IBS - Institut de Biologie Structurale - Grenoble / France

Irina Gutsche, recipient of the 2025 FRM Jacques Piraud Prize

2026-01-21T09:32:22Z

Irina Gutsche, CNRS Research Director and group leader at the IBS, has been awarded the Jacques Piraud Prize by the French Foundation for Medical Research (FRM).

Photo credit: FRM

With her group (IBS/Microscopic Imaging of Complex Assemblies group), Irina Gutsche investigates large assemblies of biological molecules using state-of-the-art electron microscopy techniques and develops new tools to improve image analysis of these complex structures. This research aims both to decipher fundamental mechanisms at the atomic scale and to open up new therapeutic avenues.

Their work focuses in particular on the study of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which is responsible for bronchiolitis in infants and severe pneumonia in elderly people. The researchers also explore the mechanisms of antibiotic resistance in certain pathogenic bacteria, as well as the survival strategies of other bacterial species under extreme stress conditions.

Each year, thanks to the generosity of donors, the French Foundation for Medical Research honors outstanding researchers for their innovative and promising work. The Jacques Piraud Prize, endowed with €15,000, comes from a donation by Marcel Piraud dedicated to his son Jacques. It is intended to support research on infectious diseases.

Rebekka Wild, 2025 Paoletti Prize

2026-01-14T07:43:06Z

Rebekka Wild, CNRS research fellow and team leader at IBS, received the Paoletti Prize 2025 for her work on understanding glycosaminoglycans at the molecular level.

A scientific career marked by excellence
After studying biochemistry at the University of Tübingen (Germany), Rebekka completed a PhD in structural biology at the University of Geneva (Switzerland), followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at ETH Zurich. There, she developed a deep interest in understanding glycosyltransferases at the molecular level. In 2019, she was recruited by the CNRS and joined the “Structure and Activity of Glycosaminoglycans” group at the IBS in Grenoble, where she now leads a team studying the enzymes involved in glycosaminoglycan biosynthesis.

Her research
Glycosaminoglycans are long, complex linear polysaccharide chains found on the surface of most animal and human cells. Their strategic position allows them to regulate many biological processes and play a role in various diseases. Her team's goal is to better understand these fascinating macromolecules by studying their biosynthesis, which involves more than a dozen glycosyltransferases and modifying enzymes in the Golgi apparatus. Using cryo-electron microscopy, we are elucidating the molecular mechanisms and structure of these enzymes.

A prestigious recognition
The Claude Paoletti Prize was created in honor of Claude Paoletti, former director of the Life Sciences Department at the CNRS and a fervent supporter of young researchers. Each year, it recognizes two promising young scientists from all disciplines of biology. The 2025 prizes were awarded on January 7, 2026, during a ceremony held at the Gérard Mégie Campus in Paris.

Alicia Vallet, winner of the 2025 CNRS Crystal Medal

2025-06-16T13:23:09Z

Alicia Vallet, a nuclear magnetic resonance study engineer in the IBS NMR group, has been awarded the 2025 CNRS Crystal Medal for her involvement in the Infranalytics national research infrastructure.

After obtaining her Master 2 in ‘Polymers for advanced technologies' at the Joseph Fourier University (now University Grenoble Alpes), Alicia was recruited as a CNRS study engineer to join the ‘Advanced NMR methods in solution' team at the Institute de Biologie Structurale. Very quickly, her strong involvement in the scientific life of the Institute's NMR platform led her to work with many people in a wide variety of fields in chemistry and its interfaces with biology, health, ecology, etc.

She quickly assumed responsibility for the solid-state NMR part of the platform and took part in several scientific projects focusing on the structural characterisation of large protein complexes using solid-state NMR. These projects resulted in publications in high-impact journals, for example on the dynamics of complex biomolecular assemblies.

At the same time, Infranalytics* gave her responsibility for relations with industrial partners. "Working at CNRS allows me to optimise the performance of the most powerful NMR spectrometers in France. And industrial activities will lead me to subjects with direct applications in everyday life", an important point that Alicia is keen to emphasise.

She guides industrial partners among the different intruments of the Infranalytics infrastructure, offering them the best expertise and analytical techniques for a wide range of issues. More than 140 contacts with private partners have already led to 28 collaborations, 17 of which involved the signing of legal contracts drawn up by Alicia herself. A business developer...

The individual Crystal Medal rewards women and men working as research support in Joint Research Units, who, through their creativity, technical expertise and sense of innovation, contribute, alongside researchers, to the advancement of knowledge and the excellence of French research. In 2025, the CNRS awarded 34 crystal medals.

