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Improving our knowledge of the development of the complex structures that make up the human head, and thus gaining a better understanding of the congenital anomalies that cause malformations: this is the challenge that a team of researchers from Inserm, CNRS and Sorbonne Université at the Institut de la vision, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and Hospices civils de Lyon is well on the way to meeting.

Inserm press room - Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale press room Certain treatments to combat the Ebola virus, notably those based on monoclonal antibodies 1 , have increased the survival rate of patients suffering from the disease and are now recommended. Researchers from IRD, Inserm, ANRS Emerging Infectious Diseases and INRB have assessed, for the first time, the antibody response of survivors of the tenth Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who received specific anti-viral drugs.

While a high-fat, low-fiber diet is known to promote cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, the mechanisms involved are not yet fully understood. Researchers at Inserm and Université Paris Cité have now turned their attention to the role of intestinal microbiota in the development of atherosclerosis.

Inserm Newsroom - Press room of the French national institute of health and medical research Visualization of immune cell (lymphocyte) proliferation in the mesenteric lymph nodes, under the influence of a microbiota modulated by a high-fat diet. Soraya Taleb/PARCC Although a high-fat, low-fiber diet is recognized as promoting cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, the mechanisms involved have not yet been fully identified.

Adobe stock Currently, the treatment of heart valve diseases relies on the replacement of the dysfunctional valve with an artificial prosthesis. However, this procedure cannot be offered to all patients due to its invasive nature.

A better understanding of how bacteria acquire resistance to antibiotics is a key research issue in tackling the major public health problem of antibiotic resistance. The main mechanism by which these resistances are disseminated is called "DNA transfer by bacterial conjugation". Until now, this was thought to occur only between bacteria in direct contact with each other.

French, Singaporean and British researchers, led by Prof. Florent Ginhoux, head of a research team at Gustave Roussy/Inserm, have succeeded in demonstrating in a neuronal organoid the role of the brain's immune environment in its formation and development. The development of these three-dimensional structures integrating neuronal cells and the immune environment is, to date, one of the most complete in vitro models of the human brain.

Glioblastomas are highly aggressive brain tumors whose treatment consists of surgery and radiochemotherapy. A new medical imaging technique could improve patients' prognosis, according to a recent clinical trial led by élisabeth Moyal, Professor at Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier University and Head of the Radiotherapy Department at the IUCT-Oncopole.

Neuroscientists from Inserm, CNRS and Université de Bordeaux in France, along with Swiss researchers and neurosurgeons (EPFL/CHUV/UNIL), have designed and tested a "neuroprosthesis” to correct the gait disorders associated with Parkinson's disease. In a study published in Nature Medicine , the scientists describe the development process of the device they used to treat a Parkinson's disease patient for the first time, enabling him to walk fluidly, confidently, and without falling.

Sleeping in prone position was identified as the major risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in the early 1990s. Royalty-free image - Association Naître et Vivre and ANCReMIN In several European countries where the incidence rates of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) are high, a high frequency of unsafe parental sleep practices has also been observed.

The association between sleep disorders and cardiovascular risk is already well documented. Apnea, sleep debt and insomnia have been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and accidents. But a new study published in the European Heart Journal goes much further in exploring this association.

When we sleep we are not completely cut off from our environment: we are still able to hear and understand words. These observations, resulting from the close collaboration between researchers from Inserm, CNRS, Sorbonne Université and AP-HP at the Brain Institute and the Department of Sleep Disorders at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, call into question the very definition of sleep and the clinical criteria that distinguish between its different stages.

Long thought to be non-existent in humans, brown and beige adipose tissue plays a key role in our body's energy homeostasis. Nevertheless, they are in short supply in our bodies, and observing them in situ is not easy. A French scientific team 1 from Inserm, ESF and Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier University, led by Professor Louis Casteilla and based at the Restore Institute (CNRS/EFS/Inserm/UT3), has developed a unique process to generate them in the laboratory in the form of organoids.

Cancer and aging are closely linked processes, but the mechanisms underlying this relationship are still not well understood. By studying immune cells in the lung, researchers from Institut Curie and Inserm have provided new knowledge on the topic. They show that targeting ruptures of the nuclear envelope of these cells would represent a new opportunity for therapeutic intervention in age-related diseases, in particular cancer, thus improving the quality of life of the elderly in the long term.

The brain impacts of infection with SARS-CoV-2, responsible for COVID-19, are increasingly well documented in the scientific literature. Researchers from Inserm, Lille University Hospital and Université de Lille, at the Lille Neuroscience & Cognition unit, in collaboration with their colleagues at Imperial College London, focused more specifically on the impacts of this infection on a population of neurons known for regulating sexual reproduction via the hypothalamus (the neurons that express the GnRH hormone).

Researchers at Toulouse University Hospital, Inserm and Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier University have recently made a breakthrough in the understanding and treatment of chronic kidney disease, a pathology affecting millions of people worldwide. Published in Science Translational Medicine, this promising scientific breakthrough is based on the identification of the responsibility of an inflammatory protein in the serious complications of the disease, paving the way for a new therapeutic approach.

The Translational Medicine and Targeted Therapies research team, headed by Prof. Guillaume Canaud at the Institut Necker-Enfants Malades (Université Paris Cité, AP-HP, Inserm), in collaboration with the maxillofacial surgery team from theHôpital Necker-Enfants Malades AP-HP (Prof. Roman Khonsari and Prof. Arnaud Picard) and the "Shape and Growth of the Skull" laboratory (Prof. Roman Khonsari), studied the PIK3CA pathway in patients suffering from a rare disease affecting facial muscles, hemifacial myohyperplasia.

Emulsifiers are among the additives most widely used by the food industry, helping to improve the texture of food and extend its shelf life. Researchers from Inserm, INRAE, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Université Paris Cité and Cnam, as part of the Nutritional epidemiology research team (EREN-CRESS), studied the impacts on cardiovascular health of the consumption of emulsifiers.

The Lille-based teams of Professors François Pattou (Université de Lille, CHU de Lille, Inserm, Institut Pasteur de Lille) and Philippe Preux (Université de Lille, Inria) have developed a tool capable of predicting, in a personalized way, the weight loss expected over 5 years in a patient after bariatric surgery.

Allergic diseases affect up to a third of the world's population, and their prevalence is constantly rising. In order to develop more targeted and effective therapies, research is mobilizing to better understand the biological and cellular mechanisms involved in the development of allergies. One type of immune cell, mast cells, is of particular interest to scientists and doctors, but little is known about them at present.