Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Speciation and adaptive radiation in a Neotropical cichlid fish species complex: resolution of a systematic, ecological and evolutionary puzzle (GEM)

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: 2011-04-16
End date: 2013-04-15
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 166565.6
EU funding (EUR): 166565.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Cichlid fish are among the most spectacular examples of rapid speciation and adaptive radiation, which makes them an excellent model system for the study of mechanisms of speciation and evolution. The hotspots of cichlid diversity are the large East African lakes, which contain hundreds of endemic species. Neotropical cichlids are less species rich, but often offer better and simpler scenarios to study very recent speciation events. A good model system of a small scale and extremely recent radiation are cichlids from the Cuatro Cienegas valley, in the Chihuahuan desert in Mexico. Fish so far assigned to the species Herichthys minckleyi have evolved during the last few thousand years and have developed an array of trophic and body shape morphologies in parallel in several isolated ponds. This has raised the hypothesis that in fact several recently formed species might be coexisting in these ponds. However, lack of concerted genetic studies mean this species complex remains an unsolved evolutionary mystery. I plan to study the reproductive isolation of the incipient species using a comprehensive approach combining morphological and ecological characterization of the different species both in the laboratory and in captivity, and molecular markers distributed across the entire genome (SNP markers obtained using the most recent parallel sequencing technologies). I aim to understand the geographic setting and the mechanisms driving speciation, and the extent of parallel evolution causing similar eco-morphological outcomes in independent settings.

Keywords: evolutionary biology,ecology,morphology,genomics,population genetics,ecological speciation,ichthyology,neotropical cichlid fish
Human blood vessels infected by meningococcus (HUVIM)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-04-01
End date: 2013-07-22
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 195064.0
EU funding (EUR): 195064.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Invasive infection of Nesseria meningitidis can have fatal consequences for the victims, typically healthy young children. The project outlined here aims to enhance the current understanding of N. meningitidis infection by studying the pathogen in a relevant in vivo environment. Study of N. meningitidis has previously been hindered by a lack of appropriate in vivo models. This shortfall is related to the difficulties in emulating N. meningitidis’ infectious niche, the human blood stream. Here we aim to overcome the current limitations through a combination of innovative, multi-disciplinary techniques. The project will use a model in which human skin is grafted onto severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice. The human microvessels remain intact after grafting and anastomosis. Advanced intravital imaging techniques will then be used to study, with high spatial and temporal resolution, the progression of N. meningitidis infection in these microvessels. This will provide a unique opportunity to characterize the first stages of N. meningitidis interaction with living human blood vessels. Work will focus on the bacterial aspects of adhesion and invasion as well as physiological responses such as endothelial damage, vascular leakage and the initiation of the immune response. This project will push the boundaries of current N. meningitidis research by giving us a unique insight into the full pathophysiology of in vivo infection in a human vessel. While this project represents a significant advance in the study and understanding of N. meningitidis the results will also be of wide interest to infection biologists, particularly those studying human specific or vascular pathogens. This proposal will provide the fellow with the opportunity to acquire a broad range of skills, both technical and complementary, which are designed to support her career development towards becoming an independent research leader in the field of Infection Biology.

Keywords: health sciences,infections,nesseria meningitidis,humanized mouse,intravital imaging,in vivo model,meningitis,septic shock,vascular leakage,bacterial adhesion,shear stress,blood ves
An Integrated Peptide and Foldamer Chemistry Approach Towards Pro-apoptotic TRAIL Mimetics (FOLDAPOP)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-05-02
End date: 2013-05-01
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 186748.0
EU funding (EUR): 186748.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Death Receptors (DR), members of the tumour necrosis factor (TNF) receptor family, have come into focus as suitable targets for the selective activation of the cell death (apoptosis) pathway in tumours in vivo without causing toxicity to healthy cells. Current approaches in clinical development for replicating the function of the TNF-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) are restricted to recombinant proteins which have poor pharmacokinetic properties due to their susceptibility to proteolytic degradation, and high production cost. In this context, the identification of small molecules that can both bind to TRAIL receptors (eg. DR5) and activate the TRAIL pathway is of prime interest towards the development of new treatments complementary to conventional cancer therapy. The aim of this project is to develop foldamers (unnatural oligomers with predictable conformations) as proapoptotic DR ligands (e.g. TRAIL mimetics) by capitalizing on recent achievements of the host group in the fields of peptide and foldamer chemistry. The research plan involves the following specific objectives: 1) exploration of structural requirements for peptide-binding to DR5, 2) evaluation of foldameric systems for polyvalent display, 3) structure-guided design of DR5-binding helical foldamers and 4) construction and screening of focused foldamer libraries for binding to DRs. The applicant has experience in the synthesis of unnatural, constrained amino-acid synthesis for exploration of bioactive peptide conformations. She will join and bring her expertise to a host laboratory in France specialized in the synthesis and characterization of foldamers. Collaboration between the host and established European groups with prominent expertise in the biology of DRs and combinatorial chemistry has been organized. This project represents a significant leap forward in the application of peptidomimetic foldamers for the replication of protein-protein interactions and for the treatment of cancer.

