Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Role of Microtubule Regulators in Centriole Elongation (CENTRIOLEELONGATION)

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: Portugal
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2011-06-01
End date: 2013-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 148783.6
EU funding (EUR): 148783.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Centrioles are cellular organelles made of microtubules that are essential for centrosome, cilia and flagella assembly and as such are involved in a variety of cellular and developmental processes, including cell motility, division and polarity. Centriole biogenesis is first seen during S phase by the appearance of procentrioles that elongate as the cell cycle progresses to reach nearly full length in mitosis. Most mature centrioles in an organism have similar length, yet very little is known on how centriole length control is exerted. The purpose of the current project is to investigate centriole biogenesis, in particular centriole elongation, its kinetics and regulation. We will search for novel molecular players in this process via two complementary approaches. We will perform an RNAi screening of microtubule regulators in mammalian cells and check for their role in centriole elongation. In addition, we will perform pull-down assays using already known molecular players in centriole length control and search for new binding partners by mass spectrometry. These combined approaches will identify novel players in centriole biogenesis that we will further study using in vitro and in vivo (Drosophila) approaches, to better understand their mechanism of action and their relevance to the organism.

Keywords: biological sciences,cell biology,molecular biology,drosophila,centriole,centrosome,cytoskeleton,microtubule regulators
Chronic Ocean Noise: Cetacean Ecology and Acoustic habitat Loss (CONCEAL)

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-2009-IIF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-12-03
End date: 2012-12-02
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 240289.6
EU funding (EUR): 240289.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The overall aim of project CONCEAL (“Chronic Ocean Noise: Cetacean Ecology and Acoustic habitat Loss”) is to quantify the ecological consequences to marine mammals of acoustic habitat degradation due to masking effects of chronic ocean noise in a robust statistical framework. Ambient noise levels (e.g., marine shipping traffic, offshore oil and gas activities, and renewable energy sources) have risen dramatically in the world ocean in recent decades, but evaluating the impacts of this trend on acoustically sensitive marine predators has proven difficult. The proposed project would allow quantification of this threat in a rigorous, repeatable and standardised way that informs species-specific mitigation measures and assists reporting. The project builds on a recent development by American colleagues to estimate a “masking metric”, which uses the sonar equation, informed by biological and empirical data, to quantify changes in the communication space of an individual or population as a result of changes in the acoustic environment. This metric is a simple, but repeatable and rigorously derived parameter in which the measurement of interest is the ratio of communication space available to a given species under current noise conditions relative to its communication space under estimated levels of pre-industrial ambient noise. Initial case studies include fin, humpback and killer whales. This multidisciplinary research project will be guided by and have strong implications for marine conservation and natural resource management policy. The study will integrate expertise from three disciplines: (1) biology; (2) acoustics; and (3) statistical modelling, and draws on leaders in all three fields. Progress is urgently needed on this conceptually challenging research topic, not least because marine mammals are protected under the Habitats Directive and scientific guidance is needed to assist those tasked with judging Favourable Conservation Status.

Keywords: environmental protection,whale,marine mammal,ocean noise,habitat degradation,natural sciences,animal ecology,marine environment impact
RATIONAL: Secure Mobile Networks of Selfish Individuals (RATIONAL)

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-2009-IOF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-08-15
End date: 2012-08-14
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 210283.6
EU funding (EUR): 210283.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

We envision a near future in which most individuals will be equipped with powerful mobile communication devices, like smart phones or PDAs, able to establish direct communication links with each other by using short-range communication technologies like blue-tooth or wi-fi. Personal devices will be able to build completely distributed, infrastructure-less networks where nodes are carried by humans, and links appear as they get in contact. We call these networks mobile networks of individuals. Many believe that mobile networks of individuals will become one challenging and exciting technology of the future society and that they will be used to run revolutionary applications based on the social patterns of mobility and contacts. Messages will flow from individual to individual, as links appear, and fundamental information about our communities of friends or personal interests will be used to deliver personalized services like sending news on our favorite places, or information about what our friends are up to. Or, in case of emergencies or disasters, these networks could work as a basic message forwarding system to help rescue operations and to localize victims. While the societal impact of this technology can be enormous, it is also true that these networks can show critical issues in terms of tolerance of selfish behavior and security. Malicious activity and rational, egoistic user&apos;s choices are increasingly recognized as unavoidable realities in today&apos;s cooperative services. Without reliable counter-measures to these issues, the citizen will not use this technology, with a negative impact on its scientific and industrial development. This project has the goal to build some of the fundamental mechanisms that are needed to build secure, selfish-tolerant distributed systems based on mobile networks of individuals.

