Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Historicizing Reproduction (REPRODUCTION)

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: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IOF, 2013)
Start date: 2015-05-01
End date: 2018-04-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 252244.8
EU funding (EUR): 252244.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The aim of this project is to historizise the shifts and moves reproduction underwent from a concept that described a pregiven capacity fixed in “life” and defining matter as “living” to a capacity apprehended through technoscience and open to transformation. It focuses on the 20th century as a central period when the “technoscientific turn” in reproduction took place. The project investigates reproduction as a dispersed phenomenon in time and space that transgresses bodies, disciplines, the boundaries of nature and society, a phenomenon which cannot be understood as an isolated problem of medicine and biology. Instead it resituates reproduction in a knot of multiple and surprising genealogies and as a multi-sited process which needs to be tackled by a constellation of methodological tools to do justice to its complexity. To historicize reproduction means not only to ask how genealogical and heteronormative arrangements of reproduction have been undone, rearranged, and even queered but also to investigate reproductive practices from a broad, interdisciplinary framework, such as history, anthropology, and science and technology studies (STS). This project’s historicization of reproduction will follow along the three main axis of transindividuality, temporalities and economy, themes that are pivotal to charting reproduction as a relational process . The project will foreground theses axis by focusing on three domains of reproductive sciences and their entanglements: reproductive medicine, agriculture and livestock breeding, and those fields that explore aggregate forms of life - collectives, societies, populations – like public health, the global health movement, and international feminism with a specific emphasis on non-western countries like South-Asia and Latin-America.

Keywords: history of reproduction,assisted reproductive technologies 20th c. interdisciplinarity feminist science studies reproductive medicine livestock breeding ethnography history of international feminism
HIV-malaria co-infections: a significant source of antimalarial drug resistance? (HIVMALARIA)

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: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IIF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-07-01
End date: 2016-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 173370.6
EU funding (EUR): 173370.6
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

The rise and spread of drug resistant malaria parasites is one of the major challenges for malaria control and may soon proof to be one of the biggest obstacles to malaria eradication. Due to extensive geographical overlap of HIV and malaria, the two most serious health problems in the world, co-infections are common in nature. These co-infections may increase the emergence and spread of malaria drug resistance, as a result of intervention strategies and weaker immune systems. However, evidence for this is lacking and discussion is speculative of nature. Using an evolutionary framework, I aim to unravel (1) the link between HIV infection and frequency of malaria drug resistance and (2) the selective forces that drive this resistance to higher levels in HIV co-infected individuals. I will start with a meta-analysis of published studies to determine whether a correlation between prevalence of resistance and prevalence of HIV infection can be seen. In addition, using clinical samples of HIV-positive and HIV-negative pregnant women from five different countries in Sub-Saharan Africa who are currently enrolled in a clinical trial with the aim to test the efficacy of Intermittent Preventative Therapy, I will (i) assess the frequency of resistance markers by direct sequencing, (ii) study the multiplicity of malaria infection using genetic barcoding and (iii) determine the densities of the transmission stages using stage-specific qPCR. I will evaluate these metrics at the start of the intervention, at time of delivery and, from a subset of women in an ancillary study, during the course of pregnancy. This fellowship merges my expertise in evolutionary biology of infectious diseases with the host’s expertise in clinical malaria in pregnant women. This project has the potential to have a big impact on public health policy, increase our understanding of malaria parasite dynamics in as-of-yet much understudied pregnant women, and contribute critically to malaria eradication.