* Infranalytics is the national infrastructure set up in 2022 to bring together state-of-the-art NMR, RPE and FT-ICR-MS analytical instruments with very high magnetic fields (18 research units and 13 sites in France).

Lionel Imbert, winner of the 2025 CNRS Crystal Medal

2025-06-16T12:43:14Z

Lionel Imbert, research engineer in the NMR Large Assemblies Group (IBS/NMRLA), has been awarded the 2025 CNRS Crystal Medal for his key role in the development and dissemination of isotope labelling by cell-free.

Lionel Imbert is a specialist in cell-free expression systems. Responsable of the Cell-free platform - a structure open to the european scientific community working on this subject - he supports researchers and students in the production of proteins and RNA that are difficult to obtain using conventional methods. These samples are essential for studying their structure using NMR spectroscopy, crystallography or cryo-electron microscopy. With this in mind, Lionel Imbert has also developed advanced isotopic labelling methodologies that simplify and speed up studies of complex proteins.

Highly committed to training, he organises a practical isotope marking school every two years and lectures at a number of international universities and schools. He was awarded the CNRS Crystal Medal for his key role in disseminating these technologies to the scientific community.

The individual Crystal Medal rewards women and men working as research support in Joint Research Units, who, through their creativity, technical expertise and sense of innovation, contribute alongside researchers to the advancement of knowledge and the excellence of French research. In 2025, the CNRS awarded 34 crystal medals.

Florian Chenavier, IBS Young Scientist 2025

2025-06-12T09:35:56Z

The 2025 IBS Young Researcher Award has been presented to Florian Chenavier, in recognition of his outstanding doctoral research, conducted under the supervision of the VRM and MEM groups and funded by the Labex GRAL.

Influenza virus remains a significant human pathogen. During his doctoral studies, Florian developed an innovative experimental model to reconstitute influenza virus ribonucleoprotein-like complexes in vitro, using recombinant nucleoprotein (NP) and RNA fragments. This approach overcame the limitations of numerous earlier studies by enabling analysis at atomic resolution through cryo-electron microscopy. His work unveiled previously unobserved details of NP-RNA and NP-NP interactions. These findings led to the proposal of a novel model for viral genome encapsidation—an essential step toward a deeper understanding of influenza virus replication mechanisms—and open new avenues for the development of antiviral strategies. Following publication in leading scientific journals, Florian's research received considerable attention in popular science media, underscoring the broader significance of these discoveries in advancing our understanding of this major pathogen. In parallel with his thesis work, Florian actively contributed to a number of other projects within the VRM and MEM groups, notably making innovative progress on the Borna disease virus and acquiring additional expertise in crystallography.

He has since joined the Francis Crick Institute to further pursue his specialization in structural virology.

Quentin Durieux, Recipient of the 2024 ANRS MIE/SFV “Emerging Viruses” Thesis Award

2025-04-30T08:07:00Z

At the 2025 Francophone Virology Conference, the French Agency for Research on Emerging Infectious Diseases (ANRS MIE) and the French Society for Virology (SFV) awarded one of their three thesis prizes in basic research on emerging and re-emerging viruses to Quentin Durieux Trouilleton, a young researcher at IBS.

Quentin was recognized for his PhD thesis entitled “Structural and functional analysis of Bunyavirus replication and transcription”, defended on October 18, 2024 at IBS under the supervision of Hélène Malet and Guy Schoehn. His work focused in particular on two hantaviruses belonging to the order Bunyavirales.

His research led, for the first time, to the determination of the complete structure of the Hantaan virus polymerase, an enzyme essential for viral replication. This major breakthrough also revealed a previously unknown inactive state of the polymerase in the absence of viral RNA, as well as a transition mechanism toward an active state involving a movement within the catalytic site that had never been observed before (learn more in this interview from ANRS).

These discoveries provide new information and new possibilities in the development of antivirals targeting hantaviruses, at a time when no approved treatment or vaccine against bunyaviruses is currently available.

Yvain Nicolet, Labbé Prize by the French Academy of Sciences

2024-10-22T11:47:51Z

Every year, the French Academy of Sciences awards numerous prizes and medals, covering fundamental and applied science in wide range of fields. IBS is proud to count one of its researchers among the 2024 laureates. Indeed the Dr and Mrs Henri Labbé Prize by the French Academy of Sciences was awarded to Yvain Nicolet, group leader of the Metalloprotein group at the Institut de Biologie Structurale (IBS/METALLO).

