MSCA grants allow research organisations to host talented foreign researchers, regardless of their age and nationality, and to create strategic partnerships with leading institutions.

2018

MLFPM

Learning Frontiers in Precision Medicine

Healthcare is entering the digital era: More and more patient data, from the molecular level of genome sequences to the level of image phenotypes and health history, are available in digital form. Exploring this big health data promises to reveal new insights into disease mechanisms and therapy outcomes. Ultimately, the goal is to exploit these insights for Precision Medicine, which hopes to offer personalized preventive care and therapy selection for each patient.

A technology with transformational potential in analysing this health data is Machine Learning. Machine Learning strives to discover new knowledge in form of statistical dependencies in large datasets. Mining health data is, however, not a simple direct application of established machine learning techniques. On the contrary, the emerging population-scale and ultra-high dimensionality of health data creates the need to develop Machine Learning algorithms that can successfully operate at this scale.

Contacts
Kristel VAN STEEN


PET-AlphaSy

PET Imaging of Alpha-Synuclein Fibril Formation

Too often, physicians have to rely on a trial and error strategy until the most effective treatment for an individual patient is identified. This leads to a critical loss of time, making the healthcare system ineffective and expensive. In respect to drug development, a high failure rate is apparent at all stages of development and ways to reduce this have high priority for the pharmaceutical industry. To this end, drug development and medicinal treatment need to be more personalized and molecular imaging techniques, in particular Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging, can be used to achieve this by
1) evaluating the effectiveness of new treatments emerging from the pharmaceutical industry,
2) improving the ability to diagnose diseases, and
3) aid tailoring the treatment basedon individual patient pathology. A limiting factor to develop new effective PET imaging probes is the insufficient number of radiopharmaceutical scientists presently available.

Contacts
André LUXEN


RNAct

Enabling proteins with RNA recognition motifs for synthetic biology and bio-analytics

Contacts :

 

INEXTVIR

Innovative Network for Next Generation Training and Sequencing of Virome

INEXTVIR is an innovative training and research programme that aims at providing to the next generation of young researchers unparalleled professional experiences and core competencies to resolve significant challenges across multiple disciplines in the academic, industrial and regulatory sectors.

INEXTVIR proposes the use of cutting-edge High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) technologies for studying at an unprecedented depth the virome of selected agricultural crops and ecosystems across Europe and evaluating the impact and benefits it provides at the agricultural, socio-economic and Policy levels. This is a timely and exciting research field suited to and benefiting from a trans-disciplinary pan European network approach.

The work will cover virus discovery, characterization and the identification of ecological factors determining the structure and dynamics of virus populations in agricultural and wild ecosystems. This is critical to understand the epidemiology of disease and will enable informed risk assessment and decision making by the scientific and regulatory communities. In addition, the different stakeholders' risk/benefit perceptions will be assessed enabling the development of effective communication strategies.

Finally, the bioinformatics work (including data classification and presentation) and NGS method development and validation will facilitate the transfer, adoption and exploitation of innovations in plant protectionand routine diagnostic settings.

In summary, INEXTVIR will enable the fellows to understand the wider context behind their research, which will maximize the impact of their work in contrast to conventional PhDs. Furthermore, they will receive training in transferable skills including project, people, quality and IP management, communication and presentation skills which jointly with the cross-border and cross-sectorial mobility will provide a unique opportunity for their career development and for improving their employability prospects.

Contacts
Sébastien MASSART


2017

BioMedaqu

Aquaculture meets Biomedicine: Innovation in Skeletal Health research

Skeletal anomalies in farmed fish are a continuous problem for global aquaculture, affecting fish welfare, performance, and productquality. Aquaculture research has made considerable progress in reducing the incidence of deformities, but new species, intensifiedproduction, the damned for sterile fish, delicate early life stages and new fish feed ingredients are a continuous challenge. The useof zebrafish (Danio rerio) and medaka (Oryzias latipes) as models for research into human skeletal diseases such as osteoporosis,osteopetrosis and degenerative joint diseases is increasing, however their potential as models for farmed fish has not been sufficiently explored. These models offer the possibility to obtain deeper insights into the fundamental mechanisms that can cause skeletalmalformations in humans and in farmed fish. A framework for communication and scientific exchange between the aquaculture and biomedicalsectors would benefit all stakeholders and advance scientific understanding of the problem.

