- 2017
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Press releases - 05.09.2017
Identification of a gene linked to brain lesions in preterm infants
Researchers from Inserm, the Université Paris Diderot, King’s College London, and the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore have identified a gene that may be associated with brain lesions that can be caused by preterm birth. This study is published today in Nature Communications.
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Press releases - 04.09.2017
Neuroscientists Pay Attention to Schools
In 2014, Inserm researcher Jean-Philippe Lachaux launched the ATOL (Attentif à l’écOLe or Attention at School) program, which aims to use neuroscientific knowledge to improve children’s attention span in school. A thousand children from 40 classes, spanning the French equivalents of kindergarten to the 7th grade, have now benefited from this program, which is funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR).
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What's on? - 04.09.2017
Neuroscientists Pay Attention to Schools
In 2014, Inserm researcher Jean-Philippe Lachaux launched the ATOL (Attentif à l’écOLe or Attention at School) program, which aims to use neuroscientific knowledge to improve children’s attention span in school. A thousand children from 40 classes, spanning the French equivalents of kindergarten to the 7th grade, have now benefited from this program, which is funded […]
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Press releases - 04.09.2017
Schizophrenia: the link between personality disorders and the perception of time
A recent study conducted by Anne Giersch and her team of researchers (Inserm Unit 1114 /University of Strasbourg) showed that some people with schizophrenia are unable to perceive and anticipate the passage of time. These results, published in the Scientific Reports journal, also reveal a link between fragile temporal prediction and minimal self disorders (self-perception, “I am here, now”).
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Press releases - 01.09.2017
The bacteria responsible for Legionellosis modulates the host cell metabolism to its advantage
Scientists at the Institut Pasteur, CNRS and Inserm, together with a team from Switzerland*, have shown that the bacterial pathogen Legionella pneumophila (the causative agent of Legionnaires’ disease or legionellosis) has developed a specific strategy to target the host cell mitochondria, the organelles in charge of cellular bioenergetics. By changing the shape of these host organelles, L. pneumophila impairs mitochondrial respiration leading to metabolic changes in the host cell that are instrumental for the pathogens replication in human cells. This work provides precious information on how a pathogen manipulates the cellular metabolism to replicate intracellularly, and proposes a new concept of protection of host cells from Legionella-induced mitochondrial changes in order to fight infection. This research is published online on August 31, at the Cell Host & Microbe website.
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Press releases - 30.08.2017
Follow-up at the age of 2: preterm children have higher survival rates and better health than 20 years ago
It’s good news. Over the last 20 years there has been a marked improvement in the survival rate of preterm infants, and rates of brain damage at the age of 2 years have halved. These are the latest results of the EPIPAGE-2 study carried out by researchers from the Inserm group EPOPé – Obstetrical, Perinatal, and Pediatric Epidemiology Team at the Center for Research in Epidemiology and Statistics, Sorbonne Paris Cité (CRESS, Unit 1153), AP-HP. These results from follow-up of 5,000 preterm infants were published in the British Medical Journal.
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Press releases - 18.08.2017
Intestinal Viruses Predict the Risk of Graft-Versus-Host Disease
Teams from the virology, hematology-bone marrow transplant and biostatistics departments of the Saint-Louis Hospital, AP-HP, Université Paris Diderot and INSERM, in collaboration with scientists from the University of California-San Francisco (USA) discovered that a group of viruses in the intestine may trigger the onset of graft-versus-host disease. Researchers demonstrated the role of this intestinal “virome” (the population of viruses found in the intestine) in the onset of graft-versus-host disease by analyzing the intestinal virome of 44 patients receiving a bone marrow transplant.
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Press releases - 09.08.2017
Testicular macrophages are guardians of fertility
The origin, development, and characteristics of two types of testicular macrophage have been described by a CNRS team at the Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy (CNRS / INSERM / Aix-Marseille University). To elucidate the nature of these immune cells, the researchers used a novel cell tracing method. Their findings were published on August 7, 2017, in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, and are of fundamental importance. They may help understand certain kinds of infertility in men and find new treatments for them.
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Press releases - 25.07.2017
Microdystrophin restores muscle strength in Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Researchers from Généthon, the AFM-Téléthon laboratory, Inserm (UMR 1089, Nantes) and the University of London (Royal Holloway) demonstrated the efficacy of an innovative gene therapy in the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Indeed, after injecting microdystrophin (a “shortened” version of the dystrophin gene) via a drug vector, the researchers managed to restore muscle strength and stabilise the clinical symptoms in dogs naturally affected by Duchenne muscular dystrophy. A first. This work, published today in Nature Communications, has been achieved thanks to donations from the French Téléthon.
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Press releases - 20.07.2017
Gene therapy: first results in children with Sanfilippo B syndrome
On July 13, 2017, the journal Lancet Neurology published the results of a gene therapy trial conducted in four children with Sanfilippo type B syndrome (also known as MPS IIIB). This trial is the achievement of a two-decade partnership with financial support of AFM-Téléthon and the cooperation of the charity “Vaincre les Maladies Lysosomales” (VML). After monitoring of the treated children for 30 months, Dr. Jean-Michel Heard, from the Institut Pasteur and Inserm, and Professors Marc Tardieu and Michel Zérah, from the Paris public hospital administration (AP-HP) and the Paris-Sud and Paris Descartes Universities, conclude that the treatment was well tolerated and associated with neurocognitive benefits for the patients.