Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Patterns of Trade and Consumption of Valuable Objects in the Northern Aegean Area in the 2nd Millennium BC (VALUABLES)

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-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-10-01
End date: 2014-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 139128.0
EU funding (EUR): 139128.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project is dedicated to a specific group of archaeological finds, such as jewellery, weapons, elaborate furniture, stone and faience vessels, seals or figurines. Such objects are extremely important for the understanding of past cultures. Due to the attractiveness of these objects and the desire for them by both rich and poor members of societies, they provide a great deal of information on the importance, intensity and direction of foreign contacts. These contacts can manifest themselves as imports and exports of objects, but can also result as the transfer of technologies, which enabled societies to imitate things locally. Additionally, thanks to their function as prestige, symbolic items or expressions of material value, they provide indicators for reconstruction of many hidden spheres of past cultures, such as social structure, customs or religion. These objects and their contexts will first be recorded and analyzed. Analysis will comprise of archaeometric chemical examination of samples and study of traces of technology of production. This will then be followed by a comparative study of the southern Aegean, Anatolia and other areas in order to find parallels for the northern Aegean. During the last stage of research, all results will be compiled and evaluated from a cultural anthropological perspective. The following problems will be the focus of this study: the significance, direction and range of international and local trade, the importance of production and trade centers, and the function of valuable goods within societies. In opposition to the southern Aegean, this area has never been undertaken for intensive research from the point of view mentioned above. This research will be conducted at the German Archaeological Institute in Istanbul (host institution), as well as the German Archaeological Institute in Athens.

Keywords: humanities,archaeology,bronze age,northern aegean,valuable objects,technology of production,trade,function of objects
Novel Thermoresponsive Organic Nanogels for Topical Gene Delivery of RNA-Based Drugs (NANOGEND)

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-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-07-01
End date: 2014-10-07
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 209033.4
EU funding (EUR): 209033.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The scientific aim of this project is to develop and characterize a selected set of novel intelligent nanogels, designed to be able to cross the Stratum Corneum of the skin, and to study their suitability as drug delivery systems in inflammatory skin diseases. Ultrasmall nanogels will be synthesized using high dilution radical polymerization, a technique well established in the host’s laboratory, which allows the control of the particle size and polydispersity. Three different groups of nanogels will be prepared: 1) fluorescent nanogels 2) molecular imprinting nanogels 3) thermoresponsive nanogels. The first group will be used to study the distribution and localization of nanogels in normal human skin model reproduced in vitro by organotype cell co-culture. The second group will be used to evaluate the molecular imprinting approach as a tool to obtain very selective delivery system with high recognition characteristics. This has not been studied before and will provide a unique approach, when coupled with high permeation characteristics. The last group, the thermoresponsive nanogels, will combine good permeation with ability to release the drug following a change in temperature and will be compared with more traditional systems. The project will explore the use of each nanogels set to complex and deliver (a) small anti-inflammatory drugs, and (b) large molecules, in particular siRNA, given the strong expertise of the applicant in this area and the emerging interest for these new therapeutics in topical administration. Penetration and pharmacological effects of the drug-nanogels complexes will be assessed in pathological skin in vitro model by the improvement of the disease phenotype. The most significant novelty of the project will be the development of new organic polymeric nanogels able to cross the SC of the skin, providing a new non-invasive gene delivery technology system, that could bring very important applications in dermathology as well as in other fields.

Keywords: nanotechnology,organic chemistry,polymers,nanogels,non-viral gene delivery,topical administration,skin permeation
Direct Imaging of Budding and Fusion of Lipid Droplets Mediated by Proteins in Emulsion Droplets Based on Microfluidics - Dynamics of Proteins Interactions, Assembly and Metabolism Energy (BFLDS)

