Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Targeted inhibition of TRRAP as a strategy against aggressive brain cancer (TRRAP & BRAIN CANCER)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2012-03-01
End date: 2016-02-29
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Patients with aggressive brain cancer have a very poor prognosis with an average life expectancy of only ~12 to 17 months. High grade brain tumors are extremely difficult to treat due to tumor cell invasion, plus resistance of tumor cells to DNA-damaging therapy. This cellular aggressiveness within brain tumors has been attributed to a subpopulation of tumor cells that possess stem cells-like features. Unlike differentiated tumor cells, brain tumour stem cells (BTSCs) possess the ability to self-renew, to withstand DNA-damaging therapy, and to give rise to new tumor mass. Therefore, targeting BTSCs is expected to improve the efficiency of anti-brain cancer therapy. In particular, targeting pathways that sustain the undifferentiated state of BTSCs is a novel strategy to treat aggressive brain tumors. However, this approach is hampered by a poor understanding of appropriate targets promoting the BTSC phenotype. Recently, we have demonstrated that the adapter protein TRRAP maintains BTSCs in an undifferentiated and highly tumorigenic state. Consistently, elevated expression of TRRAP in human brain tumors has a strong negative effect on patient survival. Therefore, we aim to provide a basis toward the development of an effective therapeutic strategy against the malignant function of TRRAP in BTSCs. To this end, we will use our established BTSC assay system and BTSC in vivo models in combination with differential proteomics to characterize TRRAP protein domains and TRRAP-protein interactions that critically promote the BTSC phenotype. Moreover, we will investigate the role of TRRAP during brain tumor invasion and potential additive effects between DNA-damaging therapy and inhibition of TRRAP function in vivo. Overall, these interrelated approaches will validate TRRAP as a brain tumor target. Ultimately, we hope to reveal and exploit the Achilles’ heel of TRRAP-dependent tumorigenesis for developing a targeted therapeutic strategy against BTSC-driven brain tumors.

Keywords: tumor biology,brain cancer,cancer stem cells,target validation
Advanced Spectral Techniques in Econometric Modelling of Macro-Financial Linkages in the Euro area (ASPECT)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Greece
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2012-04-01
End date: 2015-03-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 75000.0
EU funding (EUR): 75000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Business cycles (BCs) have always attracted considerable attention by policymakers, practitioners & politicians for monitoring current economic conditions & predicting future trends. Recent works present mixed evidence about BC co-movement in the EU & globally depending on the period, data frequency & methodology employed. A flurry of interest in econometric modelling based on spectral methods is observed mostly during the last decade. Until recently multiscale spectral analysis (MSA) represented an important research area only in engineering & natural sciences, wherein the utilization of timescales in the analysis of different modes of behavior is very common. The use of MSA in economic sciences is in its infancy and many properties are still unexplored. In economics the focus is attributed to long-run equilibrium relationships derived after disaggregating at different time horizons. Via MSA, the low-frequency component of BCs that captures the true dynamics is identified & the high-frequency fluctuations that distort the economic systems are extracted. In this multidisciplinary project advanced spectral techniques that allow for simultaneous analysis in the time & frequency domain are utilized to detect the latent complex dynamics of global markets & particularly of the Eurozone. The study intends to quantify domestic/international interdependencies & analyze BC synchronicity & convergence in the Euro area. Moreover, it investigates macroeconomic & financial causal linkages, reveals new market stylized facts & develops new forecasting models. Integration proceeded in the Eurozone due to the introduction of Euro, until the financial crisis of 2007-2010. The EU debt crisis serves as a catalyst towards the revision of institutional regulations for monetary & fiscal consolidation. Project results are bound to provide new insights for policy making & crisis management in the Euro area, as well as influence the greater predictability of EU markets.

