Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
The role of hydrogen bonding and water dynamics in the self-assembly of proteins and lipids: a comprehensive experimental and computational investigation (HYDRA)

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: Ireland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-09-01
End date: 2014-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 191938.2
EU funding (EUR): 191938.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The plan proposed for the two-year Marie-Curie fellowship aims at providing the applicant with the hands on experience and theoretical knowledge required to undertake an independent simulation activity in soft condensed matter physics. This is intended to complement the experimental activity on the same subject already carried out by the applicant Dr. Antonio Benedetto. Experimental and computational work will continue in parallel after the completion of the fellowship, providing a privileged basis for acquiring a leadership role in bio-physics soft-matter research. Training in computational methods will take place at Queen's University of Belfast, supervised by Prof. Pietro Ballone. The acquisition of modelling and simulation experience will be driven by the development of three different but related sub-projects, concerning: (i) the role of water in the equilibrium polymerisation of actin and tubulin; (ii) the interaction of room-temperature ionic liquids with lipid bilayers; (iii) the role of hydrogen bonding and hydrophobicity in the stabilisation of amyloid fibrils, with insulin as a prototype system. In all these problems, hydrogen bonding, hydrophobicity/hidrophilicity, and the dynamics of water molecules play the central role. Neutron scattering and simulation both represent powerful tools to investigate these properties, and their combination will provide a direct and microscopic view of the systems under investigation. Besides providing a comprehensive training in atomistic simulation to Dr. A. Benedetto, the three subprojects are expected to provide a wealth of important new results, with important implications for pharmacology, toxicology, environmental sciences, nanotechnology and medicine. The training and scientific work will be complemented by a series of outreach activities that are discussed in the application.

Keywords: physical sciences,computational physics,molecular biophysics,neutron physics,chemical physics,soft matter and polymer physics,computational chemistry
Number Cognition and Philosophy of Arithmetic (NUMBERS)

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: Sweden
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-09-01
End date: 2014-10-15
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 181418.4
EU funding (EUR): 181418.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The presented research project is devoted to the concept of natural number. We will be studying this concept from two different perspectives: the philosophy of mathematics and cognitive sciences. The underlying hypothesis is that in general these two disciplines function independently and do not exchange in an efficient manner. The main objective of the project is to establish a framework of possible cooperation of the to disciplines. The realisation of this objective is twofold. The first aspect is theoretical and (i) begins with a critical study of the up-to-now use of the results of one discipline by the other, (ii) then proposes a conceptual study of the resulting data and (iii) advances criteria for the fruitful use of multidisciplinary knowledge. The second aspect of realisation of the project consists in series of personal interactions with researchers in both, philosophy and cognitive sciences. We argue that the common language and a common curriculum can be elaborated for these disciplines, and that a research conducted in taking into account this common background will largely contribute to the overall understanding of the concept of natural number.

Keywords: humanities,philosophy of mathematics,number cognition,arithmetic,concept of number
Molecular mechanisms of petal iridescence: how do structural colours arise in flowers? (NANOPETALS)

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-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-07-01
End date: 2014-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 200371.8
EU funding (EUR): 200371.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Iridescent animals, such as peacocks and butterflies, owe their stunning colours to the manipulation of light by minute structures organized on or just below their surfaces. Iridescence is common in animals where it acts as mimicry or as a signal for mate selection, but it has been poorly studied in plants. The Glover lab recently discovered that flowers also produce structural colours, visible to pollinators, due to ordered striations (like those on a CD) of the cuticle on the petal epidermis. How and when these features develop is unknown. To unveil the genetic mechanisms behind iridescence, I will carry out high-throughput molecular studies along with microscopic observations and biochemical analysis using Venice Mallow (Hibiscus trionum) as a model species to establish the identities and the functions of genes governing the assembly of epidermal ridges. To conduct this work, I will also benefit from ongoing collaboration with physicists to establish the optical properties of these nanostructures, from behavioural ecology tools present in the lab to test pollinators’ reactions to iridescent petals and from the new methodologies I developed during my PhD. This project will discover original developmental pathways, used by flowering plants to shape their surfaces and communicate with insects.

