Mirror doctoral project: Designing remote-accessible bioelectronic cell systems for autonomous biomedical solutions

MirrorDoctoralProject full
 
Doctoral project 1:
"Engineering and assembly of biohybrids for signal transduction integrating cellular biosensors with functional biopolymers"
Centre de Biologie Structurale, Montpellier.
PhD superisor: Diego Cattoni
 
Doctoral project 2:
"Development and validation of conductive biopolymers for RFID interaction and integration with biohybrids"
Institut d’Électronique et des Systèmes, Monptellier.
PhD supervisor: Arnaud VENA
 

More details on the projects here.

More information on the mirror doctoral projects: https://idil.edu.umontpellier.fr/candidatures-phd-contrats-doctoraux-en-miroir-idil-2025/

Pierre-Emmanuel Milhiet received into the Order of Academic Palms

 
Congratulations to Pierre-Emmanuel Milhiet, former Director of the CBS and Director of the Biology-Health Pole at the University of Montpellier, received into the Order of Academic Palms on Tuesday, May 20, 2025.
 
MirrorDoctoralProject full
 

 

Insights into the "cocktail effect" of endocrine disruptors

Chemicals which taken in isolation are safe for humans may become harmful when mixed . The team of William Bourguet in Structural Biochemistry Center (Inserm / CNRS / University of Montpellier), together with teams from the Cancer Research Institute (IRCM ) and the Functional Genomics Institute (IGF ) in Montpellier elucidated in vitro a molecular mechanism that may contribute to this phenomenon known as the "cocktail effect".

New publication: "Synergistic activation of human pregnane X receptor by binary cocktails of pharmaceutical and environmental compounds"
Authors: Delfosse V, Dendele B, Huet T, Grimaldi M, Boulahtouf A, Gerbal-Chaloin S, Beucher B, Roecklin D, Muller C, Rahmani R, Cavaillès V, Daujat-Chavanieu M, Vivat V, Pascussi JM, Balaguer P, Bourguet W.
Journal: Nat Communication 2015 Sep 3;6:8089.

Links:

Synonymous codons do not influence the amino-acid backbone conformation

 

The correlation between synonymous codon usage and secondary structure in translated proteins has been widely demonstrated and plays a capital role in tuning translational rates and protein folding kinetics, indirectly influencing multiple biological processes. A recent report [A. A. Rosenberg, A. Marx, A. M. Bronstein, Nat. Commun. 13, 2815 (2022).] suggests that the translated synonymous codon influences the dihedral angles within secondary structure elements. If true, this result would have strong consequences in several scientific fields, including structural biology and protein design, where results would depend on DNA sequence rather than protein sequence. In this study, we show that the original statistical methodology used in the referred study was formally incorrect. Furthermore, when using a correct approach, we demonstrate that the influence of the codon on the distribution of the dihedral angles is not statistically significant for any type of secondary structure, reinforcing key assumptions in structural biology, protein design, and molecular evolution.

MirrorDoctoralProject full
 

 

New Structure of a Protein Modulating Bacterial Gene Silencing

Antibiotic resistance and the appearance of new virulent bacterial strains constitute a major threat to human health. The problem is aggravated by the transfer of resistance and virulence genes between bacteria (horizontal gene transfer). In this context, a detailed knowledge of the mechanisms allowing bacteria to tolerate the acquisition of foreign DNA is lacking and it may open the way to new sustainable strategies to fight infectious diseases infectious diseases.

Here we describe a structural model for the complex between Hha and H-NS proteins which selective represses genes in Enterobacteria acquired by horizontal transfer. We found a charge zipper formed by interdigitation of residues from three proteins stabilizes the complex. Charge zippers provide selectivity to electrostatic protein complexes and understanding selective gene silencing may help fighting antibiotic resistance

New publication: "A Three-protein Charge Zipper Stabilizes a Complex Modulating Bacterial Gene Silencing"
Authors: Tiago N. Cordeiro, Jesús García, Pau Bernadó, Oscar Millet et Miquel Pons
Journal: Biol Chem. 2015 Aug 28;290(35):21200-12
Link to this article

More Articles ...

  1. Activation Mechanism of the Morphine Receptor Revealed
  2. Programming bacteria to detect disease
  3. Variable Effect of Kinase Inhibitors on Breast Cancer Cell Lines
  4. Two CBS students receive prizes for youg researchers

Connexion