Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
SBMA as a model of polyglutamine diseases: generation of a suitable cell system to study the post-transcriptional modifications of mutant androgen receptor and to discover potential therapeutic drugs (POLYQ MUTANT AR/SBMA)

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: Italy
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IOF, 2011)
Start date: 2013-04-01
End date: 2015-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 178760.7
EU funding (EUR): 178760.7
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Accumulation of toxic aggregation-prone protein into inclusions and aggregates is the hallmark of most neurodegenerative diseases, a broad class of disorders including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and polyglutamine diseases. In this proposal, using SBMA as a model of neurodegenerative polyglutamine-related disorder, we intend to move a step forward expanding knowledge of the neurodegeneration. In particular, we will provide a suitable model system such as differentiated iPSCs from SBMA patients to study molecular mechanism and to find out potential therapeutic drugs for neurodegenerative diseases. To define the disease-phenotype of differentiated iPS cells we will take advantage of specific features of SBMA disorders: the ligand-dependent toxicity of expanded AR. The ligand binding induces many modifications of AR protein such as phosphorylation. Since phosphorylation of mutant AR is an important determinant of SBMA pathogenesis, we will also characterize the impact of cyclic adenosine monophosphatate (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase A (PKA) signaling on the mutant AR toxicity. Then, we will use this information to identify agents that promote such modifications to find out potential therapy. Therefore, in order to develop treatment for SBMA, we will test the effect of neuropeptides that stimulates the generation of cAMP and activation of PKA, to target SBMA spinal cord.

Keywords: neurosciences,neurobiology,neurodegeneration,polyglutamine expansions,cell biology,molecular biology,post-translational modifications,phosphorylation
Modulating mechanisms of the onset of El Niño events (MEMENTO)

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: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IOF, 2011)
Start date: 2013-01-01
End date: 2015-12-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 256206.0
EU funding (EUR): 256206.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

El Niño-Southern Oscillation is the most prominent modulator of atmospheric variability, and the major driver of climate teleconnections worldwide. It is certainly predictable, but state-of-the-art coupled models seem to have reached a plateau at moderate predictability level. Understanding the theoretical nature and activation mechanism of the phenomenon would ultimately enlarge its predictability, and in turn, improve seasonal forecasting worldwide. The present project will study the main mechanisms favoring the initial activation of El Niño (EN) events in the tropical Pacific, as well as those processes that explain the subsequent amplification and teleconnections of the phenomenon. The project will analyze these ocean-atmosphere interactions between the tropics and extratropics in observational datasets, and conclusions will be used for the validation of a large ensemble of timely state-of-the-art coupled climate models. The most skilful of these model schemes will be used for the design of new numerical experiments, which will shed further light on the main dynamical mechanisms explaining the generation of EN events. During this exhaustive study, the main leading processes and features will be identified, and used for the design of new operational statistical prediction schemes. In this way, the present project proposes to enlarge the predictability of the phenomenon by means of a comprehensive theoretical and practical study of the main leading mechanisms taking place during onset of EN events. Despite the present project is especially designed for increasing the professional maturity of the applicant as an independent researcher, it is also thought to improve the research attractiveness of the return host institution by transferring outstanding scientific expertise of a top international outgoing host institution to the return host center within the European Union.
Behavioural and physiological markers of Parental Embodied Mentalising: Cultural, gender, and attachment factors (EMBODIED ATTACHMENT)

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: Israel
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-11-01
End date: 2014-10-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 180342.0
EU funding (EUR): 180342.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