Keywords: flower development,biological nanostructures,structural colours,pollinators behaviour,transcriptome analysis,functional and molecular biology,botany,photonic structures
Smart nanosystems for advanced cancer therapy (NANOSMART)

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-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-03-01
End date: 2014-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 191675.4
EU funding (EUR): 191675.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Advances in the preparation of nanotechnology-based materials in medical science pose new challenges in the design of smart nanodevices capable of meeting clinical needs. These systems are called to solve the issues associated to a non-specific delivery of drugs, which lead to the failure of a large number of treatments for oncological diseases. A selective and safe carrier for drug delivery should be actively targeted to malignant cells and display a stimulus-responsive behavior controlled by external means. The present project is aimed at developing targeted delivery vehicles able to release the required dose of chemotherapeutics in response to local temperature increases. For this purpose, an emerging technology based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and high intensity focused ultrasounds (HIFU), MRI-guided HIFU, will be combined with selective nanomedicine to provide a full spatial and temporal control of the release process. This novel MRI-assisted triggered drug delivery allows improving the performance of chemotherapy and better monitoring the regression of disease. The research project is built around two main objectives: 1) the design and synthesis of novel biocompatible thermosensitive carriers based on inorganic-organic hybrid nanospheres with targeting nanobody moieties, and 2) the in vitro and in vivo evaluation of MRI-guided HIFU-triggered drug release. This proposal represents a unique opportunity in the context of nanotheragnostics for tailored chemotherapy, and means a significant step towards its clinical translation. The project is in the core of 2 of the 10 themes of the FP7 Cooperation Program, Health and Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials & New Production Technologies. This research in smart drug delivery nanodevices constitutes a highly multidisciplinary approach with large impact in near future advanced therapies and with a great chance for collaboration and networking between European groups and industrial partners.

Keywords: triggered drug delivery,temperature-sensitive targeted nanomedicines,ultrasound,cancer,imaging guided drug release,hyperthermia,nanotheragnostics
Looking to the past to predict the future: the evolution of biodiversity through climate change and the rise of human society (PALAEOGENETICS)

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: Sweden
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IIF, 2011)
Start date: 2013-12-01
End date: 2016-11-29
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 241042.4
EU funding (EUR): 241042.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Biodiversity loss and climate change are the most critical environmental threats today. In order to predict future changes and develop conservation strategies, we must understand the evolutionary and ecological processes underlying species response to global change. This project will improve our predictions of the future by looking to the past, using ancient DNA technology to track genetic change of six taxa with varying levels of human impact, habitat specialization, and sensitivity to climate over the last 45,000 years. Ancient DNA will be integrated with ecological-niche models in a novel statistical framework, enabling for the first time quantitative model evaluation, an understanding of the underlying climatic and human factors influencing species response, and improvement of future predictions. This project brings Dr. Chan’s analytical expertise developed in the US to Dr. Dalen’s ancient DNA datasets and ecological models, to advance European research excellence in addressing climate change and biodiversity loss.

Keywords: ancient dna,palaeoclimate,ecological niche modeling,human impacts,approximate bayesian computation,coalescent modeling
A multimodal MRI approach to Huntington Disease to disclose a marker of onset and evolution in presymptomatic mutation carriers (MULTIMODAL MRI IN HD)

