical feature of cancer cachexia, and a key predictor of poor outcomes. We and others have shown that prevention of muscle wasting but not fat loss is beneficial for life span in tumour bearing animals. Despite several attempts to develop therapeutic approaches, cachexia is still orphan of any specific drug/treatment mainly because our understanding of the insights of this syndrome are largely unknown. We have started to approach the complexity of cancer cachexia by collecting blood plasma samples, muscle and fat biopsies from cancer patients and age-matched gender-balanced controls. By combining data from mouse models with human biopsies we have recently made exciting observations related to motoneurons involvement in cachexia and an unexpected neurotrophic action of Bone and Morphogenetic Proteins (BMPs) that inspired this application. By using interdisciplinary approaches and developing cutting edge technologies we have designed an experimental plan that will:1) define how gene networks and cellular landscapes in muscles are modified by tumour growth and dissect their relevance in cachexia onset and survival; 2) establish how much gene/chromatin signatures and cellular/cytokines landscapes overlap or diverge between humans and murine models, males and females cancer patients, colon and pancreatic cancer types; 3) develop patients derived organoids-on-chip to generate an in vitro pathology model that recapitulates the human cachexia complexity, 4) develop a personalized multi-target RNA-based therapeutic approach that will preserve muscle mass, force generation and survival. These ambitious objectives will pave the way for an innovative therapy that will match with the concept of precision and personalized medicine and could be broadly applied to many other muscle wasting diseases