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The François Jacob Institute of Biology brings together five departments and three services
The last two years in scientific news
In their work entitled Fastgenomics, the Dijon Bourgogne University Hospital, Inserm and the CEA's National Center of Human Genomics Research (CNRGH) studied a rapid high-throughput genome sequencing process in 30 hospitalized newborns. The team was able to reduce the time needed for this process from an average of 18 months to only a month and a half at most (38 to 49 days), thus enabling rapid diagnoses for two-thirds of the patients.
A new structure for aggregated alpha-synuclein has been determined at the atomic level using cryo-electron microscopy. The work, lead by a team from MIRCen's Neurodegenerative Diseases Laboratory, was published in the journal eLife. The determination of this previously undescribed structure opens new doors for the development of ligands specifically targeting alpha-synuclein aggregates in Parkinson's disease.
...or how finding the unique link may be a path toward curing gastric infections. In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers from LRIG (IRCM) identified a protein that is essential for an antibiotic resistance propagation pathway in the bacterium Helicobacter pylori.
...or how small amounts of oxygen contribute to the preservation of lymphocyte progenitors in humans. In an article published in Cell Reports, researchers from LSHL (IRCM) shared new findings on the role of hypoxia in human lymphocyte differentiation.
Researchers from MIRCen partnered with École Polytechnique, the CNRS, Inserm and LOB to develop combinatorial labeling techniques wherein color and 3D and high-resolution imaging are used to demonstrate astrocyte plasticity during cerebral cortex development.
In a study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, a team from the Genomics and Radiobiology of Keratinopoiesis laboratory (LGRK/ IRCM) has shown that a transcription factor, KLF4, plays a key role in the proliferation of the stem cells in the epidermis. The discovery brings new therapeutic perspectives to regenerative medicine.
MIRCen contributed to a study that showed that the use of histocompatible neuronal grafts did not eliminate the need for immunosuppressive drugs in a primate model. Those results provide important knowledge for the clinical use of certain cell therapies under development for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
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CEA is a French government-funded technological research organisation in four main areas: low-carbon energies, defense and security, information technologies and health technologies. A prominent player in the European Research Area, it is involved in setting up collaborative projects with many partners around the world.