Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Regulation of cryptic splice sites in neuronal differentiation and disease (NEUROCRYSP)

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-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-07-14
End date: 2016-07-13
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231283.2
EU funding (EUR): 231283.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

A recent era of RNA research discovered complex RNA regulatory networks that involve RNA binding proteins (RBPs) and RNA. These networks are particularly dynamic and complex in the central nervous system, and can lead to neurologic diseases if deregulated. The host lab studies the regulatory networks that control alternative splicing in the brain. Recently, the lab identified thousands of cryptic splice sites that are bound by the spliceosome, but do not lead to active splicing in the adult brain. In the present project, I will assess if splicing at some of these cryptic sites is regulated during brain development or disease. Moreover, I will determine the importance of such regulation for neuronal differentiation. Most of the cryptic splice sites are present within long introns of genes that are only expressed in the brain. Therefore, I will employ genome-wide experimental and computational methods to study the regulation of cryptic splice sites in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) and mouse brain from several developmental stages. It is known that binding of RBPs to target pre-mRNAs can actively repress cryptic splicing, which ensures expression of stable mRNAs. FUS and TDP-43 are two RBPs that regulate alternative splicing and lead to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) when mutated. They have increased binding to the long introns and their depletion leads to decreased expression of long genes. I will therefore assess changes in splicing at cryptic sites upon depletion of FUS or TDP-43 in mESCs, in ALS mouse models, and in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from ALS patients. Since de-repression of cryptic splice sites would lead to aberrant mRNAs, this may unravel the mechanism explaining how FUS and/or TDP-43 regulate the expression of long genes. The study of genome-wide cryptic splicing regulation might uncover a novel mechanism controlling neuronal development, and explain how misregulation of long genes contributes to ALS neuropathology.

Keywords: splicing,cryptic splice sites,iclip,long genes,fus/tls,tdp-43,amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (als),mes cells,ips cells,crispr/cas9
A Universal Model of Word Comprehension (UNIVERSAL)

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: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IIF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2016-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 166336.2
EU funding (EUR): 166336.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The proposed research will develop a “universal” connectionist architecture and a set of models capable of handling key cross-linguistic differences across English, Spanish, and Hebrew. This work is complemented with targeted empirical investigations. Computational Investigations. I will develop improved connectionist models which employ more general architectural assumptions and that are able to learn to comprehend words from languages that impose different division of labour between orthography, phonology, and semantics. These models will explain and generate predictions regarding how a general architecture and the statistical properties of a language give rise to a range of cross-linguistic differences reported in the behavioural literature. This will be accomplished by combining a model of English, Spanish, and Hebrew with a response generation model to simulate performance in a range of tasks (e.g., differential transposed-letter priming in English & Spanish vs. Hebrew; stronger syllable priming effects in Spanish vs. English; greater semantic priming in naming Hebrew vs. English and English vs. Spanish). Additionally, the models will be developed within a biologically-plausible connectionist framework to connect the model to the ERP literature (Armstrong & Plaut; 2013; Laszlo & Armstrong, 2013). Behavioural & pilot EEG/ERP Investigations. To evaluate the modeling work, behavioral (and pilot electrophysiological) data will be collected from masked priming lexical decision tasks designed to engage orthographic, syllabic, and semantic representations. Language development will also be studied in pilot behavioural experiments with children. I will develop and release a public implementation of my empirically-validated models and data. These models will account for a broad range of existing effects, generate predictions for new experiments, and be readily extendable to related areas (e.g., modeling bilingualism and language impairments).

