Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Understanding the physiological and pathological relevance of liquid-liquid phase separation by synuclein family of proteins (SynDrops)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Denmark
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2022-06-01
End date: 2024-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 230774.4
EU funding (EUR): 230774.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Proteins are among the most essential molecules of life. In recent times, it has been discovered that proteins can undergo liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) to form highly efficient droplet reservoirs for its functionality. However, these concentrated protein droplets can also lead to pathological protein aggregation and toxic amyloid fibril formation. One such example is α-synuclein (α-Syn), which can undergo LLPS-mediated amyloid aggregation associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD) pathogenesis. The physiological and pathological relevance of α-Syn LLPS remains elusive in the context of many biological factors such as familial mutations, presence of other synucleins, protein modifications and lipid membrane interaction. All of these factors significantly modulate the aggregation of monomeric α-Syn in solution. In this proposal, I aim to elucidate and quantify the effects of these mentioned in vivo relevant factors on the phase separation of α-Syn in a high throughput (HTP) and quantitative manner. While my work was the first to show that α-Syn can undergo LLPS; the host laboratory has developed a microfluidics based HTP method perfectly suited for protein LLPS related research. During the course of this project I will get trained on this particular technique along with several other sophisticated instruments. The outcome of this project will significantly help to elucidate the molecular origins of PD and provide important insights with respect to the onset time and progression of PD pathology, which is currently poorly understood. The knowledge obtained from this study will have crucial impact on the European society and the results might also be of interest to the pharmaceutical industries to effectively design new drugs against the progression of PD pathology in the long run.

Keywords: liquid liquid phase separation,synuclein,parkinson s disease,mutation
Diversity Outside In: A new era in musculoskeletal modelling by integrating in-vivo parameters to reflect human heterogeneity. (Diversity Outside In)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Products and Processes Engineering
Panel description: Product and process design, chemical, civil, environmental, mechanical, vehicle engineering, energy processes and relevant computational methods
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2025-STG, 2025)
Start date: 2025-12-01
End date: 2030-11-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1961917.0
EU funding (EUR): 1961917.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Musculoskeletal disorders, affecting muscles, bones, joints, and associated tissues, are the leading cause of disability worldwide today. To guide professionals in preventing and treating musculoskeletal disorders, musculoskeletal models serve as powerful tools. Given that these disorders present differently between sexes and throughout the lifespan, it is crucial to include model parameters that reflect this diversity. However, while it is widely recognized in medicine and science that women and men are not simply scaled versions of one another, the field of biomechanics still relies on linear scaling of musculoskeletal models based on male bone geometry and mixed-sex muscle parameters. Datasets or models capturing the relationship of model parameters across sex, age, and genetic background are lacking, leading to incorrect personalized models. I propose to develop an innovative methodology for rapidly generating accurate, personalized musculoskeletal models that account for age and sex-specific variations. To this end, I will pioneer a highly challenging and unique experimental setup and collect data that spans both demographic factors and multiple levels of model parameters from in-vivo measurements in a population study. With this, I will develop the first musculoskeletal models in which age and sex differences are accurately represented. I propose a morphometric scaling technique, which is a novel approach, integrating full-body shape data with demographic information, to enable rapid and accessible generation of these accurate personalized models. This will set a new standard for both practical applications and research settings. Finally, these models will be used in simulations to explore how age- and sex-related differences impact musculoskeletal loading during movement. Understanding how age-sex differences affect movement and musculoskeletal loading, will guide the design of equitable rehabilitation, physical labour, prevention, and performance program.

