Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Incorporating protein backbone flexibility and induced-fit in drug discovery (INSILICODRUGDISCOVER)

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-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-12-01
End date: 2010-11-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 159828.87
EU funding (EUR): 159828.87
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The activity of many proteins, strongly changes when small ligands dock into well defined cavities of the protein receptor. For proteins involved in disease-related metabolic pathways novel artificial ligands may act as drugs. In the drug discovery process, high-throughput in-silico screening(IS-HTS) methods are increasingly used to identify lead compounds, i.e. ligands that bind to a target protein with high affinity. Existing methods have significant shortcomings, because the time spent on each ligand is very short. In an ongoing collaboration with the Barcelona Supercomputer Center (BSC) I implemented FlexScreen, the IS-HTS program developed by the host group at FZK, on the Cell, a new processor developed by BSC and IBM into the next generation of ultra-fast peta-flop supercomputers. The individual processing unit of these new computers is distributed separately and delivers about 250 times the performance of a PC at roughly the same cost. In the mobility project I will exploit this unprecedented computational power to incorporate new ideas into the IS-HTS method, not achievable with standard computational hardware. Continuing the collaboration with BSC I will develop improved biophysical scoring functions and novel docking strategies. I will also address a long-standing problem of IS-HTS methods: the change of protein conformation upon binding (induced fit). In collaboration with the cancer research center in Heidelberg (DKFZ) I will apply these new methods to search for new lead compounds to DNA-methyl-transferases to develop new therapies for cancer. The results of this research will reduce the time and cost of the initial stages of drug design, not only in academic but also for industrial projects, increasing the competitiveness of the European pharmaceutical industry. They will improve the quality of life of the European population by helping to discover new drug molecular scaffolds, addressing one of the main problems of present-day drug development.

Keywords: drug development,cancer,cell processor,dna-methyltransferases,stochastic tunneling,receptor-ligand flexible docking,in-silico high throughput screening,parallel supercomputing.
Processing and Electron Probing Inorganic Nanostructures for Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEPINEN)

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-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-03-17
End date: 2009-03-16
Duration (months): 12.0
Total project cost (EUR): 168256.91
EU funding (EUR): 168256.91
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Since their discovery carbon nanotubes have generated huge interest due to their one-dimensional nature and their unique physical properties. However, a number of serious obstacles stand in the way of using them as useful functional nanomaterials. They are in fact poorly dispersable in common solvents and generally produced in a wide range of electronic types, with separation by type proving difficult. In view of these issues attention is now moving towards inorganic alternatives. In this context nanowires made up of molybdenum, sulfur and iodine (MoSI) and WS2 nanotubes have been shown to be within the most promising. Easy fabrication readily scaled up for a range of compounds, uniformity in diameters and electronic type and functional properties very similar to carbon nanotubes are among their most important qualities. However, being new class of materials, they are yet to be extensively studied. A complete understanding indeed is crucially required for further exploitation in the numerous technological applications they have been proposed for. The project aims to address crucial problems such as dispersability, processability and manipulation of these objects. Finding the optimal dispersion conditions will powerfully bring these materials on the technological and applicative scene. Once unlocked the solution processing issues other innovative and intriguing aspects will be covered, using the most advanced electron microscopy technologies to intimately understand the role of punctual structural defects in the ultimate physical properties of the materials. Correlation between physical properties and structural modifications will be for the first time established. The success of this proposal will give an important and unique contribute to the field, leading to technological innovations, community relevance and to a significant launch of the researcher, Dr. V. Nicolosi, in her first appointment in an advanced career at interdisciplinary level.

