Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
RNA-protein Nanostructures for Synthetic Biology (RNA ORIGAMI)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering
Panel description: Biotechnology using all organisms, biotechnology for environment and food applications, applied plant and animal sciences, bioengineering and synthetic biology, biomass and biofuels, biohazards
Countries involved: Denmark
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2015-CoG, 2015)
Start date: 2016-04-01
End date: 2021-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999935.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999935.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Synthetic biology aims at re-engineering organisms for practical applications by designing novel biomolecular components, networks, and pathways. The field is expected to lead to cheaper drugs, sustainable fuel production, efficient diagnosis and targeted therapies for diseases. However, a major obstacle to achieve these goals is our limited ability to rationally design biomolecular structure and function. By contrast, the field of DNA nanotechnology has so far demonstrated an unprecedented ability to design and self-assemble well-defined molecular shapes, although the production method of thermal annealing is not compatible with cells. We have recently demonstrated a breakthrough method, called RNA origami, which allows the design of RNA molecules that fold into well-defined nanoscale shapes during their synthesis by an RNA polymerase. In this proposal I aim at extending this technology to produce RNA-protein nanostructures and at demonstrating their application in synthetic biology. My primary scientific hypothesis is that understanding the folding process during synthesis will help us to design nanostructures that can be produced in cells. I will design a general RNA-protein architecture that is compatible with folding during synthesis. I will investigate folding kinetics to be able to design and program the dynamical folding process. Based on this, RNA-protein nanostructures will be designed, expressed in cells, and verified, for the formation of the desired shapes. We will develop new functionalities by both rational design and selection approaches with the aim of obtaining multivalent-binding and switching properties. Finally, the functional RNA-protein nanostructures will be applied in proof-of-concept experiments to demonstrate efficient, multivalent targeting of subcellular structures, biosensing of a variety of intracellular analytes, metabolic channeling of biosynthesis pathways, and complex control of transcriptional networks.

Keywords: rna nanotechnology,bionanotechnology,biomolecular nanotechnology
Hierarchical Inorganic Nanomaterials as Next Generation Catalysts and Filters (3Dmaterials4Energy)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Israel
Call: ERC-Proof of Concept-2016 (ERC-2016-PoC, 2016)
Start date: 2017-03-01
End date: 2018-08-31
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In the coming few decades, two major global grand challenges will continue to attract the attention of scientists and engineers in academia and industry: achieving clean water and clean energy. This PoC establishes the development of two prototypes, water oxidation catalyst and water purification filter, by creating inexpensive, abundant and versatile hierarchical structures of inorganic nanomaterials (HSINs). The formation of HSINs has been one of the major obstacles toward achieving a technological progress in various applications. Presently, fabrication of well-defined 3-D structures can be achieved either by photo/electro lithography, assembly, 3D printing or template-mediated methods. Various structures with high quality/yield can be obtained through those techniques, however, these methods suffer from high cost, difficulty of fabrication of free-standing structures, and sometime the throughput is limited. On the other hand, the templated approaches usually are facile, low cost and offer several and complex structures in particular the ones obtained from nature. Our invention is based on forming the HSINs using fossil templates from nature. We propose to harness the naturally designed morphologies of the fossil templates to rationally form hierarchical structures of nanomaterials. These structures have many advantageous, compared to the current state-of-the-art catalyst and filter, for example high surface area, high porosity, confined space (nano-reactor) and divers functionalities obtained by controlling the chemical composition of the inorganic material shell. Since these properties are important for achieving high performance, we propose HSINs as next generation water oxidation electrocatalyst and water purification filter.

