Research teams

The Centre for Cardiovascular and Nutrition Research (C2VN), a joint AMU/INSERM/INRA research unit, brings together 190 researchers, academics, physicians, technical staff and students from the Faculties of Medicine and Pharmacy and is composed of 5 research teams.

C2VN has expertise in all the pathways and targets involved in the physiopathology of the endothelium, with the aim of identifying innovative biomarkers and biotherapies, which can explore the vessel and allow its repair or regeneration.

The C2VN is conducting a broad exploration of venous thrombosis, the role of blood platelets in vascular and inflammatory pathologies and the role of adenosine in cardiac pathology, approached through translational and experimental research, with expertise in bio banks and patient cohorts.

In the field of nutrition, C2VN focuses its research on the vascular risk associated with obesity and diabetes, particularly on the application of new methods to image and quantify ectopic fat, and on the effect of micronutrients, notably fat-soluble vitamins.

To support its studies, C2VN has developed platforms related to the targeted pathologies, some of which are accredited by AMU, and is involved in the coordination of national and international consortia.

The Marseille Cancer Center (CRCM) is affiliated with Inserm (UMR1068), the CNRS (UMR7258), the University of Aix-Marseille (UM105) and the PACA region's Cancer Center, the Paoli-Calmettes Institute.

It comprises 19 teams and 14 technological platforms and brings together nearly 400 people working on cancer biology and medicine, at the interface of physiology and pathology, fundamental and applied research and clinical practice. This continuum between basic research, translational research and clinical research is truly the hallmark of the CRCM. For example, many of the CRCM's publications are co-authored by scientists and clinicians.

Research areas explored include the communication networks (signals, surface receptors, molecular interactions...) that regulate the action of cancer cells and immune cells and the identification of genetic (from single gene mutations to more complex chromosomal abnormalities), epigenetic and tumor microenvironment (immune cells, fibroblasts,..) alterations that lead to the transformation of a healthy cell into a tumor cell and promote its dissemination.

This work has already contributed to improve our understanding of the disease, how immune cells fight it and the strategies tumor cells use to try to escape them. It has also led to the discovery of new molecular targets that are now being used in cancer diagnosis and therapy.

Located in the heart of Europe's 3rd largest university hospital centre, the Marseille Medical Genetics Centre (MMG) has a triple mission: to decipher the mechanisms involved in genetic diseases, to open up new diagnostic and therapeutic avenues and to improve the quality of life of patients affected by these rare diseases. From the genetics of rare diseases to developmental biology; from epigenetics to genome dynamics; from systems biology to bioinformatics, the MMG explores all facets of the discipline in a resolutely translational approach, oriented towards the development of targeted therapies.
The teams are particularly interested in four major families of pathologies explored within scientific departments:

• Diseases of the central nervous and neuroendocrine systems (CNS/NET)
• Neuromuscular diseases (NeMus)
• Cardiac pathologies (DevCard)
• Accelerated aging and laminopathies (AgiPreC)

Within these 4 departments, 150 researchers, clinicians, engineers and students are working to improve our knowledge of these diseases by combining the exploration of patient cohorts and pathophysiological models using state-of-the-art technologies grouped within dedicated platforms. Closely associated with the Department of Medical Genetics of the Timone Hospital, the MMG is a Joint Research Unit of Inserm and Aix-Marseille University. Directed by Professor Nicolas LEVY, the centre is also one of the founding members of MARCHE, a university-hospital federation dedicated to rare diseases of children and adolescents, accredited by A*MIDEX, AP-HM and AVIESAN.

The fundamental problem of the research developed by the Radical Pharmacochemistry team of the Institute of Radical Chemistry (ICR) UMR CNRS 7273, of the Faculty of Pharmacy of Marseille is centered on the obtaining of new molecules with pharmacological potentialities via the development of new synthetic tools using monoelectron transfer reactions. The development of these new radical pharmacochemical tools is based on three main methodologies: SRN1 and related reactions, the TDAE strategy and reactions with manganese acetate. These are associated with different reactions (cyclization, metallo-catalyzed coupling...) assisted or not by microwave technology and by privileging environmentally friendly protocols. At present, these 3 methodologies defining new synthetic tools for obtaining new molecules with anti-infectious potentialities are declined according to 5 main axes.

I. Quinazopôle" project (quinazolines for antiplasmodial use)
II. Imidazole and thiazole" project (antiparasitic: Trichomonas...)
III. Quinone" project (anti-Alzheimer and prion diseases)
IV. Project "Benzodioxole and related" (antiviral)
V. Furane" project (anti-parasite: Leishmania...)

