Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Entanglement Verification Enabling New Technologies (EVENT)

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-2013-IIF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2016-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 221606.4
EU funding (EUR): 221606.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Quantum technology promises the next revolution in information processing and communication. Over recent years, the new flourishing research primitive – Quantum Information Science – has provided a rich framework for testing the foundations of quantum theory. Entanglement theory became a thriving research discipline because it was discovered that not only does entanglement question our fundamental understanding of the universe, but it also powers the majority of quantum information tasks. Quantum optics is a natural platform for investigating and implementing new quantum information tasks. Photonic entangled states are the ideal candidate to demonstrate such proposals because they are robust against decoherence, easily manipulated, and can be shared with little loss, either through free-space or in optical fibre. To date, the vast-majority of entangled states suffer from two major shortcomings: one, the exponentially bad scaling of large entangled state generation, and two, the post-selected nature of their observation. We tackle both these problems in this proposal. Photon production is solved through multiplexing and by using new state-of-the-art superconducting detectors gained through an international collaboration. Multiplexing is a promising technique that transforms non-deterministic events into near deterministic events. To multiplex entanglement, we need a heralded source of entangled photons. We build such a device, and temporally multiplex it to increase the probability of success using a room temperature Cesium Raman quantum memory.. With this device we will demonstrate the first experiment that faithfully teleports a single photon using a heralded entangled state. Our synchronized entanglement source will find applications in many future quantum information experiments because it will increase the number of entangled pairs that can be realised simultaneously. For this reason eVent – entanglement verification enabling new technologies – is proposed.

Keywords: quantum optics,entanglement,quantum memory
High Throughput Multimodal Microfluidic Sorting and Biological Analysis of Circulating Tumour Cells (HISOCELL)

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: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 194046.6
EU funding (EUR): 194046.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

There is today a huge interest in the clinical community regarding circulating tumour cells (CTC), as easy and minimally invasive « liquid biopsies ». They should provide, during the « blind » period following primary treatment of a cancer, a powerful tool to evaluate the risk of metastatic development, to follow in real time the efficiency of treatments, and guide clinicians in the prescription of alternative treatment. In the present project, I want to apply my expertise in microfluidics, microfabrication and analytical biochemistry to a major bottleneck hindering progress in this field :CTCs are present in the blood at typical levels of less than 1 per ml and current systems do not provide the performances required for an efficient CTC capture and a careful analysis. The group of Dr. Viovy have developed with support of ANR MICAD and EU project CAMINEMS a microfluidic CTC sorting system (EPHESIA) based on immune-affinity capture technology. I would like to expand the performance of this system in terms of sensitivity and integrate multi-modal analysis. Our objective is first to develop a new pre-treatment module integrating biological separation protocols that are currently done manually within an automated microfluidic device. In a second step a novel generation of cell sorting microfluidic device will allow the integration and directed assembly of complex and mobile microfabricated particles (metallic or magnetic).functionalized to selectively sort CTC based on multiple antibodies capture protocols. It will provide unique opportunities to manipulate or release individual CTC for further culture and analysis. Final aims of the proposed project are to connect both modules in a microfluidic system (sample pre-treatment module and multi-ligand capture module) and transfer this technology to clinicians to address the critical question of tumour cells subpopulations in particular for patients in a early stage in which treatments have most chances of success.

Keywords: circulating tumour cells,microfluidics,metastatic process,self-assembly,magnetic particles,cancer diagnostics,immune-affinity cell capture,cell sorting
3D Hydrogel Microwell Arrays to Control Cardiac Differentiation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells in a High Throughput Manner (STEM CELL HYDROGELS)

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
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IOF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-12
End date: 2017-05-11
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 282109.2
EU funding (EUR): 282109.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The research objective of the project is to develop synthetic materials to control the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) (which comprise human embryonic stem cells and induced human pluripotent stem cells) suitable for clinical use using a combination of synthetic polymer chemistry, hPSC culture and high throughput materials characterization. This project brings together a talented researcher with experience in polymer chemistry and surface chemical analysis and a multidisciplinary research and industrial partnership in internationally leading materials discovery and cell culture technologies. The resulting training program will deliver high quality career development in the area of regenerative medicine, tissue engineering and materials science with wide applicability within the EU and internationally. This project will aim to improve ‘start of the art’ technologies by offering an innovative array of materials that not only present a range of moduli but also a diverse range of chemistry. This will enable the identification of instructive hydrogels by controlling a range of physiochemical parameters that has not been previously explored simultaneously.