Keywords: materials engineering,chemistry,inorganic and organic nanomaterials,fossils templates,renewable energy,catalysis,filters
The Development of a Multiscale Modeling Framework for Investigating Marine Soft Clays (DOMINO)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Reintegration panel
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Sweden
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2018-09-01
End date: 2020-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 185857.2
EU funding (EUR): 185857.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The planning and construction on or in soft marine clays has been proven to remain a challenge for geotechnical engineering. These type of clays are often instable, difficult to characterize and reinforce (i.e. ground improvement), and very common in coastal areas all over the world. The presence of marine soft clays are often the reason for landslides, with hazardous consequences. The complexity of these natural material has hindered the understanding of how macroscopic properties (>meters) such as instability, translates to microscopic (<micrometer) phenomena. As a result, the complex behavior of marine soft clays observed on the continuum scale is not fully understood and the models based on this experimental data are phenomenological. Yet, it is the properties and processes occurring on the microscale that govern the material response properties of these clays. This proposal aims to develop a multiscale framework for investigating marine soft clays. The objectives to reach this aim are the development of an anisotropic aggregation model for clay, the development of simple model materials with well-defined chemical and mechanical properties, and the comparison of these simplified models with naturally occurring soft marine clays. The proposed research use concepts from aggregation theory in combination with simulations of macroscopic material properties such as stiffness, strength and permeability. Experimental methods consists of state-of-the-art material characterization techniques such as: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Relaxometry, Time-Resolved Dynamic Light Scattering, chemical analysis methods and mechanical characterization using advanced Bishop Wesley cells. The planned work is a bottom-up approach, where simple model materials substitute the natural more complex ones and aid the development of multiscale soil constitutive models.

Keywords: marine soft clay,sedimentation,aggregation,nuclear magnetic resonance
Evolving a Home for Nemo: Genomic Consequences and Convergence in a Model Marine Mutualism (ANEMONE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2020-08-01
End date: 2022-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 203149.44
EU funding (EUR): 203149.44
Participants: 1
Project status: TERMINATED

The importance of mutualism is underscored by its ubiquity- virtually all of life engages in complex multi-level mutualisms that critically impact the formation and distribution of biodiversity around the globe. Although general expectations exist, no unifying evolutionary theory of mutualism has been established. Largely impeding a synthetic framework for mutualism are incomplete understandings of individual case studies. No mutualism is perhaps more representative of this than the iconic clownfish-sea anemone symbioses, a model mutualism regularly used for exploring fundamental biological processes, but one in which our understanding remains wildly incomplete due to a lack of research into the evolution of the host anemones. Here I propose to use full genome sequencing to conduct the first genomic investigation into the clownfish-hosting sea anemones. I will test: 1) if mutualistic benefits of hosting clownfishes has led to multiple adaptive radiations in host sea anemones, and are thus more diverse than currently described. 2) Whether the mutualistic benefits of hosting clownfishes led to significant ecological opportunity for host anemones, and thus, signatures of demographic population expansion that coincide with the onset of the symbiosis. 3) Whether mutualism with clownfishes has driven convergent genome evolution and architecture among host anemones. 4) The Red King Hypothesis, which states that mutualistic lineages should have slower rates of molecular evolution than their free living relatives. The proposed research will provide novel insight into this iconic mutualism that will bear on the interpretation of dozens of prior studies that span scientific disciplines. Fully disentangling the evolutionary implications of mutualism in this symbiosis will provide critical comparative data from the marine environment in order to more fully evaluate the generalities of mutualism across ecosystems.

Keywords: i will sequence and assemble full genomes from the clownfish hosting sea anemones to test evolutionary expectations of mutualism
predictinG EaRthquakES induced by fluid injecTion (GEoREST)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — 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: Spain
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2018-STG, 2018)
Start date: 2019-02-01
End date: 2025-01-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1438201.0
EU funding (EUR): 1438201.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Fluid injection related to underground resources has become widespread, causing numerous cases of induced seismicity. If felt, induced seismicity has a negative effect on public perception and may jeopardise wellbore stability, which has led to the cancellation of several projects. Forecasting injection-induced earthquakes is a big challenge that must be overcome to deploy geo-energies to significantly reduce CO2 emissions and thus mitigate climate change and reduce related health issues. The basic conjecture is that, while initial (micro)seisms are caused by well-known mechanisms that could be predicted, subsequent activity is caused by harder to understand and, at present, unpredictable coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-seismic (THMS) processes, which is the reason why available models fail to forecast induced seismicity. The objective of this project is to develop a novel methodology to predict and mitigate induced seismicity. We propose an interdisciplinary approach that integrates the THMS processes that occur in the subsurface as a result of fluid injection. The methodology, based on new analytical and numerical solutions, will concentrate on (1) understanding the processes that lead to induced seismicity by model testing of specific conjectures, (2) improving and extending subsurface characterization by using industrial fluid injection operations as a long-term continuous characterization methodology, so as to reduce prediction uncertainty, and (3) using the resulting understanding and site specific knowledge to predict and mitigate induced seismicity. Project developments will be tested and verified against fluid-induced seismicity at field sites that present diverse characteristics. Arguably, the successful development of this project will provide operators with concepts and tools to perform pressure management to reduce the risk of inducing seismicity to acceptable levels and thus, improve safety and reverse public perception on fluid injection activities.

