Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Novel Fish Pathogens of the Chlamydiae: Genomic, Proteomic and Metabolomic Investigations (CHLAFISH)

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-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-04-01
End date: 2015-10-23
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 248451.4
EU funding (EUR): 248451.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Chlamydia trachomatis is a devastating human pathogen, causing blindness, infertility and systemic disease; related Chlamydia bacteria cause respiratory infections and pre-term abortions in other vertebrates. These bacteria all have an intricate intracellular lifecycle. Recent in depth genomic studies on Chlamydia trachomatis have provided insights into how this species uses recombination to increase its potential for diversity. Recent studies in fish, both wild and farmed, have discovered new, related pathogens within the phylum Chlamydiae. The presence of these infectious bacteria impacts on the health of fish in aquaculture, which is a growing industry of key importance for meeting global food demands. Further studies into these emerging pathogens are required. We propose to perform large scale genomic analyses similar to those used with other Chlamydia species, using novel bacterial isolation technologies and high throughput sequencing. We aim to characterise selected strains using state of the art proteomics and metabolomics technologies. We also aim to develop methods for growing these currently uncultured bacteria, to allow further investigations in vitro. These aims can only be achieved through a combination of the expertise of the researcher, and the technology and background knowledge of the host institution. The researcher brings genomic experience, and a newly developed bacterial isolation technique, and will receive training in novel methodologies to complement existing skills. Both the researcher and host will provide collaborations for the project, including new intra-European and global contacts. Through this process we aim to get a greater insight into the evolution and diversity of these fascinating intracellular bacteria, to learn more about their infection of fish with a view to reducing disease burden, and to build a basis upon which we can begin to define diagnostic and treatment targets to benefit the European aquaculture industry.

Keywords: l201 genomics - comparative genomics - functional genomics,l203 proteomics,l204 metabolomics,l809 prokaryotic biology,v402 aquaculture - fisheries,evolution,intracellular,infection,culture,pathogen
Active Site Repurposing – computational design of new enzyme functionalities by emulating nature (ASR-COMPENZDES)

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: Austria
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IOF, 2012)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2017-12-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 261326.4
EU funding (EUR): 261326.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Computational enzyme design challanges our understanding of molecular enzymology and recognition and has previously been used to generate functional biocatalysts for a hand full of reactions. However, thus far all computationally designed enzymes showed low catalytic efficiency when compared to naturally occurring ones. Evolutionary, new enzyme functions are introduced into nature by amino acid sequence optimization. This is facilitated via repurposing the catalytic machinery of an existing active site from an enzyme with a specific function, for a new/different reaction. Here I propose the utilization of already characterized catalytic geometries derived from natural enzymes for computational enzyme design. Using these machineries for the design of non-natural reactions, I want to redesign mono- and dinuclear metalloenzymes for the catalysis of a nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction. In particular, we want to design an enzyme that catalyzes the dechlorination of the herbicidal compound atrazine, which was shown to accumulate in soil and ground water and was correlated to increased risk of cancer. The project will involve the construction of a structural database exclusively comprising scaffolds of mononuclear zinc enzymes. The rmaining stages will include calculation and construction of a substrate model, which recapitulates the transition state of the reaction, the actual design calculations as well as computational and rational evaluations thereof. Subsequently, the best designs as judged from calculated energy and chemical intuition, will be experimentally tested. Two already established assays to test for atrazine dechlorination activity are available and will be used to complete this task. If necessary, directed evolution methods will be used to enhance the levels of catalytic efficiency of the designed enzymes. During the return phase, structure determination of active designs in an apo and substrate bound form will be performed.