This research work is based on the one hand on the use of an original and efficient "microwave" technical platform dedicated to "Green Chemistry" (platform including 4 microwave reactors, 1 of which has a pass-through, and allowing to carry out reactions, in parallel, with temperature and pressure control, in reactors from 0,5-2 mL up to 1 L) and on the other hand on the adhesion of the local chemical library of the PCR team (more than 1500 compounds) to the national chemical library allowing to favour new collaborations with university and industrial biologists and to highlight new biological properties through screening.

The Mediterranean Institute of Biodiversity and Marine and Continental Ecology is a Joint Research Unit. The 4 supervisory bodies of the UMR IMBE are the University of Aix-Marseille (Aix Marseille Univ), the CNRS (UMR7263), the IRD (UMR237), and the University of Avignon and the Vaucluse countries (Avignon Univ.). In January 2018, the Mediterranean Institute of Biodiversity and Marine and Continental Ecology brings together 175 permanent staff, (including 93 teacher-researchers, 27 researchers and 55 technicians, engineers and administrative staff), 58 PhD students and about 30 contractual staff. The unit is located in France on 6 main sites in Marseille, Aix en Provence and Avignon, as well as on the O3HP site. With more than 280 environmental research professionals, the IMBE provides strong expertise in the key areas of biodiversity, evolution, ecology, paleoecology, health-environment relations and human-environment relations (global ecology).

The UMR started a new five-year contract in early January 2018. Global ecology remains at the heart of the scientific project and the new organization of the UMR is evolving towards more simplicity and readability. Since 2018, the 6 axes and the 14 former research teams have been restructured into 7 teams:

• Paleoenvironments and Macroecological Processes (PPM)
• Origin and Evolution of Biodiversity (OEB)
• Ecological Vulnerability and Conservation (VEC)
• Engineering for the Restoration of Natural and Cultural Heritage (IRPNC)
• Diversity and Functioning of Molecules in Ecosystems (DFME)
• Biomarkers, Environment, Health (BES)
• Environmental Biotechnology and Chemometrics for Biodiversity Enhancement (BEC)

The Institute of Neurophysiopathology (INP UMR7051), directed by Michel Khrestchatisky, created on January 1, 2018 under the supervision of the CNRS and AMU will be housed in renovated premises within the Faculty of Medicine of Marseille. This operation is part of the NeuroTimone project, which aims to create a centre of excellence in neuroscience. The INP is unique in that it combines public and private research within a joint research laboratory, thanks in particular to its association with the biotechnology company Vect-Horus. The INP brings together nearly 150 people in 11 research teams, including 3 emerging teams under the responsibility of young researchers. The objectives of the INP teams are to better understand the organization and functioning of neural cells, as well as the molecular and cellular bases of behavior and various diseases of the nervous system (neurodevelopmental, neurodegenerative, neuroinflammatory diseases, neuro-oncology). The INP's ambition is to develop new therapeutic strategies at the molecular and cellular levels, to improve the targeting of therapeutic agents to the brain, and to valorise its research through patents and by promoting the transfer to the clinic. Technological platforms (PFRN, PFNT) in the fields of imaging, the study of molecular interactions and stem cells (iPS) are accredited and supported by the INP, thus strengthening its research potential.

The MCT laboratory is a Research Unit labelled Inserm, AMU, IRBA, which studies the role of bacterial membranes in antibiotic resistance. It is an interdisciplinary structure at the interface of biology (study of membrane transporters, identification of new therapeutic targets) and chemistry (design, synthesis and bio-guided optimization of organic molecules).

The main goal of MEPHI is to be in the global top-ten units for research in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases, microbiology of microbiota, including microbiota-host relationships, anti-infectious drug resistance and monitoring, paleomicrobiology and translational research; and in the global top ten in terms of knowledge transfer in clinical microbiology including surveillance of diseases and clonal emergence. To achieve these objectives the MEPHI will pursue excellent research driven by scientific curiosity, expanding and illuminating its objects of study by applying renewed technologies; pursuing an open research and integrating researches from the most fundamental aspects to the human and social science research on populations in the field of infectious diseases and clinical microbiology; and will collaborate with VITROME and other research units in IHU Méditerranée Infection.

The UMR VITROME (Vectors - Tropical and Mediterranean Infections) is one of the two UMRs resulting from the URMITE, enriched with new teams for new approaches in research on infectious and tropical diseases. Five teams are located in the IHU Méditerranée infection. Vector-borne diseases and their arthropod vectors (such as mosquitoes, ticks, lice, fleas, etc.), zoonoses, and parasitic diseases are at the heart of technology and observation-driven research, which benefits from the equipment and platforms of the IHU Méditerranée infection. Infectious disease surveillance techniques (from epidemiological to genomic surveillance) and a human and social sciences approach are developed. VITROME has 3 overseas teams: in Dakar, where IRD teams are conducting research on malaria and emerging diseases, in Papeete, at the Louis Malardé Institute, a reference and surveillance centre for infectious diseases in the Pacific, and in Algiers. Exchange and transfer of technology are permanent between the different sites.