Keywords: biomechanics
Nanoplatforms and Oncolytic viruses for novel cancer immunotherapy strategies (INTRABRAIN)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Doctoral Networks
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Netherlands,Italy,Finland,Israel,Germany,France,Spain,United Kingdom
Call: MSCA Doctoral Networks 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-DN-01, 2024)
Start date: 2026-01-01
End date: 2029-12-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4441855.42
EU funding (EUR): 4304893.68
Participants: 13
Project status: SIGNED

Immunotherapy is a potential key weapon in the fight against cancer, in general, and Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM), in particular. Still, a better understanding of how immunotherapy can be leveraged in GBM patients is direly needed. Disease complexity and blood-brain barrier impermeability mean that a standard vaccinology approach will not work. As part of a novel cancer management strategy, this project aims to create more efficacious vaccines using polymeric nanoparticles and self-assembled nanoplatforms in combination with modified oncolytic viruses. We will use biodegradable nanomaterials to protect the OV from body clearance and exploit the intranasal route for efficient delivery to the brain. We will incorporate the IL12 gene into a recombinant adenovirus vector backbone, which will stay under the nanoparticle protection until the drug reaches the tumour microenvironment and is released to reverse tumour-induced immunosuppression. This new strategy offers an efficient alternative to the current standard-of care - i.e. labour-intensive immunotherapy and possibly chemoradiation. The development of an off-the-shelf product, which provides additional anti-tumoral effects at different levels, would significantly prolong the life expectancy of GBM patients. This bioprocess would be scalable for production and compatible with Good Manufacturing Practices. The administration strategies, safety and efficacy of the anti-cancer agent will be validated in animal GBM models. The main training objective is to educate a strongly needed generation of interdisciplinary specialists in tight collaboration with large pharmacological industries, academia, and clinical centres. This will not only educate 14 outstanding early-stage researchers, but also greatly enhance their career perspectives through the unique opportunity to conduct transdisciplinary research and embark on a high-quality training in both academic and entrepreneurial industrial environments.

Keywords: immunotherapy,biodegradable nanoparticles,oncolytic virus,encapsulation,glioblastoma
Global Response Against Superbugs and Pathogens (GRASP)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Staff Exchanges
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: France,Germany,Denmark,United States,United Kingdom,Central African Republic,South Africa,Finland,Sweden
Call: MSCA Staff Exchanges 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-SE-01, 2024)
Start date: 2026-01-01
End date: 2029-12-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1295442.86
EU funding (EUR): 1282560.0
Participants: 15
Project status: SIGNED