Keywords: l211 computational biology,l107 structural biology,l106 biophysics,l210 bioinformatics,l816 environmental biotechnology - bioremediation - biodegradation,l101 molecular biology and interactions
Near Hydrodynamic Type Systems in 2 +1 Dimensions (HYDRON)

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-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-06-01
End date: 2015-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 161968.8
EU funding (EUR): 161968.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Systems of hydrodynamic type are first-order quasi-linear PDEs (partial differential equations). Their solutions are generically singular. As certain limits of more general nonlinear PDEs, modelling e.g. the evolution of physical systems, they describe critical phenomena, like shock waves. An embedding in (or deformation to) a more general nonlinear PDE typically "regularises" such a critical phenomenon and introduces specific features. The question how such a catastrophe becomes noticeable near a corresponding critical event is of uttermost importance, in particular for its prediction in nature. Moreover, explorations in 1+1 space-time dimensions led to a conjecture (Boris Dubrovin, 2006) of a universal behavior of solutions near such critical events, governed by an exceptional class of differential equations, the Painleve equations. In this project, hydrodynamic-type systems are addressed as limiting cases of integrable PDEs, for which a large class of exact solutions can be constructed and powerful analytical methods are available. It concentrates on equations in 2+1 space-time dimensions, which in this respect is fairly unexplored terrain. Three complementary methods are employed for a corresponding exploration: hydrodynamic reductions, bidifferential calculus, and numerical analysis in the critical regime.

Keywords: m112 partial differential equations,m113 mathematical physics,m117 numerical analysis and scientific computing,p114 non-linear physics
Nonlinearity-assisted Optical Focusing and Imaging Deep Inside Scattering Media (NOLIMIT)

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-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-06-01
End date: 2015-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 269743.8
EU funding (EUR): 269743.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Focusing light to the (sub)micron scale is the enabling element in many important biomedical and industrial applications, such as optical microscopy and laser nano-surgery. However, the inherent inhomogeneity of biological tissues induces light scattering which limits effective focusing to shallow depths of a few hundred microns. As a result, optical microscopy, perhaps the most important tool in biological discovery and medical investigation, is currently restricted to superficial investigation. Nevertheless, recent results have shown that the effects of such “random” scattering can be undone, controlled, and even exploited by high-resolution wavefront shaping. The goal of this project is to use these novel insights to break the resolution limit of deep-tissue optical techniques, and enable controlled sub-micron focusing and microscopic imaging deep in scattering media. This ambitious goal will be achieved by combining the powerful techniques of the emerging field of “wavefront shaping” where leading contributions have been made by the applicant and the host, with the penetration depth allowed by photoacoustics, field in which the host has a world-leading expertise. We will be able to go beyond the acoustic wavelength resolution limit of photoacoustics by exploiting nonlinear photoacoustic effects as the control signal for adaptive light focusing, an original insight discovered by the joint work of the applicant and the host in the last few months. Achieving the project’s goal would be both a scientific and technological breakthrough as well as a having a huge potential impact on societal issues, with the hope of substituting invasive biopsy procedures and allowing imaging through complex samples in industry.

Keywords: p108 optics and quantum optics,p110 acoustics,p304 spectroscopic and spectrometric techniques
Probing the influence of the graphene-metal interaction on the electronic and magnetic properties of nearly free standing graphene (ELECTROMAGRAPHENE)

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-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-05-01
End date: 2015-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 161968.8
EU funding (EUR): 161968.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Exploring the effects of the interaction of graphene with different materials is an interesting topic from a fundamental point of view and also for future applications of this new material. The research project exposed below proposes to study newly emerging properties of graphene when it is combined with other materials. The starting point will be to obtain high quality graphene monolayers in a way that they are as much as possible decoupled from their environment. Then such nearly free standing graphene will be combined under controlled conditions with others materials and the way these materials affect the electronic structure of graphene will be investigated. In the present research plan three examples of such graphene hybrid systems are of interest. First, we will study the effect of an isolated cluster composed of metallic adatoms on the electronic properties of a graphene monolayer. Scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements will be performed to extract information about the local effect of the clusters on the properties of graphene and about the binding of the clusters to graphene. Second, the possibility of achieving the controlled tune of the magnetic properties of graphene by combining it with others materials will be explored. Interestingly, it is well known that f-orbitals of rare earth elements, which exhibit high magnetic moments, do not tend to hybridize with pz-orbitals of graphene. Thus, the intercalation of layers of rare earth elements is proposed in order to achieve “ferromagnetic” graphene by inducing a spin split Dirac cone. The combination of STM/STS with X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) with spin resolution is ideal for this study. Finally, if this ferromagnetic graphene is achieved the study of the properties of Rh magnetic clusters adsorbed on it will be performed by XMCD and also by spìn resolved ARPES.