Keywords: malaria,drug resistance,immunity,evolution,within-host competition,iptp
Coupling Confined Optical and Mechanical Modes to a Single Quantum Dot (OMSIQUD)

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: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IIF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-17
End date: 2016-04-16
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 194046.6
EU funding (EUR): 194046.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The project bridges the gap between two yet distinct research fields: optomechanics of deformable cavities (cavity optomechanics) and cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity QED). This project aims at exploring a hybrid interface between these two domains, using semiconductor nanostructures. In particular, we propose the use of a single quantum dot (QD) coupled to a pillar microcavity to study photon-phonon interactions. It has been demonstrated that an optimized optical GaAs/AlAs-based microcavity is automatically an optimized acoustic resonator. This results in a novel platform for optomechanics based on optical micropillars and planar microcavities with optomechanical coupling able to reach 80 THz/nm, working frequencies of the order of 20-200 GHz, and an operating optical wavelength in the NIR range. The confined modes of the pillar microcavity are of very high quality factor (reaching 1 million), and enable a coupling of the cavity photons both to the ~20-GHz mechanical modes of the pillar and to a single InAs QD inserted in the center of the microcavity. In this novel field of research proposed by the project, the aim is to control a coupled tri-partite system: a cavity photon interacts with a coherent quantum emitter (two-level atom) and with a single mechanical mode. First optomechanics experiments relying on the coupling to a QD will be performed: the observation of QD-assisted optomechanical dynamical back-action, leading to the QD-assisted control of the pillar mechanical motion, and then the modification by the pillar mechanical motion of the resonant optical response of a QD in a cavity. We also aim to demonstrate for the first time an engineering of the phonon density of states around a single QD. We will measure the modification of the phonon density of states through the investigation of the phonon assisted emission of a single QD coupled to an optical micropillar cavity.

Keywords: cqed,quantum dots,optomechanics,microcavities,micropillars,single photon,acoustic phonon
Epigenetics of Cnidarian Stem Cells (EPICS)

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: Ireland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IIF, 2013)
Start date: 2015-09-01
End date: 2017-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 254637.8
EU funding (EUR): 254637.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Epigenetics is a new and exciting area in biomedical sciences. It studies mitotically heritable chemical modifications of chromatin that are not associated with changes in the DNA sequence. Epigenetic modifications (EMs) affect the expression of genes, and therefore the phenotype of cells. Current views suggest that epigenetics reinforces cell fate stability. Indeed, EMs are essential for normal development and tissue homeostasis, and improper regulation may result in diseases like cancer. Despite the relatively good understanding of the role of epigenetics in mammals and flies, many questions are still open. They include the origin and distribution of EMs in animals, and how differences in epigenetic control mediate different life strategies among taxa. In particular, it is possible that traits like regenerative ability, growth plasticity, senescence and resistance to malignancy, which are differentially distributed among animal groups, are primarily mediated by taxon-specific EMs. We propose to test this hypothesis by studying the role of epigenetics in stem cell fate determination in the cnidarian Hydractinia echinata, an animal model that occupies a phylogenetically pivotal position at the base of the animal kingdom, and is genetically tractable and susceptible to genetically manipulation. We will use a genome wide approach to map DNA methylation and histone modification sites in the Hydractinia genome. We will then analyze the specific utilization of EMs, comparing stem cells with terminally differentiated somatic cells. Finally, we will use gain and loss of function experiments to study the specific role of selected EM genes in different contexts in the Hydractinia life history. This project will provide insight into the mechanisms that mediates stem cell decision-making and why they are more versatile in basal invertebrates. Our results will impact not only such fields as evolutionary, cell and developmental biology, but also regenerative medicine and cancer.

Keywords: epigenetics,stem cells,differentiation,cnidaria,metazoa,invertebrates,hydractinia echinata,chip-seq,medip-seq,evolution,mis-expression
Establishing new concepts and approaches for future vaccine development against parasitic pathogens of cattle (FLUKVAC)

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: 2014-05-01
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

