Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
The Higgs: A colored View from the Top at ATLAS (COLORTTH)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Fundamental constituents of matter
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2019-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1163755.0
EU funding (EUR): 1163755.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

With the ground-breaking discovery of a new, Higgs-like boson on July 4th, 2012, by the CMS and ATLAS collaborations at CERN, a new era of particle physics has begun. The discovery is the first step in answering an unsolved problem in particle physics, the question how fundamental bosons and fermions acquire their mass. One of the major goals in collider physics in the next few years will be the deeper insight into the nature of the new particle, its connection to the known fundamental particles and possible extensions beyond the standard model (SM) of particle physics. My project aims at a particular interesting field to study, the relation of the new particle with the heaviest known elementary particle, the top quark. I aim to develop new, innovative techniques and beyond state-of-the-art methods to extract the Yukawa coupling between the top quark and the Higgs boson, which is expected to be of the order of one - much higher than that of any other quark. I will analyse the only process where the top-Higgs Yukawa coupling can be measured, in associated production of top quark pairs and a Higgs boson. The Higgs boson mainly decays into a pair of b-quarks. This is one of the most challenging channels at the LHC, as huge background processes from gluon splitting contribute. In particular, I will develop and study color flow variables, which provide a unique, powerful technique to distinguish color singlet Higgs bosons from the main background, color octet gluons. The ultimate goal of the project is the first measurement of the top-Higgs Yukawa coupling and its confrontation with SM and beyond SM Higgs boson models, resulting in an unprecedented insight into the fundamental laws of nature. The LHC will soon reach a new energy frontier of 13 TeV starting in 2014. This new environment will provide never seen opportunities to study hints of new physics and precisely measure properties of the newly found particle. This sets the stage for the project.
Quantum fields and knot homologies (FIELDS-KNOTS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Fundamental constituents of matter
Countries involved: Poland,United States,Portugal
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-12-01
End date: 2019-11-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1345080.0
EU funding (EUR): 1345080.0
Participants: 4
Project status: CLOSED

This project is concerned with fundamental problems arising at the interface of quantum field theory, knot theory, and the theory of random matrices. The main aim of the project is to understand two of the most profound phenomena in physics and mathematics, namely quantization and categorification, and to establish an explicit and rigorous framework where they come into play in an interrelated fashion. The project and its aims focus on the following areas: - Knot homologies and superpolynomials. The aim of the project in this area is to determine homological knot invariants and to derive an explicit form of colored superpolynomials for a large class of knots and links. - Super-A-polynomial. The aim of the project in this area is to develop a theory of the super-A-polynomial, to find an explicit form of the super-A-polynomial for a large class of knots, and to understand its properties. - Three-dimensional supersymmetric N=2 theories. This project aims to find and understand dualities between theories in this class, in particular theories related to knots by 3d-3d duality, and to generalize this duality to the level of homological knot invariants. - Topological recursion and quantization. The project aims to develop a quantization procedure based on the topological recursion, to demonstrate its consistency with knot-theoretic quantization of A-polynomials, and to generalize this quantization scheme to super-A-polynomials. All these research areas are connected via remarkable dualities unraveled very recently by physicists and mathematicians. The project is interdisciplinary and aims to reach the above goals by taking advantage of these dualities, and through simultaneous and complementary development in quantum field theory, knot theory, and random matrix theory, in collaboration with renowned experts in each of those fields.

