Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Nanoreactors for controlled radical polymerizations based on the thermosome from Thermoplasma acidophilum: Templating synthesis of polymer nanoparticles and in-situ regeneration of the template (THERMOSOMENANOREACT)

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-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-03-01
End date: 2011-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 184203.51
EU funding (EUR): 184203.51
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Polymer nanoparticles have found applications in high performance materials and in medical applications. An attractive route to these particles is the use of templates. However, templating methods have the disadvantage that one templating entity is needed for every object that is formed. The ideal template for polymerizations would therefore be a nanoreactor that regenerates itself once the nanoparticle is formed. Nature provides us with a protein assembly that, when further modified, may fulfill this requirement. The thermosome from Thermoplasma acidophilum is a protein complex which encloses two central cavities with a void volume of 130 nm3. Each cavity is accessible via several small pores and one large pore. The large pore is gated by a build-in lid, whose opening and closing can be controlled by ATP. I propose to use the thermosome as a nanoreactor for Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (ATRP). To this end, an appropriate catalyst will be covalently linked into the cavity of the protein complex. In the thermosome’s closed conformation, monomers, crosslinkers and initiators can enter the cavity through the small pores, and a polymer particle will form inside of the protein. The cavity of the thermosome acts as template in order to generate nanoparticles of defined size and shape. By opening the lid, the particles will then be released into the surrounding media and the nanoreactor regenerated for further reaction cycles. The objective is to run the process in a continuous way, so that the production of the nanoparticles becomes catalytic. To this end, the formation of the particles will be synchronized with the opening-and-closing cycle of the thermosome. Furthermore, the effect of the confined reaction space provided by the cavity will be exploited to achieve an enhanced control over the ATRP reaction in order to synthesize polymers of narrow molecular weight distribution with significantly less copper-based catalyst than normally needed for aqueous ATRP.

Keywords: macromolecular chemistry,polymer chemistry,nanobiotechnology,nanosystems
Individual differences of a social parasite of ants (INDIFFERANT)

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-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-06-01
End date: 2011-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 215284.74
EU funding (EUR): 215284.74
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Biodiversity ultimately depends on the origin of species by natural selection. Coevolution is thought to be especially important in increasing the diversity of species. One of the frequent outcomes of coevolution is that a single parasite species adapts to exploit several different hosts. Such differences in host use can be observed between individuals in a single population, which is vital when a (social) parasite population has to adapt to a new host species. Larvae of Maculinea butterflies are social parasites of Myrmica ant nests, and are probably already the best-studied social parasites, which makes them a good model for studying the coevolution between (social) parasites and their hosts. There are differences in their host ant specificity on the population level. I hypothesise that the individual differences within the multiple-host ant using Maculinea populations should be greater than within single-host ant using ones, based on the different mechanisms and strategies required to successfully infect the different hosts. I also hypothesise that peripheral populations are less genetically variable, and potentially less able to adapt to new host ants. Specialization on a single host species is expected to lead to a reduction in behavioural repertoire and diversity of surface recognition compounds. To examine this pattern, individual-level differences of Maculinea alcon larvae will be compared in multiple- and single-host populations, combining analysis of genetics, behaviour and cuticular compounds. The results of this study will not only provide insights into the importance of individual differences, but will be directly relevant for the conservation of endangered Maculinea butterflies in Europe. This project will give me new experience of the analysis of chemical recognition cues and genetics, and will involve collaboration with local researchers across Europe. Together, this will benefit my future independent research career.

Keywords: behaviour,biodiversity,conservation biology,entomology,gc-ms,genetics,gentiana,individual differences,maculinea,microsatellite,myrmica,zoogeography
Genomics in Agricultural Pest Management (GAPM)

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-IIF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2010-03-01
End date: 2012-02-29
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 219298.04
EU funding (EUR): 219298.04
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Application of chemical pesticides in agriculture represents one of the major costs of agricultural production and is a key source of environmental pollution, destruction of wildlife and introduction of known carcinogens into the human food chain. The current need for novel methods of pest control coincides with unprecedented advances in genomic analyses of crop plants. The two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) is one of the major pests in agriculture. Our group is generating the whole genome sequences of this pest herbivore, and will provide a unique resource for studies of plant-herbivore interactions at the whole genome level. I propose to: 1) Analyze natural variation of resistance to spider mites in Arabidopsis and grapevines; 2) Map major QTLs for spider mite resistance in Arabidopsis and grapevines; 3) Identify genes whose expression correlates with plant resistance through the analysis of whole genome transcription profiles of Arabidopsis and grapevines plants that are either resistant or sensitive to spider mites; 4) Create and characterize Arabidopsis and grapevine strains collected from the Balkans-Montenegro, a divergent and unexploited European refugia. The goal of this study is to characterize the plant response to spider mite feeding, and to identify QTLs and genes associated with plant resistance to this pest. These can be used in marker-assisted crop breeding toward development of spider mite resistant crops. The proposed project will be implemented at the Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (CNB), Madrid, Spain, and at The Department of Biotechnology, Podgorica, Montenegro.