Keywords: applied economics,macroeconomics,econometrics,financial economics
A model of generalised evaluative conditioning (GEC)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Ireland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2012-03-01
End date: 2014-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 50000.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Evaluative learning has been implicated in the development of preferences and aversions. It has been suggested that evaluative learning is also important in the development of many clinical problems (e.g., depression). In these latter areas, the generalisation of negative evaluative, and particularly self-evaluative, judgements across many aspects of a person's life may be a serious problem for everyday functioning. Given the applied relevance of this work, it is essential that the basic mechanisms of self-evaluative learning, as well as how learned self-evaluations become generalised across a range of situations, is investigated comprehensively. It has previously been shown that exposure to certain schedule conditions will lead to particular self-efficacy ratings, and that stimuli can also gain a particular valence through their relation/ association with such situations leading to generalisation of the ratings. Previous work examined how psychological functions can be changed through sameness (equivalence) relations. The current proposal will extend this work by: 1) examining the potential to develop a model of generalised evaluative functions resulting from a combination of the literatures and techniques from evaluative learning and derived relational responding; 2) investigating the impact of the structure of such classes on generalisation, including whether such transfer of function reliably emerges across non-sameness relations. The latter is a process that potentially allows much greater, and, perhaps, more varied routes of generalisation of evaluative learning, than transfer through relations of sameness alone. A coherent understanding of how self evaluations, and judgements of efficacy, are learned, maintained, and generalised, would be both informative at a theoretical level, as well as for the applied domain, providing a useful model of the behaviours that need to be targeted in order to circumvent the generalisation of negative self evaluations.

Keywords: evaluative conditioning,self efficacy,derived relational responding
NonLinear Optics for Photovoltaics (NLO FOR PV)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2012-04-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The Shockley Queisser limits the efficiency of single junction solar cells and sets the maximum efficiency for Si solar cells at about 30%. The limit is imposed because of two constraints. First, the energy a solar cell generates from each conversion event is approximately maximized by its bandgap, irrespective of the incoming photon energy. Thus, energetic photons lose most of their energy to heat in the solar cell. Second, a solar cell cannot harness photons at wavelengths longer than its bandgap. Therefore, splitting of energetic photon to two Near-IR (NIR) photons doubles the quantum efficiency and the output energy a PV delivers. Also the fusion of two NIR photons below the bandgap of PV to generate one photons accessible for the PV (energy above the PVs bandgap) bust the potential efficiency of PV above Shockley Queisser limit. Nonlinear optics (NLO) offers efficient frequency conversion. Yet, it cannot contribute to PVs due to operation limits at high intensity and coherence, much above the solar radiation. Solar powered lasers allows to increase intensity and coherence by orders of magnitude, thus it is the missing link between PVs and NLO. But thus far, power threshold of solar laser is above 2000 suns , making it inapplicable for PVs. Here I propose to build solar powered laser at low solar concentration (below 2 suns), which will open the field of NLO for PVs. This proposal is based on my recent experimental demonstration , which enables the reduction of current power threshold of incoherently pumped laser by three orders of magnitude. In addition to PVs, this research opens the way to new high power lasers, and many on-chip applications in spectroscopy, sensing, and communication.

Keywords: applied optics,photovoltaics,future technology
Bio-inspired Tribological Interfaces (TRIBO-SURFING)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2012-05-01
End date: 2016-10-28
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Tribology of human tissue, with respect to develop healthcare and lifestyle products that interact with human body, gains much interest recently in the tribology field. Meanwhile, driven by the “green and human friendly tribology” strategies, biomimetics is emerging in tribology, since living creatures have developed highly elaborate systems for decreasing/increasing friction. It is expected that these designs can serve as models for engineering solutions and provide shortcuts to the design of tribological interfaces with the same functions. Our goal is to generate bio-inspired tribological interface platforms for the design of human tissue contacting products. The project will combine (1) Exploration of nature’s approaches towards the development of anti-frictional systems or frictional systems; (2) Structure, physical-chemical properties and functional significance of biological surfaces and materials; (3) Tribo-chemical modeling of product-tissue interactions; (4) Active and tunable interfaces based on friction control, demonstrated by a design for an active Tribo-skin equivalent. The scope of the work will be limited to preliminary exploration. The deciphering of nature’s approaches will open the door to new concepts in developing environment and human friendly tribological interfaces with improved functionality, that will increase energy efficiency, reduce healthcare cost and improve quality of life. The investigation on the combined effect of surface structure and chemistry and the establishment of tribo-chemical models, will substantially support successful mastering of current tribological challenges, like the optimised surface for sliding contacts of medical devices enabling minimal invasive surgery, and durable and energy efficient joint replacements and prostheses. The creation of novel active Tribo-skin equivalent will lead to fast and quantitatively assess skin-contacting products and more important it will significantly reduce animal and human tests.

