- 2017
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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.
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Press releases - 20.07.2017
9th IAS Conference on HIV
From July 23 to 26, 2017, the Ninth IAS Conference on HIV Science, of which Inserm is a partner, will be held at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. For this edition, the International AIDS Society (IAS) has teamed up with ANRS, the autonomous agency of Inserm, to coordinate and fund research on HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.
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What's on? - 20.07.2017
9th IAS Conference on HIV
From July 23 to 26, 2017, the Ninth IAS Conference on HIV Science, of which Inserm is a partner, will be held at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. For this edition, the International AIDS Society (IAS) has teamed up with ANRS, the autonomous agency of Inserm, to coordinate and fund research on HIV/AIDS and […]
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Press releases - 13.07.2017
Hereditary hearing loss: the ear and auditory brain are both affected
Scientists from the Institut Pasteur, Inserm, the Collège de France and Pierre & Marie Curie University have recently demonstrated that mutations in three genes responsible for Usher syndrome – a hereditary condition that affects both hearing and sight – influence not only the workings of the ear, specifically the function of sensory cells in the cochlea, but also the development of the auditory cortex. Their discovery could explain why some patients, even after being fitted with a cochlear implant (an electro-acoustic device that bypasses the defective cochlea), still have difficulties understanding speech. The findings are reported this week in a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.
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Press releases - 13.07.2017
Vision restoration by optogenetic therapy within easy reach?
The Vision Institute (Inserm, Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC), National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)) via the Fondation Voir & Entendre has signed a contract with the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which could ultimately represent $ 25 million. With the help of an international consortium, researchers from Inserm, CNRS and UPMC, working within the Vision Institute, want to develop a system capable of restoring vision by optogenetic stimulation of the visual cortex. This project is called CorticalSight.
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Press releases - 12.07.2017
Phage therapy : synergy between bacteriophages and the immune system is essential
Phage therapy involves the use of bacteriophages, or phages, for treating bacterial infections. Phages are viruses that specifically attack bacteria and are harmless to humans. A significant decline in the use of this therapeutic strategy introduced 100 years ago was seen in the West following the development of antibiotics. However, there is now new interest in phage therapy, especially in Europe, given the alarming increase in the number of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.