Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Analysis of the correlation between fitness and resistance in Staphylococcus aureus (COFIRE)

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-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-10-28
End date: 2015-10-27
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 299558.4
EU funding (EUR): 299558.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have become a severe problem in healthcare institutions since the introduction of penicillinase-resistant beta-lactam antibiotics in clinics. Currently, the overall proportion of invasive MRSA seems to have stabilised in Europe due to extensive efforts made in general antibiotic administration and treatment management. However, the resistance rate is still over 25 % in more than a forth of the monitored countries, coming close to 50 % in some cases, and needs a continuous effort to implement measurements for a long-lasting decrease. Importantly, over the last decade, faster growing but less resistant MRSA started to spread into the community, which to a certain extent seem to infiltrate the human population from husbandry and domestic animal reservoirs. The fitness and virulence of those so called community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) is increased compared to hospital-acquired MRSA (HA-MRSA). Therefore, community associated strains have become a threat even for the healthy population. Increased competitiveness of MRSA strains is often accompanied by decreased methicillin resistance levels. The genetic or epigenetic reasons for this phenomenon are not yet fully understood. Here we want to identify and characterise factors influencing methicillin resistance, fitness and virulence by analysing genes affecting methicillin resistance levels and by determining differences in the RNome and metabolome of near isogenic HA- and CA-MRSA strains using state of the art technologies. Thereby, this project will contribute to the fundamental knowledge of the correlation of fitness, virulence and resistance, allowing the development of new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of MRSA infections.

Keywords: l607 microbiology,staphylococcus aureus,methicillin resistance,rnome,metabolome,fitness,virulence
Biochemical characterization of RNA silencing mechanisms and their alteration by viral proteins in plant cell-free systems (TIPTGSVSR)

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: Switzerland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IIF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-03-01
End date: 2015-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 184709.4
EU funding (EUR): 184709.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Posttranscriptional gene silencing (PTGS) is a form of small (s)RNA-mediated gene regulation with important roles in development, stress responses, and antiviral defense in plants. PTGS effectors, called RNA-induced silencing complexes (RISCs), have ARGONAUTE (AGO) proteins bound to single-stranded (ss) guide sRNAs as core components. RISCs recognize target RNA displaying complementarity to guide sRNAs, and inactivate them by endonucleolytic cleavage (or ‘slicing’) or by slicer-independent translational repression. A precise dissection of the underlying mechanisms has been, however, hampered by a lack of plant cell-free systems allowing reconstruction of key PTGS steps in vitro. Recently, a cell-free AGO1-RISC assembly system was developed in Japan, using extracts from evacuolated tobacco BY-2 protoplasts (BYL) and allowed to establish that AGO1-RISC assembly relies on molecular chaperoning by HSP90 and co-factor CYP40. The proposed project will further deepen the understanding of plant RISC assembly mechanisms and decipher the molecular underpinnings of other PTGS steps including Dicer processing and RISC-mediated translational repression. In parallel, the BYL system will be used to investigate, in a strict comparative manner, the direct targets and modes of action of several plant viral suppressors of RNA silencing (VSRs). These proteins have been studied so far mostly in transgenic plants, where feedback PTGS regulations, intrinsically variable VSR expression levels and indirect effects have led to an inaccurate- and sometimes contradictory- view of their action. BYL will bypass these caveats and improve our knowledge of VSRs on antiviral silencing, but also of PTGS, as VSRs will be used to stabilize transient, and thus far inaccessible forms of protein-protein and protein-RNA complexes. Knowledge on plant cell-free systems implemented via the proposed project will finally contribute to European excellence and competitiveness in the field.