Keywords: computer science,networking,distributed systems,tolerance of selfish behavior,security.
Identification of novel factors to expand hematopoietic stem cells in vitro (NOVEXPAND)

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-2009-IIF, 2009)
Start date: 2011-01-01
End date: 2012-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 180669.4
EU funding (EUR): 180669.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Blood and marrow transplantation (BMT) has been used successfully to treat malignant blood disorders and genetic diseases. Although BMT has been effective, problems remain, for example lack of suitable donors and engraftment failure. Cord blood (CB) contains hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) that can be used to transplant children. However, there are too few HSC in most CB samples to reliably engraft adult patients following BMT. Development of HSC expansion prior to transplantation would allow successful engraftment in patients that cannot be transplanted today due to a lack of a suitable donor. While some classical cytokines can maintain the number of HSC in culture, expansion of HSC in vitro will require discovery of novel factors that can increase more symmetrical divisions of HSC. In this project we will identify new factors that can expand HSCs by increasing the proliferation of immature HSC, using recent findings from embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. ES/iPS cells are cell lines that have strong proliferation ability and are pluripotent in the presence of defined factors. Several genes expressed in ES/iPS cells have been identified as stem cell regulators, but a comprehensive analysis of all possible genes is essential to find additional factors that may be important for expansion of HSC. The screening will be done by using microarray analysis, subtraction assay, and over expression using cDNA libraries. Genes that are differentially expressed in immature ES cells and differentiated cells will be inserted into lentiviral vectors and transduced to HSC. The transduced HSCs will be analyzed with respect to inceased stem cell function using a transplantation assay in vivo. Findings from the project are expected to discover several novel regulatory molecules that will allow HSC expansion prior to transplantation. Successful HSC expansion will make most CB donor samples useful for adults requiring HSC transplantation therapy.

Keywords: medicine,hematopoiesis,stem cell expansion,blood and marrow transplantation
Why Women Ruled: Explaining the Rise and Persistence of Female Rule in Pre-colonial Southeast Asia and Madagascar (WHYWOMENRULED)

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-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2011-08-01
End date: 2012-04-30
Duration (months): 9.0
Total project cost (EUR): 223047.2
EU funding (EUR): 223047.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

There are only a handful of known examples in all of world history in which female rule has been institutionalized in the sense that a line of consecutive, or near consecutive, women rulers have exercised formal authority over an independent or semi-independent state and where female rule seems to have been widely accepted by contemporary society as being the “normal” or desirable order of things. The project compares three such, relatively well-documented but little studied and understood, cases of institutionalized female rule in the pre-colonial history of the Malayo-Polynesian world: Patani (presently in southern Thailand) c. 1584–1694, Aceh (presently in western Indonesia) 1641–99 and Imerina (central Madagascar) 1828–96. Combining the two approaches of comparative history (histoire comparée) and entangled history (histoire croisée), the project aims to: 1) explain why female rule was established and institutionalized in each of the three polities; 2) understand what, if any, political and social difference it made that the ruler was a woman rather than a man; 3) explain why royal power under female rule in all three cases gradually declined and eventually was suspended; and 4) to contribute to an enhanced theoretical understanding of the sexual and gendered dimensions of political power and leadership in world history. A broad range of first-hand, published and unpublished, contemporary sources are used and interpreted hermeneutically, comparatively and from a historical-anthropological perspective in order to answer the questions at issue.

Keywords: political history,social anthropology,modern history,southeast asia,madagascar,european expansion,gender,queens
TRP Channels in Gut and Brain – Function, Role and Ligand Crosstalk (SPICES, GUT & BRAIN)

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: Switzerland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-05-15
End date: 2012-05-14
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 173565.2
EU funding (EUR): 173565.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

An emerging topic in nutrition research is to understand the role of spices both culturally and physiologically beyond just being taste givers. Anecdotally numerous health benefits have been ascribed to naturally derived compounds from spices but the molecular mechanisms through which spices mediate their effects remain largely unknown. Transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channels expressed in sensory neurons respond to natural compounds and especially spices and herbal medicines. For example, TRPV1 responds to the plant component capsaicin (the pungent ingredient in chilli peppers), which produces the psychophysical sensation of heat or burning, TRPM8 responds to menthol (found in peppermint), which produces a cooling sensation and TRPA1 is activated by several natural plant derived products such as mustard oil that also produces a pungent sensation. At this point these TRP channels have been studied mostly in sensory neurons –yet various studies point out ectopic expression of TRP channels such as in the gut and in the brain. What is the role of the TRP channels found in the gut? and in the brain? What are the ligands for these channels? Do the ligands for brain TRP channels originate endogenously or are they delivered through food? We plan to answer these questions studying the localization, structure activity-relationship and physiological response of these TRP channels (TRPA1, TRPM8 and TRPV1) in relation to their agonists from spices in the gastrointestinal tract and their possible benefits to human health and quality of life. In addition, we will carry out the study of distribution and physiology of the selected channels in the brain since it has been demonstrated that the overall level of TRP channel mRNAs is highest in brain areas and recent studies suggested that some pungent low molecular weight constituents of spicy food could easily cross the blood-brain barrier, enter the brain and act directly in a way, which is yet to be determined.