Keywords: environmental genomics,crop protection,pesticides,genetic mapping,genetic selection
Semisynthesis of caged a-Syn (SEMISYNTHESIS)

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-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-05-01
End date: 2009-06-30
Duration (months): 2.0
Total project cost (EUR): 180801.44
EU funding (EUR): 180801.44
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The overall objective of this proposal is to determine the effect of specific disease associated post-translational modifications, more specifically phosphorylation and nitration, on modulating the structural and biochemical properties of a-synuclein. In detail, we plan to assess the effect of these modifications on i) the structure of monomeric and membrane bound a-synuclein; ii) the oliogmerization and fibrillogenesis of a-syn; iii) subcellular localization and targeting of a-syn to specific cellular compartments. Towards this goal, we plan to use a combination of chemical biology and semisynthetic strategies to 1) synthesize a-syn variants that are modified at specific sites 2) make use of caged amino acids and fluorescent tags to allow temporal and spatial induction and control of post-translational modification in living cells.

Keywords: natural sciences,parkinson`s diseases,a-synuclein,semisynthesis,inteins,caged compounds
Biomarkers in age-related macular degeneration (AMD BIOMARKERS)

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-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-06-01
End date: 2011-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 171300.62
EU funding (EUR): 171300.62
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in all populations of European origin with a large socio-economic impact on health systems. Better understanding of the disease should allow to improve diagnosis and disease monitoring and to develop new therapies. Aging and genetic predisposition are the most important risk factors for AMD. Many of the risk genes code for proteins of the innate immune system. Consistently, altered blood concentrations of immune-proteins have been detected in AMD strongly suggesting that such proteins can be used as biomarkers for AMD. Other proteins have also been found to be altered in AMD. We hypothesise that a combination of biomarkers, such as complement activation products, cytokines and elastin degradation products, are highly discriminative for AMD and allow an estimation of disease progression. This would enable clinicians to better allocate personal and financial resources for early identification and therapeutic monitoring of AMD patients at risk. Protein microarray will be used to quantify a large number of biomarkers. Logistic models will define the most relevant proteins and correlation with genetic markers will define biologically meaningful genetic polymorphisms. The relevant proteins will be analysed in blood samples of a large population based cohort. In 2008, all of these patients are being re-examined 6 years after baseline. The six year gap allows a significant number of patients with early AMD at baseline to have developed end-stage AMD, allowing the correlation of baseline systemic biomarkers with disease progression. The relevant biomarkers will furthermore be studied in animal models for AMD in order to better characterize and compare these models regarding systemic alterations observed in AMD patients.

Keywords: retina,age-related macular degeneration,protein microarry,biomarkers
Entanglement for quantum information with ion strings (ENTANGLEMENT 40CAQIP)

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-IIF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-07-15
End date: 2011-07-14
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 171412.21
EU funding (EUR): 171412.21
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Entangled states of many particles are arguably the ultimate feature of quantum mechanics. Such states, promise to deepen our understanding of fundamental aspects of the quantum world and its transition to the classical, as well as the realization of fault-tolerant and resource-efficient quantum computers. We propose to experimentally investigate both fundamental and practical aspects of multi-particle entanglement with strings of 10 to 20 trapped atomic ions (40Ca+). This fellowship will help to strengthen QIP research in the European Union while acquiring the expertise of the fellow.

Keywords: physical sciences,atomic physics,experimental physics,quantum optics,quantum information,entanglement
Inferring DNA binding specificities through in silico folding of natively unstructured protein regions (PROTDNABINDSPEC)

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-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-09-04
End date: 2011-09-03
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 163702.68
EU funding (EUR): 163702.68
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

A major challenge in post genome biology is the functional assignment of gene products. An important goal is the identification and characterization of DNA binding proteins – especially transcription factors – and of their specific target sequences. Recent strategies for determining protein-DNA binding specificities combine experimental high throughput data with bioinformatics algorithms providing encouraging results. Structure based approaches are particularly promising, as they can predict previously undetected binding sites and open the road to the rational design of novel regulatory molecules. This project aims at expanding our current knowledge of protein-DNA binding modes. We will use structural bioinformatics methods for predicting the structure and specificity of DNA binding proteins, focusing in particular on natively unfolded protein regions (flexible segments that do not assume a fixed conformation in the native state, but become ordered upon binding) which are frequently observed in DNA binding proteins. We will first develop a general method for predicting the atomic coordinates of the DNA bound conformation of these proteins combining fragment based methods for protein structure prediction and novel DNA-protein specific energy potentials. Predicted complexes will be subsequently used to predict DNA binding sites in genomes and the accuracy assessed on the basis of available experimental reference data. The results of this project will improve our understanding of the molecular details of protein-DNA interactions, assist the annotation of genomes, and prioritize experiments aimed at verifying the predicted specificities. On a more general level, this research will further advance knowledge in the field of macromolecular interactions, a central problem in systems biology.