Yvain Nicolet investigates the structure-function relationships of metalloproteins, with a particular focus on those containing iron-sulfur clusters. His research is centered on understanding the reaction mechanisms within these proteins, the unique role of their metal cofactors, and how the protein matrix influences these reactions. The chemistry enabled by these cofactors is both diverse and remarkable, inspiring synthetic chemists in their work. This includes fundamental metabolic reactions such as the reversible oxidation of hydrogen and the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. Yvain is also deeply interested in the biosynthesis of these cofactors, exploring both the chemical aspects and the molecular interactions between proteins during the transfer of inorganic species. In addition, he focuses on a family of enzymes that perform radical chemistry, working to uncover the mechanisms by which these metalloproteins carry out post-translational modifications of peptides—key processes in the production of new antibiotic or antiviral molecules. His research highlights the diversity and vast potential of these extraordinary enzymes.

* This prize, dedicated to biological chemistry and nutrition, was created in 1948 by the Fondation Labbé of the French Academy of Sciences

Juan Fontecilla-Camps among the world's most cited researchers

2024-09-17T14:22:40Z

The international ScholarGPS platform, based in California USA, and specialized in the analysis and ranking of researchers and institutions around the world, has just placed Dr Juan Fontecilla-Camps, from the Metalloproteins group at the IBS, among the 0,05% of the most influential researchers worldwide in the “Active Site/Chemistry” category. Dr Juan Fontecilla-Camps appears in 12th place in the 2022 “Highly Ranked Scholars^TM” world ranking, established by ScholarGPS in this category. For this recognition, ranking data was compiled over his entire career.

The work of Dr. Juan Fontecilla focuses on the structural biology study of proteins that coordinate metal ions, such as nickel and iron, the latter often present in the form of [Fe-S] clusters. These proteins can, for example, catalyze the oxidation of hydrogen or the fixation of carbon by reducing CO₂ to acetate. Their study sheds fundamental light on the existing metabolisms at the origin of life, but can also be of applied interest, for example for the design of fuel cells. Indeed, understanding how metalloproteins work helps researchers to mimic their active sites in order to design catalysts for various applications. Furthermore, certain metalloproteins involved in cellular respiration or metabolic regulation constitute potential targets for antibacterial antibiotics.

This prestigious recognition rewards a record of 254 publications and 19,968 citations, which highlights a remarkable contribution to the study of the structure/function relationships of metalloproteins!

Elda Bauda, IBS Young Scientist 2024

2024-06-21T14:26:16Z

The IBS Young Researcher Prize 2024 has been awarded to Elda Bauda, whose thesis defended in 2023 was supervised by the MEM and PG groups at IBS.
Elda's work focused on macromolecular complexes required for bacterial spore development. To study these large protein assemblies in their cellular context, Elda has set up the production of Bacillus subtilis lamellae by cryo-FIB/SEM and their analysis by cryo-electron tomography. This emerging approach, whose implementation was a real challenge, revealed in particular the ultrastructure of the spore chromosome and the protein layers assembled on its surface.
This study lays foundations for the dissection of molecular mechanisms involved in spore resistance, which can prove advantageous (probiotics), or pose a public health problem in the case of spores from pathogens.
In addition to her intense research activity, Elda has also been very involved in the EDCSV student community, and has taken part in a number of science popularization events.

Martin Blackledge, winner of the 2024 Ivano Bertini Award from Instruct-ERIC

2024-05-24T11:06:54Z

The 2024 Ivano Bertini Award was awarded to Martin Blackledge, head of the Protein Dynamics and Flexibility by NMR Group of the IBS (IBS/FDP).
This prize, offered by Instruct, recognises a significant achievement in frontier research that utilises an integrative structural biology approach. In particular, it rewards his pioneering work on intrinsically-disordered proteins using NMR, a service available to researchers worldwide at IBS Grenoble through Instruct.

Martin said: "I am incredibly honoured and proud to receive this prestigious prize, which recognizes our work highlighting the importance of using NMR and other biophysical approaches for studying highly dynamic and disordered proteins to develop a complete understanding of molecular biology. This award is also testimony to the many brilliant scientiists I have been fortunate enough to work with in my group over the last couple of decades."

The Award of €15,000 is endowed by Bruker BioSpin which, together with Ivano, developed NMR instrumentation to broaden its application and increase measurement sensitivity.

Presentation of the Ivano Bertini Award: Sjors Scheres (LMB Cambridge), Martin Blackledge (IBS Grenoble, Award Winner), Eric Leonardis (Bruker BioSpin), Claudia Alén Amaro (Instruct-ERC Head of Operations).

Instruct-Eric