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: Italy
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-03-01
End date: 2014-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 185763.6
EU funding (EUR): 185763.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative familial disease encoded by a CAG expansion mutation in the gene that encodes the protein huntingtin (htt). The abnormal function of mutated htt causes a progressive brain degeneration which in turn causes a sequence of motor, behavioral and cognitive impairment up to dementia. Even though a genetic test allows preclinical diagnosis many years before the clinical onset, there is no effective therapy to stop the disease to date. For that reason, the identification of biomarkers of brain changes, and cognitive/behavioural premorbid profile at presymptomatic stages of the disease may represent an effective strategy to monitor the progression of the pathological process and to assess the potential efficacy of preventive treatments since before the appearance of clinical manifestations. Neuropathological studies have described cerebral changes since the early stages of the disease mainly in the striatum, but also in other subcortical nuclei and cortical areas. MRI measures conversely are sensitive to the cerebral changes occurring since presymptomatic stages of the disease. Due the complexity of the changes affecting cerebral tissue in HD (i.e. loss of neurons, htt inclusions, reactive gliosis and iron accumulation); the use of a multimodal MRI protocol providing correlated measures sensitive to different characteristics of brain tissue is expected to be introduced in the clinical practice to monitor the complexity of the pathology. All things considered, the current application aims at 1) testing multiple imaging and cognitive/behavioural markers in presymptomatic stages of the disease to evaluate their efficacy to detect disease onset and disease-stage; 2) exploring the relationships between cerebral impairment and behavioural disturbances trying to identify clinical phenotypes; 3) evaluating the influence of the CAG repeat length on cerebral impairment

Keywords: neurosciences,neurology,neuropsychology,huntington's disease,mri,volumetry,mean diffusivity,fractional anisotropy,iron,cognitive functions,behaviour,preclinical phase,juvenile onset hd
Application of novel cyclic ligation auxiliaries in the study of Transthyretin and derived pathologies (CYCLATTR)

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-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2013-02-01
End date: 2015-01-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 167390.4
EU funding (EUR): 167390.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The area of influence of proteins comprise most biochemical reactions and recognition process that govern a living body. However, its malfunction often lead to devastating diseases, like the ones related to Transthyretin:famylial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP), famylial amyloid cardiomyopathy (FAC) and systemic senyl amyloidosis (SSA), cureless to date. Chemical approaches to some of these biomacromolecules have been possible after the discovery of the native chemical ligation, which involves assembly of unprotected Cys-peptide and peptidyl-thioester fragments in aqueous environments. Nonetheless, this technique still encompasses major limitations that has prevented its application to virtually all proteins, such as the requirement of N-terminal Cys peptides and low yield in bulky ligation sites. To increase the scope of ligation, thiol-containing building blocks and thiol-directing ligation auxiliaries have been designed, which allow ligation at non-cysteine ligation sites, but are either sequence dependent or lack sufficient efficiency. In this proposal, we aim to introduce new families of ligation auxiliaries that overcome the classical restrictions of this technique and improve previous strategies. In more detail, two complementary templates will be investigated: mercapto-cyclopentadienil and mercapto-cyclopropylethyl. The former structure is specifically designed to enhance the ligation rate by placing the thiol group in an ideal position with respect to the nitrogen, whereas the latter decreases the sterical hindrance and enhances the acid lability of the auxiliary. To practically illustrate the applicability of this new methodology, the native sequence and mutated analogues of Transthyretin at critical positions will be chemically achieved, a major milestone in the study of this protein, thereby helping understand the biochemical mechanisms that produce the derived pathologies, which cause the death of several thousand people in the world, specially in Europe.

Keywords: organic chemistry,peptide chemistry,biochemistry,amyloidosis,transthyretin,famylial amyloid polyneuropathy
FERROMAGNETIC RESONANCE AT THE ATOMIC SCALE (ATOMICFMR)

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: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-06-18
End date: 2014-06-17
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 193594.8
EU funding (EUR): 193594.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Magnetoresistance, giant or tunnel, is at the heart of several ‘spintronic’ components, a new branch of electronics based on the spin of the electron with applications in information technology. Because of the never ending drive for miniaturization, spintronics is about to reach the ballistic regime of electronic transport for which spin dependent properties are still not completely understood. Further size reductions can even be achieved in constrictions of atomic sizes obtained by slowly stretching a nanostructure in a sensitively controlled manner. In these systems, static magnetotransport measurements result from the low-dimensional magnetism of a few relevant atoms. In parallel ferro-magnetic resonance (the magnetization precession induced by a radio-frequency magnetic field) has seen a renewed interest lately as it has been shown that magnetization dynamics interacts with spin currents. Its correlation with DC transport is being widely studied and it is now possible to electrically measure ferromagnetic resonance using the inverse spin Hall effect or the Anisotropic Magneto-Resistance (AMR). The latter can be scaled down to atomic sizes thus giving the possibility to open the unknown field of the dynamical magnetic properties of a single atom in a low dimensional local geometry. We have very recently demonstrated that FMR can be detected in narrow constrictions using the AMR mixed with the RF current auto induced in the magnetic circuit, leading to a measurable DC voltage. After a strong experimental effort, an original setup has been built which allows us to electrically detect the ferromagnetic resonance at 77K in samples that can be broken in real time during the measurements. This unique tool will allow us to study the resonance properties of a single atom in a low-dimensional configuration. It may even allow us to demonstrate that some metals like platinum could become magnetic in these atomic contacts.