parental mentalising, the parent’s capacity to regard the child as a psychological agent (Sharp & Fonagy, 2008), is an important factor predicting attachment security (e.g., Slade et al., 2004).Thus far, all formulations of parental mentalising conceptualise and measure it as verbal, explicit, and reflective capacity (e.g. Meins, 1999; Slade, 2002).Despite their empirical contribution, these approaches are limited in their ability to illuminate the process through which parental mental capacities actually shape the child’s representation of their relationship in terms of attachment security. Shai and Belsky (2011a, b) recently introduced the construct and measure of parental embodied mentalising (PEM), an implicit, body-based, and interactive approach to parental mentalising. A study of 150 mothers interacting with their 6-months-old infants found that the parent’s PEM profile not only predicted the child’s attachment at 15 months over and above established maternal sensitivity measures, but that once PEM variables were accounted for maternal sensitivity was no longer predicted attachment (Shai & Belsky, submitted). However exciting and promising these findings are, they are preliminary and call for further investigation. Using multiple cutting-edge methods, including psychophysiological, behavioural, and self-reports this research scrutinizes four questions: 1) Can PEM be cross-culturally validated such that maternal PEM in an Israeli sample will predict attachment security as in the American sample? 2) What are the behavioural similarities and differences between paternal and maternal PEM? 3) What are the links between behavioural and psychophysiological measures of PEM? 4) How does adult attachment associate with PEM and with child attachment security? This research makes a new contribution to the study of embodiment from an interdisciplinary whole-body movement perspective and will lead to the development of novel therapeutic interventions for parents and infant

Keywords: embodiment,mentalising,psychophysiological,attachment,movement analysis,developmental psychology,parent-infant
NanoSIMS Enabled Approach to Understand Bacterial and Fungal Cellulose Degraders in Soils (SAE_SNSP_UVA)

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: Austria
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IIF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-04-01
End date: 2014-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 180191.4
EU funding (EUR): 180191.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Soils contain the largest pool of carbon on Earth. Cellulose is a major constituent of this carbon since it is a key component of plant structural carbon. Members of the bacteria and fungi are essential for degrading cellulose and thus are essential for cycling carbon. However, the majority of our knowledge on cellulose degradation has been restricted to organisms that we can grow in the laboratory. The reliance on these growth-based methods to understand soil function can be misleading. My previous molecular-based studies, DNA-stable isotope probing (SIP), identified active cellulolytic bacteria and fungi in a collection of different soils, some of which were previously known to degrade cellulose along with other, putatively novel groups. However these studies did neither delaminate the specific bacterial and fungal contributions to cellulose degradation in these soils nor did they reveal systematic differences in the time course of cellulose degradation among these active groups. Furthermore, the putative novel cellulolytic fungal and bacterial groups warrant follow-up work to ascertain if these groups were responsible for the primary breakdown of cellulose and were not only detected as the result of cross feeding. In order to overcome these issues and expand on my previous SIP work, I propose to use SIP with 13C-cellulose in combination with Halogen In Situ Hybridization-Secondary Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (HISH-SIMS) to determine and to quantify the in situ contributions of active cellulolytic microorganisms in the soil environment in a previously unachievable manner. The expected scientific outcome include: (1) system-level understanding of the metabolic networks of cellulose degradation; (2) basic understanding of the degree and efficiency cellulose is degraded by microorganisms; (3) improved understanding of primary and secondary responding populations to cellulose; and (4) better characterization of the seemingly unknown groups of cellulose degraders.

Keywords: natural sciences,soil,nanosims,fish,bacteria,fungi,cellulose degradation
Checking Melanoidins Satiating Efficiency Through Evaluation of Human Gut-Brain Response to Novel-Bread Ingestion (CHECKMATE-TO-HUNGER)

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: 2012-09-03
End date: 2015-08-03
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 257874.8
EU funding (EUR): 257874.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The increase of overweight and obesity among Europeans is becoming an important health and social issue as overweight people have a higher risk of developing diabetes or cardiovascular disease than normal weight people. The diffusion of the Western diet, rich in energy-dense foods, is one possible cause of weight gain. Grilling, roasting, and frying of foods leads to the formation of Maillard reaction products including non-digestible melanoidins that are primarily found in coffee and bread crust. Melanoidins are structurally similar to vegetable dietary fiber, both are non-digestible dietary components partially fermented in the gut. It is known that dietary fiber is able to trigger short-term satiety through the modulation of gut hormones controlling food intake. The objective of this project is to verify the satiating efficiency of melanoidins. New types of bread enriched with melanoidins from the crust or from coffee will be developed and their effects on short-term satiety will be compared to those elicited by barley beta-glucans-enriched bread and control bread (only crumb, no melanoidins and no dietary fiber). For this purpose a human intervention trial will be performed. In four breakfast sessions, 15 volunteers will consume in a random manner all experimental breads one by one, fill out satiety questionnaires, be submitted to blood drawings at 5 specific time points, and consume an ad libitum lunch 3 h after breakfast. In the rest of the day, they will complete a food diary to assess their 24 h energy intakes. Gut and stress hormones, as well as endocannabinoid concentrations, will be measured in blood samples by Luminex technology and mass spectrometry. Additionally, satiety gene expression in blood samples from 5 subjects at two time points will be measured by a newly developed DNA array. The CHECKMATE-TO-HUNGER project will take advantage of a multidisciplinary approach to clarify mechanisms underlying satiety induced by Maillard reaction products.

