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Eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells can adapt to their environment, adopting distinct phenotypes in a reversible and dynamic manner, and this independently of genetic alterations. This phenomenon, commonly referred to as cell plasticity (or cell-state transitions), is exploited by many cell types under various scenarios such as cancer cell metastasis and inflammation. For example, in cancer, rare subpopulations of proliferative cancer cells in the bulk of primary tumors have the capacity to reduce cell proliferation to adopt instead migration and invasion properties, allowing these cells to disseminate away from the primary tumor, to colonize distant locations in the body and to seed new tumors in vital organs. Upon exposure to standard-of-care chemotherapeutic agents, these cells can thus adopt a drug-tolerant cell state that fuels cancer relapse, accounting for 90% of cancer-related death. In the context of inflammation, immune cells exposed to a pathogen (e.g., bacteria, viruses) can adopt an activated cell state capable of eradicating this pathogen. Frequently, still underexplored phenomenon involving metal cation are involved. Uncontrolled activation can however be detrimental to healthy tissues and cause acute inflammation leading to death of the host, as has been seen in COVID. Understanding the molecular basis underlying cell plasticity in the context of cancer, inflammation and infection, also more broadly extending to prokaryotic cells, resistance to antibiotics and bacterial virulence, can reveal previously uncharted biological targets suitable for therapeutic intervention promoting the idea that controlling cell state can confer therapeutic benefits. ​

In this project, we have gathered experts from apparently very distinct scientific backgrounds to decipher the molecular mechanisms of cell plasticity. This will involve synthetic organic and (bio)-inorganic chemists, physical chemists, biochemists, structural and cancer biologists, neuroscientists, cell biologists, microbiologists and immunologists, who together will be in a position to deliver new knowledge of an academic nature combining their expertise. There is a common thread on the role of metal ions regulating these phenomena running through ChemCellState, the exploration of which requires interdisciplinary interactions that is not commonly found in academia, and which characterizes PSL University. The program is broken down into four interconnected axes seeking to 1. dissect various molecular and biological aspects underlying cell plasticity, 2. develop biological and chemical tools to study cell plasticity, 3. develop drug-like small molecules -including metal-based ones- able to control cell plasticity in disease-relevant settings and 4. develop physico-chemical methods in quantitative chemistry and modelling to monitor and quantify parameters that characterize cell state transitions with a special focus on the role of metal ions. Only by bringing all this expertise together will we be able to understand the mystery of cell adaptation responsible for disease progression. This program is expected to lay down the foundation for the development of next generation therapeutics.

Tissues are fundamental units of multicellular organisms. Irrespective of their variety, most tissues are formed by the same types of cellular components: stem cells that generate specialized descendants, stromal cells, and distinct types of tissue-resident immune cells. Understanding how these cellular components interact to construct functional tissues, and how they become dysregulated during aging or pathologies such as cancer, remain major challenges in biology and medicine.  ​

Despite the century-old knowledge that resident immune cells are integral components of tissues, developmental biologists and immunologists have mainly worked in isolation. Developmental biologists have characterized the molecular, cellular and mechanical interactions between tissue stem cells, their descendants and the stroma, essential players of tissue growth, renewal, aging and disease. On the other hand, immunologists have deciphered how immune cells defend tissues against external threats and injury, regulate interactions with microbiota, and respond to the appearance of cancers. Notwithstanding these progresses, we crucially lack a comprehensive understanding of tissue biology integrating the interactions between all cellular components.​

DEVINE emerges from this timely need for developmental biologists and immunologists to join forces to achieve a disruptive understanding of tissue biology throughout life, in health and disease. Building on the expertise and knowledge of two internationally recognized scientific communities of PSL, DEVINE will unravel the continuum between tissue development, homeostasis, aging, and cancer. This will be achieved via a novel and unique scientific program exploring the physiological and pathological crosstalk between stem cells, specialized tissue cells and immune cells during development and adult life. The long-term mission of DEVINE will be self-reinforced by setting up advanced programs to train the next generation of scientists at the interface between developmental biology and immunity. Finally, the emerging integrated knowledge of tissue biology will be harnessed for innovative therapeutic approaches, to improve tissue function in aging and diseases and counteract cancer-related cell transformation. Building on a solid consortium with core collaborations and emerging advanced technologies to integrate new knowledge from molecular to tissue levels at single cell resolution, DEVINE is uniquely positioned to promote a pioneering and timely interdisciplinary field with disruptive potential, at the forefront of fundamental research, technological innovation and human health.​

