Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships

Rafael Aroso, from the University of Coimbra, Portugal, will join the “Metal Complexes and MRI” team. Its “PorphIRON” project aims to develop paramagnetic complexes based on transition metals, such as iron, for MRI applications. This work is part of the team's efforts to replace gadolinium, currently used in MRI, with more biocompatible and ecologically more sustainable metals.

Ross Ballantine, from Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, will join the "Synthetic Proteins and Bioorthogonal Chemistry" team to work on the « ThioSHowcase » project. This project aims to explore arylthiol-based amino acids for the chemoselective functionalisation of peptides and of proteins,  with applications in protein labeling and selective peptide cross-linking.

Congratulations to Lylia Azoug for her poster prize!

Lylia Azoug, PhDstudent in the “Synthetic protein and bioorthogonal chemistry” team, received the poster prize during the “Chemical Biology Symposium 2024” conference organized by the Société Chimique de France.

 

Poster abstract :

Generation of specific antibodies against peptides requires their covalent conjugation to large protein carriers, such as keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH), to override their inherently weak immunogenicity. For this, most approaches exploit the highly-efficient thiol-maleimide ligation, which enables for the attachment of multiple copies of peptides displaying a single cysteine thiol group, onto a variety of commercial maleimide-functionalized carriers. Concerning disulfide-containing peptides and proteins, introduction of a spare thiol moiety permits a follow-up thiol-maleimide reaction; nevertheless, disulfide bonds are highly susceptible to undergo intramolecular thiophilic attack by the thiolate required for the reaction, with consequent impairing of their native bridging framework. This “disulfide scrambling” would alter the peptide 3D structure, impairing specificity of elicited antibodies for the native target. In recent reports, thiol-functionalized spacers were introduced on disulfide-containing peptides to generate protein conjugates for immunization purposes, 1,2 nevertheless the occurrence of disulfide scrambling was not examined, therefore we sought to systematically evaluate the influence of different thiol-functionalized spacers. Using the N-terminal domain of the Lingo1 protein as a model peptide (20 amino acids, 2 disulfide bridges), we probed a small battery of thiol-containing spacers with variable length and rigidity. Interestingly, while flexible linkers, comparable with previously described ones,1,2 showed considerable disulfide scrambling upon 2 h under thiol-maleimide reaction conditions (pH 6.6), a short and rigid oligoproline-based linker3 abolished the disruption of the disulfide framework. The reported strategy provides a valuable resource for the bioconjugation of disulfide-containing peptides via standard thiol-maleimide chemistry while maintaining the structural integrity of the disulfide framework, thereby providing homogeneous tools for research and biomedical applications.

  1. Katayama, H.; Mita, M. A sulfanyl-PEG derivative of relaxin-like peptide utilizable for the conjugation with KLH and the antibody production. Bioorganic & ; Med. Chem. 2016, 24 (16), 3596–3602. DOI : 10.1016/j.bmc.2016.05.068
  2. Katayama, H.; Mizuno, R.; Mita, M. A novel approach for preparing disulfide-rich peptide-KLH conjugate applicable to the antibody production. Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem2019, 83 (10), 1791–1799. DOI : 10.1080/09168451.2019.1618696
  3. Wilhelm, P.; Lewandowski, B.; Trapp, N.; Wennemers, H. A Crystal Structure of an Oligoproline PPII-Helix, at Last.J. Am. Chem. Soc2014, 136 (45), 15829–15832. DOI : 10.1021/ja507405j

ARTE-Thema investigative report on neonicotinoids and insects, with interviews of J.-M. Bonmatin

On September 22, 2023, at 9:25 a.m., ARTE rebroadcasts an investigative report as part of its THEMA evenings entitled: Insecticide - How agrochemicals killed insects.

This report was filmed at the Centre for Molecular Biophysics of the CNRS with several interviews with Jean-Marc Bonmatin, as well as with other members of the Task Force on Systemic Pesticides (http://www.tfsp.info/en/) interviewed in several countries.

The report is based on the book published in 2019 by journalist Stéphane Foucart of Le Monde which was entitled "Et le monde devint silencieux". The ARTE report is available in six languages.

ARTE-Thema investigative report on neonicotinoids and insects, with interviews of J.-M. Bonmatin

On 5 July 2022, ARTE broadcast an investigative report as part of its THEMA evenings entitled: Insecticide - How agrochemicals killed insects.

This report was filmed at the Centre for Molecular Biophysics of the CNRS with several interviews with Jean-Marc Bonmatin, as well as with other members of the Task Force on Systemic Pesticides (http://www.tfsp.info/en/) interviewed in several countries.

The report is based on the book published in 2019 by journalist Stéphane Foucart of Le Monde which was entitled "Et le monde devint silencieux". The ARTE report is available in six languages.

Conference by Prof. Ken LAU and Dr Andrea ROLONG – June 5, 2023

This international conference is organized within the framework of the ARD CVL Biomedicaments Program.

Abstract: Tissue complexity emerges from interactions of components across various biological systems, such as exogenous factors from the microbiota and different types of host cells, and the body's immune cells to the presence of tumors. These interactions occur across genetic, molecular, and spatial domains. Although single-cell and spatial -omics approaches are already capable of profiling various components at an atlas scale, there is still a significant gap in effectively transforming these methods from correlative studies to hypothesis-driven studies. Here, we present two stories on how-omic level data and computational analyzes can be integrated with experimental models (human, mouse, and organoid) for mechanistic studies:

- in understanding rare epithelial cell populations in modulating inflammation in the gut,

- in modeling a pre-cancer-to-cancer transition in the colon. We present emerging techniques, analyses, and the key roles they play in understanding the complex interactions that dictate tissue function in homeostasis and disease.

Conference website

Conference registration