Keywords: magnetic resonance,relaxation,electron-based nano-devices,nanoelectronics
Mining for Metals in a Massive Spectroscopic Survey of the Intergalactic Medium (MINE BOSS)

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-2011-IIF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-09-19
End date: 2014-09-18
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 278807.4
EU funding (EUR): 278807.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The researcher has demonstrated excellence in developing new techniques for detecting, measuring and modelling the intergalactic medium (IGM) and its relation to galaxy formation. He has been particularly focussed on recent incarnations of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-II & -III) and is a key member of the team using observations of the IGM in a massive spectroscopic survey of the distant universe (SDSS-III's Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey or BOSS) to measure dark energy via its signature in large scale structure. This is allowing the researcher to improve our understanding of dark energy and the coevolution of galaxies and the IGM. The IGM is the diffuse medium between galaxies. It is the reservoir that fuels star formation, some of which has been reprocessed by galactic outflows. This gas is observed via absorption imprinted on the spectra of distant quasars as the light passes along the line-of-sight to us. The BOSS survey has already found, and taken spectra of, more than five times as many high redshift quasars as were previously known (>60000) in its 2 years of operation. By its end, in autumn 2013, this increase will be an order of magnitude. The researcher is an active participant in building this sample. In parallel, the survey measures large scale structure (and so dark energy) using the locations 1.5 million galaxies. This researcher has spent seven years pursuing these interests in North America. He proposes to return to Europe to diversify these efforts at the Institute for Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG). The ICG provides a wealth of expertise in areas that represent natural extensions to the researchers current efforts: galaxy formation and the measurement of large scale structure. The ICG takes a lead in the galaxy survey portion of BOSS, but lacks any direct involvement in the quasar survey and its galaxy formation effort lacks expertise on the IGM. The researcher would therefore complement activities currently talking place at ICG.

Keywords: cosmology,astronomy,astrophysics,physical sciences
Elucidating the role of the entorhinal cortex through precise optogenetic and pharmacogenetic manipulations (ENTORHINAL SILENCING)

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: Norway
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IIF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-03-01
End date: 2014-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 208353.6
EU funding (EUR): 208353.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The hippocampal-entorhinal circuit is critical for the formation of new episodic memories, or memories of events that happen in a specific place and time. The discovery of cells in this circuit that respond to the animal's location in the environment suggests that these cells create a spatial context for such memories. Within this broad neural circuit, five key cell types have been described: place cells, grid cells, head direction cells, border cells, and cells that respond to a conjunction of these features. However, the mechanisms behind the generation of each firing pattern, and the function of each cell type, remain to be determined. Models have hypothesized that multi-peaked 'grid' responses are generated in layer II of the medial entorhinal cortex and converted into single-peaked 'place' responses in the hippocampus. Testing these models requires the capability to selectively manipulate individual elements of the circuit. The following experiments combine the cellular specificity of transgenic mice with novel optogenetic and pharmocogenetic tools to inactivate layer II of the medial entorhinal cortex while simultaneously recording ensembles of neurons in the entorhinal cortex or hippocampus. This genetic dissection will shed light on the basic operational principles of the circuit, and help distinguish between models of hippocampal-entorhinal interactions. Understanding the basic performance of the circuit will provide clues into how the circuit might malfunction in patients afflicted with Alzheimer's disease or epilepsy.

Keywords: genetic engineering,neurosciences,neurobiology,neurophysiology,neuropsychology