Keywords: computational biology,structural bioinformatics,protein structure prediction,natively unfolded protein regions,knowledge based pair potentials,fragment assembly methods,protein-dna interactions
Comparison of the gene regulatory programs of blood stem cells and megakaryocytes (MEGAGEN)

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-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2010-03-01
End date: 2013-05-23
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 170733.61
EU funding (EUR): 170733.61
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Blood stem cells provide the constant supply of new blood cells throughout a person’s lifetime. Their transcriptional regulation, i.e. the fine tuning of which genes should be active at any given time, is critical for their normal function. Moreover, a large number of leukaemias arise, when this fine balance of gene activities is disturbed. However, very little is known about the molecular mechanisms responsible for setting the appropriate gene activities in blood stem cells. Transcription factors are responsible for controlling the activity of other genes and many of the transcription factors important for the normal function of blood stem cells are also active in the cell that forms blood platelets, the megakaryocyte. This proposal aims to compare the gene regulatory programs of blood stem cells and megakaryocytes. The focus will be on a triad of regulatory transcription factors: Gata2/Fli1/Scl, which have recently been shown to be essential for the development of blood cells during embryogenesis.

Keywords: blood stem cell,megakaryocyte,gene regulation,leukaemia
Ketone Body Mediated Modulation of GABAergic Signaling: Mechanisms and Consequences. (KBMMGABA)

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-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-03-02
End date: 2011-03-01
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 165444.54
EU funding (EUR): 165444.54
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The brain’s high metabolic requirements mean that the mantra of nutritionists worldwide, “You are what you eat!” could be more accurately phrased, “you are what your brain metabolises!”. While glucose provides the major source of energy for the brain, ketone bodies (KBs) also play a critical role during the neonatal period, during fasting and during periods of metabolic stress (1,2,3). The ability of KBs to powerfully modulate neuronal activity is highlighted by the fact that the ketogenic diet has been used for the management of “difficult -to-control” seizures since the 1920s (4,5), and is currently undergoing trials for the management of a variety of neurodegenerative disorders (6). However, neither the molecular mechanisms by which ketone bodies act, nor the role of KBs during normal development and physiology are known. In vitro studies in a wide variety of animal species and brain structures, indicate that GABAergic signalling is depolarising during the early neonatal period (7). However, preliminary results, in vitro and in vivo, suggest that KBs induce a decrease in [Cl-]i and consequently a hyperpolarising shift in GABAergic signalling in neonates. In this project we will study both the mechanisms of this KB mediated effect and its consequences for neuronal network activity in vivo.

Keywords: neurophysiology,neurology,brain research
Towards A Behavioral Theory of Organizational Ownership: A Comparative Study in Shareholder Behavior (BET-ORG-OWN)

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-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-09-01
End date: 2011-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 152264.95
EU funding (EUR): 152264.95
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This Project aims to overcome inferential leaps from size of shareholdings to shareholder behavior by investigating shareholder attitudes towards ownership of the organization directly by means of a survey instrument specifically designed for this purpose. Ultimately, the goal is to go beyond legal conceptions and property rights and to devise a Behavioral Theory of Organizational Ownership better suitable to account for the diversity of interests, preferences, motives, investment strategies, and investment time horizons of various shareholder types. In the center of attention will be shareholders’ cognitive and emotional dispositions towards the organization as an entity and their identification as organizational owners. This is in opposition to previous theorizing which conceives of shareholders merely in terms of their role of capital providers holding only a restricted number of rights in the organization. Empirically, it shall be investigated to what extent shareholders’ cognitive and emotional dispositions towards ownership of the organization impact on corporate governance (e.g. monitoring and compensation) and strategic choice (e.g. R&amp;D, innovation, diversification, corporate social responsibility). Most notably, since cultural and institutional environments are found to impact individuals’ cognitions and emotions, the study shall be conducted in three different corporate governance settings each representative of a particular type of system: Germany (network-oriented system), Hungary (transition economy), and USA (Anglo-Saxon system).

Keywords: shareholder behavior,shareholder attitudes,organizational ownership,psychological ownership,behavioral theory of the firm,comparative corporate governance
Functional Analysis of dASPP/Boa, novel regulators of dCsk in epithelial growth and morphogenesis (DASPP/BOA PROTEINS)

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-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-10-01
End date: 2011-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 171300.62
EU funding (EUR): 171300.62
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Src-family kinases play major roles in promoting adherens junctions remodelling in development and metastasis. Their activities are negatively regulated by C-terminal Src kinase (Csk). The host lab it has recently shown that Drosophila Ankyrin-repeat, SH3-domain and Proline-rich-region containing (dASPP), together with Boa the homology of mammalian Ras association domain family 8, regulates the function of dCsk in maintaining adherens junctions polarity and integrity in Drosophila (Langton et al., 2007 and unpublished data). However, the molecular nature of this interaction and the exact functions of dASPP and Boa on developing epithelia are still unknown. In this research project, we propose to address the molecular mechanism by which dASPP and Boa regulates dCsk activity and their function in epithelial growth and morphogenesis during development, as well as identify new regulators of Src signalling in epithelial cells.

Keywords: developmental biology,drosophila,apoptosis,proliferation,src,adherens junctions