Keywords: hydrogeology,geomechanics,induced seismicity,geo energy
A new reconstructing technique using tissue engineering methods to create an engineered autologous vascularized tissue flap (VASCFLAP)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Israel
Call: ERC Proof of Concept Grant (ERC-2014-PoC, 2014)
Start date: 2015-04-01
End date: 2016-09-30
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 147500.0
EU funding (EUR): 147500.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Abdominal wall defects are often the consequence of severe trauma, cancer treatment and burns. These defects involve a significant loss of tissue, and often require surgical reconstruction where tissue is lifted from the patient's donor site and moved to his injured site with an intact blood supply (autologous muscle free flap). The current transfer surgery is complicated and involved with donor-site morbidity after tissue harvesting, and scant availability. We propose a robust engineered transplant performed by a novel reconstruction technique to overcome these disadvantages. The proposed transplant uses an alternative biomaterial implantation, offering the possibility to repair a full-thickness defect of the abdominal wall without the need to transfer tissue (skin+subcutis+fascia+muscle) from another site and minimal postoperative scarification (skin only). We name this technique "an Engineered Autologous Vascularized Axial Flap". The key idea of this approach is the use of a polymeric scaffold upon which human cells will be seeded. The engineered tissue cultured in vitro will contain also a network of blood vessels. Then, this engineered construct will be implanted around large blood vessels adjacent to the injured site. Once highly vascularized, it will be possible to transfer the implanted engineered vascularized construct as a flap for covering the defects. Once developed, this autologous cost-effective engineered tissue product may be used in reconstructive surgery of the abdominal wall and breast (thousands of cases in the EU alone) which improves the patients’ quality of life and reduces surgical costs and risks. Here we describe a plan to develop this product by identifying the most cost-effective niche where we can go to market in. We plan to complete a set of feasibility studies in large animal model using human cells (which could later be isolated from the patient = autologous cells) and proceed establishing our portfolio of intellectual property.

Keywords: tissue engineering,autologous cells,vascularized graft,flap
Stability and dynamics at different spatial scales: From physiology to Alzheimer's degeneration (MacroStability)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Panel description: Nervous system development, homeostasis and ageing, nervous system function and dysfunction, systems neuroscience and modelling, biological basis of cognitive processes and of behaviour, neurological and mental disorders
Countries involved: Israel
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2016-COG, 2016)
Start date: 2017-10-01
End date: 2023-09-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2000000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2000000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

How neuronal circuits maintain the balance between stability and plasticity in a constantly changing environment remains one of the most fundamental questions in neuroscience. Empirical and theoretical studies suggest that homeostatic negative feedback mechanisms operate to stabilize the function of a system at a set point level of activity. While extensive research uncovered diverse homeostatic mechanisms that maintain activity of neural circuits at extended timescales, several key questions remain open. First, what are the basic principles and the molecular machinery underlying invariant population dynamics of neural circuits, composed from intrinsically unstable activity patterns of individual neurons? Second, is homeostatic regulation compromised in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and do homeostatic failures lead to aberrant brain activity and memory decline, the overlapping phenotypes of AD and many other distinct neurodegenerative disorders? And finally, how do homeostatic systems operate in vivo under experience-dependent changes in firing rates and patterns? To target these questions, we have developed an integrative approach to study the relationships between ongoing spiking activity of individual neurons and neuronal populations, signaling processes at the level of single synapses and neuronal meta-plasticity. We will focus on hippocampal circuitry and combine ex vivo electrophysiology, single- and two-photon excitation imaging, time-resolved fluorescence microscopy and molecular biology, together with longitudinal monitoring of activity from large populations of hippocampal neurons in freely behaving mice. Utilizing these state-of-the-art approaches, we will determine how firing stability is maintained at different spatial scales and what are the mechanisms leading to destabilization of firing patterns in AD-related context. The proposed research will elucidate fundamental principles of neuronal function and offer conceptual insights into AD pathophysiology.

