Team members

Stem cells and brain repair

Our team seeks to understand the repair process in the adult brain and more specifically the myelin regeneration.

Myelin is a sheath that surrounds and insulates the nerve, and improves signal transmission. When myelin is damaged or abnormal, due to genetic abnormalities, trauma or neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis, neurological disorders occur resulting in severe disability. The nervous system is capable, to a certain extent, to regenerate the myelin sheath, but this self-repair process is incomplete and insufficient. This regeneration is possible thanks to the presence in the brain of stem cells and progenitor cells that can replace oligodendrocytes the myelin forming cell. It is therefore important to understand all the mechanisms involved in the process of myelin repair in order to develop new therapeutic strategies. Our research aims to better understand the biology of adult progenitor and stem cells involved in remyelination. Our goal is to decipher the cellular and molecular mechanisms controlling the mobilization of these cells. We are trying to determine which cells are involved in the repair process. How these cells migrate to the lesion site? What are the factors that control their differentiation into oligodendrocytes in physiological and pathological conditions? We are looking for factors that can influence or control these events when administered to the animal. We use the mouse as a model organism and combine techniques of cell biology, molecular imaging and neurosurgery to answer these questions.
oligodendrocytes on an astrocyte layer

Publications

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News

of the team

Lab members

They drive our research

Alumni

They contributed to our research
Magali Macchi
Enseignant chercheur chez Aix-Marseille Université
Xavier Morin
CNRS Researcher
Françoise Padilla
Responsable Equipe Imagerie Photonique
Fabienne Alfonsi
Medical Marketing Director chez Teoxane Laboratories

Funding bodies

They support our research

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