Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Study of the Endosomal Distribution of Polyplexes and Lipid Nanoparticles and their in-vitro Dissociation for Improved Gene Delivery (DiPoLiGene)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Chemistry
Countries involved: France
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2026-01-01
End date: 2027-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 242260.56
EU funding (EUR): 242260.56
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Nucleic acid-based therapies are currently booming with the advent of mRNA vaccines formulation. Hence, gene delivery systems employing polyplexes or lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) as versatile carriers have shown great promise for therapeutic applications due to the advantages in terms of tuneable properties and biocompatibility. Key to the success of these therapies is the development of efficient and controlled delivery systems capable of transporting the genetic material into target cells, releasing it intracellularly, and minimizing cytotoxicity. However, the efficient release of genetic material from its carriers within the endosomal compartments of target cells remains a critical challenge. This project will investigate the endosomal distribution and in-vitro dissociation mechanisms of polyplexes and LNPs, aiming to provide an outstanding insight on the structure/activity relation of nucleic acids careers. Employing a combination of state-of-the-art microscopy and spectroscopy techniques such as Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET), live-cell imaging, and physicochemical approaches, this research will uncover vital insights into the intracellular dynamics of these gene delivery carriers for the better understanding of endosomal escape and particles dissociation. Furthermore, we will explore the relations between pH distribution of endosomes at various maturation levels and the corresponding accumulation of particles. This research contributes valuable insights into the intracellular fate of gene delivery carriers and provides strategies to overcome endosomal entrapment. Improved understanding of endosomal distribution and in-vitro dissociation mechanisms will ultimately facilitate the development of more efficient and targeted gene delivery systems for therapeutic applications. This will bridge the gap between laboratory research and clinical applications for a diverse spectrum of diseases.

Keywords: endosomal escape,gene delivery,intracellular dissociation,polyelectrolyte complexes,lnps,fret,flim,fcs
Clinical evaluation of AntimalarialS tri-therapy with AtovAquone-Proguanil for treatment of uncomplicated malaria in African children (ASAAP-plus)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Health
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Global Health EDCTP3
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Partnership: EDCTP3 (JU-JTI)
Countries involved: Germany,Ghana,France,Mali,Gabon,Benin,Burkina Faso
Call: Funding to successfully finalise EDCTP2-funded clinical trials that were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic (HORIZON-JU-GH-EDCTP3-2023-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2026-12-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499996.25
EU funding (EUR): 1499996.25
Participants: 7
Project status: SIGNED

Susceptibility to Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) currently remains high among the African Plasmodium falciparum population, but resistant mutant has been detected recently. To mitigate the risk of resistance leading to a dramatic increase in malaria related mortality, more efficient ACTs need to be urgently explored for quick deployment in Africa. Artemether-lumefantrine (AL) is widely used and shows high efficacy and favourable safety in Africa but needs to be protected to increase its useful lifespan. Atovaquone-proguanil (AP) is highly efficacious, safe and resistant parasites are not circulating in any endemic area. AP targets multiple parasite stages -liver and blood in human host, and mosquito- through an independent mode of action, limiting the risk of cross-resistance with current ACTs. The aim of the project is to assess the efficacy of a triple-therapy associating artemether-lumefantrine (AL) and atovaquone-proguanil (AP) for the treatment of uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria in African children in a non-inferiority comparator-controlled trial. A phase III clinical trial will be conducted to compare safety and cure rate of a 3-day treatment course with AL+AP versus AL in 1,664 consenting 6 to 70 months children with uncomplicated malaria from Benin, Gabon, Ghana and Mali. The main outcome will be cure rate at day-42, excluding reinfections. Antimalarial pharmacokinetic parameters and post-treatment prophylactic efficacy will be estimated for the two treatments and compared. Sub-studies will look at transmission-blocking efficacy through membrane-feeding assays and gametocyte dynamics, drug resistance selection. By proofing that AL+AP has safety and cure rate similar to AL, this project will lead to important public health-level benefits by provision of a first candidate regimen to be deployed when ACT resistance spreads throughout Africa and by decreasing human to mosquito transmission.