Keywords: graphene,intercalation,sts,clusters,magnetism
Power networks and fractured modernities: a political history and geography of electrification in Palestine-Israel (FABRIC OF LIFE)

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: Belgium
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IOF, 2012)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2017-01-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 267551.4
EU funding (EUR): 267551.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This research project investigates the ways in which electrification, and the ‘roll out’ of electricity infrastructures, comes to matter socially, politically, economically and spatially both symbolically and as a set of materials. An interdisciplinary analytical focus on how these ‘large technical systems’ are constructed and used in Palestine-Israel offers a powerful way of thinking about electricity as a complex assemblage of actors, agents and processes that connect to, and drive, much debated processes of colonialism, modernity, statecraft and uneven development. The focus on electricity brings an unexplored and fascinating reading of the past and present history of Palestine-Israel. Drawing on insights from a variety of disciplinary perspectives –ranging from social studies of technology, urban studies or political economy to postcolonial studies— this project seeks to: (a) document, analyze and produce an innovative history of Palestine-Israel in which electrification and the development of electricity grids play a central role in directing, organizing and shaping space and everyday life; (b) address the actual theoretical and empirical lacunae on electrification and electricity infrastructure in both Middle East Studies and social science research focusing on infrastructure; and (c) develop a conceptualization of electricity that destabilizes and reconfigures existing boundaries between technology and society, the material and the symbolic or the human and non human and how this particular electric assemblage is territorialized in Palestine-Israel. The approach advanced in this project provides a timely corrective to area studies –Middle East and Palestine-Israel—largely defined (understandably) by geopolitics and violence, offering instead an approach that allows for careful consideration of what might be learned from the seemingly mundane ‘things’ that still today connect (albeit selectively) spaces and populations otherwise increasingly divided.

Keywords: soc: geography,middle east studies,infrastructure,electrification,sts,political economy,postcolonialism,palestine-israel,archival research
Probing the tissue microenvironment of tumours by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (PTMETMRI)

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-2012-IIF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-06-06
End date: 2015-06-05
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231283.2
EU funding (EUR): 231283.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Many childhood brain tumour patients currently have low prognosis. The introduction and combination of new non-invasive MRI techniques to investigate tumour micro-environment may hold the key to increasing the accuracy of determining prognosis and treatment response. Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) provides information on the cellularity of tissue based on the mean apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), and this has been used to describe tumour tissue structure. More recently the mean ADC has been shown to be the combination of different components, fast and slow, and these components may give more insight into tissue structure than ADC alone. Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) provides information of metabolites within the tissue, and metabolite profiles have been shown to be a strong characteristic of brain tumour type. However MRS can also be used to probe tissue micro-environment, such as temperature, and this provides another means of investigating tumours. The relative change in metabolite concentrations over different MRS echo times can be used to measure the relaxation properties (T2) and which are dependent upon molecular environment. The combination of these measurements to provide increased prognosis accuracy and measure treatment response will be investigated. The combination of MRS and DWI for diagnosis potential has been investigated, however using micro-environmental probes, diffusion components, temperature and T2 relaxation, is novel and will provide vital information gained non-invasively, which will potentially change patient treatment and outcomes. The study proposed aims to assess the tumour micro-environment thoroughly through MRS and DWI.

