Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
RHeophysics and Energy of mAgmas (RHEA)

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: Switzerland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IOF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-06-01
End date: 2013-05-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 250142.0
EU funding (EUR): 250142.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

To understand dynamic earth processes it is necessary to first understand how magmas flow. Volcanology, geodynamics and planetary sciences all need to know at which stresses magma will behave in a ductile or brittle manner and, even more importantly, the range of the transitional brittle-ductile field. With RHEA we aim to separate the stable from the metastable flowing field of crystal bearing melts and estimate the onset of brittle behavior. This question will be addressed by investigating experimentally and numerically the energy distribution within magmas. For the first time we will be able to reproduce numerically the real behavior of samples deformed at high pressure and temperature. We will thereby obtain much better comprehension of the processes involved during magma deformation. This project involves collaboration between excellent universities in Europe and USA: the ETH Zürich renowned for its experimental expertise and the UC Berkeley for the originality of its numerical methods. Combining the individual strengths of these two groups will allow us to develop one of the first numerical rheometers for magmatic suspensions based on real measurements and to formulate new constitutive laws for larger scale models. During the return period, we aim to experimentally test our results on real volcanic systems and to better constrain how the overall change in rheology may explain transitions in eruptive styles. This project will develop new models applicable to a broad range of earth science disciplines. It will allow a better prediction of volcanic eruptions and the results obtained will be invaluable in supporting decision-making during crisis events.

Keywords: natural sciences,natural hazards (geophysics),volcanology,magma flow
Cognitive and neural representations of action in temporally coordinated behaviour (ACTION COORDINATION)

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: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IIF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-09-01
End date: 2012-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 162248.8
EU funding (EUR): 162248.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Many common behaviours such as moving a table, rowing a boat, and producing music require individual performers to coordinate their actions. Researchers have only begun to investigate the mechanisms of perception, action, and cognition that support these types of joint action (Galantucci and Sebanz, 2009). It has recently been suggested that the activation of mental representations of others’ actions may underlie successful joint action (Sebanz and Knoblich, 2009). However, it has also been argued that temporal coordination may be explained by dynamical principles that govern coordination between oscillating systems, without relying on higher-level cognitive representations (Marsh, Richardson, and Schmidt, 2009). The proposed research employs experimental analogs of ensemble music performance, in which two or more people produce separate musical sequences whose pitches are temporally coordinated, to determine a) whether representations of a co-performer’s actions are activated in temporally coordinated joint action and b) which components of the actions are represented by co-performers. The first question is addressed by comparing both behaviour and functional brain activity when people perform sequences alone and with another person. The second question is addressed by measuring neural activity in response to incongruence between the movements and pitches produced by co-performers and in response to violations of expectation about a co-performer’s pitch and timing. The proposed research will unite the applicant’s expertise in studying coordinated action using musical tasks with the European host's expertise in representation-based accounts of joint action. In doing so, the research will bridge the gap between two theoretical approaches to action coordination, and will further understanding of the mechanisms by which people produce the complex coordination they so easily achieve in everyday life.

Keywords: social sciences,cognitive science,experimental psychology,neuropsychology
Multisensory integration in the cognitive representation of space (MULTISENSORYSPACE)

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-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-05-01
End date: 2012-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 169035.2
EU funding (EUR): 169035.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Remembering the position of objects is crucial for the navigation through daily-life environments like buildings and cities. In spite of the fact that environmental sensory information is inherently multimodal, the research on object location memory is still almost exclusively focused on the visual domain. In this Fellowship project, we propose an extensive analysis of the cognitive mechanisms and brain correlates of object location memory for non-visual and multisensory objects. In a series of innovative experiments that combines behavioural and neuroimaging techniques we will test memory for the location of auditory, tactile and multisensory objects in direct comparison to the memory for visual objects position. We will also test the influence of gender and blindness on multimodal object spatial mapping. This topic is original and have an important applicative resonance for the design of effective spatial navigation tools in blindness, for neuropsychological rehabilitation and diagnosis and for the exploration of real and virtual multisensory spatial environments. This study could also give an important contribution to the theoretical debate about cognitive representation of space.