Keywords: peptides,foldamers,peptidomimetic chemistry,peptide-protein interactions,amino-acids,multivalency,combinatorial techniques,structural studies,helix,apoptosis,cancer,death receptors,trail
Unravelling the Mechanism of Phosphine-Borane Dehydrocoupling for the Synthesis to Order of Valuable New Materials (DEHYDROCOUPLE)

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: 2011-07-01
End date: 2013-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 200049.6
EU funding (EUR): 200049.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project addresses the fundamental steps behind the transition-metal catalysed dehydrocoupling of phosphine boranes which will lead to the production of new polymeric materials that promise to deliver an exciting set of new main group polymers with potentially unique properties. The complementary expertise of the applicant (Miguel Huetos, MAH) and the host laboratories (Professor A. S. Weller, ASW) will allow for rapid progress to be made, providing a unified picture of all the factors crucial to the delivery of this challenging goal that will have long-lasting impact on materials science and technology, catalytic methodology and main-group chemistry. To this end, well-defined transition metal catalysts, precatalysts, intermediates, main group compounds and model complexes related to phosphine-borane dehydrogenation and dehydrocoupling will be synthesized and studied. This will be followed by the application of these systems in the synthesis to order of new phosphine-borane polymeric materials. These novel and unexplored materials are anticipated to useful properties such as: being elastomeric, flame retardant, etch resistant and preceramic properties. As well as providing outstanding training and career development opportunities for MAH the project will have a significant legacy in the development of low coordinate transition metal chemistry, main-group and new materials synthesis.

Keywords: inorganic chemistry,reaction mechanisms ands dynamics,hydrogen production
Regulation of cellular proliferation in chronic neurodegenerative disease: Microglial proliferation and neurogenesis in prion disease (PRONEURODEG)

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: 2011-09-01
End date: 2013-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 200549.6
EU funding (EUR): 200549.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

An important aspect of chronic neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s or prion disease, is the generation of an innate inflammatory reaction within the central nervous system. Microglial cells play a leading role in the development and maintenance of this inflammatory reaction, showing enhanced proliferation and morphological activation. Moreover, during neurodegeneration and inflammation, the mechanisms that control neural stem cell biology are altered and may also affect disease progression, causing impaired neural stem cell renewal, migration and differentiation. Since these proliferative responses are both involved in neurodegeneration they may share common or perhaps antagonistic regulatory pathways. In this project, using a tractable laboratory model of neurodegeneration (murine prion disease), we will study the time-course and molecular regulation of microglial and neural stem cell proliferative responses. Moreover, we will analyze the role of the inflammatory milieu in the regulation of the proliferative responses, in order to throw light on the progression of chronic neurodegeneration. These objectives will be addressed using a multidisciplinary technical approach, combining the use of transgenic animal models with cell culture systems, analyzed by cellular and molecular biology techniques. Furthermore, we will cross-validate our studies with the analysis of the microglial and neural stem cell proliferative responses in post-mortem brain samples from Alzheimer’s disease patients. This powerful combined approach would permit us to obtain results that will contribute to the understanding of mechanisms that drive progression of chronic neurodegeneration.

Keywords: neurobiology,neurology
Sex determination pathway in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae (VECTRAP)

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: 2011-06-27
End date: 2015-03-07
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 280180.0
EU funding (EUR): 280180.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Anopheles gambiae is the major vector species of human malaria in Africa. Notably only female mosquitoes transmit the disease because unlike males that use nectar as energy source, they must feed on blood to generate their progeny. This implies that the genes controlling male and female differentiation are crucial in determining the ability of female mosquitoes to transmit the disease. This project has the objective to investigate in male and female A. gambiae the structure and the relative abundance of transcripts with the ultimate goal to identify genes regulating mosquito development and sex differentiation. A combination of novel molecular tools and state of the art technology including genetic manipulated (GM) mosquito and high through put RNA sequencing will be utilized to separate male and female mosquitoes at early developmental stages, when the two sexes are morphological identical, and generate sequence data to cover several times the mosquito transcription repertoire respectively. The anticipated results will not only open up a new scientific field of great speculative and academic interest but most importantly will offer the opportunity to develop new vector control measure targeting A. gambiae fertility and my provide clues to attack other insect species. Other mosquito species (including Ae. albopictus and Ae. egypti) are important cause of global mortality and morbidity and currently represent a threat for Europe, furthermore insect pests account for great economical loss in agriculture. Most important the project has been designed in terms of experimental activities, training and management to provide new opportunities of career development to an experienced research fellow. Scientific knowledge, technical skills, collaborative links and a research facilities will be mobilized to address the need of the researcher to significantly broaden knowledge in informatics and molecular entomology and at the same time develop management and leadership skills.