Keywords: food chemistry,nutritional sciences,coffee,bread,satiety,melanoidins,maillard reaction,metabolic syndrome,diabetes,dietary fiber
Catalytic Asymmetric C-C bond formation with Organo-Lithium reagents (CAT. ASYMM. LITHIUM)

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: 2012-10-01
End date: 2014-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 183805.8
EU funding (EUR): 183805.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Carbon–carbon bond formation is at the hearth of chemistry and the development of new methodology for catalytic enantioselective C-C bond formation continues to be a major challenge for synthesis. After more than 80 years since the introduction of organolithium reagents, no general, highly enantioselective and practical catalytic C-C bond formation with organolithium reagents exists. In preliminary studies, Feringa´s group have recently discovered that simple alkyl lithium reagents (MeLi, n-BuLi) yield excellent enantioselectivities in copper catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylation. The subject of the project is the development of new methodologies for highly asymmetric catalyzed C-C bond formation using organolithium reagents. In this research project will try to accomplish the catalytic asymmetric allylic substitution with aryllithium reagents, catalytic asymmetric vinylation of allylic halides and the development of other highly desirable transformations (like the asymmetric formation of chiral quaternary centers via allylic substitution or allyllic alkylation with secondary alkyl lithium reagents). The methodology will be explored in a number of challenging transformations outlined above and the catalysts optimized through chiral ligand screening and optimization of reaction parameters.

Keywords: carbon chemistry,organolithium reagents,asymmetric catalysis enantioselectivity,allylic alkylation,homogeneous catalysis,organic chemistry
Fully digital in-beam PET for hadron therapy (FULLBEAM)

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: 2012-09-01
End date: 2014-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 185763.6
EU funding (EUR): 185763.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The accuracy of dose planning and delivery in hadron beam treatment is imperative, since millimeter errors can lead to over-dosage of critical organs or under-dosage of the tumor. Treatment plans can be reliable only if controlled with the use of in-beam positron emission tomography (ib-PET). Early experiments showed that the radiation produced by activated tissues represents a much richer and ephemeral scenario than in conventional PET imaging. Unfortunately, only a small fraction of the produced radiation can be acquired because of the high noise during particle extraction. It has been shown that modularized detectors can better sustain beam brightness, but new strategies are required in order to discriminate and recovery the useful signal. This project addresses the problem of in-spill blindness with a new concept photon discrimination technique based on fully digital acquisition. The idea is to upgrade the key sub-systems of the ib-PET system recently developed jointly by the Technical University of Madrid and the University of Pisa, being the two organizations respectively the origin and the destination of the candidate. A modified version of detector read-out modules will provide real-time photon digital characterization, while coincidence processing will be completely re-invented. The proposed photon characterization and tomographic reconstruction techniques will be mainly based on a series of results that have been co-published and co-patented in the last few years by the author of the project. This project is expected to intensify the researcher’s professional maturity as a medical imaging system engineer, giving him the opportunity to complete a competitive work started with his PhD studies. The close collaboration with the host group and their industrial partners will also give him the opportunity of training with next generation detector technologies and PET applications, thus preparing the ground for new advances in the state of the art.