Keywords: experimental psychology,brain research,object location memory,multisensory integration
High Magnetic Field Investigation of Transport and Thermodynamic Properties of Metallic Oxide Hetrointerfaces (OXIDES-AMCCOLLAM2009)

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: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IIF, 2009)
Start date: 2011-01-01
End date: 2012-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 159248.8
EU funding (EUR): 159248.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Artificial, layered heterostructures of transition metal oxides provide an opportunity to tune and couple electronic charge and spin properties on an atomic scale. Strong correlations between electrons can then lead to the formation of exotic new phases at the interfaces which are impossible to stabilise in the bulk materials. This proposal describes an experimental project to investigate the LaAlO3-SrTiO3 heterostructure, where a 2-D electron gas (2DEG) is formed at the LaO:TiO2 interface. The project will employ state of the art magnetotransport and magnetometry techniques in high magnetic fields, at low temperatures and at high pressure. By tuning these thermodynamic parameters we will be able to map a comprehensive phase diagram for the interface, and determine many important aspects of the 2DEG behaviour. Further measurement as a function of sample orientation in a magnetic field will allow us to examine the extent and influence of 2-dimensionality in this system, and by varying the sample growth conditions we will study the effects of disorder, and the relevance of the surface to the properties of the interface. Our measurements aim to fully characterise the magnetic and conducting properties of the metallic interface in the LaAlO3-SrTiO3 heterostructure, provide new insight into why and how these remarkable interface phases arise, and identify promising directions for the growth of new structures of fundamental and technological interest. The project will involve collaboration between the Nijmegen High Field Magnet Laboratory (HFML), MESA+ at the University of Twente, and the Physics Department of the University of Toronto. As work proceeds, some advancement and development of measurement techniques and procedures will be necessary. This will extend the capabilities of the Nijmegen HFML, and result in a combination of facilities for EuroMagNET users that is unavailable anywhere else in the world. We consider this to be an important aspect of our proposal

Keywords: high magnetic fields,oxide heterostructures,2deg,transport,quantum oscillations,high pressure,low temperature
Effect of nano-patterned substrate properties on cell attachment and endocytosis (SURFACE ENDOCYTOSIS)

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: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IIF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-08-01
End date: 2012-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 162661.0
EU funding (EUR): 162661.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Cell-substrate interactions have a pronounced effect on cell attachment, growth and proliferation in healthy tissues and disease. The complexity of the in vivo setting has fueled in vitro studies on different aspects of cell behavior in response to different material properties. The proposed research project aims at establishing links between substrate properties and the fundamental process of endocytosis, on which limited knowledge currently exists. The use of mechanically and chemically defined, nano-patterned surfaces to probe the cellular mechanisms of regulation of different internalization pathways will be achieved through use of specialized cargoes, fluorescent labeling and imaging techniques. Strong emphasis will be placed on cancer cells, where both derailed endocytosis and abnormal extracellular matrix contribute to the disease. The combination of the researcher’s strong background on endocytosis of nano structures and the host laboratory’s expertise on surface fabrication and cell-surface interactions guarantee implementation of the project. The anticipated results will have a pronounced impact on our understanding of this fundamental cell process and are likely to be of technological interest in the fields of drug delivery and tissue engineering in the near future.

Keywords: biomaterial engineering,endocytosis,surface properties,drug delivery,cell attachment
Optical spectroscopy of Heusler compounds (HEUSPECTRO)

