Press releases

What mechanisms are behind the appearance of flowers? To answer this question, a 25-year-old enigma has just been solved: The role of the UFO protein in this formation process. While its nature suggested that it destroys its partners, this protein is in fact an aid to the birth of a flower when it is coupled to the LEAFY protein. This was revealed by researchers from several Grenoble institutes* in a new study published in Nature Plants. Scientists already knew that LEAFY, by binding to (...)

Prodrugs have little or no pharmacological activity and require modifications to become active. Most prodrugs contain a chemical group that is removed or modified by the body’s enzymes to lead to the active drug, although a few can be intentionally activated by radiation, electrical stimuli or ultrasounds. However, to date, prodrugs capable of self-activation without enzymes or human intervention remain unknown. Researchers from the IBS (Protein Dynamics and Flexibility Group) in (...)

While vaccines target the molecular mechanisms responsible for infection of the cell via the Spike protein, it is equally important to target the viral replication machinery in patients already infected with the virus. Researchers at the IBS (Protein Dynamics and Flexibility by NMR Group) characterised the nucleoprotein (N) of SARS-CoV-2, the most abundant protein produced by the virus, that protects the viral genome against the intracellular host immune system. They used NMR (nuclear (...)

IBS Scientists (M&P and CAID groups, in collaboration with the IBS electron microscopy platform) have confirmed in PLOS Pathogens that the Covid virus can use immune cells to increase its transmission to other cells. They also showed that it is possible to inhibit this new mode of virus transmission by using glycomimetics, previously developed at IBS. This work is the result of an international collaboration with Spanish (Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid) and Italian (...)

The functioning of the enzyme FAP, useful for producing biofuels and for green chemistry, has been decrypted. This result mobilized an international consortium of scientists, including researchers from the IBS/DYNAMOP and IBS/SYN groups. The discovery was published in Science on April 09, 2021. Press release

Using a combination of quantitative single-cell structural and chemical imaging techniques, a collaboration of researchers from LPCV, IBS, Helmholtz Center, ESRF and other universities, show that the structural organization, physiology, and trophic status of the algal symbionts (the haptophyte Phaeocystis) significantly change within their acantharian hosts compared to their free-living phase in culture. This result, published in Current Biology, shed light on the functioning of this (...)

By closely studying CCR5, one of the entry points of HIV into cells, researchers from Inserm, the Institut Pasteur, the University of Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier, the CNRS and IBS, demonstrate that its morphology determines the propensity of the virus to infect the body. This work supported by the ANRS and published in the Plos Pathogens journal is a new step towards understanding the role of CCR5 in HIV infection and as a target for blocking the entry of the virus into cells. Press (...)

This result, published in Nature, describes the activation cycle of the 5-HT3 receptor, belonging to the family of serotonin receptors. These receptors influence various biological and neurological processes such as anxiety, appetite, mood and nausea. 5-HT3 receptors are the main target of anti-emetic drugs widely used to alleviate the side effect of chemotherapies. Scientists from the IBS, the Institut Pasteur, the University of Lorraine, the University of Copenhagen, Danemark, the (...)

IBS Researchers, in collaboration with the CIRI, discovered a novel interaction between two proteins from the measles virus. This ultra-weak interaction, involving only four amino acids situated in a very flexible and dynamic protein region, is essential for measles virus replication. This newly discovered interaction constitutes a new target to treat measles infection, but also infection by other viruses from the same family, that comprises highly dangerous human pathogens. These results (...)