Keywords: l101 molecular biology and interactions,l206 molecular genetics - reverse genetics and rnai,post-transcriptional gene silencing (ptgs),viral suppressor of rna silencing (vsr)
From geodesic rays in spaces of Kähler metrics to the Hele-Shaw flow (GEODESICRAYS)

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-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-10-01
End date: 2015-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231283.2
EU funding (EUR): 231283.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Very recently Dr. Julius Ross at the Univ. of Cambridge and I found a striking connection between geodesic rays in spaces of Kähler metrics and the Hele-Shaw flow (Laplacian growth). By this connection both have a similar interpretation as certain families of embedded holomorphic curves attached along their boundaries to a Lagrangian submanifold. The first objective is to develop the regularity theory of the Hele-Shaw flow (Laplacian growth) using techniques from the theory of moduli spaces of embedded holomorphic curves. These are powerful techniques used with great success in e.g. Gromov-Witten Theory and various Floer theories in symplectic topology. I thus hope to extend the short-time regularity result of Kufarev and Vinogradov, and also gain new insights as to how and when singularities occur. The second objective is to develop the regularity theory for (weak) geodesic rays in spaces of (cohomologically equivalent) Kähler metrics, using the Hele-Shaw flow as a one (complex) dimensional model case. Donaldson, and later Chen and Tian, have successfully applied techniques from the theory of moduli spaces of embedded holomorphic curves to a related problem connected to the regularity of geodesic segments rather than rays. Dr. Ross and I have a preliminary method to adapt some of these techniques to the setting of geodesic rays.
Defining the molecular basis of type 2 diabetes predisposition through targeted sequencing of the CREBBP-interacting gene network (T2DCREBBP)

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-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-05-01
End date: 2015-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 309235.2
EU funding (EUR): 309235.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) represents a major challenge to global health. In recent years, over 60 genetic loci have been confidently implicated in T2D predisposition: however, there has been only limited progress in defining the biological mechanisms responsible. Recent work led by the host institution has revealed that these T2D-associated loci are substantially enriched for genes whose protein products interact with CREBBP, identifying this transcriptional co-activator as a key node linking processes involved in T2D development. The research I propose to conduct aims to explore the overall contribution of the CREBBP interactome in T2D predisposition, through integration of existing and novel genetic data. The former is provided by extensive genome wide association (n~100,000 individuals), exome sequence (n~14,000) and exome chip (n~60,000) available to the host institution; the latter will be generated by the applicant through large-scale (>20,000 individuals), targeted resequencing of genes coding for key CREBBP-interacting proteins. Through these data, I expect to generate a comprehensive evaluation of the genetic evidence linking CREBBP-interacting proteins to T2D pathogenesis, laying the foundation for further functional studies. As well as the intrinsic scientific merit of this proposal, the research outlined will provide extensive training in state-of-the-art experimental and analytical methods in human genetics

Keywords: l210 bioinformatics,l201 genomics - comparative genomics - functional genomics,l202 transcriptomics,l205 glycomics
Testing the cultural hypothesis in wild chimpanzees through the use of tool use and playback field experiments (CHIMPCULT)

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: 2013-10-01
End date: 2015-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 184709.4
EU funding (EUR): 184709.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Recently, determining if the community-specific behavioural patterns observed in apes are equivalent to the differences observed between human groups has proven crucial in understanding the origin of human cultural behaviours. In particular, knowing if the same mechanisms as in humans act to create these different patterns is controversial, because there is no experimental proof that any presumed ape cultural behaviour, notably tool use, has been socially learnt. Another question is: even if these behaviours were cultural, do they really influence apes’ all day-life, as they do for humans? In the proposed studies, the applicant intends to address both questions through the use of field experiments. Field experiments are designed to bring the controlled settings of the laboratory directly in the species’ natural habitat. Several settings will be used, including the honey-trap experiment where apes attempt to retrieve inaccessible honey from a standardised hole and the artificial fruit experiment, where apes attempt to retrieve a food reward from a box. The applicant will seek to seed an extractive behaviour in one chimpanzee group and explore the spread of the behaviour within the group, determining if it was transmitted through individual or social learning processes. Investigating the role of a model will shed light on how social the development of tool use is. Additionally, this proposal attempts to determine the extractive knowledge of wild communities of chimpanzees throughout Uganda, in order to establish their cultural behaviour repertoire. Results will be combined with ecological studies. Finally, the researcher will seek to establish field experiments for social traits such as vocalisations, another side of primate cultures. Combined, the results of these studies will shed light on our own evolution, by isolating what components of human and chimpanzee cultures are common and different, and as such, which were likely present in our last common ancestor.