The negative impact of worm parasites on livestock animal health/welfare and on plant crop health seriously undermines food production systems and poses a direct threat to global food security. However, the use of chemical products to treat worms is not sustainable in the long term because of the continual emergence of drug-resistant parasites. Also, the presence of chemical and antibiotic residues in food has heightened consumers concerns about how food is produced and what they are eating. Vaccines, on the other hand, are sustainable and the most appropriate way forward; they are safe, leave no chemical residues in food, are environmentally friendly and are acceptable to both users and consumers. However, despite the huge successes we have made in vaccine development against viruses and bacteria over the past 200 years there are presently no vaccines for any animal or human helminth pathogen. Some of the most important farm-level diseases are caused by liver flukes and several species of gastrointestinal worms. Liver fluke disease, or fascioliosis, is a worldwide infection of livestock (especially sheep and cattle) and also an important pathogen of humans. This parasite is considered one of the most successful parasites because it has the greatest geographical and global distribution, and the widest host range of all helminths. The parasite’s success is related to the efficiency by which it invades its host and suppresses protective immune responses. The rapidity and potency by which liver fluke commands the host response makes it an ideal pathogen to study the mechanisms behind helminth immunomodulation, and also for the investigation of new ways of developing anti-helminth vaccines. The global objective of this project is to develop a successful vaccination against liver fluke by blocking the ability of helminth parasites to suppress the immune system in cattle (FLUKVAC).

Keywords: cattle,liver fluke,vaccine,animal health,experimental infection,animal-derived food,livestock industry,immune responses,immunity
The plant endodermis - unraveling functions of a crucial barrier (THE PLANT ENDODERMIS)

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: Switzerland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2016-02-29
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 199317.6
EU funding (EUR): 199317.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In our modern society we are dependent on efficient agricultural production of plants. To enable sustainable food production for a growing population, increased knowledge of how plants coordinate their resources is of key importance. As natural resources become scarce, understanding how plants assimilate and incorporate compounds through the roots is essential for engineering crops with increased nutrient use efficiency. Plants take up essential nutrients and block out unwanted compounds from the soil by means of transport across a barricade cell layer in the roots. Although this selective process is vital for plant growth, we are only beginning to understand how the mechanisms that allow the plant to take up specific compounds are controlled. By taking advantage of recent breakthroughs in identification of factors controlling the development of the critical barrier in roots of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, this project’s aim is to define the existence and biological function of specialized passage cells within this barrier that may facilitate selective uptake into roots. With the high degree of genetic knowledge available as well as methods suitable for single cell analysis, an investigation of the role of specific cells in plant roots is becoming feasible. A functional study of passage cells is likely to reveal novel mechanisms underlying how plants coordinate uptake of resources from the surrounding soil. Understanding these physiological aspects of plant development opens up possibilities for novel biotechnological solutions aimed at improving plant nutrient uptake.

Keywords: crop nutrient usage optimization,single cell transcriptomics,passage cells,root physiology,abiotic stress adaptation,molecular identity,polarized barriers,arabidopsis thaliana
Decision-Making from Visual Cortex to Midbrain (VISION AND DECISION)

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: 2014-05-01
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

Every day, we make a myriad of movements executing decisions that are based on visual information. We want to understand how these decisions are formed in the brain, and how information is processed along the hierarchy of visual areas and in superior colliculus (SC), a motor structure of the midbrain. In primates, cortical visual areas progressively encode more complex stimulus features. But signals that reflect the percept in addition to the stimulus are already present at early stages of visual processing. Activity in SC controls eye and head movements, but might also have more abstract roles in decision-making reflecting task difficulty and performance. The neural circuit underlying these decision processes is not yet understood. Genetics tools to tag, monitor and manipulate active cells were recently developed for mice and can help unravel these circuits. This requires, however, that the role of various brain areas of the mouse in decision-making is solidly understood. To that end, we will train mice to perform visual decision tasks of different complexity and record the activity of large neuronal populations in cortical visual areas and SC using a genetically encoded calcium indicator. We will quantify in each area how strongly single neurons and the neuronal population are driven by visual stimuli in contrast to the mouse’s decisions and performance. We will compare the time courses of responses between areas, elucidating how different areas interact with each other. To probe the involvement of different visual areas in tasks of varying complexity, we will quantify the mouse’s performance while inactivating those areas using optogenetics. This project will track the representation of visual decisions across brain areas and across time, giving insights into the implementation of one of the most ubiquitous cognitive abilities. It will open doors to studies of the circuits and mechanisms of decision-making.