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: Czechia
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-09-01
End date: 2012-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 175673.6
EU funding (EUR): 175673.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Heusler compounds, with a general composition X2YZ (with X, Y being a transition metal and Z an element from the III-V groups) are attracting an interest due to their possible use in the novel field of spin-dependent devices, also known as spintronics. This interest in Heusler compounds comes from the half-metallic character of their spin-split band structure, i.e. metallic behavior for one spin component, and insulating behavior for the other one, as predicted by ab-initio calculations for many compounds of this material class. As such, these materials may exhibit a 100 % spin polarization at the Fermi level, which would make them ideal candidates for e.g. spin polarizers or spin detectors. An important force to be understood in detail in those materials is the spin-orbit coupling, which provides interaction between spin and the lattice. As such, the spin-orbit coupling is an underlying force for many important effects, such as Hall effect, spin Hall effect (and their inverse variants), spin diffusion length, Gilbert damping etc. Therefore, here we propose to investigate spin orbit coupling of the first and the second order in the Heusler compounds using optical and magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) spectroscopy of the first (longitudinal MOKE) and the second (quadratic MOKE (QMOKE)). Furthermore, we want to investigate Heusler compounds using infrared (IR) spectroscopy and MOKE-IR spectroscopy, as those probe spin-orbit coupling in the vicinity of the Fermi level. Note that QMOKE spectroscopy has never been realized yet and that IR-MOKE is an unique technique in the world scale.

Keywords: magnetism,new materials for spintronics,optical spectroscopy,infra-red spectroscopy,kerr effect
Molecular dynamics simulation of the membrane binding and disruption mechanisms of antimicrobial peptides (AMP-MEMBRANE MD)

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-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-06-15
End date: 2012-06-14
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 162248.8
EU funding (EUR): 162248.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a promising new class of antibiotics, the mechanism of which usually involves binding to membranes with subsequent disruption. The disruption process is, however, still poorly understood, mostly because it seems to be mediated by states - pore formation or in-depth AMP insertion - that are unordered and very short-lived. My PhD work focused on using and developing biophysical methodologies to study the conditions at which the AMP-mediated disruption is triggered. Models bridging these results with in vivo observations were developed, establishing important relationships between AMP concentration and activity. Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations allow the visualization of molecular level interactions with spatial and time resolution unsurpassed by experimental techniques, having already provided important clues on AMP-mediated membrane pore formation. In this project the interactions of AMPs with phospholipid bilayers and vesicles will be followed by MD simulations. A comparative study will be performed on a family of peptides derived from two naturally occurring AMPs (cecropin and melittin; base template XKLFKKILKXL-NH2) to gather insight on the different activities and toxicities of each of the peptides, and, from there, better understand the molecular characteristics responsible for those features. Work will also focus on the optimization and application of Coarse Grained (CG) simulation models, which allow significant reductions of processing time without major loss of detail. The interaction models that arise from MD simulations will be experimentally validated, making use of the researcher&apos;s background complemented by the host group&apos;s strong network of collaborating laboratories. The shift to computer simulation techniques will definitely broaden the researcher’s range of skills, with the added value that these techniques are easily portable and straightforward to implement independently in the future.

Keywords: molecular biophysics,computational chemistry,medical microbiology,combinatorial chemistry,applied thermodynamics
Structure and function of SMAT: a putative cellular decision-maker for transcription factor assembly (SMAT)

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-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-04-01
End date: 2012-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 165645.6
EU funding (EUR): 165645.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Transcription factor IID (TFIID) is a key player in regulated transcription of eukaryotic genes by RNA polymerase II. The scaffold of TFIID is composed of a number of TATA-box binding protein-associated factors (TAFs), which are also found in other multimeric transcription factors (e.g. SAGA). An elaborate system of decision-making therefore must occur that directs the assembly of TAFs into either TFIID or SAGA or other TAF containing complexes. Recently, a multimeric 400 kDa small TAF-containing complex, SMAT, was discovered. SMAT is proposed to be a potent regulator of committed TFIID and SAGA assembly. The objective of this proposal is to elucidate the role of SMAT in eukaryotic gene regulation by means of an integrated, interdisciplinary approach combining structural, biochemical and in vivo cell biology methods. SMAT and its subcomplexes will be produced recombinantly by state-of-the-art eukaryotic expression techniques. Stable variants of SMAT core-complexes will be identified by a novel limited proteolysis/mass spectrometric approach and translated into expression experiments by utilizing an automated cloning platform technology. Intensive screening for growth of single, well diffracting crystals will be performed at the high-throughput crystallization facility at EMBL. By combining synchrotron X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy and small angle X-ray scattering experiments, a molecular model of SMAT will be obtained. Based on this model, point mutations will be designed, which specifically destabilize SMAT. Effects of the mutant proteins and of posttranslational modifications on the cellular decision-making process of TFIID or SAGA assembly, as well as SMAT integrity, will be assessed by in vivo functional assays in HeLa cells. The interdisciplinary nature of this project promises to contribute to the applicant’s career development by diversifying his competences and refining his skills ultimately guiding him towards an independent leading position.