Keywords: antimalarials,triple artemisinin based combination therapy,artemether lumefantirne,atovaquone proguanil,children,uncomplicated malaria,transmission blocking activity
PEN photoporation for the genetic engineering of therapeutic mesenchymal stromal cells and T cells (Penphomet)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Transition
Destination: Challenges
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Belgium,Netherlands,Spain
Call: EIC Transition Challenge: Full scale Micro-Nano-Bio devices for medical and medical research applications (HORIZON-EIC-2023-TRANSITION-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-03-01
End date: 2027-02-28
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2497711.25
EU funding (EUR): 2497711.25
Participants: 3
Project status: SIGNED

Adoptive cell therapy has emerged as a promising strategy to treat cancer. It relies on patient-derived cells, such as T cells and mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), which are genetically engineered to become better equipped to fight cancer cells. While ex vivo genetic modification of T cells and MSCs has traditionally been performed with viral vectors, they come with concerns about safety, sustainable production and high development costs. Electroporation is a non-viral alternative transfection technology, but can lead to significant gene expression changes, phenotypic alterations, and decreased therapeutic potency. Recently, photoporation with electrospun photothermal nanofibers (PEN photoporation) was demonstrated to provide a safer alternative with minimal impact on the cell’s functionality and phenotype. The technology makes use of photothermal nanofibers which, upon stimulation with laser light, can transiently permeabilize cells to allow gene-modifying effector molecules to enter the cells. Having been thoroughly demonstrated and validated in a research setting (TRL4), this project aims to bring the PEN photoporation technology to TLR6 by developing hard- and software for automated high-throughput transfections of T cells (>1B cells/h) and MSCs (>10M cells/h). The technology will be extensively tested and validated in the cGMP compliant laboratories of the project partners for the genetic engineering of T cells and MSCs. At the same time, steps will be taken to prepare for commercialization and market deployment. By the end of the project a fully automated and validated high-throughput prototype system will be available for installation at centralized cell production facilities or ready for integration in point-of-care cell manufacturing equipment. This project aligns with the Micro-Nano-Bio challenge as it combines nanotechnology with microfluidics to enhance genetically engineered cell therapy products.

Keywords: cell therapy,nanotechnology,microfluidics,automation,cell transfection,genetic engineering,car t,mesenchymal stromal cells
Managing Performative Science (MAPS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Panel description: Cognitive science, psychology, linguistics
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2023-STG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-02-01
End date: 2029-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499520.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499520.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Scientific models often do more than predict or explain. Especially in the social realm, they can also influence their targets – a capacity that is called “performativity”. By influencing policy making and individual behavior, models from economics, epidemiology, or machine learning increasingly perform the social world in significant ways. This development should be of utmost importance to philosophers, for two reasons: First, performativity can impair scientific prediction and explanation. If, for instance, a model of the spread of COVID-19 predicts many deaths, people might reduce their social contacts in response, which may in turn lead to the predicted events not coming about! How should we evaluate such a prediction, and how should scientists deal with these effects? Second, the development raises difficult ethical questions about the legitimacy of science guiding human affairs, and the values that are implicit in this process. Should we welcome science’s increasingly practical role in shaping policy-making and individual behavior? Or should we regard such influence as manipulative, potentially undermining democratic decision making? These are difficult philosophical questions, but they also have significant practical import. Yet the philosophy of science hasn’t so far provided guidance on how performative science might be evaluated and managed. MAPS will close this lacuna. The core aims of the project are: (1) to develop a novel understanding of what performativity is and can do, by closely following scientific practice; (2) to understand the intricate relationship between science’s epistemic and performative roles, and to assess the ethical risks of performativity; and (3) to provide orientation to philosophers and practitioners for how to assess and manage performative science. By integrating insights from scientific practice with philosophical assessment, the project will establish performativity management as a central theme of philosophical inquiry.