Keywords: quantum field theory,chern-simons theory,string theory,supersymmetric gauge theories,knot theory,homological knot invariants,random matrix theory,topological recursion
Spectral Fingerprints of Neuronal Interactions (SPECFIN)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: The Human Mind and its complexity
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2015-01-01
End date: 2019-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1494480.0
EU funding (EUR): 1494480.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

How does cognition result from complex neuronal interactions within and between brain regions? Substantial progress has been made understanding the functional properties of individual neurons, but we lack understanding of how they work together. Neuronal oscillations are ubiquitous in the brain. The frequencies of these oscillations reflect the biophysical properties of underlying circuit interactions. Thus, frequency-specific oscillations may serve as ‘spectral fingerprints’ of specific circuit interactions. However so far, the circuit interactions underlying cortical oscillations are largely unknown. The key objective of my proposal is to establish this ‘spectral fingerprint’ framework for the human brain, by identifying elementary circuit interactions underlying non-invasive M/EEG oscillations. We will employ a novel interdisciplinary approach that tightly links human and monkey electrophysiology. First, we will perform directly comparable EEG (and MEG) recordings in humans and monkeys using identical behavioural tasks to identify consistent local and large-scale oscillations in both species. Second, we will characterize the neuronal circuit interactions underlying these non-invasive oscillations in monkeys using simultaneous EEG and intra-cortical recordings as well as electrical and pharmacological manipulations. If successful, this work will constitute a paradigm shift in cognitive neuroscience by linking two largely disconnected disciplines: human and monkey electrophysiology. Identifying spectral fingerprints of elementary circuit interactions will establish a powerful new framework to understand cognitive processes in terms of mechanistic, network-level building blocks.

Keywords: cognition,neuronal oscillations,eeg,meg,primate electrophysiology
Plasma-assisted development and functionalization of electrospun mats for tissue engineering purposes (PLASMATS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Products and process engineering
Countries involved: Belgium
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2019-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1391100.0
EU funding (EUR): 1391100.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In this project, I will explore the unique combination of two fascinating research themes: electrospinning and plasma technology. Electrospun nanofibrous matrices (so-called mats) are an exciting class of materials with a wide range of possible applications. Nevertheless, the development and functionalization of these electrospun materials remain very challenging tasks. Atmospheric pressure plasma technology will be utilized by my research group to create advanced biodegradable electrospun mats with unprecedented functionality and performance. To realise such a major breakthrough, plasma technology will be implemented in different steps of the manufacturing process: pre-electrospinning and post-electrospinning. My group will focus on four cornerstone research lines, which have been carefully chosen so that all critical issues one could encounter in creating advanced biodegradable electrospun mats are tackled. Research cornerstone A aims to develop biodegradable electrospun mats with appropriate bulk properties, while in research cornerstone B pre-electrospinning polymer solutions will be exposed to non-thermal atmospheric plasmas. This will be realized by probing unexplored concepts such as discharges created inside polymer solutions. In a third cornerstone C, an in-depth study of the interactions between an atmospheric pressure plasma and an electrospun mat will be carried out. Finally, the last cornerstone D will focus on plasma-assisted surface modification of biodegradable electrospun mats for tissue engineering purposes. Realization of these four cornerstones would result in a major breakthrough in their specific field which makes this proposal inherently a relatively high risk/very high gain proposal. I therefore strongly believe that this research program will open a whole new window of opportunities for electrospun materials with a large impact on science and society.

Keywords: plasma technology,electrospinning,biodegradable polymers,nanofibrous textile,biomaterials
Real-time monitoring of load induced remodeling in tissue-engineered bone (REMOTE)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Products and process engineering
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-11-01
End date: 2019-04-30
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1496859.0
EU funding (EUR): 1496859.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The maintenance of the skeleton is tightly coupled with balanced bone formation and resorption processes that are mediated by osteoblasts and osteoclasts, respectively. Loss of this balance results in skeletal pathologies representing some of the most significant public health threats faced by the growing and ageing population. Tissue engineering investigates various health aspects such as drug development, fundamental research and regenerative medicine. State-of-the-art approaches are lacking to mimic one essential functional property of bone: to adapt its 3D morphology according to imposed mechanical loads. As most drugs for skeletal diseases act on this anabolic-catabolic balance, an engineered system serving as a human in vitro model for drug discovery/testing needs to be able to mimic this process. This proposal aims at combining real-time monitoring of mineralized extracellular matrix with bone tissue engineering culture standards in advanced bioreactors and will design a reliable 3D in vitro model system to mimic load induced remodeling of tissue-engineered human bone. The following particulars will be systematically addressed: i) Establishment of a co-culture of human bone-forming cells and human bone resorbing cells capable of mimicking bone remodeling; ii) Real-time monitoring platform in 3D in order to take the temporo-spatial development of the tissue into account and to allow specific adapted and controlled interventions depending on the actual environmental situation; iii) Quantitative simulation of morphological bone adaptation induced by mechanical load. The proposed research activity will have important implications in fields ranging from pharmacology and biotechnology to biomechanics and medicine. It will result in a ground-breaking platform that could be applied to screen initial bone drug effects and will improve our fundamental understanding of structure-function relationships in normal and diseased bone conditions.