Keywords: decision-making,visual discrimination,visual cortex,superior colliculus,neural code,information transmission,population activity,mouse,psychometric functions,two-photon imaging,optogenetics
Total Synthesis of (2R)-Hydroxy-Norneomajucin and Biological Evaluation of Neurite Outgrowth (SYNEUROUT)

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: Switzerland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IIF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2016-06-20
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 207928.8
EU funding (EUR): 207928.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Over the past century, there has been a worldwide escalation in the prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease. There are still no cures for these disorders and current therapeutics are only palliative. More recently, emerging therapeutic approaches have focused on maintaining neuronal function in these disease models with small molecules that possess neurotrophic properties. In this multidisciplinary proposal, we plan to complete the first total synthesis of (2R)-hydroxy-norneomajucin, confirm the neurotrophic activity of this natural product and evaluate advanced intermediates, and also initiate investigations into the biological target of this compound. The key transformation of our synthetic approach involves a Transannular Diels–Alder (TADA) reaction to establish the ABC ring system of the molecule in a single step. Assembly of the Diels-Alder precursor will be achieved through the combination of four basic fragments utilizing a Yamaguchi macrolactonization, Pd-mediated coupling, Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons olefination and an alkylation. All synthetic work will be performed at the host institution (Gademann Lab, University of Basel, Switzerland). With (2R)-hydroxy-norneomajucin and analogs in hand, we then plan to perform a NGF-mediated neurite outgrowth PC-12 cellular assay on the natural product and advanced intermediates at the host institution (Gademann Lab, University of Basel, Switzerland). In addition, we plan to perform HIP-HOP assays to elucidate the biological target of this molecule in collaboration with Dominic Hoepfner (NIBR Novartis Basel). The latter collaborative project will help to establish a working partnership between academia and industry in Europe. In general, this multidisciplinary proposal will contribute to European research and the transfer of knowledge acquired by the fellow while in the United States.

Keywords: total synthesis,natural products,neurochemistry,chemical biology,neurite outgrowth
|Gestational signal and bile acid role in the enteroinsular axis (GDMICP)

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: 2014-03-01
End date: 2016-02-29
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 221606.4
EU funding (EUR): 221606.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Normal gestation is associated with substantial changes in maternal metabolism including a marked increase in insulin resistance and mild cholestasis, hypercholesterolaemia, and hypertriglyceridemia at later gestational weeks. In some predisposed women, the metabolic changes are adequately severe to lead to development of gestational disorders of pregnancy including gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP). Indeed, women with ICP are more susceptible to developing GDM and have significant biochemical and endocrine changes such as increased basal endogenous glucose production, decreased insulin sensitivity, and reduced GLP1 secretion from enteroendocrine L-cells that result in altered carbohydrate metabolism while they are cholestatic. The applicant hypothesises that reproductive hormones and their metabolites play an integral role in beta-cell adaptation in pregnancy through altered nuclear farnesoid-X-receptor (FXR) and G-protein coupled receptor TGR5 activity in the enteroendocrine L-cells and pancreatic islets. The applicant hypothesises that reproductive hormones and their metabolites play an integral role in beta-cell adaptation in pregnancy through altered nuclear farnesoid-X-receptor (FXR) and G-protein coupled receptor TGR5 activity in the enteroendocrine L-cells and pancreatic islets. There are emerging data to show that the bile acid receptors FXR and TGR5 play a pivotal role in glucose homeostasis and susceptibility to diabetes mellitus, but their role in altered glucose metabolism in pregnancy is poorly understood. The aberrant BA homeostasis during ICP may further contribute to the aetiology of GDM, by affecting FXR and TGR5 signalling in the in the gut and endocrine pancreas. It is also likely that that BA toxicity in ICP can increase beta-cell apoptosis, thereby interfering with their ability to adapt in pregnancy and thus compromising the demand for insulin to maintain maternal glucose homeostasis.

Keywords: bile acids,reproductive hormones,intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy,gestational diabetes,nuclear farnesoid-x-receptor (fxr),g-protein coupled receptor tgr5