Keywords: natural sciences,smat,transcription factor iid,saga,x-ray crystallography,eukaryotic expression,tbp-associated factors,electron microscopy,small angle x-ray scattering,multibac bevs system
Identification and selective targeting of neuronal networks underlying memory (MAPPING FEAR MEMORY)

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: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IIF, 2009)
Start date: 2011-01-03
End date: 2013-01-02
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 169535.2
EU funding (EUR): 169535.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Among the most fundamental questions in modern biology is how we learn and remember. Using novel genetic tools, we can now ask fundamental questions not previously possible about how the brain encodes memories. For instance, how many neurons are required for learning? Are the network requirements similar in different brain regions? And, probably most intriguingly, how is a neuron that is part of a memory trace different from its neighboring neurons? In other words, what is the cellular and molecular basis of a memory? Using Pavlovian fear conditioning, decades of elegant experiments have mapped the anatomical location of the engram for learned fear. However, at the cellular and molecular level, little is known about the physiology of individual neurons that encode a memory. Our recent results suggest a path forward, using novel genetic tools in mice that permit targeted manipulations of genes with both spatial and temporal-specificity. In particular, using genetic manipulations of proteins absolutely required for associative learning, we now have the potential to restrict the network space in which neuronal plasticity can occur, permitting the characterization of individual neurons responsible for encoding a specific memory. Our experiments will focus on understanding the fundamental rules by which memories are organized within the brain. Specifically, we will use the immediate-early gene Arc to map neurons active during fear conditioning at single-cell resolution. Next, we plan to define the minimum neural network requirements for establishing a fear memory. Finally, we will investigate the learning-related changes in molecular, structural, and systems-level plasticity of individual neurons of the memory trace. Importantly, the results of these studies will not only expand our mechanistic understanding of the neurobiology of memory, but could also provide opportunities for clinical translation into cognitive neuropsychiatric disorders.

Keywords: neurobiology,neurophysiology,behavioural biology,learning,memory,fear
Dissection of T cell cosignaling and development of vaccination strategies to cytomegalovirus (VACCINATION TO CMV)

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: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IIF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-10-01
End date: 2012-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 217099.2
EU funding (EUR): 217099.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Cytomegalovirus (CMV, a β-herpesvirus) infects the majority of the world’s population, establishing a lifelong infection. This infection is largely asymptomatic in immune competent hosts, but causes severe disease in immunocompromised neonates and adults. In healthy persistently infected individuals huge numbers of CMV-specific T cells accumulate over time (i.e. “memory inflation”), a process recently associated with the immune risk profile and immune senescence in the elderly. CMV encodes numerous immunomodulatory (or immune-evasion) gene products that target pathways involved in T cell priming and activation, including the regulation of cosignaling molecules such as the B7 molecules. We seek to determine how targeting of these B7 cosignaling systems affects CD4 and CD8 T cell mediated control of MCMV during acute, persistent and latent infection from the virus perspective, using mutant viruses that lack immune evasion genes, as well as from the host perspective by using genetically deficient mice, blocking and stimulating reagents, and adoptive transfers. Additionally, we will investigate the role of other cosignaling molecules (i.e. the stimulating TNFR family members CD27 and OX-40 and the inhibitory CTLA-4 and PD-1 molecules) to determine their precise role during MCMV infection. In this way we will gain more insight in the factors involved in maintaining the delicate balanse between virus and host. Ultimately, we would like to use the obtained knowledge about the role of cosignaling in CMV infection to develop vaccination strategies against (lethal) CMV disease.

Keywords: health sciences immunology vaccines infections