Keywords: chemical-physical science,technological sciences,inorganic nanowires,dispersion,aberration correction,hrtem,stem,eels
Crosstalk Between Nitric and Carbon Monoxide in Suppressing the Pathogenesis of Cerebral Malaria (GASMALARIA)

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: Portugal
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-07-01
End date: 2010-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 128190.6
EU funding (EUR): 128190.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Malaria, can lead to the development of cerebral malaria (CM), a lethal syndrome that claims more then one million deaths per year. There is currently no effective treatment against CM. We have shown that the gas carbon monoxide (CO), generated via heme catabolism by heme oxygenase-1, inhibits the onset of CM in mice (1). While not affecting parasitemia per se, CO inhibits all the major pathologic hallmarks of CM, including blood brain barrier disruption, brain micro-vascular congestion and neuroinflammation. The mechanism underlying this protective effect relies on the ability of CO to bind the heme groups of cell free hemoglobin, released from infected red blood cells. Once bound to these heme groups CO suppresses their release, thus devoiding them from triggering CM (1). The same heme groups contained within cell free hemoglobin have been shown to scavenge endogenous nitric oxide (NO) and decrease its bioavailability, an effect shown to precipitate the onset of CM in mice (2). This suggests that as for CO, NO can also contribute to suppresses the development of CM. The central hypothesis to be tested under this proposal is that the protective effect of NO might rely on its well-established ability to induce the expression of heme oxygenase-1 and in this manner sustain the generation of CO. Once bound to the heme groups of cell-free hemoglobin, CO would inhibit heme release and in addition would increase NO bioavailability, thus generating a protective positive feed back loop in which NO would sustain the expression of heme oxygenase-1 and the generation of CO. Unveiling this functional interaction between NO and CO during Malaria infection might be useful not only to our understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of CM but also in developing new therapeutic strategies aimed at overcoming the devastating effects of this disease. 1. A. Pamplona et al., Nat Med 13, 703 (Jun, 2007). 2. I. Gramaglia et al., Nat Med 12, 1417 (Dec, 2006)

Keywords: heme oxygenase-1,carbon monoxide,inflammation,cerebral malaria,medical sciences,health sciences
Iron binding organic ligands (FEBOL)

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: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-1-IOF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-10-01
End date: 2010-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 146742.27
EU funding (EUR): 146742.27
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Iron is an essential element in many key biochemical processes, including respiration, nitrogen fixation, nitrate reduction, and chlorophyll biosynthesis. Iron limits phytoplankton production and regulates plankton community structure over large areas of the ocean, and for some marine bacteria, iron stress stimulates expression of high affinity iron acquisition systems, including extracellular iron specific chelators, or siderophores. Iron speciation measurements show that >99% of dissolved iron is complexed by organic ligands of unknown composition, and that these complexes have conditional stability constants characteristic of siderophores, low molecular mass molecules that have a high specificity for chelating or binding iron. Siderophores in marine heterotrophic bacteria have been identified, and siderophore-like compounds have been detected in exudates of marine phytoplankton. It has been postulated that siderophores or their breakdown products make up a large fraction of the strong iron-binding ligands in surface seawater, and that they play an important role in microbial iron uptake. Nevertheless, only one marine cyanobacterium siderophore has been definitively characterized, and no siderophores from any photoautotrophs have ever been isolated from seawater. Are siderophores present in the mixture of iron binding ligands in seawater, and do marine photoautotrophs use siderophores to acquire iron? Or are natural iron binding ligands a by-product of generic organic matter cycling with little affect on iron uptake? The evidence that a large fraction of dissolved iron is complexed by organic ligands is compelling. However, we do not yet know the nature of the ligands, or if indeed (as many have suggested), they mediate iron acquisition by marine microbes. Here I propose to collect iron-binding ligands from very large volume surface seawater samples for detailed spectroscopic characterization (mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy).

Keywords: biogeochemistry (climate change),carbon cycle (climate change),chemical oceanography,aquatic ecology,organic matter,iron
Heavy Ion Collisions and Strings at CERN (HICSCERN)

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-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-10-01
End date: 2010-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 173400.82
EU funding (EUR): 173400.82
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The present project aims at studying the fundamental properties of matter close to the deconfinement phase transition of QCD. To do so, we explore a new theoretical development, the AdS/CFT correspondence, which allows us to study the physics of strongly coupled plasmas by string theory techniques. With this new tool, we shall address the propagation of probes in strongly coupled matter, as well as the back-reaction of that matter to the passage of probes. These studies will lead us to propose new strategies for analyzing and interpreting experimental data taken in heavy ion collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The project deals with the newly emerging interdisciplinary interplay of heavy ion phenomenology, string theory and experimental high energy nuclear physics. It is also a means for knowledge transfer between the heavy ion physics and string theory communities and it has the potential to contribute to academic training and education. The training proposed in this project aims at growing all aspects of the applicant's capability to perform leading independent research.