Keywords: skeletal tissue engineering,biomechanics,mechanobiology,bioreactors,human mesenchymal stem cells
Mechanotransduction mediating cell adhesion - towards cell-inspired adaptive materials (CELLINSPIRED)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Condensed matter physics
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2018-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1467483.0
EU funding (EUR): 1467483.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Adhesion is a key event for eukaryotic cells to establish contact with the extracellular matrix and other cells. It allows cells to quickly adapt to mechanical changes in their environment by either adhesion reinforcement or release. Understanding and mimicking the interplay between adhesion reinforcement and release could result in novel cell-inspired adaptive materials. In order to ultimately be able to transfer functional principles of cell adhesion to a next generation of biomimetic materials, we will elucidate the biophysics of cell adhesion in response to external force. We have already obtained important results that have provided new insights into cell adhesion. For example, we have found that the nanoscale spacing of adhesion sites controls cell adhesion reinforcement. With the project proposed here I want to advance our understanding of cell adhesion by generating a comprehensive model of mechanotransduction-mediated cell adhesion. Therefore, my group will develop new force measurement methods based on atomic force microscopy and 2D force sensor arrays that allow for a systematic investigation of key parameters in the cell adhesion system, including the concept of cellular mechanosensing. My hypothesis is that there is a transition between adhesion reinforcement and release as a function of external mechanical stress, stress history, and the biofunctionalization of the adhesive surface. Transferring our biophysical knowledge into materials science promises new materials with a dynamic adaptive mechanical and adhesion response. This transfer of biological concepts into cell-inspired materials will follow the construction principles of cells: the proposed material will be based on polymer fibers that are reversibly cross-linked and reinforce adhesion upon mechanical stress. The ultimate goal of the proposed project is to develop an intelligent polymer material with an adaptive adhesive and mechanical response similar to that found in living cells.

Keywords: cell-inspired materials,self-healing materials,adaptive materials,mechanoresponsive materials,cell adhesion,mechanosensing,force microscopy,cell physics,surface biofunctionalization.
Multimodal functional neuroimaging techniques to probe the representation of pain in the human brain (PROBING-PAIN)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Neurosciences and neural disorders
Countries involved: Belgium
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-12-01
End date: 2018-11-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1484333.6
EU funding (EUR): 1484333.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Pain may be defined as a primarily aversive perception that is vital for survival, as it incites the individual to respond to stimuli constituting a real or potential menace. However, pain is also a major healthcare issue, undermining the health and welfare of millions of individuals and imposing a severe financial burden to our societies. How does the brain process noxious stimuli, and how does this lead to the perception of pain? In humans, using functional neuroimaging techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG) or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a great number of studies have shown that noxious stimuli elicit activity within a widespread network of cortical regions, including the primary and secondary somatosensory cortices, the insula and the anterior cingulate cortex. However, recent studies have suggested that these responses are largely unspecific for pain and, instead, reflect attentional mechanisms that can be triggered by the occurrence of any salient sensory event, regardless of whether it elicits pain. Therefore, novel approaches are needed to progress in understanding the neural representation of pain in humans. This constitutes the main objective of this project in which we will develop a series of original experimental approaches to (1) explore how transient and sustained pain are respectively represented in the human brain, (2) characterize directly the functional connectivity, interdependency and hierarchical organization of the different brain regions involved in the perception of pain and (3) characterize the plastic changes in cortical excitability and functional connectivity induced by sustained experimental pain as well as chronic pathological pain. Each of these approaches has the potential to open a new line of research for basic and clinical pain neuroscience, with important development perspectives, such as the identification of novel human biomarkers for analgesic drug development and improved patient stratification.