Keywords: tissue engineering,regenerative medicine,arrays,high throughput screening,biomaterials,hydrogels,stem cells,controlled polymerization
Regional Migration Governance (R_eMigra) A human-rights analysis of emerging mobility regimes (R_EMIGRA)

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-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2015-04-01
End date: 2017-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 183469.8
EU funding (EUR): 183469.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

On the basis of migration governance and legal pluralism theories, as well as on the basis of the developments in migration policies, the proposed research hypothesizes that the growing role of regional economic groups is likely to impact international migratory flows, bringing about, at the national level, a shift from migration control to migration management. A second hypothesis is that beyond trade and economic integration, regional initiatives have the potential to fulfil relevant functions, including the development of an appropriate normative framework for facilitating a human-rights-based approach to labour mobility. Third, the research proposes that as a consequence of this shift, the human rights protection available at the regional level can become much more effective. The research will develop an alternative human rights approach, based on the presumption that the regional migration approach may innovates in the exercise of sovereignty and human rights law. In order to achieve this, the proposed research will: - Contribute to migration governance by making regional processes, law and institutional developments a strong rationale for migration; -Develop an in-depth, country-level programme of research in two countries (Argentina and Thailand), in two regional integration projects (MERCOSUR in Latin America and ASEAN in Asia ); - Test the three hypotheses, relating to (1) the existing and emerging regional integration processes; (2) human rights effects of regionalism; (3) the interaction between regional integration processes and the formulation of migration and free movement provisions. The findings will contribute to multi-layered migration governance on the role of regional integration projects as venues for migration governance; to theories on how human rights law can respond to new forms of human mobility; and to the analysis of the diffusion of migration law in regional integration regimes – one of the most pressing issues of our time.

Keywords: migration governance,regionalism,human rights
Assessments of InDividual behaviour Analysed critically (AIDA)

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-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2015-09-01
End date: 2017-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 221606.4
EU funding (EUR): 221606.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Assessments of individual behaviour play important roles in research and organisations. Questionnaire scales are widely used as efficient tools for standardised assessments. But the ways in which people understand these tools and by which they generate their answers to standardised scales are still poorly understood. There is also still little description of how well people’s verbal reports actually represent observable individual behaviours and the ways in which they may reflect social beliefs and stereotypes. The AIDA project will explore how people assess and socially categorise individuals and will critically analyse the methods used for standardised assessments. It aims to unravel potential biases derived from stereotypes about gender and ethnicity, focussing on “Black” and “White” as prototypical categories of ethnicities that are at the centre of many social conflicts worldwide. A novel transdisciplinary paradigm and cutting-edge methodologies and technologies will be used to systematically deconstruct the requirements that assessment tasks impose on respondents and to reconstruct the social knowledge and the psychological processes involved therein. People’s interpretations and uses of standardised scales and social categories will be explored in the context of Online surveys and in interpersonal discussions about videotaped behaviours displayed with the same intensity by men or women of either “Black” or “White” ethnicity while the participants’ subjective views of these videos will be captured with miniature cameras. Interviewing people about their own first-person recordings activates episodic memory and enables in-depth reconstruction of psychological processes during assessment generation. These ground-breaking techniques represent major progress urgently needed to restore the match between psychological phenomena and the methods used for their investigation and will open up new horizons for evidence-based explorations of the workings of the human mind.