Keywords: physiology,neurophysiology,nutrition,food perception,trp channels,gut,brain,spices
Deciphering the role of chromatin remodelling in DNA damage repair (CHROMOREPAIR)

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: Greece
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2011-01-01
End date: 2012-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 202318.8
EU funding (EUR): 202318.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Our cells are faced with thousands of DNA lesions every day. Failure to repair such lesions can lead to genomic instability, cancer development or cell death. Repair of DNA damage, however, is complicated by the fact that genomic DNA is packaged, through histone and non-histone proteins, into a condensed structure called chromatin. Recently, an increasing interest on the impact of chromatin and the epigenetic changes that occur in DNA damage repair has emerged. Nevertheless, the functional interplay between damage-induced interference of transcription and modulation of chromatin to allow accessibility of DNA lesions by the repair machineries is still an enigma. Here, I propose biochemical and genetic approaches complemented with advanced proteomic and genome wide technologies to i) isolate and characterise the chromatin remodelling factors that functionally interact with damage arrested RNA Polymerase II/repair complexes in response to genotoxic stress. Focus will be on potential differences in the composition of protein complexes and their posttranslational modifications in normal human cells and in patient-derived repair deficient cells. ii) To decode the epigenetic changes that occur in response to DNA damage at genome wide level and in the vicinity of transcription blocking DNA lesions. iii) To elucidate the role of key repair and chromatin factors on transcription-mediated DNA damage response and study their interplay with damage signaling proteins (such as protein kinases, ubiquitin ligases, and histone methylases/acetyltransferases). These studies are expected to increase our understanding on the impact of chromatin function-structure and the histone modifications that occur upon genotoxic stress and change transiently the plasticity of chromatin structure, linking persistent damage in active genes to repair, cell cycle arrest or apoptosis in mammalian cells. In addition, this knowledge may lead to the identification of targets for therapeutic intervention.

Keywords: health sciences,damage-induced transcription interference,dna damage signalling,histone modifications,nucleotide excision repair
The role of hypoxia-inducible factors in human haematopoietic stem cell biology and leukaemogenesis (HSCS AND HIF)

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-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-07-01
End date: 2013-01-08
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 172740.8
EU funding (EUR): 172740.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Mammalian haematopoiesis in the adult takes place predominantly in the bone marrow (BM) where a population of haematopoietic stem cells (HSC) are located. HSC are able to self-renew and give rise to all the blood cell types. The fate choice of HSC to either self-renew or differentiate is controlled by an interplay between intrinsic mechanisms and extrinsic signals from the surrounding environment called stem cell niche. The existence of a hypoxic niche in the BM has been highlighted in the last decade. It has been proposed that the most quiescent HSC reside in the most hypoxic areas in the BM suggesting that low oxygen levels might play a key role in the maintenance of HSC. However the molecular mechanisms by which HSC respond to hypoxia have not been elucidated. Cells have developed a molecular mechanism for oxygen sensing. An important mediator is the transcriptional complex hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF). At low oxygen levels, HIF is stabilized and regulates the transcription of crucial genes involved in cell proliferation, survival and differentiation. Under normoxia, HIF has a low transcriptional activity. In addition, HIF has been reported to be upregulated in certain pathological conditions such as cancer where a high expression of HIF correlates with a poor prognosis. The aim of this project is to understand the molecular mechanisms by which human HSC response to their hypoxic environment. I will address this question by studying the role of HIF in HSC. I will first concentrate on analysing the consequences that genetically manipulating HIF might have on HSC in vitro and in vivo. Secondly I will analyse whether HIF is upregulated in leukemic stem cells (LSC) and in such a case, I will finally investigate the consequences that downregulating HIF might have in the modulation of leukaemia. Defining the role of HIF in HSC and LSC will provide for the first time a molecular link between the hypoxic niche, HSC maintenance and leukaemia development in humans.

Keywords: haematopoiesis,haematopoietic stem cells,hypoxia,hif-1,hif-2,stem cell niche,quiescence,human cord blood cells,hypoxic niche,acute myeloid leukaemia,leukaemic stem cells
Quantifying Arctic responses to past climate change (QUARCTIC)

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: Norway
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-08-01
End date: 2012-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 204068.0
EU funding (EUR): 204068.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The ability to anticipate the projected consequences of anthropogenic greenhouse warming in the coming centuries is critical if policy makers are to implement realistic and achievable mitigation measures. The levels of predictive precision currently available through global circulation models (GCM’s) is, however, insufficient for this task due to shortcomings in their ability to realistically simulate the complexities of global climate. A possible solution is to use real-world palaeodata to quantitatively model parameters, and against which to test the predicted outcomes. The potential value of much of this data is, however, limited due to its predominantly qualitative nature and a combination of chronological problems associated with conventional dating methods. In this project proposal (QUARCTIC: QUantifying ARCTIC responses to past climate change), we propose to produce highly accurate and precise quantitative palaeoenvironmental data sets from lake sequences throughout the Arctic region by the use of chironomid analysis and distal volcanic ash (‘microtephra’) chronology. Both techniques are relatively modern within palaeoenvironmental research, with their combination in QUARCTIC being entirely novel. It is anticipated that the project results will lead to the development of a data set of high precision palaeotemperature curves correlated by a framework of precise ash isochrons. The quantified precision of such results will be what is required if GCM’s are to provide data of use in policy formulation, especially in the Arctic region where palaeodata is lacking and GCM prediction poor.

Keywords: arctic,palaeoenvironmental reconstruction,global climate models,chironomid analysis,tephrochronology,ultra-distal volcanic ash