The emergence and spread of AMR are major socio-economic problems in Europe and worldwide. The epidemic of antibiotic-resistant pathogens, particularly in healthcare settings, is associated with increased costs in terms of economic losses and human suffering, as well as increased rates of mortality and morbidity. Moreover, the United Nations has recently reported that the diversity and abundance of environmental antimicrobial resistance genes are also modulated by climate change, as increased temperature acts as a driver of AMR by modulating bacterial growth, metabolism, mutation rates, and horizontal gene transfer. The GRASP project will address the AMR crisis at several different levels. We will develop different synergistic approaches to target AMR including chemical biology of essential enzymes and virulent factors, drug repurposing, and phage therapy. Moreover, to understand the emergence and spreading of AMR, we are particularly interested in understanding how DNA repair defects can drive the emergence of AMR in the clinical strains of Mycobacterium and Helicobacter pylori. Finally, we are also interested in developing concrete case studies with more applied interest e.g in AMR stewardship, and the development of new computational and AI-based models as well as experimental devices to study the emergence of AMR in Nature and clinics. The highly complementary GRASP consortium includes specific expertise provided by leading European, North American, and African partners that will together build synergistic interactions to address the global health crisis. The private sector will actively provide supervision, mentoring, and various expertise in lab automation, nanofabrication, scientific instrumentation, AI methods, and computational biology. GRASP will thus provide researchers and technicians with new skill sets to advance their career perspectives and networking opportunities.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance,antimicrobial strategies,genome evolution,phage therapy,business case studies,global south
AUTOMATED CLINICAL PLATFORM FOR PERSONALIZED ANTIBIOTHERAPY IN CRITICAL UNITS BASED ON SURFACE ENHANCEMENT RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY (ACU-SERS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Transition
Destination: Challenges
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Denmark
Call: EIC Transition Challenge: Full scale Micro-Nano-Bio devices for medical and medical research applications (HORIZON-EIC-2023-TRANSITION-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-05-01
End date: 2027-04-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499997.5
EU funding (EUR): 2499997.5
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Sepsis is a leading cause of death in hospitals resulting in ~700k deaths in Europe each year. Patients urgently require critical care and are admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU), where they are treated with antibiotics. However, antibiotic dosing is inappropriate in ~50% of sepsis patients, causing poor clinical outcomes due to increased adverse events, (neuro)toxicity and contributing to antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic dosing can be significantly improved through therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), but current workflows for drug quantification in clinics and ICU are slow, expensive, and inflexible, which have greatly limited TDM implementation. We develop ACU-SERS: a first-in-class, highly flexible, fast, and cost-effective system that fully automates the biological sample pre-treatment, analyte separation and analysis and provides a quantitative antibiotic drug level concentration in ~15 minutes. ACU-SERS' breakthrough technology combines centrifugal microfluidics with an integrated surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) chip to perform label-free, rapid detection and quantification in an easy-to-use benchtop device. Based on the H2020 SERSing project, this project builds on developing the Raman-based analyser device and the optimal cartridge, as well as validating the scalability of the product and the system with clinical samples. From the commercial side, we will validate the commercial potential of our solution, found a spin-off company to commercialize the technology, and make it investment-ready. We envision that the spin-off will generate early revenues from direct sales in our initial target markets within the EU. After demonstrating market traction, we will seek to close a global distribution deal with a large diagnostics company for the TDM antibiotic market. Revenues will be reinvested to adapt ACU-SERS for TDM applications in other potential markets, such as antiepileptics, immunosuppressants and applications in pharmaceutical research.

Keywords: therapeutic drug monitoring,sers,sepsis,antibiotics,microfluidics,point of care
Exotic quantum states by locally-broken inversion symmetry in extreme conditions. (Ixtreme)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Condensed Matter Physics
Panel description: Structure, electronic properties, fluids, nanosciences, biological physics
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2023-COG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-12-01
End date: 2029-11-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2731250.0
EU funding (EUR): 2731250.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Strong correlations between electrons in solids lead to a variety of exotic quantum states like Mott insulator, unconventional high-Tc or odd-parity superconductivity. The groundbreaking discoveries of these states have not only generated huge advances in our understanding of condensed matter but also uncover a great potential for applications such as room-temperature superconductivity or quantum computing. Symmetry is an important concept in classifying quantum states. So far, the majority of research has focused on global symmetry. I have recently discovered striking experimental evidence that local inversion symmetry breaking opens up a new route for the appearance of novel quantum states of matter. Namely, it can induce novel types of odd-parity superconductivity with possibly topological character, a much-needed state for topological quantum computing. However, the effect of local inversion symmetry breaking on quantum states still lacks our control and understanding. In the Ixtreme project, I propose to generalise and exploit this concept by investigating materials with locally broken inversion symmetry as a platform of exotic quantum states. By measuring electric and thermal transport as well as magnetic properties in extreme conditions of very low temperature, high magnetic field and high hydrostatic and uniaxial pressure, the Ixtreme team will study and control the delicate interplay of local inversion-symmetry breaking with correlated electrons, magnetic and orbital degrees of freedom, topology, and superconductivity. Thereby, this project will establish new understanding of the physical properties of this promising novel class of unconventional metals and lead to new design methodologies for emergent states such as odd-parity superconductivity in locally non-centrosymmetric correlated electron systems.