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: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IOF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-04-01
End date: 2015-03-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 280017.6
EU funding (EUR): 280017.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Lipid droplets (LDs) were believed many years ago to be mere passive reservoirs of lipids, which role was limited to supply lipids to cell membranes when needed and to avoid the accumulation of fat in adipocytes leading obesity. Since this last decade a newly focus on LDs has led to understand their dynamic organelles behavior and their implication in many diseases proliferation in cells. Indeed, the virus or proteins linked to them are located on LDs and therefore the understanding of the biogenesis of lipid droplets (by budding from a membrane) and their pathway (fusion between LDs) became of great interest. Unfortunately, a little is understood about that but many Biology labs start now to converge on the topic. However, all the approaches proposed to study the budding and fusion of LDs are done in in vivo systems mostly by knocking down or over expressing a list of proteins, presumable responsible of the effect, and watch the consequences. We think it doesn’t guarantee their direct implication and there is additionally a lack of a clear visualization of the processes and their energy characterization. We propose to use emulsion droplets based on microfluidics so study them. COPI (GTP, Arf1 and coatomers proteins) which is involved in the budding of vesicles is likely implicated in the budding of LDs. To prove that, we will form water drops in an oil containing phospholipids that will cover their interface. The water drops will contain the COPI; oil droplets will be therefore budded from the phospholipid monolayer at the interface: we have preliminary results confirming that. Regarding the fusion process, the way SNARE proteins assembly (v and t-SNAREs) leads to fuse vesicles is believed to provoke the merge of LDs. We will investigate that by forming in microfluidics oil drops decorated separately with t and v-SNAREs that will be approached together by using the micropipette technique and fusion events will be watched.

Keywords: lipid droplets,fat & neuronal deaseses,cop proteins,budding,fission,snares,fusion,emulsions,drops,phospholipid monolayer,microfluidics,proteins assembly,energy,surface tension,bending
COral Surface MICrolayer: production and dynamics of mucus-associated microbial communities (COSMIC)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Austria
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2013-08-01
End date: 2015-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 180191.4
EU funding (EUR): 180191.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Microbial biofilms that flourish within mucous sheets play decisive roles on the microspatial to the ecosystem scale. Coral surface mucus forms a dynamic boundary layer between the coral host epithelium and the surrounding seawater. Coral mucus sustains a diverse microbial assemblage and acts as a first barrier of defence against a wide range of environmental disturbances, thereby contributing to the health of the coral holobiont. Surprisingly, only little is known about the physical and chemical properties of this mucus layer, its dynamics of production and maintenance. Particularly, the relation between mucus layer dynamics and the diversity, abundance and function of its resident and visitor microbes remains largely enigmatic. The main goal of COSMIC is to understand the dynamics of composition, secretion and release of coral surface mucus and the related changes on the development, structure and potential function of its associated microbial community. COSMIC will apply a multidisciplinary approach that combines measurements of thickness, organic matter, carbohydrate and lipid composition of coral mucus, with molecular phylogenetic analysis, metagenomic profiling and quantification of major domains of the coral mucus microbiome. Overall, the proposed project will elucidate on key topics such as host and microbial specificity, microbial niche diversification, mucus selectivity, microbial succession and the role of microbes on biogeochemical cycles in corals and in the coral reef ecosystem. Such study on the dynamics of coral surface mucus layer and its associated microbial communities can contribute to understand and predict impacts on coral reefs arising from a rapidly changing climate. Moreover, the coral mucus biofilm can prove useful as a model to comprehend the dynamics of other microbial (defence) systems that thrive on mucous coatings. COSMIC will also provide information on new genes, pathways and adaptations present within the coral microbial realm.

Keywords: coral mucus,biofilms,symbiosis,bacteria,archaea,scleractinian,phylogenetics,metagenomics,microbiology,microbial ecology,coral reef ecology,rare microbiome
Development of novel tools and techniques for the study of the structure and dynamics of GABAergic inhibitory synapses. (GABAAR)