Keywords: heavy ion collisions,lhc,ads/cft,quark gluon plasma,strong coupling,finite temperature field theory,physical sciences,physics,quantum mechanics,nuclear physics,quantum field theory
Macroclean - developing novel gel-based technologies for water clean-up (MACRO-CLEAN)

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-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2009-04-18
End date: 2011-04-17
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 171091.96
EU funding (EUR): 171091.96
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The management of contaminated groundwater, surface waters and drinking water is a major issue both in the EU and globally, where recent (and historical) industrial, urban and commercial activities have led to the presence of elevated concentrations of a wide range of contaminants in surface- and ground-waters, adversely affecting the health of millions of people. This has been recognised in a number of recent directives (e.g. the Water Framework Directive, the Groundwater Directive) aimed at protecting ground and surface water resources within the EU. However, despite much progress, groundwater and surface water quality is still highly variable across Europe, and there is an urgent need to develop and fully implement forward-looking technologies to clean-up water and keep it free from pollution. In this project we intend to combine innovative biomaterial / gel technologies with nanotechnologies to develop and commercialize innovative products for the remediation or clean-up of contaminated ground and surface waters. A range of permeable composite gels in which nanoparticles will be embedded will be produced and tested for application as water clean-up devices. Achieving the objectives of the project will benefit to all European citizens, economy, agriculture and industry and will place Europe in a leading position in the area of polymer-based remediation devices and technologies. This is an inter- and multidisciplinary proposal, which will offer a top class young researcher great opportunities to develop her existing skills, acquire new skills in the area of materials, environmental science and nanotechnology and, more specifically, in the area of technologies for remediation and clean-up devices, generate new knowledge and obtain training in transferable skills and thus develop a successful career as an independent researcher in the field of environmental science and materials for remediation.

Keywords: technological sciences,clean-up groundwater technology,environmental protection,drinking water treatment,pollution prevention,environmental chemistry,wastewater management
ANISOTROPIC RESPONSE OF UNSATURATED SOILS: A MICROSTRUCTURAL APPROACH (AREUS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Incoming Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-2-IIF, 2007)
Start date: 2009-05-13
End date: 2011-05-12
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 176606.02
EU funding (EUR): 176606.02
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The expression “unsaturated soil” is used in geotechnical engineering to identify a class of soils whose pores are partially filled with water and partially filled with air. Unsaturated soils occur naturally above the water table as a superficial ground layer, whose thickness depends on the balance of precipitation and evapo-transpiration and, hence, on the prevailing local climatic conditions. Unsaturated soils also occur in manmade structures that are built by compacted earth such as embankments, gravity dams, barriers for underground nuclear waste repositories and flood defences. The engineering properties of unsaturated soils are therefore crucial to many civil engineering applications as well as to geohazards engineering (e.g. slope instabilities and landslides). The response of unsaturated soils to loading and environmental actions is crucially dependent on the mechanical anisotropy of this material. Anisotropy in unsaturated soils may be caused by two concurring factors, i.e. the nature of the soil fabric and the deviatoric component of the inter-granular stress generated by capillary pore water. This project aims at investigating anisotropy in unsaturated soils based on the appreciation of the microscopic interactions between solid grains, pore water and pore air. The research is divided in four main tasks: a) performance of laboratory tests on unsaturated soil samples compacted under different conditions to achieve different degree of initial cross-anisotropy, b) interpretation of test results in terms of theoretical models based on the mechanics of granular materials and continuum mechanics, c) microscopy analysis of soil samples subjected to cycles of wetting and drying and 4) study of boundary value problems where the anisotropy of unsaturated soils is particularly relevant. One of the main project deliverables will be the formulation of a constitutive model capable of representing the anisotropic mechanical behaviour of unsaturated soils.