Keywords: connectionist model,triangle model,cross-linguistic differences,fundamentalist models,realist models,behavioural assessment,eeg/erp,neurally-plausible computation
Towards Solution-Processable Near-IR and IR Reflective Coatings and Mirrors for Improved Heat and Light management (SPIRCAM)

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-2013-IIF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2016-03-24
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 221606.4
EU funding (EUR): 221606.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Demands for increased energy efficiency by Europe and the world, due to rising energy costs, have drastically accelerated the need for intelligent technology solutions that promote energy conservation and reduce unnecessary emissions. For instance, from the automotive and transportation industry to military applications, growing concerns about, e.g. pronounced heat island effects, have lead to the demand for solar heat management solutions based on novel materials systems. Since heat is most often a direct consequence of infrared radiation incident on an object, with the heat-producing region being between 750 – 1200 nm, one obvious strategy to reduce heat is the deployment of IR high reflecting coatings. As a practical requirement, these coatings must retain high transparency over the visible wavelength regime and, ideally, not interfere with the operation of electronic devices by, e.g., blocking the radio waves needed for data transfer to operate cell phones and global positioning systems (GPS). In fact, if intelligently designed, these coatings can even enhance the light in- or out-coupling for existing and next-generation electronic devices, further improving device performance. In this project, new solution-processable near-IR and IR reflective coatings and mirrors (e.g. SPIRCAM) will be developed. These coatings and mirrors, which consist of novel organic-inorganic hybrid materials, will provide improved heat and light management due to their excellent near-IR (NIR)/IR reflectivity, high transparency in the UV-Visible regime, and their tunable index of refraction (n). This work will aim to contribute to new knowledge regarding the development of next-generation advanced materials for real-world applications.

Keywords: hybrid materials,organic,inorganic,solution process,near ir,reflective coatings,heat and light management,plastic electronics,optoelectronics
The Actinomycete Connection (TACTIC)

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: Denmark
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 221154.6
EU funding (EUR): 221154.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Mutualisms underpin much of the complexity of the natural world, in interactions as diverse as coral bleaching, nitrogen fixation in root nodules, and the human gut microbiomes. Understanding how interspecific mutualisms (cooperation between different species) can be stable over many generations is a key unresolved subject within evolutionary biology. Fungus-farming attine ants are an excellent model system to address this question experimentally as they form complex associations with antibiotic-producing actinobacteria (from the genus Pseudonocardia) that they grow on their cuticle. The extent to which these associations represent stable adaptive remedies against a single fungal pathogen, or ongoing evolutionary ‘arms races’ between bacterial biofilms and multiple pathogens of fungal crops and/or ant farmers has been subject of recent debate. Capitalising on recent discoveries (and a technological advance) in the Copenhagen Centre for Social Evolution, this proposal aims to make a significant contribution towards generally resolving this controversy. We will test the hypothesis that newly hatched ants always start their adult lives with a “native” vertically acquired actinomycete strain but obtain more complex biofilm cultures after they begin foraging outside the nest. I will use an experimental approach to manipulate the nature of the association between the ants and bacteria, to test specific questions about coadaptation, partner fidelity, and specificity in pathogen defence – something that is relatively uniquely possible with this system. In doing so, the proposal will also bring together the best possible expert mentors in Europe, both in the host group and as external collaborators. If this idea were confirmed, it may be the first example of a mutualism that changes function during host development. These results will also contribute to a broader understanding of how mutualistic associations more generally can be maintained over time.

Keywords: attine ant,mutualism,cooperation,pseudonocardia,escovopsis,microbiome,454 pyrosequencing,fungus-farming,agriculture,antibiotic,pathogen,phylogeny,actinobacteria,coevolution,symbiosis
FluorFLIGHT: A new integrated canopy fluorescence model based for remote sensing of forest health and productivity. (FLUORFLIGHT)

