Congratulations to Carole Escartin's Reactive Astrocytes team (UMR9199, Neurodegenerative Diseases Laboratory, MIRCen), which recently won the prestigious accreditation "Équipe FRM" from the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (FRM).
The Équipe FRM label recognizes excellence in medical research by providing three years of funding to innovative projects in biology with great potential for use in human healthcare.
Carole Escartin's research team aims to study the molecular mechanisms regulating astrocyte signaling in neurodegenerative diseases, focusing particularly on the long-ignored role of transcription factors. These latter are activated in astrocytes by specific signals in normal and pathological conditions and able to induce major and persistent changes in the cells via the regulation of gene expression.
Astrocytes are essential partners for the neurons in the brain. In a finely regulated dialog, astrocytes control neuron function and thus ultimately contribute to such complex functions as memory, fear or anxiety.
Using a range of approaches (longitudinal fluorescence and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging in mouse brains, genetic and functional analyses, behavioral evaluations), the team seeks to describe the role of transcription factors not only in normal but also in pathological conditions, here particularly in a murine model of Alzheimer's disease.
This research program will establish a better understanding of how astrocytes control neuronal activity and identify molecular methods able to optimize the astrocyte-neuron dialog for therapeutic purposes.
Every year, the FRM provides support to 400 new research projects carried out in public and higher learning research laboratories (Inserm, CNRS, INRA, CEA, universities, Grandes Écoles
, healthcare establishments, etc.). To learn more about the FRM: FRM website.