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-2011-IIF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-06-01
End date: 2014-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 201932.4
EU funding (EUR): 201932.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Studies have shown that the number of gamma-aminobutyric acid receptors (GABAARs) present at the plasma membrane controls GABAergic transmission. In fact, a number of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders have been associated with deficits in the expression and activity of GABAARs. Although of great importance, the exact mechanism by which these receptors accumulate on the neuronal plasma membrane, enabling them to mediate inhibitory neurotransmission, has not been elucidated. By implementing established tools and through the development of novel techniques, work proposed aims to investigate the processes that underlie the assembly and maintenance of GABAergic synapses as well as their modulation under physiological and diseased states. Through the use of super-resolution imaging techniques such as photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM) and stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM), we aim to study the number and distribution of GABAARs at synapses and to provide a structural picture of the scaffolding protein gephyrin. To aid in the elucidation of the role of gephyrin in the stabilization of GABAARs at synaptic sites, we propose the use of dual-color super-resolution imaging to study the interaction between these proteins. For more accurate and detailed three-dimensional structural studies, we will couple super-resolution microscopy with astigmatic imaging. Importantly, our objectives also encompass the development of novel tools that, once established, can be applied to the study of inhibitory synapses as well as many other biological systems. These techniques involve the incorporation of unnatural amino acids that can later be tagged with organic fluorophores via click chemistry. Because of the presence of a single fluorophore per receptor, single particle super-resolution imaging can be achieved.

Keywords: gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor,inhibitory synapses,super-resolution imaging,diffusion dynamics,single-particle tracking,unnatural amino acids,click chemistry
Magnetic Properties of Molecular Deposition: low-temperature MFM and nanocalorimetry of sub-monolayers of magnetic molecules (MAPROMODE)

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-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-04-04
End date: 2014-04-03
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 168896.4
EU funding (EUR): 168896.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The controlled aggregation of molecule-based materials in confined geometries has opened a new season in nanomaterials research. The present project is ultimately driven by such a fashionable contest. We propose to experimentally study submonolayers of magnetic molecules, deposited on substrates by chemical methods and dip-pen nanolithography (DPN). The ultimate goal is to detect the magnetic signal from grafted molecules, which are of interest for their potential applications in quantum information processing and magnetic microrefrigeration. We plan to use a magnetic force microscope (MFM), working in the (2.8 – 300) K temperature range and in applied magnetic fields. In addition, we will make use of highly-sensitive sub-1 K calorimeters, whose fabrication by micro- and nanolithography is an objective of the present proposal. The magnetic molecules will be directly grafted on the sensing platform of the calorimeters. The proposed activity will be conducted within the consolidated research group “MolChip” (http://molchip.unizar.es/), by making use of the outstanding scientific facilities available at the Institute of Materials Science of Aragón (ICMA) and the Institute of Nanoscience of Aragón (INA).

Keywords: physical sciences,technological sciences,magnetic and thermal properties,quantum information processing,magnetic microrefrigeration,nanosystems,mems,nems
Capturing transition states associated with lineage decisions in the early mouse embryo (CELLSTATETRANSITIONS)

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-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2013-01-01
End date: 2014-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 209033.4
EU funding (EUR): 209033.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

During early mouse embryogenesis the cells of the blastocyst’s inner cell mass take a lineage decision to contribute either to the epiblast or the primitive endoderm (PE). The allocation of cells to either lineage depends on the activity of FGF signaling and two gene regulatory networks (GRNs), one centered on the transcription factor Nanog, the other one relying on Gata factors. The two GRNs are initially activated in an overlapping and heterogeneous pattern in the ICM, and have been proposed to compete each other out over time. The dynamics of this competition, and how the transition state between the two lineages, marked by co-expression Gatas and Nanog, is resolved, is not known. Here I propose to address these questions in vitro by recapitulating the competition between the Gata- and Nanog-GRNs through the controlled overexpression of Gata factors. This converts embryonic stem cells (ESCs), which contribute primarily to the epiblast when introduced in chimeras, into extraembryonic endoderm (XEN) cells, which contribute solely to PE derivatives. I will combine fluorescent reporters with this ES-to-XEN transition to ask with which dynamics transitions occur in individual cells, whether they involve heterogeneities at the population level, and how these parameters are controlled by the activity of gene regulatory networks and signaling pathways. I will aim at identifying culture conditions that stabilize the transition state, where cells might be on the brink of being XEN, and therefore akin to ICM. I hypothesize, that under these conditions cells will be endowed with higher developmental potential compared to parental ES cells, and be able to contribute to both epiblast and PE-derived tissues. The results of this project will enhance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying lineage decisions in early development and may uncover more general principles that govern the way in which differentiating cells are specified in a stem cell pool.