Keywords: individual behaviour,assessments,questionnaires,social beliefs,gender,ethnicity,stereotypes,social science methodology,social representations,qualitative methods,quantitative methods
Nano-technology enabled repositioning of Disulfiram as an anti-cancer stem cell agent (NANODISCAN)

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-2013-IIF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-06-05
End date: 2016-06-04
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 299558.4
EU funding (EUR): 299558.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Most cancers remain ‘incurable’ and life-thretening. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are the source of chemo/radioresistance and responsible for cancer recurrence which suggests the urgent requirement of CSC-targeting drugs. Drug development is a slow (15 years/drug) and costly (US$1.5bn/drug) procedure with only 5-25% of new oncology drugs in clinical development actually reaching the market mainly due to the toxicity of novel molecules. This dilemma has led to an increasing appreciation of the potential of repurposing of known drugs. We have demonstrated that Disulfiram (DS), an old anti-alcoholism drug, possesses excellent anti-CSC activity with low toxicity to normal cells. Whereas its cancer clinial indication is limited by its bio-instability (~4 min half-life in blood stream). Our pilot data demonstrated that the anticancer efficacy of DS is significantly improved when mild extending its half-life by liposome encapsulation. In this study, the Incoming Fellow, who has very strong technical knowhow in cancer research, molecular pharmacology, anticancer drug development and nano-encapsulation, will bring novel nano-biomaterials invented in China into Europe. Taking advantage of the state-of-the-art facilities, CSC models, pharmaceutical resarch and developmental expertise and scientific/technical support from the Incoming Host and the other European collaborators, we will develop a long-circulating nano-encapsulated DS. The anticancer activity of the nano-encapsulated DS will be examined in vitro and in vivo in breast and liver cancer cell lines as well as the relevant CSC models. This study will pave the path for clinical trial of DS in cancer indication. The significance of this project will be: 1. Expand and extend our FP7-IRSES (2011-16) platform to strenthen long-term collaboration between China and EU partners; 2. Develop a new cancer therapeutics for the benefic of healthcare in Europe; 3. Open a new drug developmental window to benefit European economy.

Keywords: cancer,disulfiram,antabuse,nanoparticles,drug delivery,poly(l-glutamic acid),cancer stem cells,chemoresistance,cancer metastasis
General Reasoning for Imperative Programs (GRIP)

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-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2015-03-12
End date: 2017-03-11
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231283.2
EU funding (EUR): 231283.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

It is hard to reason about imperative programs, especially when concurrency and pointers are involved. Such programs are inherently complex, but the reasoning problem is exacerbated by conventional formalisms that demand, and thus encourage, tedious and overly detailed proofs. This project aims to get a GRIP on reasoning by adopting a novel formalisation that holds promise to make proofs simpler and more general. In particular, the goals of GRIP are 1) to equip popular reasoning techniques with simpler semantic foundations that render proofs more tractable, and 2) to accommodate realistic programming languages in a general way. The approach to overcome the complexity of these goals is to separate concerns in a new way: use simple mathematical models and algebraic laws at the core, and build reasoning techniques and languages around it to maximise understanding and reuse.

Keywords: formal reasoning,programming calculi,concurrency,programming languages
The dynamical evolution of Globular Clusters: From Brown Dwarfs to Blue Stragglers (BDINGC)

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: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-10-01
End date: 2016-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 223778.4
EU funding (EUR): 223778.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Globular clusters (GCs) are the oldest stellar systems in the Galaxy and can be regarded as fossils from the violent epoch of Galaxy formation. The lifetimes of their very low mass main sequence stars (VLMMSSs) and brown dwarfs (BDs) are much longer than the age of the Galaxy, and thus samples of the VLMMSSs and BDs in GCs can provide us with important insights into the earliest stages of star formation in the Galaxy. Moreover, BDs represent a link between the lowest mass stars and giant planets, and thus are important for our understanding of stellar structure and evolution as well as star and planet formation. However, despite their importance for a range of astrophysical fields, our knowledge about old, metal-poor VLMMSSs and BDs is very limited. In fact, not a single BD has so far been detected in any GC. One goal of this project is to remedy this situation. GCs are also highly dynamic systems. Indeed, the high stellar densities in their cores boost the formation of exotic populations like Blue Stragglers (BSs) which seem to be present in essentially all GCs. BSs are thought to be the merger product of two or more MS stars. They might have formed dynamically via direct collisions, or from binary evolution. As such, BSs can be seen as a dynamical signature of the present day GC, whereas VLMMSSs and BDs can be regarded as a signature of the early GC at the time of formation. In this project, I will concentrate on both areas of GC research: the faint-end of the MS into the BD regime on one hand, and the cluster BSs on the other hand. Only such a combination, i.e the study of both VLMMSSs, BDs and BSs can provide insight in the dynamical evolution of the GCs as a whole; and test, for the first time, theoretical predictions that regard BDs on one side as the collisional relics of the parent cluster when it formed, and thus a dynamical signature of the early GC, and BSs on the other side as products of more recent collisional phenomena in the evolved, present day GC.