Keywords: performativity,philosophy of economics,values in science,ethics,philosophy of social science
Neuronal computations and population dynamics in the Cerebellar Nuclei during motor behaviours (CereCode)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting 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 – In humans and all other organisms
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2021-STG, 2021)
Start date: 2022-10-01
End date: 2027-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499038.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499038.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Motor control involves many brain structures, handling different behavioural aspects such as planning, learning and execution of movements. In vertebrates, while downstream structures such as motor nuclei in the brainstem seem to encode simple stereotyped movements, other structures such as the motor cortex seem to encode higher level aspects of motricity such as goal oriented complex movements. The cerebel-lum, a key structure for movement coordination and motor learning is extensively connected to higher struc-tures such as the neocortex, but also to brainstem nuclei controlling simple movements. How the cerebel-lum influences downstream structures depends on the computations occurring in its output layer, the Cere-bellar Nuclei (CN), which integrates information from the cerebellar cortex and from extracerebellar inputs. However, these integration mechanisms and population coding in the CN are not well understood, because technological and experimental difficulties have limited the study of CN processing rules both at the cellu-lar and at the population level. CereCode will address unanswered fundamental questions that undermine our understanding of cerebellar-dependent motor control. 1) What is the functional connectivity in the CN network and how are sensorimotor inputs from different parts of the brain integrated? 2) How are CN sen-sorimotor computations represented at the population level? Are there functional modules controlling ste-reotyped movements or are different tasks encoded within the same population? 3) What is the individual role of the different extracerebellar inputs during behaviour? CereCode will address these issues combining recent discoveries in CN neurophysiology, viral strategies, optogenetics, and a new imaging tools that I developed based on 3D-two-photon acousto-optic-lens imaging and GRIN lenses, shining light on the neu-ral code of an essential brain structure.

Keywords: motor control locomotion cerebellar nuclei population imaging acousto optic lens microscopy optogenetics
Conical liquid noble gas apparatus for neutrino physics. (COLINA)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Panel description: Particle, nuclear, plasma, atomic, molecular, gas, and optical physics
Countries involved: Spain
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2024-STG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-09-01
End date: 2030-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1659083.0
EU funding (EUR): 1659083.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEνNS) is a recently demonstrated novel process of neutrino interaction. It provides numerous avenues to advance our sensitivity to new physics beyond the Standard Model and enables a miniaturization of otherwise massive neutrino detectors, opening up the possibility of technological applications. The development the development of an innovative single-phase noble liquid time projection chamber (TPC) to detect CEνNSis proposed. Two distinct ideas are combined to maximize the potential of the technique. 1) The signal will be amplified through electroluminiscence (EL). 2) The TPC will be shaped as a conical frustum. Single-phase EL is unaffected by charge trapping which is the major deterrent of dual-phase noble liquid TPCs for CEνNS searches at shallow depths. However, it requires extremely high electric fields. Such fields can be reached by using very thin wires – μm-scale diameter. This is an impediment to produce large amplification regions. Common TPC shapes are thus limited in size and target mass. The conical shape allows to maximize the mass by drifting all charges towards a small amplification region at the smaller circle of the cone. Such scheme allows for good coverage with few sensors. COLINA, a conical TPC capable of holding ∼50 kg of LXe, will be developed and deployed at the largest spallation neutrino source, the European Spallation Source. Simulations point to a conservative energy threshold as low as ∼0.525 keVnr. The detector will allow for operation with different noble gases. The increase in density of liquid-phase, compared to gaseous-phase, results in large CEνNS rate with rather small detectors. In fact, COLINA will produce the larger CEνNS statistics in all the considered isotopes, Xe, Kr and Ar, and will do so in unexplored energy regions for the process, where the physics relevance is maximal.