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The EnLife project will gather PSL strengths to understand and engineer living systems at various levels of complexity and scales. By tinkering living systems, combining biological parts together, studying their emergent properties within cells and tissues and describing theoretically these properties, we ambition to learn fundamental concepts of life, to improve our capacity to control and to engineer living systems, to develop novel technologies to interact with cells and tissues, and to advance our understanding of how to design living systems artificially. In short, the main ambition of the EnLife program is to study the emergence of the functions within living systems from the bottom up. To this aim, EnLife proposes to focus on four major scientific axes that are central to the construction and understanding of life: Controlling and programming biological living matter (Axis 1); Understanding the emergence of spatial and temporal organization in living matter (Axis 2); Leveraging on Information processing to engineer dynamics properties of biological active matter (Axis 3); Driving and engineering evolutionary dynamics (Axis 4). EnLife will fund collaborative research projects and collective actions to support the efforts of its members in their research of how to better engineer life. EnLife will leverage the many expertise of researchers working at the interface of physics and biology in PSL to create a novel, flagsphip research program on artificial living systems, from reconstituted minimal systems to synthetic cells, artificial tissues and organs or even novel, original life-like forms that can emerge from active matter and self-organized systems.​

The goal of CultureLab is to strengthen PSL's position as a leader in the field of the computational humanities and social sciences, by bringing together a large (but until now informal) network of laboratories. Computational approaches in our disciplines are no longer seen as a niche interdisciplinary venture: they are an integral part of mainstream research. To make them yield their full potential, greater synergy is needed between their various applications, from data curation to AI-enhanced restoration, from simulations and modelling to data visualisation, and from textual data to visual culture and music. CultureLab will achieve this synergy inside PSL, by assisting our community in harvesting and annotating large scale cultural datasets (from texts to images); by building strong, predictive theoretical models for the humanities and social sciences, to ensure that computational data analysis is not merely exploratory but driven by computational models; by uniting the study of historical and social processes across timeframes, from the immediate sociological present to the historical longue durée and beyond, to the deep past of human cultural evolution; by reaching out to society through our links with cultural institutions whose collections can gain new value from our research. To maximise the scientific coherence and impact of this project, a share of the funding that we request will be concentrated on two long post-docs endowed with their proper funds, early career researchers who will be committing their full time to CultureLab. They will be guided by an executive committee who will act to foster the emergence of shared cross-lab projects through PhD, graduate and undergraduate grants, joint workshops, summer schools, and by setting up a technical-administrative interface to be shared between CultureLab members.

Today, the Institut Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (IPGG) is an interdisciplinary ecosystem within PSL, encompassing cutting-edge scientific research, a technology platform, initial and continuing training, innovation and commercialization initiatives, and a strong connection with industry through the Carnot IPGG. ​

This synergy within PSL will be further strengthened as the scope of the next Grand Programme IPGG will be extended not only to several teams from the 4 IPGG institutions, but also to teams from Mines ParisTech PSL and Collège de France. The arrival of new teams in our project will bring a wealth of new skills and expertise. By tackling the challenges of the 21st century, including ecological and energy transitions, as well as critical issues in health and life sciences, the IPGG project stands out as a pioneering initiative.​

Innovation in these strategic fields requires technological and conceptual breakthroughs. The IPGG project is committed to addressing these societal issues from the perspective of microfluidic concepts and technologies. We have identified important scientific questions in key areas such as environmental and ecological transitions, biology and health. These interconnected fields are poised for transformative impact thanks to micro- and nanofluidic approaches.​

We will be focusing on the launch of projects with an impact on the ecological transition, particularly in the field of negative CO2 and energy technologies.​

At the same time, the IPGG community has a proven track record at the interface of biology and microfluidics, illustrating how micro and nanotechnologies can be exploited to answer biological questions. In the near future, we aim to study the control of biological and synthetic functions based on self-organization, understand the stable state and evolution of living and biosynthetic systems in changing environments, and explore alternatives to animal experimentation to accelerate drug discovery. In addition, two cross-disciplinary projects have been identified for development within the IPGG project, focusing on flow chemistry and recycling/upcycling approaches. These initiatives reflect our commitment to pushing back scientific frontiers and helping to find solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges.​

