The last work of team 9 "Tau regulates the microtubule-dependent migration of glioblastoma cells via Rho-ROCK signaling pathway" is now published in J. cell. Science. This work identifies for the first time the role and mechanisms implicating the tau protein in the invasion processes of glioblastomas, very aggressive brain tumors. This work highlights the role of the Tau protein as a common target between cancers and neurodegeneration.

Professor of Biophysics and Biomathematics at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Marseille, Hervé Kovacic is elected for a six-year term. Section CNU 85 manages the qualifications, promotions and bonuses of teacher-researchers specializing in physicochemical sciences and applied engineering in health. Doctor Pascale Barbier, also from team 9 of INP has been nominated as a member of the same CNU section.

Jean-Michel Paumier, former PhD student in Team 1 (Neural Plasticity and Degeneration), has successfuly defended his thesis on Wednesday the 05th of December 2018. After few hours of a nice presentation followed by many questions, the examining board congratulated Jean-Michel for his good work and granted him the diploma of doctor in Neuroscience.

On December 6 and 7, 2018, Neuroschool PhD Days took place. In this edition entitled "Through the looking glass: beyond our reality", second-year neuroscience PhD students  were invited to present their work.

It is in this context that the 3 PhD students of the INP took part: Laurie Arnaud, Audrey Jacq and Dominika Pilat.

Vect-Horus announced today the signing of a research collaboration agreement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. The goal of this collaboration is to use Vect-Horus’ proprietary technology to transport various Janssen monoclonal antibodies to the brain for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. This deal was facilitated by Johnson & Johnson Innovation Limited.

The first conference entitled “Alzheimer’s disease, fears and hopes” was given at the meeting of the management boards of the french Vaincre l’Alzheimer and the german Alzheimer Forschung Initiative foundations that was held on November 16th 2018 at the Novotel Hotel Marseille Vieux Port.

The latest work from the Neural Degeneration and Plasticity team, in collaboration with the BBB and neuroinflammation team of Michel Khrestchatisky: "The pro-amyloidogenic effects of Membrane-type 1-Matrix Metalloproteinase involve MMP-2 and BACE-1 activities, and the modulation of APP trafficking" is now published in the FASEB Journal (doi: 10.1096/fj.201801076R).

Géraldine Ferracci, manager of the Surface Plasmon Resonance unit at INP's Plateform Interactome Neuro-Timone (PINT), gave a talk at the 6th Biacore Users' Meeting.

Vect-Horus has established a long-term highly efficient collaboration with the Institute of NeuroPhysiopathology INP (UMR7051 CNRS-AMU) directed by Dr. Michel KHRESTCHATISKY, cofounder of the company, and this Partnership signed on November 14, 2018 is a cornerstone in the creation of the LABCOM (Common Research Lab) between the INP and Vect-Horus.

The latest work of the NeuroCyto Team (previously on bioRxiv) is now published in the Journal of Cell Biology. We collaborated with the Roy lab to reveal a new mechanism of slow axonal transport, based on the previous discovery of actin hotspots and trails. Hotspots are static actin clusters that appear and disappear within minutes every 3-4 µm along the axon.