Many medical situations require a supply of red blood cells—anaemia, road accidents and chemotherapy, for example. But there is a genuine shortage of blood. Researchers throughout the world are therefore working hard to find solutions to alleviate these shortages, and their sights are set on the potential for creating an unlimited supply of red blood […]
Teams led by Priscille Brodin in Lille and Laurent Marsollier in Angers have studied lesions in patients with Buruli ulcer, a tropical disease.
How long does the immune memory response produced by vaccination last? Is it similar to that induced by the infection itself? New information on the A(H1N1) pandemic influenza virus has just been brought to light by researchers at Joint Research Unit 1135, Cimi-Paris (Centre for Immunology and Infectious Diseases - Inserm - Pierre and Marie Curie University).
Neisseria meningitidis, also called meningococcus, is a bacterium responsible for meningitis and septicemia[1]. Its most serious form, purpura fulminans, is often fatal. This bacterium, which is naturally present in humans in the nasopharynx, is pathogenic if it reaches the blood stream. Teams led by Dr. Sandrine Bourdoulous, CNRS senior researcher at the Institut Cochin (CNRS/Inserm/Université Paris Descartes), and Professor Xavier Nassif, Institut Necker Enfants Malades (CNRS/INSERM/Université Paris Descartes/Assistance Publique...
In an article which appeared in The New England journal of Medicine on 16 April, researchers from Inserm (Jean Mérieux-Inserm BSL-4 Laboratory, Lyon) and the Institut Pasteur have published their initial findings on the characteristics of the Ebola virus discovered in Guinea. Initial virological investigations enabled them to identify Zaire ebolavirus as the pathogen responsible for this epidemic. Performed in less than a month, sequencing of the complete genome...
Vincent Mallet, Stanislas Pol and their team at the Institut Cochin (Paris Descartes University, Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris, CNRS, Inserm) and French hospital-based teams* have proved the efficacy of a treatment for patients suffering from chronic hepatitis E virus infection.
The international consortium A-PARADDISE (Anti-Parasitic Drug Discovery in Epigenetics), coordinated by Inserm, has just obtained funds of €6 million from the European Commission to conduct large-scale testing of innovative therapies against four neglected parasitic diseases: schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease and malaria.
A team of researchers has succeeded in culturing the dormant hepatic stage of the malaria parasite, previously inaccessible to researchers. The initial results from this technical breakthrough have enabled the development of a new concept for the elimination of malaria relapse due to the activation of these dormant forms.
The CHILD-INNOVAC European research programme, coordinated by Inserm, has enabled the development of an innovative vaccine that can be administered intranasally, to combat pertussis, which has shown a resurgence in developed countries in recent years. The research consortium, headed by Camille Locht, Director of the Centre for Infection and Immunity of Lille (a joint Unit involving Inserm, CNRS, Institut Pasteur de Lille and University of Lille Nord de France),...
For the first time, scientists from the Institut Pasteur and Inserm have demonstrated the key role played by a particular molecule in intestinal infection.