The Research program (GPR: “Grand programme de recherche”) “Making antiquity: Constructions and representations of times past” (“Les fabriques de l’antique. Construire et représenter les temps anciens”: FAn) proposes to endow PSL with an observatory of the past and manifold presents of ancient societies. The aim of this research structure, unique in the French academic landscape, is to study and analyze the formation of collective identities, cultural memories and modes of historicity (“régimes d’historicité” [François Hartog], see below) in ancient societies from all cultural areas and all historical eras and, thereby, to help structure the research carried out by numerous partners who have until now tended to work mostly separately on the theme of the constructions and representations of antiquity. The program will be structured along three research axes: 1. the construction of time and the various issues involved: periodization, modes of historicity, etc.; 2. the construction and representation of antiquity not only in modern and contemporary societies, but also already in ancient societies themselves; 3. the linguistic shaping of the world: languages and scripts as historical objects. In all these areas, we aim for a global approach to the historical phenomena involved in constructing antiquity, from East Asia to Central America, via India, the Near East and the Mediterranean. Institutionally, the program presents a concentric structure centered on the institutions and research units of PSL University whose rich pre-existing links it will help strengthen. Beyond, the program will work closely with museums (Louvre, etc.) as relays to society and themselves public places in which societal representations of antiquity are constructed and reconstructed. The program will, furthermore, rely on the Réseau des Écoles Françaises à l'Étranger (ResEFE) as centers of expertise and local relays for field research

The brain endows us with the abilities to perceive, reason and act. The evolution of the nervous system has provided the animal kingdom with vast opportunities to interact, learn and respond to their environment. At the core of these interactions are fundamental processes of learning and adaptation that are present in all species, from the simplest to the most complex. Despite their profound importance for understanding the nervous system and its pathologies, the precise biological mechanisms underpinning learning and adaptation remain insufficiently understood. This project therefore aims at unraveling the fundamental biological mechanisms that govern these functions. It is supported by thirty international research teams affiliated to PSL University, using a wide spectrum of experimental and theoretical methods. The collective expertise of these teams forms an exceptional ensemble that encompasses the full range of scales and biological processes underlying crucial nervous system functions involved in adaptation and learning. Understanding these processes requires the analysis of behavior in relation to neural system circuits, the measurement of biological activity at various spatial and temporal scales and the elaboration of theoretical models. The aim is to integrate spatial (molecules, synapses, specialized subcellular compartments, cells, microcircuits, networks) and temporal scales (nerve signal transmission, synaptic plasticity, memory encoding and consolidation) with an algorithmic description of how the nervous system operates (regulations, synaptic learning rules, architectural principles….). The funding of this project will create synergies among teams dispersed across various institutions and departments, promote PSL's international visibility, and train the next generation of researchers in this field. The expected results will benefit the healthcare and technology sectors. Brain dysfunctions indeed represent a significant burden on human health and societies. Furthermore, the project could inspire advances in artificial intelligence, overcoming the current limitations of these technologies, which remain less efficient than biological organisms in natural environments. Overall, PSL-Neuro will provide novel insights in the context of learning and adaptation, with direct implications for biotechnology and translational research.​

La « matière quantique » est un concept essentiel au centre d'une grande variété de systèmes physiques à l'intersection de la physique de la matière condensée, de la science des matériaux, de la physique des atomes froids et de l'ingénierie quantique. Bien que la description physique de tous les matériaux soit fondamentalement basée sur la mécanique quantique au niveau microscopique, les matériaux quantiques présentent une richesse de phénomènes quantiques émergents qui peuvent persister à travers une gamme plus large d'échelles d'énergie et de taille.  Au-delà des matériaux traditionnels, tels que les semi-conducteurs ou les métaux, le concept de matériaux quantiques englobe une diversité de systèmes tels que les supraconducteurs, le graphène, les hétérostructures de van der Waals, la matière quantique topologique, les semi-métaux de Weyl, les oxydes complexes, les couches 2Dtorsadées, les liquides de spin quantiques ou les atomes refroidis par laser. Le projet Q-MAT est un projet fédérateur qui rassemble des équipes actives dans le domaine de la matière quantique de cinq institutions différentes de PSL : ENS, ESPCI Paris, Chimie ParisTech, Observatoire de Paris et Collège de France. Ce consortium offre un potentiel unique de collaboration entre les équipes sur les différents sujets couverts par le projet. Il englobe un large éventail d'approches expérimentales et théoriques qui permettront une fertilisation croisée et un transfert de connaissances entre les différentes communautés impliquées, avec l'objectif commun d'ouvrir de nouvelles directions de recherche qui pourraient faire le lien entre la matière quantique et les technologies quantiques dans le futur. Ce projet vise à fédérer et à coordonner les forces uniques présentes à PSL dans le domaine de la physique quantique et à promouvoir notre université en tant que leader mondial dans ce domaine de recherche dynamique.

