- 2018
- What's on? - 09.03.2018
Brain Awareness Week 2018
From March 12 to 18, 2018, for Brain Awareness Week, the general public is invited to discover the latest neuroscientific advances in an array of free events: conferences, workshops, exhibits, film screenings, and encounters with those involved in research. The twentieth annual Brain Awareness Week will take place in over one hundred countries and more […]
- Press releases - 07.03.2018
Susceptibility to addiction: poor production of new neurons implicated
Drug addiction behaviors and vulnerability to relapse are linked to our brain’s ability to produce new neurons. This is the finding of Inserm researchers from Neurocentre Magendie at the University of Bordeaux, after observing the behavior of mice taught to self-administer cocaine. Their results, to be published in Molecular Psychiatry, show a link between the deficient production of new neurons in the hippocampus and addiction to drugs.
- Press releases - 07.03.2018
Tattoos: are they really indelible?
Researchers from Inserm, CNRS and Aix Marseille University at the Center of Immunology Marseille-Luminy (CIML) have discovered that while a tattoo may be forever, the skin cells that carry the tattoo pigment are not. These cells transmit this pigment to new cells when they die. Acting on this process could improve current laser removal techniques. This study was published on March 6, 2018 in Journal of Experimental Medicine.
- Press releases - 06.03.2018
New pediatric reference growth curves for France
Thanks to work coordinated by Inserm and its researchers at the Center of Research in Epidemiology and Statistics Sorbonne Paris Cité (CRESS), French child health and immunization record booklets (carnets de santé) distributed from April 1, 2018 will contain new reference growth curves. These curves were devised according to a totally innovative method in which over 5 million measurements collected from children aged 0 to 18 years were analyzed. As expected, the new curves for height, weight and head circumference are situated above the old ones. Numerous innovations in their presentation will help parents and doctors to monitor children’s growth.
- Press releases - 01.03.2018
Compensation mechanisms in subjects with Alzheimer’s disease lesions to preserve their intellectual and memory performance
The INSIGHT-preAD study, directed by Prof. Bruno Dubois, is being carried out by teams from Inserm, CNRS and Université Sorbonne at the Brain and Spine Institute (ICM) and the Memory and Alzheimer’s Disease Institute (IM2A) at AP-HP Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, in collaboration with the MEMENTO cohort. It aims at identifying factors underlying Alzheimer’s disease development in healthy subjects over 70 with no existing cognitive disorders.
Sponsored by Inserm, this study shows that after 30 months of follow-up, amyloid lesions (also called Alzheimer’s lesions) did not impact cognition or behavior in affected subjects.
Its results, published on February 27, 2018, in The Lancet Neurology, point to the existence of compensatory mechanisms in subjects with these lesions. - News in brief - 01.03.2018
Repurposing Drugs to Fight the Flu: a Phase 2 Clinical Trial for FLUNEXT
The VirPath team from the International Center for Infectiology Research (CIRI, Inserm Unit 1111 – CNRS Joint Research Unit 5308 – ENS Lyon – UCBL1), in collaboration with the laboratory of Dr. Guy Boivin (Canada Research Chair in Emerging Viruses, Infectious Diseases Research Center of the University Hospital of Quebec – Université Laval), has developed […]
- Press releases - 21.02.2018
Alcoholism and dementia risk
Excessive alcohol consumption is linked to a threefold increase in overall dementia risk and a twofold increase in that of developing Alzheimer’s disease, making it a major modifiable risk factor for these conditions. This is the conclusion of an Inserm study performed in collaboration with Canadian researchers via the QalyDays Study Group . Using exhaustive data on hospitalizations in France between 2008 and 2013, the researchers studied the link between alcoholism and dementia. Their findings, published in The Lancet Public Health, confirm the importance of reinforcing measures to prevent the misuse of alcohol.
- Press releases - 20.02.2018
Flunarizine: a New Drug Candidate in the Treatment of Spinal Muscular Atrophy
A team of researchers from Inserm (“Toxicology, pharmacology and cell signaling” JRU 1124) and the universities of Paris Descartes and Paris Diderot have recently discovered that flunarizine – a drug already used to treat migraine and epilepsy – enables the repair of a molecular defect related to spinal muscular atrophy, a severe and incurable disease. This discovery is the culmination of research efforts ongoing since 1995, when the Inserm team – comprising Suzie Lefebvre, leader of the current research projects – identified the gene responsible for infantile spinal muscular atrophy. The results of the initial animal tests, published in Scientific Reports, demonstrate a marked improvement in health. These extremely promising findings must now be confirmed in humans.
- Press releases - 19.02.2018
Rare Disease Day 2018: Show Your Rare. Show You Care.
February 28, 2018, marks the eleventh annual world Rare Disease Day, which carries the slogan “Show your rare. Show you care.” and the #ShowYourRare hashtag. World Rare Disease Day was created in 2008 by EURORDIS and the Council of National Alliances. Ninety countries will be participating in 2018. Orphanet: a Portal for Rare Diseases and […]
- What's on? - 19.02.2018
Rare Disease Day 2018: Show Your Rare. Show You Care.
February 28, 2018, marks the eleventh annual world Rare Disease Day, which carries the slogan “Show your rare. Show you care.” and the #ShowYourRare hashtag. World Rare Disease Day was created in 2008 by EURORDIS and the Council of National Alliances. Ninety countries will be participating in 2018. Orphanet: a Portal for Rare Diseases and […]