Keywords: functional magnetic resonance imaging,event-related potentials,chronic pain,nociception
Synergistic Modelling of Molecular Effects via Chemical and Biological Data Integration (MIXTURE)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Diagnostic tools, therapies and public health
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2019-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499558.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499558.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

While conventionally effects of a chemical structure on a biological system have been determined for individual compounds, one at a time, it is now becoming apparent that biological effects of compound combination are not additive, but often conditional (antagonistic or synergistic) in nature. This phenomenon is of relevance both in the medicinal context (where drugs can be combined to have a synergistic effect), as well as the area of toxicology (where the simultaneous application of compounds shows a toxicity that is non-additive). However, it is not yet clear how to model, and anticipate, which compound combinations show this type of effect. Hence, in this work I will derive models of synergistic compound combinations, which will be prospectively validated in experiments. Furthermore, I will describe how to capture the effect of a chemical structure on a biological system on multiple levels, namely by considering structural features of the compound, its bioactivity profile, and pathway annotations and their relationship to the phenotypic effect observed. By integrating the data generated in a biologically meaningful way, this allows us to generate predictive models for the bioactivity of compound combinations. The relevance of this work ranges from the question which drugs can be combined in a synergistic manner and which combinations should rather be avoided to the safety assessment of chemicals. Hence, with this work I will be able to improve upon the current state-of-the-art in bioactivity data integration and modelling approaches, as well as deliver concrete models for the bioactivity assessment of compound combinations.
ß-cell Dysfunction in Diabetes: Elucidating the Role of Islet-Associated Mesenchymal Cells (ISLETMESENCHYME)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Physiology, Pathophysiology and Endocrinology
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (ERC-2013-StG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-10-01
End date: 2018-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1105439.6
EU funding (EUR): 1105439.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Glucose homeostasis relies on tightly controlled release of insulin by pancreatic beta-cells. Diabetes, characterized by increased blood glucose levels, is a chronic disease now reaching epidemic proportions. The most common form of this disease is Type 2 diabetes (T2D), which was previously regarded as a disease of insulin resistance. However, work over the past decade had shifted this paradigm by implicating beta-cell failure as a key factor in this disease. Despite major progress, the cellular and molecular basis of this T2D is far from being elucidated. Here, I present a novel pancreatic cell population, islet-associated mesenchymal cells (isMCs), which are with close contact to beta-cells in both human and mouse pancreata. My preliminary findings revealed that isMCs function to maintain beta-cells maturity and functionality. I therefore hypothesize that impaired isMCs function serve as an underlying cause for diabetes. To test this hypothesis, we will characterize the continuous requirement of isMCs for glucose homeostasis by their specific depletion in vivo. Next, we will link genes associated with T2D to isMCs function, by manipulating their expression and elucidating the effect on beta-cell function. Finally, we will investigate the source of diabetes prevalence found in pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis patients, by identifying how isMCs ability to maintain beta-cell function is affected in these diseases. To this end, we will use transgenic mouse models and culture systems to specifically manipulate cells and genes, and to study the resultant effect on beta-cell phenotype and glucose homeostasis. The implications of this work are far reaching as they will point to isMCs as a new player in glucose regulation, and as a contributor to beta-cell dysfunction in diabetes. Furthermore, the findings of this study will implicate isMCs a novel target for therapeutic approaches to diabetes, a currently unmet medical need.

Keywords: diabetes,type 2 diabetes,beta-cells,glucose regulation,beta-cell dysfunction,mesenchymal cells,islets of langerhans,cell ablation,transgenic mouse models