Since the 2000s, significant progress in technology and data processing across various domains of waves has led to an extraordinary transformation, including in optics, acoustics, microwaves, and seismology. This transformation incorporates innovations such as metamaterials, wavefront shaping, ultradense arrays of transceivers, and more. These technological strides necessitate the pursuit of new physical models that adeptly consider the temporal, frequency, and spatial aspects of wave propagation in intricate media. Simultaneously, there is a call for the development of innovative methods grounded in advanced mathematical processing.​

The different scientific communities must now forge collaborative ties. Indeed, common challenges, both fundamental and applied, underscore the need for cooperation to make waves as agile as possible. This convergence gains added significance as the field of waves assumes a pivotal role in addressing societal challenges related to sustainable development, health, communication, and beyond.​

Hence, the initiative to unite the expertise of diverse PSL communities underpins the major research program (MRP) titled "Smart Waves." Four strategic axes have been identified to affirm and elevate PSL's excellence in this domain. The first axis delves into quantifying the information acquired by waves during their propagation, especially in complex media. The second axis focuses on unraveling wave's ability to carry information and generate arbitrary wavefronts within extensive networks of sources and/or receivers. The third axis centers on developing quantitative imaging techniques applicable to both living organisms and inert matter. Inseparable from the first three, the fourth axis is dedicated to innovating materials that render waves agile.​

The amalgamation of diverse scientific cultures on “smart waves” is believed to foster three strategic outcomes: the creation of a unique transdisciplinary community specific to PSL on agile waves, support for disruptive research themes, and finally the promotion of innovation. This endeavor aligns with the broader goal of positioning PSL at the forefront of scientific excellence and global leadership.​

​Statistical Physics is the part of theoretical Physics that implements a stochastic view of nature. It has great successes, such as kinetic gas theory, statistical mechanics, and quantum mechanics, and has attracted and still attracts great minds, such as Boltzmann, Einstein, Langevin, and more Giorgio Parisi (Nobel Prize 2021) and Hugo Duminil-Copin (Fields Medal 2022). Statistical Physics is also essentially linked with Mathematics through probability theory, and we can truly speak about Statistical Physics in a broad sense across theoretical Physics and Mathematics. The main objective of the project is to set up and energize a scientific community around Statistical Physics in PSL. Presently, several experts in Statistical Physics in a broad sense are present in three departments of PSL : CEREMADE, DMA, LPENS, and two communities: mathematicians and theoretical physicists, interested in random and com[1]plex systems. The project aims to create and organize a scientific community beyond these historical departmental boundaries inside PSL, and to foster cross fertilizations among Mathematics and Physics. As a broader impact, this project will make PSL University a visible pole of Statistical Physics. Originally, Statistical Physics was born out of the desire to deduce global thermodynamic properties of ensembles of particles from the knowledge of their microscopic interactions. When the number of particles is large, as it is the case in the real world, it is hopeless to solve all the equations for each particle. Instead, one should realize that the behavior of particles appears as random. The essential concepts of Statistical Physics provide methods to understand the average global behavior, and to quantify the probability of extreme fluctuations. Among the essential scientific concepts we find Boltzmann-Gibbs distributions, entropy/energy interplays, threshold phenomena related to phase transitions, interacting particle systems and multi-scale limits, high dimensional phenomena for complex systems, asymptotic analysis in terms of fluctuations and large deviations. These methods apply as well to any system formed by a large number of elementary constituents which interact microscopically (animals in a population, neurons in the brain, users in social networks, etc.) and they have been implemented in many practical situations. In the past century, the field has evolved in conjunction with the development of field theories in Physics and probability theory in Mathematics. Nowadays, with the emergence of huge sets of data about every field of science, Statistical Physics methods are ubiquitous and all the more relevant, with outstanding theoretical problems coming up everyday.