Keywords: unconventional superconductivity,strongly correlated systems,extreme conditions,pressure
Late life-applicable enhancement of longevity and fitness. (LifeLongFit)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing
Panel description: Organ and tissue physiology, comparative physiology, physiology  of ageing , pathophysiology, inter - organ and tissue communication, endocrinology, nutrition,  metabolism, interaction with the microbiome, non -communicable diseases including cancer (and except disorders of the nervous system  and immunity -related diseases)
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2022-COG, 2022)
Start date: 2023-11-01
End date: 2028-10-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2000000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2000000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Aging represents gradual organismal decline driven by accumulation of cellular and molecular damages including DNA damage and metabolic failures. At young and middle age, these damages are mitigated by tailored repair systems, such as autophagy and DNA damage response. The repairs can be triggered through adaptive stress responses induced by anti-aging interventions such as dietary restriction (DR) and DR mimetic metformin. Recently, we found that loss of metabolic plasticity and repair activities due to aging abrogate longevity benefits of adaptive stressors at old age. Specifically, we found that aging-linked failures of mitochondria and lipid catabolism limit metformin benefits and confer metformin toxicity in late life, and others showed comparable limitations for DR and exercise. Our findings demonstrate that anti-aging treatments do lose efficacy in old organisms, and new approaches are required to promote healthy aging in late life. Here, we will use multi-omics, and functional tests in C. elegans, short-lived killifish and long-lived mammals to (a) probe the origin of aging-linked adaptive failures and (b) find molecular and therapeutic solutions for overcoming these failures. Omics tests and survival screens will be used to uncover mechanisms of intrinsic resilience against late life toxicity of metformin and other adaptive stressors in nematodes. Additional omics data will be analyzed to probe adaptive basis of the exceptional mammalian longevity in NMR and whale, followed by attempted replication of uncovered differences in shorter-lived species (nematodes and fish) by drugs and gene changes, with an outlook of triggering superior stress resilience and metabolic plasticity in late life. Our expertise will allow testing late life responses to diverse adaptive interventions from moderate genotoxic stress to DR mimetics and microbiome manipulation. This innovative program will illuminate novel treatments for healthy longevity that are not limited by aging.

Keywords: adaptive stress responses,metabolic plasticity,mitochondria,lipid metabolism
Enlightening the dark side of the phosphorus cycle in terrestrial ecosystems: Turnover of organic phosphorus in soils (PHOSCYCLE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Earth System Science
Panel description: Physical geography, geo logy, geophysics, atmospheric sciences, oceanography, climatology, cryology, ecology, global environmental change, biogeochemical cycles, natural resources management
Countries involved: Sweden
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2021-COG, 2021)
Start date: 2022-10-01
End date: 2027-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1930839.0
EU funding (EUR): 1930839.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Phosphorus (P) is a macronutrient whose availability strongly affects many processes in terrestrial ecosystems. P is recycled through organic P (OP) decomposition, resulting in the generation of inorganic P available for plant uptake. Despite the importance of this process for P cycling and other related biogeochemical cycles, our understanding of OP decomposition is to date very poor, largely due to the lack of methods to determine the decomposition and turnover of OP in soils. In PHOSCYCLE, I will develop a novel approach to study the decomposition and turnover of OP in soils. I will lead my team to develop compound-specific isotope methods to analyze the isotope signature of carbon (C) in OP compounds, enabling us to determine for the first time the isotope signature of all important phosphomono- and diesters present in soils. We will utilize these new methods that make use of different C isotopes to quantify the decomposition rate and turnover time of OP compounds in comparison to the soil total organic C pool and non-phosphorylated organic compounds in soils on three continents under various forms of land use. In addition, we will establish how OP quality and soil minerals affect the sorption and persistence of OP in soils. Finally, we will model the turnover of the soil total OP pool as well as the cycling of P between soil and plants in a large range of ecosystems, revealing how soil OP turnover affects P cycling in these ecosystems. Besides leading to a step-change in the way we study and understand the P cycle in terrestrial ecosystems, PHOSCYCLE will also provide a new starting point for our understanding of soil organic matter dynamics and interactions between element cycles in terrestrial ecosystems.

Keywords: element cycling,soil organic matter,phosphorus cycle