Keywords: neutrino,liquid noble gas,time projection chamber,coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering
Multilevel approaches to understanding chronic inflammatory diseases. (MAP-ID)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Co-funding of regional, national and international programmes
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Countries involved: Poland,Belgium,Netherlands,Austria,Spain,United Kingdom,Italy,Switzerland,United States,Germany
Call: MSCA COFUND 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-COFUND-01, 2023)
Start date: 2025-04-01
End date: 2030-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1747200.0
EU funding (EUR): 1747200.0
Participants: 21
Project status: SIGNED

The MAP-ID project aims to deliver an East-West Europe-integrating training programme for PhD students, focused on tackling one of the most challenging, complex, and therapeutically unmet problems which are chronic inflammatory diseases. MAP-ID will train chronic inflammation-oriented researchers to become leaders in the field in regional, national, and international arenas. Within the doctoral programme, 13 DCs will conduct their research under the supervision of prominent specialists from the Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University in Poland (JU), in collaboration with international partner academic institutions and biotech companies. MAP-ID focuses on multilevel approaches to understanding chronic inflammatory diseases, including infectious, autoimmune, allergic disorders, and cancer. To achieve this goal, the programme will establish and strengthen ties and collaborations between JU and top Universities and non-academic partners in Europe and beyond. MAP-ID aims to foster interdisciplinary research spanning molecular, cell, and structural biology, biophysics, chemistry, pharmaceutical sciences, and bioinformatics with a significant contribution of OMICS data sets. The training will give the DCs a detailed insight into the strategies and mechanisms required to contribute to growth in the sector of academic and industrial research related to chronic inflammatory disease research and development. The training will include courses conducted by both host institution researchers and visiting scientists from world-leading Universities and companies. Some of the courses offered for DCs, created specifically for MAP-ID, will be accessible to other JU researchers, enriching the learning resources available to them. Therefore, the MAP-ID will have a significant impact on the JU community and its public image, enabling JU to strengthen its position as a leader in chronic inflammation-related research in central Europe.

Keywords: chronic inflammatory diseases building the critical mass of a new generation of internationally trained doctoral candidates at ju to engage central european regions in a path of innovative growth
Dynamic Ions under Nano-Confinement for Porous Membranes with Ultrafast Gas Permeation Control (DYONCON)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences
Panel description: Analytical chemistry, chemical theory, physical chemistry/chemical physics
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2021-COG, 2021)
Start date: 2022-07-01
End date: 2027-06-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1995925.0
EU funding (EUR): 1995925.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Transport phenomena of molecules and ions inside porous materials are paramount in various fields, ranging from energy storage and transformation to molecular separation. In advanced energy storage devices, like supercapacitors and batteries, ions are confined in small pores. Nanoconfinement effects change the ion properties and enhance the performance, vital for saving resources and energy. So far, the static properties of nanoconfined ions are thoroughly studied but there is little known about the dynamic properties of ions in nanopores, mainly attributed to the lack of suitable experimental model systems. In DYONCON, the dynamic properties of nanoconfined ions will be explored by using well-defined, tunable model systems. This is realized by combining two exclusive material classes: ionic liquids, ILs, which are room-temperature molten salts of organic molecules, and films of metal-organic frameworks, MOFs. MOF films provide the variable, crystalline, scaffold-like container for the ion confinement. An applied electric field will act on the nanoconfined ILs, causing its directed movements. Controlling the dynamic properties of the nanoconfined ions will lead to myriad advances of safety and efficiency concerns, including enhanced charging rates of energy storage devices. In a radical new approach, DYONCON will also show that nanoconfined ions provide unprecedented functionalities. Based on the functional uniformity of IL@MOF membranes, the nano-level control of the confined ions will be used to regulate macroscopic gas fluxes with ultrafast switching rates, orders of magnitude faster than conventional gas valves. DYONCON aims to enhance the potentials of electrochemical technologies in energy storage, in sensors and in iontronics. The benefits of DYONCON will not only impact the improvement of speed, quality and control in existing technologies, but it will change the way we look at mobile confined ions and launch us into new methods of using nanomaterials.