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​The goal of the ChemAI project is to bring PSL University to the forefront of the on-going data science/artificial intelligence revolution in chemistry. More specifically, the aim of this project is three-fold: i) to transform the way experimental and theoretical data is produced and collected at PSL, enabling the creation of effective databases of crucial importance for the development of AI based models, ii) to foster the use of AI guided design in chemistry, allowing the exploration of a much wider chemical space than accessible through traditional means, iii) to achieve scientific breakthroughs, enabled by AI, in various domains of chemistry. To achieve these goals, we envision the creation of a research data hub, facilitating data registration and sharing – both within the university and beyond, through interfaces with existing community-wide, domain-specific databases – with the aim of fostering streamlined collaboration between experimental and theoretical research groups. Additionally, we intend to update critical parts of the research infrastructure of the participating groups to facilitate higher volume – and potentially high-throughput – data driven experimentation, by making the necessary investments at the university level. With a universally adopted data management system and updated research infrastructure, new types of projects and collaborations will be established among the various groups involved in the project. Specifically, we envision four broad research axes, in which PSL University has already demonstrated extensive expertise and has acquired an excellent reputation, and which could be strengthened further through the planned investments: optimization of chemical transformations, i.e., synthesis, materials design, analysis and prediction of complex (time-resolved) information, and fundamental research into artificial intelligence tailored to chemistry. Through the involvement of the entire chemistry community of PSL University in this major research program, we hope to nurture a new culture around data generation and management across the various chemistry laboratories. This data culture will boost the university’s activities and reputation, not only in terms of research, but also in terms of education, where we anticipate training a new generation of chemists and chemical engineers that increasingly embrace the data-driven chemistry tools of the future.​

This Major Program, Faire Collection, stems on the recent renewal in the History of Science and Knowledge, bringing together research on collections, considered both as instruments and products of research and of teaching practices. Its title not only refers to institutionalized realities, such as libraries, archives, museums, but also to invisible collections made of fragmented assemblages that are not yet documented by researchers, such as sociological data sets or biological samples. Faire Collection draws on the rich collections of the eleven member schools of PSL University, which brings together a vibrant and unique community of researchers and students in the sciences and humanities. By taking PSL collections as research objects, the Faire Collection program intends to deploy transdisciplinary and diachronic approaches. It aims to accompany and support research in all the disciplines which are represented at PSL (such as History, Antique Studies, Social Sciences, Art, Architecture, Physical Sciences and Life Sciences) and in a broad temporal perspective. In addition to well-known and identified collections, it will also involve collections that have disappeared, have been handed down or are “in the process of being created”. It also aims to track down collections that need to be built in order to document our current practices in the future. Faire Collection thus bears a strong reflexive and educational value, the history of collections being a powerful unifying tool among an academic community in which its researchers are attached to the “sciences of objects” (from cuneiform tablets to mineralogical series) and are strongly committed to training through research, where objects have often been pivotal.​

Faire Collection is structured around two lines of research: ​

1. The first deals with the history of collections (past, present and future) and the cognitive and material operations that form its matrix: selecting, assembling, classifying, describing as well as also dispersing, destroying and forgetting. It is organized into two sub-areas:​

1.1 “Collecting, a fragile history” takes a long-term look – based on case studies – at the phenomena of institutionalization, but also of destruction or re-semantization of collected objects.​

1.2 “Collecting science today” explores our current collecting practices – in their intellectual, material and political dimensions – and their routine and unthinkable.​

1. The second explores what collections do for scientific communities. It aims to describe and understand the place of collections in past and present teaching activities: ​

2.1 “Building community through collections, past and present”). Within that frame, PSL University represents a particularly stimulating field in which to examine how existing collections and those yet to be created can contribute to the construction of new communities resulting from the merging of older institutions. ​

Faire Collection will therefore enable us to gain a deeper understanding of the connections and interactions – some of them long-standing – that exist between the member schools of PSL. It will also take into consideration both the links that exist between PSL and other academic players and between the academic and non-academic worlds. Furthermore, Faire Collection will study what “Teaching through collection, collecting teaching” -2.2-, means.​

This program, therefore, investigates the structuring dimension of collections for scientific communities, whether for institutions that have built themselves on and around their collections, or scholarly collectives and networks that are working on the same objects.​

METASOFT aims at building on the widely recognized expertise of PSL teams in Soft Matter to foster ambitious interdisciplinary research initiatives at the cross-road between physics, chemistry, engineering and design of soft materials. METASOFT is structured along three scientific axes. First, we want to combine PSL's expertise in soft materials, metamaterials, and design, to invent the future of soft robotics. Secondly, we intend to invest a considerable research effort in understanding complex fluids which are of industrial relevance, right up to active or amorphous solids. Finally, we aim to position ourselves in areas of high environmental impact, with strategies complementing existing current efforts in recycling, water management and CO2 valorisation. METASOFT also aims at binding the community through scientific events such as the PSL Soft and living Matter days and teaching-oriented events dedicated to PhD and Master’s students.​