Keywords: mri,mrs,tumour,diffusion,temperature,calibration,adc,choline,creatine,water
Hypothesis generation, evaluation and testing: An organic, developmental perspective (H-GET)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Outgoing Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IOF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-12-01
End date: 2016-11-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 252742.2
EU funding (EUR): 252742.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Hypothesis generation, evaluation and testing are crucial components of many everyday tasks. They are fundamental processes not only for experts, such as clinicians, who are responsible of generating possible hypothesis explaining a cluster of symptoms, prior to evaluate them and finally issue diagnosis. We are continuously asked to generate hypothesis about alternative causes (e.g., "Why is my baby crying?"), and very likely the composition of this set – sometimes not generated but externally given – critically influence the chosen course of action (e.g., "Shall I feed him? Is she sick?"). However, hypothesis generation, hypothesis evaluation and hypothesis testing have never been thoroughly analyzed as three building blocks of a same process. In particular, only little attention has been paid to how the initial set of alternative generated/given hypotheses, together with their judged probability, influences the hypothesis testing strategies, in terms of search for information and inquiring strategies. Analyzing this complex process from a developmental perspective will help us disentangling the knowledge and the cognitive components of the process. This insight, together with an attempt to design both a descriptive and a prescriptive model of the organic process from the hypothesis generation phase to the solution, will allow us to develop interventions, especially in education.

Keywords: s202 human life-span development,s204 clinical and experimental psychology,s213 education
Epidemiology and control of tuberculosis in the antiretroviral therapy era: towards a mathematical model for Cape Town, South Africa (TECOARTE)

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: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IOF, 2012)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2017-02-28
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 179475.3
EU funding (EUR): 179475.3
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The resurgence of tuberculosis (TB) has been underway for almost 20 years, and despite increasingly implemented comprehensive control strategies, the epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa is continuing to expand. There is an urgent need to elucidate the reasons underlying the failing of TB control and to develop innovative public health approaches. This proposal aims to use a variety of epidemiologic methods to describe the local TB epidemic and its drivers, and to determine the potential impact of different public health interventions in Cape Town, South Africa. State-of-the-art statistical techniques will be used to perform an in-depth analysis of all TB cases in Cape Town in the last decade. These data will be used to develop and validate a mathematical model of the local TB epidemic. Projections of this model will be used to estimate the future impact of new and redesigned public health strategies for TB control. This fellowship will provide an opportunity for the fellow to expand her epidemiological and statistical skills, to broaden her expertise in TB and HIV co-infection research, to gain experience in multidisciplinary collaborations including with regional health authorities and to further develop her transferable skills. The experience and training acquired by this fellowship will establish her as an independent scientist, and will enable her to do high-quality multidisciplinary and collaborative research going forward.

Keywords: l709 public health and epidemiology
Regional Absorptive Capacity and the Contribution of Multinational Corporations to Knowledge Production in the Local Economy within a Developing Economy Context: The Case of China (RACCOM)

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: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IOF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2015-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 266506.8
EU funding (EUR): 266506.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Geographers, economists, and planners have recently begun to emphasise knowledge production as an important source of both regional and national economic growth. In this context, the subsidiary of a multinational corporation (MNC) can be seen as a conduit for the importation of superior knowledge. In developing countries, where knowledge bases are weaker than in advanced economies, MNCs are often expected to be a primary source of innovation. This study examines whether this view is supported by the evidence based on an analysis of China. This research distinguishes itself from the existing literature by focusing on (1) a region (rather than a firm) as a unit of knowledge absorption and (2) knowledge flow as such, rather than its outcomes (such as productivity improvement). The project’s objective is twofold. First, it measures an MNC subsidiary’s contribution to local knowledge production and compares it against that of local firms. Second, it explains the difference among cities’ and regions’ ability to learn from MNC subsidiaries using an econometric model.

Keywords: e113 urban and regional economics,localised knowledge spillovers,patenting,innovation,regional innovation system,foreign direct investment,china,regional absorptive capacity