Keywords: homeostatic plastcity,synaptic transmission,short term plasticity,alzheimer s disease biology,electrophysiology,imaging
Innovative Management of Genetic Resources (IMAGE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Austria,Germany,Spain,Italy,Germany,Italy,Germany,Germany,Argentina,Egypt,Italy,Switzerland,Switzerland,Poland,Sweden,Hungary,Colombia,France,France,Netherlands,Netherlands,United Kingdom,Portugal,Morocco
Call: Management and sustainable use of genetic resources (H2020-SFS-2015-2, 2015)
Start date: 2016-03-01
End date: 2020-02-29
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 8455031.39
EU funding (EUR): 7000000.0
Participants: 29
Project status: CLOSED

This aim of IMAGE is to enhance the use of genetic collections and to upgrade animal gene bank management. IMAGE will better exploit DNA information and develop methodologies, biotechnologies, and bioinformatics for rationalising animal genetic resources. It will demonstrate the benefits brought by gene banks to the development of sustainable livestock systems by: enhancing the usefulness of genetic collections to allow the livestock sector to respond to environment and market changes; using latest DNA technology and reproductive physiology for collecting, storing and distributing biological resources; Minimising genetic accidents such as abnormalities or genetic variability tipping points; Developing synergies between ex-situ and in-situ conservation to maximise resources for the future. To this end, the project will involve stakeholders, SME, and academic partners to achieve the following objectives. At the scientific level, the project will: Assess the diversity available in genetic collections; Search for adaptive traits through landscape genetics in local populations; Contribute to elucidate local populations’ and major genes’ history; Identify detrimental variants that can contribute to inbreeding depression; Predict cryobank samples’ reproductive performance; Facilitate the use of collections for genome-assisted breeding. At the technological level, it will develop: Procedures for harmonising gene bank operations and rationalising collections; Conservation and reproductive biotechnologies; A central information system to connect available data on germplasm and genomic collections. At the applied level, it will develop methods and tools for stakeholders to: Restore genetic diversity in livestock populations; Create or reconstruct breeds fitting new environmental constraints and consumer demands; Facilitate cryobanking for local breeds; Define and track breed-based product brands; Implement access and benefit sharing regulations.

Keywords: gene banks,genome,reproductive technologies,data integration,3rd countries participation,biodiversity,livestock
A reusable launch system of small payloads to suborbital space (ARION)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Space
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Spain
Call: Engaging SMEs in space research and development (H2020-SMEINST-1-2016-2017, 2016)
Start date: 2017-01-01
End date: 2017-04-30
Duration (months): 4.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Nano/microsatellites can make space industry more sustainable, environmental-friendly and efficient. However, development of these satellites evolves slowly, since scientific and technological research & test of the satellites and their separate components in relevant space environment is very limited and/or expensive. Microgravity is a perfect condition to test and qualify early technology readiness level (TRL5-6) technologies, turning into a business with great prospects. However, access to microgravity environment is not affordable for developers. Today, there are a very few solutions used to test and increase the level of technology maturity: research at the International Space Station (ISS) and on military missiles based sounding rockets. However, traveling to the ISS is something that only Space Agencies are allowed to do. On the other hand, heavy sounding rockets provides more opportunities, but bring several handicaps due to their military nature, such as high accelerations, high costs, lack of payload standardization as well as long integration processes. PLD Space proposes, ARION, a reusable sounding rocket for scientific and technological payloads suborbital launch, enabling the industry to get over the “technological death valley”. ARION uses kerosene and industrial liquid oxygen engine, which is safe to transport and launch. The rocket is cost-efficient, since it is assembled using commercial off-the shelf components and can be reused to up to 5 times. PLD is a pioneer of the space industry, who will facilitate research and scientific tests in microgravity in the safe, time & cost efficient way. The Phase 1 project will allow PLD Space to define a minimum viable product, plan a feasible ARION optimization and suborbital mission, elaborate the business scale up and size the reachable market. Within the overall project, PLD Space aims to reduce the rocket COGS, shorten a duration of payload integration and and qualify ARION in a suborbital mission.

Keywords: microgravity,suborbital,sounding rocket,space,satellite,liquid engine