The group of Tam Mignot, with which O. Theodoly has been collaborating for 10 years, is pursuing his leading research activity on the mechanisms of micro-organisms motility. A novel paper in the journal Nature with association of LAI for technical support on microscopy experiments has just been published: “The mechanism of force transmission at bacterial focal adhesion complexes”, Volume: 539, Issue: 7630, Pages: 530, DOI: 10.1038/nature20121, Published: NOV 24 2016.
LAI participated in a special teaching week dedicated to the introduction of physics and biophysics concepts to the PhD students of Labex INFORM. Microfluidics, cell migration, cell mechanics, image processing and data processing were some of the topics of these courses. We kept on the tracks of Dec. 2015 and Dec. 2014 sessions and got a very good feedback from biology students!
Laura Faure, Jean Bernard Fiche, Leon Espinosa, Adrien Ducret, Jennifer Luciano, Sébastien Lhospice, Salim Islam, Julie Tréguier, Erkin Kuru, Yves Brun, Olivier Théodoly, Marcelo Nollmann, Tâm Mignot (2016) The mechanism of force transmission at bacterial focal adhesion complexes. Nature. 539(7630):530-535.
We published the first paper obtained with our in-house designed and built laminar flow chamber automation. This innovative machine allows fast single molecular force studies, for both kinetics and thermodynamic studies. Please see: A Rough Energy Landscape to Describe Surface-Linked Antibody and Antigen Bond Formation. Sci Rep. 2016 Oct 12;6:35193.
Alexander just defended his PhD… congrats !
Congratulations to Dr Alexander Hornung who got his PhD in Biophysics from the doctoral school of Physics. His thesis was under the supervision of Marie-Pierre Valignat and is entitled “Two-dimensional migration of human effector T-cells: Integrin-dependent motility studies under shear stress”.
A Rough Energy Landscape to Describe Surface-Linked Antibody and Antigen Bond Formation. Limozin L, Bongrand P , Robert P (2016) Sci. Rep. 6:35193
Toxoplasma gondii is a common parasite of humans and animals, which is transmitted via oocysts in cat faeces or tissue cysts in contaminated meat. Given the resistance of the oocyst wall to digestive enzymes and the ability of oocysts to cause parenteral infections, the present study investigated the possible contribution of macrophages in supporting sporozoite excystation following oocyst internalisation. By using single cell micromanipulations, real-time and time-point imaging techniques, we demonstrated that RAW macrophages could interact rapidly with oocysts and engulfed them by remodelling of their actin cytoskeleton. Internalised oocysts were associated to macrophage acidic compartments and showed evidences of wall disruption. Sporozoites were observed in macrophages containing oocyst remnants or in new macrophages, giving rise to dividing tachyzoites. We highligh an unexpected role for the macrophage in facilitating the excystation and differentiation of T. gondii sporozoites following oocyst internalisation.
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep33654
Follow-up of the complete internalisation of one oocyst by a micropipette-held macrophage. Scale bar: 10μm
Pierre Bongrand becomes officially Emeritus professor of AMU and Olivier Theodoly becomes the director of LAI. The goal is to pursue the original activity of the LAI on quantitative biophysics and transfer to medicine, and to foster further the scientific dynamics within the unit.
Adhesion & Inflammation Lab 
You must be logged in to post a comment.