Keywords: health sciences,malaria,anopheles gambiae,bioinformatics sexual dimorphism,sex determination
Socialism and leftist Catholicism in France and Italy (1956-1972) (SOCIALCATH)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2012-01-01
End date: 2013-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 179048.0
EU funding (EUR): 179048.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The SOCIALCATH research project deals with the intercultural connection between Socialism and Catholicism in two cases in which this meeting was very evident: the French "Parti Socialiste Unifié" (PSU) and the Italian "Partito Socialista Italiano di Unità Proletaria" (PSIUP). PSU and PSIUP put together Socialists and Catholics who did not accept the main strategy of their respective political families. PSU and PSIUP wanted represent a radically democratic form of modernity, giving great attention to social ferments and to defend all discriminated or under-represented categories: workers, women and young people. PSU and PSIUP were libertarian and they refused the hierarchical structures of a mass party, adopting a fluid organisation totally open to different cultural models. The political relationship between PSU and PSIUP, their ideological exchanges and the contacts between their members have never been explored within a scientific context. The SOCIALCATH project aims to fill this scientific gap, bringing to light many unedited documents. The interdisciplinary approach, the multi-methodological analysis and the comparative nature of the SOCIALCATH project are all new instruments to be used in these arguments. The SOCIALCATH project aims to reach three main objectives: 1. to describe the meeting between opposite cultural areas such as Socialism and Catholicism, in order to support the policies for intercultural dialogue promoted by the EU and other international organisations such as UNESCO. 2. to highlight alternative aspects of Socialist and Catholic cultures, in order to discover the anti-dogmatic spirit of the 60s and its today's inheritance in the collective European conscience. 3. to explore the relationship between the PSU and PSIUP's political class and the new social issues of the 60s (feminism, "the young" issue, etc.), in order to compare those events with the present attitude of the European leading class towards society and collective issues.

Keywords: humanities,social sciences,political sciences,contemporary history,social history,cultural history,comparative politics,french history,italian history,history of the left
Policy linkages and international cooperation on climate change: Who cares about the economic burden of the environment? (INTCOP21)

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: Italy
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-11-14
End date: 2014-05-17
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 180084.0
EU funding (EUR): 180084.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The goal of this research is to shed light on some relevant aspects of the relationship between the world trade liberalization, i.e. the increasing economic inter-connexions between countries, and the international provision of global public goods such as climate stability. The idea is to contrast with the existing literature on international cooperation that mostly assumes that countries’ environmental policies are substitutable or even independent. Instead, the approach proposed aims at considering in deep the fundamentals of strategic interactions between countries. The alternative assumption is that unilateral emission reductions by a set of countries can create self-interested emission reductions in other countries. Our primary objective is to study the impacts of some of the major insights used in international trade theory on countries’ incentives to participate in an international environmental agreement, on the environmental impact of such cooperation and on the conditions of emergence of a leading group in lowering emissions. This point will be achieved using non-cooperative game theory (to model strategic interactions), coalition formation theory (to model incentives to take part in an agreement) and international trade theory (to model policy linkages between open trading nations). Beyond the theoretical outcome, the enclosed objective of the research is to confront the results of the theory with experimental data. Through the design of a matching process in which one country’s contribution depends on other countries´ abatement efforts, the question arises whether such a mechanism could reduce free-rider behavior and induce a more efficient negotiation outcome. Finally this research is essential to tackle the provision of global public goods which is one of the new challenges of the twenty-first century. Recognizing the existence of such goods and securing their provision at an international level are central for promoting the well-being of humanity.

Keywords: social sciences,environmental economics,global public goods,climate change,international cooperation,non cooperative game theory,international trade theory,matching process,experimental economics.
Excited Charmonium Spectroscopy from Lattice QCD (LQCDMESONSPEC)

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-2010-IIF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-10-17
End date: 2013-10-16
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 188610.4
EU funding (EUR): 188610.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

To really understand the strong interaction and test the theory of Quantum Chromodynamics, it is vital to perform theoretical calculations and compare these with experimental measurements. This proposal will use dynamical lattice QCD calculations to undertake a complete and detailed calculation of the spectrum of charmonium, perform a phenomenological interpretation of the resulting spectrum and undertake new investigations of the decay of charmonium states by radiative transitions and strong decays. Such calculations are essential in order to fully interpret the results of, and get the most out of, experiments such as PANDA and BES. These results, along with comparisons to other approaches and experiment, will provide deeper insight into the physics of the strong interaction. To achieve these aims, the proposal will bring the complementary research expertise in strong interaction phenomenology of the incoming fellow to the lattice QCD group in Trinity College Dublin (TCD) with its extensive technical experience in lattice QCD. This combination will enable the TCD group to broaden its research portfolio substantially and enhance the impact of its recent research on a broader audience. The project will advance techniques developed by the fellow in collaboration with others at Jefferson Lab, along with those originating from TCD. This will strengthen links between TCD and Jefferson Lab and other institutions in the US. Furthermore, the current expertise of the fellow and the knowledge gained through the project will be relevant to experiments such as PANDA at GSI/FAIR. This will help to establish a new dialogue between the lattice QCD group at TCD and European experimentalists, something that will persist beyond the lifetime of this project. This research programme will substantially advance the state-of-the-art in the field and make TCD world leaders, with substantial benefit to the European experimental and lattice QCD communities.

Keywords: theoretical physics,particle physics,lattice field theory,quantum chromodynamics,strong interaction,mesons,spectrum,radiative transitions,phenomenology,charmonium