Keywords: early mammalian development,inner cell mass,lineage choice,es cells,xen cells,gata factors,signaling,live cell microscopy,chimaeras,cell state transitions,heterogeneities,gene expression
Opportunistic Approximations to Break the Traditional Efficiency Limits of Flexible DSP Implementations (OPPORTUNISTIC-DSP)

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-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-04-01
End date: 2014-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 184709.4
EU funding (EUR): 184709.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Worst-case design is one of the keys to practical engineering: create solutions that can always withstand all the most adverse conditions that could occur. Yet, the limitations of battery capacity, the slowing progress in CMOS technology energy efficiency, and the ever growing need for more computational power combine into a grim outlook for worst-case design in the future. This becomes even worse, when one considers the exploding non-recurring engineering costs and turns toward programmable systems—an economic necessity in most cases and yet a fundamentally less energy-efficient implementation option. This project pretends to revolutionize the way systems are design today introducing the concept of opportunistic approximations to fundamentally depart from the notion of a single worst-case design point. Opportunistic approximations enable a continuous adaptation of the processing characteristics (operation type, number and precision) to the actual operating conditions. By relaxing the processing load when possible, a significantly increase in the processing efficiency of advanced DSP (Digital Signal Processing) flexible implementations is expected. Particularly, for DSP systems running under highly varying situations. Making opportunistic approximations practical requires the combination of deep knowledge of DSP applications and low power flexible DSP architectures, expertise developed by the applicant during his PhD, with the latest design automation technology, area where the proposed host institution excels worldwide. Thus, enabling opportunistic approximations will result in major reductions of average energy consumption and average processing time while still meeting functional specifications at the input-output interface (e.g., maximal bit-error-rate for a wireless system).

Keywords: computer engineering,flexible architectures,energy efficient implementations
Molecular modelling of the cannabinoid CB1 receptor homodimer and its interaction with ligands: the role of membrane cholesterol and the CRIP1a protein (CANNABIDIM)

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: Finland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-08-01
End date: 2014-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 272231.8
EU funding (EUR): 272231.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The cannabinoid CB1 receptor (CB1R) is an attractive molecular target for the treatment of substance abuse, drug addiction, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, motor dysfunction including Huntington’s disease, as well as cardiometabolic disease and metabolic syndrome. The general aim of the project is to investigate in silico the phenomenon of the homodimerization of the CB1R, the interaction of the CB1R homodimer with ligands, and to study the effect of membrane cholesterol and the cannabinoid receptor interacting protein 1a, CRIP1a, on the functioning of the CB1R homodimer. The project is intended to verify a set of hypotheses: (i) homodimerization of the CB1R is agonist-mediated; (ii) the interface transmits cross-talk between protomers; (iii) cholesterol promotes CB1R homodimerization; (iv) cholesterol stabilizes the inactive state of the CB1R homodimer; (v) the CRIP1a stabilizes the inactive state of the CB1R monomer; (vi) the CRIP1a hampers CB1R homodimerization. The project involves the following detailed objectives: (1) homology modelling of the CB1R monomer in the active and inactive state; (2) application of protein-protein docking and surface roughness-based scoring to construct a model of the CB1R homodimer in the active, inactive and “mixed” state; (3) all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of respective dimers and monomers in a lipid bilayer; (4) all-atom MD simulations of the respective dimers and monomers in a lipid bilayer containing cholesterol; (5) modelling of CRIP1a; (6) modelling of the CB1R-CRIP1a complexes applying protein-protein docking and MD simulations; (7) coarse-grained MD to investigate the assembly of CB1R monomers and CB1R-CRIP1a complexes in a lipid bilayer; (8) coarse-grained MD to investigate the assembly of CB1R monomers and CB1R-CRIP1a complexes in a lipid bilayer containing cholesterol; (9) application of structure-based drug design methods to elaborate compounds that modulate dimer activity.

Keywords: pharmaceutical chemistry,3 d modelling,biochemistry,computational chemistry,structural chemistry