Annexin-A5: a protein that promotes cell membrane repair

Alain Brisson and its team from the IECB demonstrate in a paper released on April 5 in Nature Communications that Annexine-A5 plays a central role in the cell membrane repair machinery.

A new team leader in molecular and cellular biology

How does the cell divide when its genome is damaged? This is one of the research interests of Dr. Anne Royou, a new team leader who joined the institute in March 2011. Her team, “Control and dynamics of cell division”, which is affiliated to the Institut de Biochimie et Génétique Cellulaires (IBGC) of Bordeaux, will be first hosted at IECB for a probative period of three years.  

A breakthrough in the design of molecular motors

IECB team leader Ivan Huc, in collaboration with a Chinese team from the Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, have developed the first molecular piston capable of self-assembly. Their research represents a significant technological advance in the design of molecular motors. Such pistons could, for example, be used to manufacture artificial muscles or create polymers with controllable stiffness. These results were published on the 4th of March 2011 in the journal Science.