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-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2015-01-01
End date: 2016-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231283.2
EU funding (EUR): 231283.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Forests are one of Europe’s most important renewable resources and a key repository of biological biodiversity. Also, the forest sector is one of Europe’s most important economic sectors. In recent years, widespread forest mortality related to drought or temperature stress has been described in drought-prone forests throughout the world. Such mortality events can radically transform biodiversity, fire risk, ecosystem function, land-atmosphere interactions and ecosystem services. Remote sensing offers the unique possibility to derive spatially explicit information on vegetation status at local, regional or landscape scale. Great benefits would be expected from remote sensing techniques that quantify the photosynthetic carbon fixation dynamics of the vegetation as a reference measurement of forest health. Increasing efforts are currently been carried out by Europe Space Satellite Missions (ESSM) for sensing solar-induced Fluorescence (F). Satellite missions have recently been launched (GOSAT/TANSO) or are currently under evaluation (ESA-FLEX), and will open interesting perspectives for the early detection of plant stress at landscape level. However, upscaling of these methodologies still requires investigation on challenging issues regarding the interpretation of F retrieved from mixed pixels of hundreds of meters that aggregate vegetation, soil and shadow components and a better understanding of the influence of heterogeneous forest canopy structure, background and viewing geometry on steady-state fluorescence. For the first time, this work proposed the integration of FluorMODleaf with the three-dimensional ray-tracing model (FLIGHT) for investigating these interactions by means of the simulation of forest canopy reflectance and fluorescence signals for varying canopy variables and viewing geometries. This work is highly relevant because is a novel approach to study F on heterogeneous forest canopies structures and for the validation of current and future ESSM.

Keywords: hyperspectral,fluorescence,3d radiative transfer model,early stress detection,forest decline
Genome-wide dissection of the Notch-induced molecular program in developing T cells (NOTCH IN THYMOCYTES)

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-2013-IIF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2016-02-29
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 240733.2
EU funding (EUR): 240733.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The Notch pathway regulates numerous cell fate decisions throughout the development of a multicellular organism. One well-characterized Notch-dependent differentiation process is the development of T cells. Notch functions as the T lineage commitment factor at the early stages of differentiation and is required for survival, proliferation and further developmental progression later on. Although the importance of Notch signaling in T cell differentiation is long-established and some information on Notch targets important in this process exists, no systematic attempt to characterize the molecular program downstream of Notch signaling in developing T cells was made so far. In fact, due to the lack of appropriate tools, until today, a systematic search for Notch targets in any system was largely restricted to studies in cell lines and conditions of artificially overactivated Notch signaling. We plan to dissect the molecular program downstream of Notch throughout T cell development by a combination of ChIP-Seq, RNA-Seq, and RNAi approaches. First, we will utilize the unique tools developed in the laboratory – biotin-tagged murine knock-in alleles of Notch1 and its DNA-binding cofactor Rbpj – to map the genome-wide binding pattern of these factors by ChIP-Seq. We will then identify the Notch-regulated program at different stages of T cell development by an RNA-Seq approach. Finally, we will take advantage of collaborations and cutting-edge infrastructure available in the institute to identify functionally relevant Notch targets in a small-scale multiplexed RNAi screen. These experiments will result in the first systematic characterization of the Notch-induced molecular program in primary cells and identification of novel regulators of T cell development. The approaches pioneered in this study will allow characterization of Notch target genes in other primary cell types as well as in cancer models.

Keywords: lymphocyte development,thymocytes,t cells,notch signaling,notch1,rbpj,chip-seq,rna-seq,rnai screens
Structural and biochemical basis of protein amyloid evolution (STAMYEV)

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: Portugal
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IOF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-08-01
End date: 2017-07-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 328141.0
EU funding (EUR): 328141.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Protein misfolding and aggregation into amyloid fibrils is a hallmark of serious diseases such as Alzheimer´s, Familial Amyloidotic Polyneuropathy (FAP) and atherosclerosis. Amyloid fibrils can also be biologically functional. Bacterial and fungal amyloids are proposed to form a prominent protein fold early in evolution. It is unclear why many different proteins, which often assume stable functional quaternary structure under normal conditions, can convert into a common β-sheet rich amyloid aggregate. An important unanswered question is whether the molecular mechanisms of amyloid formation have been conserved in evolution. We will characterize these mechanisms using two very different proteins involved in amyloid diseases: apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I), a helical protein that is important in atherosclerosis and familial amyloidosis, and transthyretin (TTR), a beta-sheet protein that forms amyloid in FAP. We will explore in detail the novel molecular mechanism of amyloid formation by human apoA-I , which will help design a strategy to block this process. We will further characterize amyloid formation in evolutionary diverse species using fish TTR as a model protein that, we previously showed, forms amyloid. Fish are the most biodiverse group of vertebrates that can adapt to broad range of external conditions; hence, they are particularly suitable to study the adaptation of protein structure/function. TTR amyloid formation will be characterized in two evolutionary distinct piscine species with different adaptation mechanisms: a modern Actinopterygii (sea bream) and an ancient Agnatha (lamprey). The role of sea bream TTR N-terminus, previously proposed to be important in amyloid formation, will be investigated and compared with human TTR. The results will provide sharper insights into amyloid formation by structurally and evolutionaly diverse proteins, and will help develop new strategies to block amyloid diseases such as apoA-I amyloidosis, atherosclerosis and FAP.