Keywords: l507 cognition,l806 animal behaviour,s201 evolution of mind and cognitive functions - animal communication
Conservation and management of Mediterranean freshwaters under climate change: An eco-evolutionary and socio-economic modelling framework (ECOEVOLCLIM)

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

There is increasing acceptance of the existence of a bi-directionality that intertwines ecological and evolutionary dynamics on the short time scales most relevant to conservation and management. Climate change and anthropogenic pressures are key drivers and accelerators of the short-term dynamic feedbacks resulting from these bi-directional interactions. Consequently, understanding how rapid climate-driven evolutionary and adaptive processes can influence ecological dynamics is crucial for defining ecosystem conservation and management strategies under ongoing global change. This is particularly relevant in freshwater ecosystems, where the impacts of climate change on ecosystem functioning threaten the implementation of several environmental directives, conventions and protocols, especially the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). The researcher proposes to evaluate how climate change will affect eco-evolutionary dynamic feedbacks under different river basin management scenarios at multiple spatio-temporal scales, using Mediterranean brown trout as model system. This will serve as a basis to simulate the long-term dynamics of biological reference conditions, ecological thresholds, restoration targets, and system recovery trajectories of Mediterranean mountain trout rivers. The researcher will use an innovative multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach, combining (i) statistical modelling of spatio-temporal patterns of climatic events and anthropogenic disturbances, (ii), molecular genetics and (iii) individual-based and eco-evolutionary modelling, to generate new tools for the conservation and management of Mediterranean salmonid freshwater systems under the WFD. The project aims to synthesize and harmonize the links among socio-economy, ecosystem conservation and eco-evolution disciplines into a coordinated and coherent modelling framework, with potential application to complex real-world problems, especially regarding the implementation of the WFD.

Keywords: v101 environment and sustainability,climate change,v308 population dynamics - population genetics,v304 conservation biology - ecology - genetics,water framework directive,ecological economics
Novel mass spectrometry-based integrated analytical platforms for lipidomics studies on blood lipoproteins for cardiovascular disease research (CARDIOBIOLIP)

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: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-05-15
End date: 2015-05-14
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 175974.6
EU funding (EUR): 175974.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Cardiovascular disease (CDV) is a serious health issue and one of the main causes of death in developed countries. The connection between lipids and the disease progress has been established in the past years. Particularly, lipid composition in blood circulating lipoproteins may have a significant correlation with CVD and CVD risk. However, although in the past years lipidomics-based platforms have been developed and mainly focused on the lipid profiling in blood in diverse studies, little attention has been drawn so far to their study according to lipoprotein fractions, which is essential. In this project, the development of an integrated analytical platform will be tackled for the separation of lipoproteins from plasma samples, extraction of lipids in the protein fractions and lipid profiling. Lipoprotein separations by capillary electrophoresis will be coupled on-line to liquid-liquid extraction of lipids and further LC-MS/MS, to constitute the first integrated platform for this type of analysis. The implementation of the platform in a lab-on-a-chip system will be explored for achieving fast, automated, low sample requirement, high-throughput analyses. This will open-up a wide range of analytical possibilities and new insights in the lipid biochemistry in cardiovascular disease. The methodology will be applied for the analysis of plasma blood samples from healthy volunteers and individuals with different degrees of CVD for disease biomarker discovery. Finally, the analysis of samples from tracer-based studies in dynamic systems in mouse models will also be possible. In addition, this will allow studying the effect on drugs on lipid biochemistry, and to fine-tune exciting therapies or to develop new treatment options in CVD.