Keywords: medical physics,pet monitoring,fully digital pet,hadron therapy,fpga
Ancient DNA and climatic change: new perspectives from insular environments (MEDITADNA)

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: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IOF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-08-01
End date: 2015-07-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 370195.6
EU funding (EUR): 370195.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

One of the most exciting issues in modern biology is the use of genetic sequences to examine how modern patterns of biodiversity were generated. While most studies use DNA sequences from living species to investigate the factors promoting diversification and extinction, continuous improvements in ancient DNA (aDNA) techniques have greatly opened up the study of DNA sequences from fossils. aDNA has proved an important new tool for the analysis of past demography, migration and diversity and has revealed how past geological, environmental and climatic changes have shaped current biodiversity and perhaps will influence the near future. Important advances are currently being developed in the recovery of aDNA using hybridisation enrichment and Next Generation Sequencing technologies that open the way for nuclear Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) typing, and even genomics. In this project we will these methodologies to recover aDNA from a unique fossil bovid, Myotragus balearicus, that lived in the Balearic Islands from at least 5 My ago to its extinction 5,000 years ago. This species is particularly important because of a detailed fossil record in the two islands where it lived, Mallorca and Menorca. The number of preserved bones is remarkable, with more than 150 fossiliferous deposits known, and a wide chronological range (from 100 to 5 kyr). Furthermore, the feasibility of genetic studies of M. balearicus has been demonstrated through preliminary reports of fragments of mitochondrial DNA. Two major research objectives will be pursued through aDNA analyses of samples of this fossil bovid: 1) characterization of populations both within and between island; and 2) understanding the response of M. balearicus to the marked climate changes suffered during its long insular evolution in a species with no possibility of migration and analysis of the loss of genetic diversity over time and the potential influence on the extinction of the species.

Keywords: ancient dna,climate change impact (climate change),palaeozoology,global change adaptation strategies (climate change),paleoclimate (climate change),genomics,extinction,insular evolution
Social evolution in microbial ecosystems (SOCMICROECO)

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: 2012-09-01
End date: 2014-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 200371.8
EU funding (EUR): 200371.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Over the last decades, technological advances in DNA sequencing have revealed an astonishing diversity in the microbial world. Whether in soil, in waste-water treatment plants, on the surfaces of leaves or lining the inside of the human gut, thousands of microbial species have been found to co-exist. The ability to disentangle the interactions between these species and how they influence each other's survival will aid in both the understanding and control of microbial ecosystems. The goal of this project is to create a predictive framework of evolving social interactions within microbial ecosystems. This will involve the integration of ecological network theory and social evolution theory, two fields that remain largely separate. The predictions of our model will then be applied to a test case microbial ecosystem used for the treatment of industrial waste. Our long-term goal is to develop methods to control real microbial ecosystems. Due to the ubiquity of microbes, we expect there to be many future practical applications for the results of our project. This includes the design and optimization of waste-water treatment plants, the control of microbial infections in humans and the engineering of fertilizers to increase crop efficiency.

Keywords: natural sciences,physical sciences,technological sciences
Visualizing tolerance induction: behavior and function of regulatory T cells during the establishment of materno/fetal tolerance (VISTO)

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: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IIF, 2011)
Start date: 2012-03-01
End date: 2014-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 201932.4
EU funding (EUR): 201932.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The presence of foreign (allogenic) tissue in a host yields an immune response with the goal to destroy the tissue. During pregnancy, however, the semiallogenic fetus is allowed to grow within the maternal uterus. This ‘immunological paradox of pregnancy’ has received much attention because of its therapeutic implications in organ transplantation and autoimmune diseases.While it has recently been established that regulatory T cells are essential in establishing tolerogenic conditions during pregnancy, little is known about where and when T regulatory act. I will characterize, using transgenic mouse lines and intra-vital two photon microscopy, the spatio-temporal characteristics of T regulatory cell recruitment at the materno/fetal interface. I will analyze the dynamics of cellular interactions between T regulatory cells with other immune system cells under physiological conditions and in a mouse model of spontaneous abortion. Finally, I will use a candidate gene approach to reveal similarities between molecular mechanisms of materno/fetal tolerance and tumor immune escape. A better understanding of the mechanisms leading to materno/fetal tolerance will have therapeutic implications for the treatment of patients with recurrent spontaneous abortion and pre-eclampsia, for organ transplantation and for autoimmune diseases. Moreover, the interdisciplinary comparison of similarities between materno/fetal tolerance and tumor immune escape will provide novel experimental approaches for tumor immuno-therapy.

Keywords: health sciences