Keywords: protein misfolding,amyloid,transthyretin,apolipoprotein,familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy,atherosclerosis
Smart acellular scaffolds for bone repair (STUFFOR)

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-2013-IIF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-06-09
End date: 2015-12-08
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 173462.4
EU funding (EUR): 173462.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The use of Acellular Technology to stimulate the body’s own repair processing is an emerging direction in regenerative medicine, which may tackle one of challenges in orthopedic treatment where how to treat bone loss or bone fracture due to osteoporosis is unsolved. The main objective of this project is to biofabricate new bioinspired scaffolds enabling off-shelf, scalable and stimulating multiple cellular actions including stem cell infiltration/adhesion; differentiation of osteoblast and endothethial cells for treatment of bone defects. The proposal will develop new multifaceted 3D composite scaffolds combined the advantages of electrospun nanofibers, porous foam and active chemicals conjugation enabling to provide biological, physical and mechanical properties for mesenchymal stem cells adhesion, migration, and differentiation and angiogenesis. The proposal will also develop an in vitro dynamic culture model mimicking bone development in vivo to evaluate the efficiency of scaffolds in order to reduce the use of animal models. The project proposes to bring an outstanding young researcher, Dr Lü, who was trained in the State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics in Southeast University, the top 20 university in China, to undertake such multidisciplinary research project with host institution in Keele University, UK. Dr Lü has worked in biofabrcation field in past 5 years, and have established excellent track record in smart nanofiber fabrication and applications. The fellow’s experience and knowledge will be effectively transferred to host group and other European research groups through the delivering the targets of the project and disseminating of her previous research outcomes by seminar, joint publication and visiting other laboratories. The fellowship will also aim to build collaboration with third country through Dr Lü’s research links in China after the fellowship, which will enhance European knowledge-based economy in general and healthcare in specifically.

Keywords: acellular technology,bone repair,regenerative medicine,multi-functional scaffolds,in vitro model
Holography for Ricci-flat and asymptotically flat spacetimes (RICCIFLATHOLOGRAPHY)

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-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-10-01
End date: 2016-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 299558.4
EU funding (EUR): 299558.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

With this proposal the fellow intends to explore the AdS/Ricci-flat correspondence in order to understand and develop holography in Ricci-flat and asymptotically flat spacetimes. This correspondence is a `generalized dimensional reduction' that maps families of asymptotically anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetimes (i.e. with a negative cosmological constant) to families of Ricci-flat spacetimes, solutions to Einstein vacuum gravity. Objective I consists in formulating holography for Ricci-flat spacetimes and developing a holographic dictionary for them. This will be done by mapping the well-known holographic dictionary of AdS/CFT to the Ricci-flat spacetimes. The fellow would then extend the AdS/Ricci-flat map to more general settings and develop applications, such as understanding the hidden conformal symmetry of asymptotically flat black holes (Objective II). Finally, Objective III focusses on using the map to transfer knowledge in the other direction, from Minkowski to AdS. The fellow would concentrate on using the map as a solution-generating technique, on the definition of an AdS S-matrix, and on properties of String Theory on AdS backgrounds. The outcome of this project would be of fundamental importance in our quest for a quantum theory of gravity, and for developing novel holographic applications.

Keywords: holography,gravitation,ads/cft correspondence,holographic renormalization,black holes,hidden conformal symmetry,generalized dimensional reduction,quantum field theory,string theory