Keywords: lipidomics,mass spectrometry,cardiovascular disease,lipoproteins,biomarkers,lipids,hyphenated techniques
Global positioning of TFIIIC and its involvement in extra-transcriptional processes (ExtraTF) (EXTRATF)

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: 2013-04-01
End date: 2015-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 161968.8
EU funding (EUR): 161968.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Gene expression is regulated at many levels since changes in the expression pattern of certain genes might lead to the development of diseases such as cancer. Transcription is one of these regulation steps, orchestrated by transcription factors and RNA polymerases. Of these, RNA polymerase III (RNA Pol III) is responsible for transcribing small un-translated RNA molecules, such as tRNA. Transcription Factor (TF) IIIC (TFIIIC) binds to type 2 promoters (consisting of two conserved boxes, A and B), is thought to recruit TFIIIB and subsequently Pol III. Recently, TFIIIC has also been found bound to eight untranscribed B box related sequences, so-called Extra-TFIIIC (ETC) sites, in the absence of TFIIIB and Pol III. Binding of this transcription factor to ETC sites is thought to serve as an anchor point for other proteins, such as proteins involved in chromatin organization and gene silencing. The precise role of TFIIIC in extra transcriptional processes is not clear. The goal of this project is to address this issue by performing in vivo fluorescence cross correlation spectroscopy studies between TFIIIC, ETC sites and other key proteins involved in chromatin organization and transcription. With this method, and by using fluorescently tagged proteins, the interaction between TFIIIC and known and suspected interaction partners will be analysed. In addition, interaction of TFIIIC and ETC sites will be studied, as well as the biological significance of these interactions, by fluorescently tagging the ETC sites. These analyses will be done in a cell cycle dependent manner, to better understand in which cell cycle phase TFIIIC is most important. In summary, this project proposes a global study of the role of TFIIIC in extra-transcriptional processes. Together with biochemical data, it will contribute tor a better understanding of the function of TFIIIC in transcription regulation and of the mis-regulation of Pol III transcription in cancer development.

Keywords: transcription,tfiiic,etc,fccs,fluorescence microscopy,rna polymerase iii
Development of A Portable 3D Deformation Sensor for High Temperature Creep Measurement (HTCSENSOR)

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: 2013-10-31
End date: 2015-10-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231283.2
EU funding (EUR): 231283.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Most of Europe’s power plants have reached or exceeded their 25 year creep design life. Safe extension of operating lifetime requires new inspection techniques that can detect creep damage in service. Researches have shown that, although failures in power plants often have multiple modes, the creep and fatigue are predominant for high temperature components. On the other hand, in order to reduce CO2 emissions and improving the electricity generating efficiency, engineering components are designed to operate at elevated temperature and pressure. It is expected that future power plants will run with steam temperatures up to 700°C in order to achieve thermal efficiencies of ~50%. To ensure the structural integrity of both the existing power plant and the new ones, it is crucial to understand the creep behaviour and measure/monitor the mechanical behaviour of the structures and components at elevated temperature. This proposal aims to develop a portable 3D deformation sensor for high temperature creep (HTC) measurement where direct sensor attachment and human access are difficult or dangerous. Advanced diagnostic algorithms will also be developed to assess the remaining life of the components based on creep measurement results. The technique will also have wide applications in other industrial sectors such as automotive and aerospace sectors. The main objectives of the project are: • To develop an optimised portable 3D deformation sensor for HTC measurement. The issues to be addressed include band-pass filter, illumination, movable platform, and image correction or deblurring algorithms etc. • To develop techniques to fabricate speckle patterns that can survive long-term harsh environment. • To Improve algorithms for accurate measurement of 3D deformation. • To develop algorithms for remaining life assessment based on creep measurement results. • To conduct laboratory tests and mock-up trials to validate the technique.

Keywords: high temperature,creep,digital image correlation,displacement,strain,measurement,test,image distortion,de-blurring,de-convolution,optical