Keywords: astronomy - astrophysics globular star clusters,mass function,stellar formation and evolution,brown dwarfs,blue stragglers
Origin and lineage specification of trophoblast cells in early human placenta (HTSCS IN PLACENTA)

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-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-09-01
End date: 2016-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231283.2
EU funding (EUR): 231283.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

My central question: how does the human placenta develop and how are specialized trophoblast sub-types generated? Despite advances in placental biology, pregnancy disorders occur frequently with few treatment options available, resulting in considerable maternal and/or infant mortality and morbidity. The cause of these disorders is abnormal early placental development but ethically and practically this is hard to investigate. Developing in vitro models that are truly representative of normal first trimester trophoblast will allow investigation of lineage specification and differentiation. I will take an interdisciplinary approach to characterize the first trimester villous cytotrophoblast (VCT) population. Specifically, I aim to: 1. Characterize the expression of trophoblast stem (TS) cell transcription factors and epigenetically regulated genes to identify the anatomical compartment(s) containing population(s) with stem cell characteristics 2. Isolate VCT using a specific cell surface marker and perform an in-depth molecular characterization at a single cell level to identify putative TS cells 3. Characterize cell signalling pathways in the VCT and in the putative TS cell population 4. Establish cell culture conditions for TS cells 5. Perform a detailed characterization of cells cultured in vitro This proposal has arisen from preliminary results obtained working in Centre for Trophoblast Research, University of Cambridge. Working in a lab with extensive experience of trophoblast isolation (Prof. A.Moffett) and input from our collaborators, Dr. M.Hemberger and Prof. G.Burton who have experience in mouse TS cells and human placental function in vivo, respectively has been pivotal. I am thus in an ideal position to capitalize on this expertise together with other stem cell labs in Cambridge to develop essential tools and knowledge to understand early developmental processes during placentation. It also has important translational impact for women and their babies.

Keywords: human first trimester placenta,trophoblast,stem cells,pregnancy,transcription factors
Structural Studies on Influenzavirus Fusion (INFLUENZA FUSION)

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-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 221606.4
EU funding (EUR): 221606.4
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

The fusion of biological membranes underlies basic cellular processes of vesicle transport as well as the infectivity of enveloped viruses. The haemagglutinin (HA) glycoprotein of influenza viruses mediates fusion between viral and cellular membranes at the pH of the endosome to deliver the viral genome into the cytosol. Despite its high surface variability, its fusion machinery is conserved among HA subtypes and is a prime target for broadly neutralizing antibodies. HA consists of the receptor-binding HA1 and the fusion-mediating HA2, which has two membrane-interacting elements: the N-terminal fusion peptide and a C-terminal transmembrane anchor. At low pH, HA2 undergoes a series of conformational changes that project the fusion peptide out of a protein pocket towards the target membrane, and subsequently bring fusion peptide and transmembrane anchor, and likely the two membranes, into close proximity. The conformational changes are defined by crystal structures at neutral and low pH, but the membrane-associated parts of the protein were absent from the crystallization constructs. To define their roles and interactions, I propose to solve the full-length structures of HA at neutral pH and of HA2 at low pH by x-ray crystallography using state-of-the art crystallisation methods. High amounts of detergent solubilized membrane protein can already be purified from virus. The crystallization process will be aided by biophysical protein characterization and electron microscopy. The structures will impact our understanding of the mechanism of membrane fusion and help develop broadly neutralizing antibodies as influenza therapeutics. The project will complement my previous training in the structural biology of soluble proteins to membrane protein specific methods, electron microscopy and virological assays.

Keywords: x-ray crystallography,electron microscopy,membrane protein,influenza,hemagglutinin