Keywords: biomimetics,tribology,frictional systems,anti-frictional systems,surface texture,surface chemistry,tribo-chemical model,active and tunable interface,human tissue,skin equivalent
Exploring novel nitrifier pathways to minimise direct greenhouse gas emissions from WWTPs. (NITRI-GHG)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2012-04-01
End date: 2016-08-07
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Global warming is one of the major challenges for our society and all industry sectors must take responsibility for their emissions and implement new strategies to minimize them. Wastewater systems are recognised to contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions not just through their energy consumption but also through their direct fugitive GHG. Recent studies have shown that direct emissions of fugitive GHG as nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are significantly larger than anticipated and can even overcome the indirect emissions. Research carried out during the past 5 years indicates that nitrifying bacteria are the main responsible of N2O emissions in WWTP performing nutrient removal. There is a need to fully understand N2O production mechanisms in these microorganisms. The NITRI-GHG project aims to minimise N2O production from novel pathways active in ammonia oxidizing bacteria, the hydroxylamine oxidation and the nitrifier denitrification pathway. On the other hand, the project also explores a novel methane oxidation process carried out by nitrifying bacteria. CH4 is being increasingly produced in WWTPs due to the large implementation of anaerobic wastewater treatment technology and anaerobic sludge digestion process. Although methane in the gas phase is captured, significant uncertainty exists regarding the loss of dissolved methane which can be up to 50%. The introduction of an economically feasible methane oxidation unit in the typical polishing step of anaerobic digester effluents could significantly lower the overall direct GHG emissions from WWTP. The approach of this project is to gain fundamental understanding at the micro level to develop advanced operational strategies to reduce N2O and CH4 emissions from our WWTPs. The project combines environmental engineering with microbial ecology tools to generate new knowledge immediately applicable to WWTP management.

Keywords: wastewater treatment,pollution control,greenhouse gases (climate change)
miR-483-3p and drug resistance in Hepatocarcinoma (VEROMIRNA)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Italy
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2012-10-01
End date: 2016-09-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Hsa-mir-483 is located within intron 2 of the INS-IGF2 gene. We have previously shown oncogenic features of miR-483-3p targeting the pro-apoptotic gene BBC3/PUMA (P53 up-regulated modulator of apoptosis gene) giving drug resistance to cells. Generally the IGF2 and miR-483 expression are strictly correlated although we have demonstrated that expression of miR-483 can be induced independently of IGF2 by the oncoprotein b-catenin. In Hepatocarcinoma (HCC) IGF2/483 locus is often over-expressed probably by Loss of Imprinting (LOI) at the IGF2/H19 imprinted control region (ICR) and HepG2 and Hep3B HCC cell lines shown the entire IGF2/483 locus up-regulated. As a matter of fact we found that the treatment with the de-methylating agent 5-azacytidine, induces an important down-regulation of IGF2 and miR-483-3p genes. Moreover, during the course of our study we found that the chemotherapeutic drug 5-fluoruracyl (5-FU) induces increased expression of miR-483-3p in HepG2 and Hep3B cells. 5-FU treatment does not affect all the HCC cell lines that we tested suggesting a possible heterogeneity in cellular drug resistance dependently from miR-483-3p induced expression. Aim of this project is to investigate the mechanism involved in the 5-FU/miR-483 regulation, identify its importance in chemotherapeutic resistance in HCC primary tissues and explore if a concomitant treatment with the de-methylating agent 5-azacytidine and chemotherapeutic 5-FU, could improve the susceptibility to apoptosis of cancer cells.