Contacts : Marc MULLER


2016

ENIGMA

European training Network for In situ imaGing of dynaMic processes in heterogeneous subsurfAce environments

The ENIGMA network will train a new generation of young researchers in the development of innovative sensors, fieldsurvey techniques and inverse modelling approaches. This will enhance our ability to understand and monitor dynamicsubsurface processes that arekey to the protection and sustainable use of water resources. ENIGMA focuses mainly on critical zone observation, but the anticipated technological developments and scientific findings will also contribute to monitor and model the environmental footprint of an increasing range of subsurface activities, including large-scale water abstraction and storage, enhanced geothermal systems and subsurface waste and carbon storage.

Contact
Frédéric NGUYEN


ProtectED

Complex Toxicant Mixtures Throughout the Food Chain

PROTECTED aims to develop expertise and protective capabilities against Endocrine Disruptors (EDs). EDs and their mixtures are a modern day health concern leading to failing ecological systems, poor agricultural production and health effects such as obesity, cancer and infertility. While analytical methods have advanced enormously, focus has been mainly on synthetic chemicals, overlooking emerging EDs and real-life multiple substance exposure. A new generation of creative, entrepreneurial and innovative early-stage researchers equipped with skills to assess and understand the real-life risk of complex mixtures of EDs and trained to convert resulting knowledge and ideas into accessible tools and services for the long-term control of potential ED risk is urgently needed.

Contacts
Marc MULLER


PREDICT

A new era in personalised medicine: Radiomics as decision support tool for diagnostics and theragnostics in oncology

The high degree of tumour (genomic and phenotypic) heterogeneity influences patient's response to therapy and hampers wide deployment of personalised medicine for cancer treatment. Thus, there is an imperative need for new technologies that can accurately detect tumour heterogeneity, allow for patient stratification and assist clinicians in providing the right diagnosis and treatment for the right patient. PREDICT's mission is to address this huge unmet need. Radiomics, a newly emerging field that uses high-throughput extraction of large amounts of features from radiographic images, can boost the field of personalised medicine. The analysis of medicalimages taken as standard-of-care allows Radiomics to capture tumour heterogeneity and to generate "tumour-specific" signatures in a non-invasive way, without the need of assessing the patient's genetic profile.

Contacts
Roland HUSTINX

DyVirt

Dynamic virtualisation: Modelling performance of engineering structures

Contacts


2015

INSPIRATION

Ganaging soil and groundwater impacts from agriculture for sustainable intensification

Agricultural production in Europe has significantly damaged soil and water resources, ecosystem biodiversity, socioeconomic well-being and contributed to climate change. Expected further intensification of production to ensure food safety for population growth must be sustainable to minimise future impacts and negative externalities. This ETN addresses these challenges by training 15 early stage researchers in cutting edge research skills and innovative approaches to manage soil and groundwater impacts from agriculture for sustainable intensification. It supports EU policy goals on food security, resource conservation, renewable energy and climate change, and the aims of the H2020 Societal Challenge 5 WorkProgramme for sustainable management of the environment and its resources.

Contacts
Serge BROUYÈRE


2014

EJD-FunMat

European Joint Doctorate in Functional Materials Research

2015-01-MC : Metal oxides heterostructured films with controlled architecture for enhanced photocatalytic properties (ULg, TUDA)

2015-03-MC : Transparent electrodes based on Ag nanowire networks: Fabrication, modeling and optimization of their properties (GINP, ULg)2015-07-MC :Theoretical study of BCTZ and related piezoelectric compounds (UBX, ULg)

2015-12-MC : Synthesis of new copolymersbased on ethylene and bio-sourced monomers, and applications as compatibilisers for cellulose in polyolefin (ULg, KIT)

Contacts : Philippe GHOSEZ

 

ZENCODE

Computational and functional annotation of genomic elements during development of the model vertebrate zebrafish

Contacts
Bernard PEERS

updated on 3/30/23

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