The CNRS research network ("groupement de recherche") devoted
to iron metabolism ("Dérégulations du métabolisme
du fer: chimie, biologie et thérapeutiques") brings together
chemists and biologists from 19 laboratories in France, Belgium and
Israel with the aim of advancing basic knowledge and developing applications
in the medical and phytopathological fields. Headed by a chemist,
Jean-Louis Pierre, the research program is overseen by the CNRS Department
of Chemical Sciences, with the support of the CNRS Life Sciences Department.
The
main thrusts of the network's research are:
Designing
and developing chemical tools (new chelating agents, fluorescent
and radioactive probes, etc.) for monitoring iron in action in a
cell for the study of iron metabolism;
Iron
regulation in bacteria, plants and mammals, to better understand
the role of iron in certain diseases;
Iron
and oxidizing stress (which is linked to a variety of conditions
such as ageing and inflammation);
Human
diseases (hemochromatosis, liver cancer, hereditary cataract-hyperferritinemia
syndrome, neurodegenerative diseases) and their treatment;
Plant
diseases.
The
chemists include specialists in organic and inorganic synthesis,
physical chemists, spectroscopists and crystallographers. The biologists
include physiologists, pathologists and microbiologists using biochemical
and molecular approaches. This networking of scientists enables
problems that cannot be tackled by one laboratory alone to be addressed;
the venture is already yielding results in both basic and applied
research.
Further
details of the laboratories contributing to this project may be
obtained from the following web site: http://www-chimie.ujf-grenoble.fr/GDR.
The scientists also use an ongoing forum for discussion and information
exchange, set up by the specialists at the "Laboratoire d'études
dynamiques et structurales de la sélectivité"
(LEDSS, Laboratory for the Dynamic and Structural Study of Selectivity).