Keywords: molecular biology,oncology
EXPLOITING MACRO-ACCOUNTING INFORMATION FOR ASSET PRICING, SYSTEMIC RISK AND MONETARY POLICY ANALYSIS (EMAIFAP)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2012-04-02
End date: 2016-04-01
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The information in banks’ balance sheet has long been neglected in important areas of Macroeconomics and Finance. The latest financial crisis has shown however that banks’ balance sheet positions provide essential information to understand bank dynamics, systemic risk, the monetary policy transmission mechanism as well as their market valuation. While these are all important topics, they are typically treated separately in the banking-macro-finance literature. The aim of our project is to draw on the wealth of information present in commercial bank and bank holding companies balance sheets in order to shed light on their empirical implications for these key macro-finance developments. We will also examine the role that banking capital regulation plays on their market valuations at the micro level as well as on the transmission of monetary policy to the real economy.

Keywords: banking,financial science,econometrics
ALL-OPTIcal signal processing on-Chip in hybrid III-V/ Si integrated platforms (ALLOPTICS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2012-03-01
End date: 2016-06-22
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The project will lay the foundations of an all-optical signal processing architecture on-chip. The cost, size, and energy requirements of the present electronic equipment that manages network data flows are rapidly reaching crisis point, accelerated by the exponential growth of the global Internet traffic. A promising solution lies in moving to all-optical technologies, where optical data are handled without conversion into electrical signals; this would allow the inherent speed of light and its high data-handling capacity to be fully exploited in the core of the network. The construction of the underlying nonlinear optical functions on-chip requires architectures and materials where the light matter interaction is critically enhanced. Ideally, this technology should be CMOS compatible for ensuring the photonic-electronic convergence, with direct implication on the development of optical interconnects for microelectronics. While silicon photonics has led to various optical nonlinear functions on-chip, the choice of the material, silicon, and the standard waveguide geometry intrinsically constrain the power consumption, the size and the rapidity of the resulting devices. This project will develop new solutions based on III-V/ Si hybrid integration and dispersion engineered slow light photonic crystals, where light matter interaction is promoted. Complementarily, these hybrid III-V/ Si platforms will exploit the respective advantages of silicon, for transferring optical signals with low loss, and III-V, where the magnitude and the nature of the (strong or fast) nonlinearities can be engineered through the alloy composition. The objectives of this project will be (1) the creation of low power and compact optical functions for regenerating and routing high-speed optical signals and (2) more fundamental science with the exploration of active slow light devices and on-chip temporal pulse compression that will prepare the groundwork for future research programs.

Keywords: experimental physics,nanodevices
Regulation of Seed Storage Oil Mobilization (SOM) by the Phytochrome-Interacting bHLH Transcription Factors PIFs (PIF OIL)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG, 2011)
Start date: 2012-03-01
End date: 2016-02-29
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Storage oil mobilization (SOM) breaks down the reserve lipids in the seed and converts them to sugar. SOM is essential to support postgermination growth and seedling establishment, which are of foremost importance for plant fitness in the field. Light is the main environmental cue determining the transition between heterotrophic growth based on oil reserves and photoautotrophic growth supported by photosynthesis. SOM is faster in the dark-to-light transition compared to dark, indicating that the regulation of SOM needs to be tuned to the light environment of the emerging seedling. A current challenge is to define how the core enzymes in SOM are co regulated in response to light, which is of special relevance to plant growth and has profound implications in biotechnology. The phytochromeinteracting bHLH transcription factors PIFs are central regulators of plant growth, and are critical in the adaptation of seedlings to their light environment. PIFs have been shown to regulate key enzymes in chlorophyll, carotenoid, and anthocyanin biosynthesis in response to light. Recently, an Arabidopsis mutant deficient in four PIF proteins was found to have reduced oil body content in dark, suggesting that SOM is misregulated in the absence of the PIFs. The main objective of this proposal is to characterize how PIFs might be mediating light regulation of SOM. To achieve this goal, biochemical, metabolomic and molecular biology approaches will be combined to characterize in detail the light regulation of SOM enzymes and the role of the PIFs in their regulation. In addition, a cell biology approach will be used to characterize how SOM and light regulate etioplast development and transition to chloroplasts. Finally, a candidate gene approach will be used to identify novel regulators of SOM. The funding of this proposal will allow the applicant to initiate her own research project in the host laboratory and facilitate her transition to an independent research position in Europe.

Keywords: seed oil mobilization/som,phytochrome-interacting bhlh transcription factors/pifs