Keywords: civil engineering,geotechnics,soil mechanics,constitutive modelling,soil testing,boundary value problems in unsaturated soil,geohazards,nuclear waste disposal,flood defences
Hamiltonian Actions and Their Singularities (HAMACSIS)

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-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-08-01
End date: 2010-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 161225.98
EU funding (EUR): 161225.98
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In this project I intend to substantially advance research in different fields in contemporary symplectic geometry. The project is articulated in five sections: A. Singular symplectic and Poisson reduction of cotangent bundles. I will focus in an unfinished topic in the theory of singular reduction: its application to cotangent bundles. I will study the fibered structure of the singular reduced spaces in the Poisson and symplectic cases. B. Singular reduction in generalized complex geometry. In the last two years we have seen a dramatic impulse of the theory of Hamiltonian actions and its reduction theory in generalized complex geometry. I will study the problem of the singular reduction of this geometry. This is a relevant problem that has remained untouched and which is expected to attract strong international scientific efforts in a near future. C. Reduction and groupoids. There is an increasing interest in the reduction theory of Hamiltonian groupoid actions and its relationship with Poisson geometry. I will study these topics in both the regular and singular settings. D. Local geometry of Hamiltonian actions. I will produce a normal form adapted to cotangent-lifted Hamiltonian actions analogous to the Marle-Guillemin-Sternberg normal form for arbitrary symplectic manifolds. This will reflect the original fibered geometry of the cotangent bundle and it will be applied to the study of the local properties of the spaces obtained in A., as well as to the investigation of the local dynamics of symmetric Hamiltonian systems (see E.). Also, I will investigate the existence of such normal forms in Poisson and generalized complex geometries. E. Bifurcations of relative equilibria in Hamiltonian systems. I will apply the results of D. to the qualitative study of the dynamics of Hamiltonian systems of mechanical type. Specifically, it is to be expected that the fibered geometry of the normal form obtained in D. will be crucial to the study of their bifurcations.

Keywords: differential geometry,symplectic geometry,poisson geometry,generalized complex geometry,hamiltonian actions,momentum maps,reduction,groupoids,singularities,relative equilibria,normal forms
Meta-rules and constitutional law: 'co-regulating' legislative processes in Europe? (METARULES)

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: Belgium
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-03-01
End date: 2010-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 148556.7
EU funding (EUR): 148556.7
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Given the fundamental importance of legislation to society, legal scholarship has generated remarkably few insights into the norms that effectively govern legislative processes. Between the extra-legal constraints traditionally studied by political science and the formal constitutional framework that is the territory of constitutional law scholarship, a grey area of seemingly bureaucratic rules on lawmaking can be identified. This project refers to these rules as ‘meta-rules’ and aims to analyse the way they interact with constitutional law. The recent proliferation of ‘Better Regulation’ policies in Europe has led to a convergence of meta-rules applied in different legislative arenas and to a growing salience of these norms. Many meta-rules overlap with constitutional norms in terms of subject matter, for instance the issue of who gets access to the legislative process. However, these rules are inspired by the paradigm of the regulatory state rather than by the traditional rationale of democratic lawmaking. An example of a meta-rule is ‘a legislative proposal can only be put forward if it is accompanied by an impact assessment’. Such a requirement follows a different logic than the assumption that ‘the sovereign parliament can initiate laws as it sees fit’ which is often part of traditional constitutional frameworks. Are meta-rules as they emerge from increased transnational cooperation in the framework of EU ‘Better Regulation’ capable of overriding the formal constitutional rules and principles in certain cases? Or do they instead facilitate their implementation in the day-to-day practice of lawmaking? It is proposed to combine macro-level research on meta-rules by expanding existing databases on regulatory policies in Europe with more detailed case-study based analysis. In doing so traditional methods such as elite interviewing and textual interpretation will be combined with methods that are new to legal research, such as quantitative textual analysis.

Keywords: constitutional law,comparative law,regulatory policy,regulation,legislative studies,legal research methodology,public administration