INSERM

INSERM is the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research. It is a public scientific and technological institute which operates under the joint authority of the French Ministry of Health and French Ministry of Research. INSERM has forged close partnerships with the other public and private research establishments as well as with hospitals to fulfil its missions. 80% of INSERM’s 318 research units are currently hosted in university hospitals or cancer research centres.
In the BioMargin project, three units INSERM from Limoges, Toulouse, and Paris participate.
Description of the laboratories involved within the organisation. Background and facilities

UMR-S850 INSERM  Limoges (Director: Pierre Marquet) is a research unit, jointly appointed by INSERM, Limoges University and Limoges University Hospital. The unit is composed of 6 professors, 2 associate professors, 1 assistant professor, 5 physicians (in transplantation or pharmacology), 1-2 post-docs, 6-7 PhD students, 1 IT engineer, 2 lab engineers (technologists), 2 lab technicians, 1 clinical research assistant, 1 datamanager and 1 secretary. The unit research domain is “pharmacology of immunosuppressive drugs and transplantation”, including research on urine biomarkers in renal transplantation since 2007. The unit has also set up a biobank of blood and urine samples from renal transplant patients, as part of an ongoing cohort study in three transplantation centres in France (PI: Pierre Marquet).
Pierre Marquet is also director of SCRABL, a “common facility for the analysis of biomolecules” cofinanced by INSERM, Limoges University and Limoges University Hospital, composed of three platforms (mass spectrometry, proteomics and NMR), each coordinated by an engineer. The mass spectrometry platform is equipped with nanoLC -- MALDI-TOF/TOF (AB Sciex 4800) and LC-LIT-MS/MS (AB Sciex 4000QTRAP).

 Inserm U1048 Toulouse (PI: Dr Joost Schanstra):  The unit and the Children Hospital (part of the University Hospital) are located in Toulouse, France. The Children Hospital has a capacity of ~150 beds and the University Hospital of Toulouse was elected best hospital in a survey of the “Point” magazine in 2011.
 The laboratory is internationally recognized for its expertise in the discovery of urinary biomarkers of renal disease in infants and identification of HNF1? mutations in renal developmental disease. In addition, the laboratory has identified new antifibrotic molecules including kinin and lysophosphatidic acid receptor antagonists using relevant animal models. The laboratory runs two large national clinical projects on the discovery and validation of biomarkers in obstructive- and developmental nephropathies. This expertise is completed by strong “hands on” experience in molecular- and cellular-biology and renal pathology. Facilities: Access to paediatric patients. Multi biological level omics data gathering (miRNomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, peptidomics, metabolomics) and annotation. Host of the KUPKB (www.kupkb.org): a collection of omics data (multiple biological levels) of the kidney and urinary pathways. Multi biological pathway analysis (Ingenuity). Modern cellular and molecular biology wet lab for validation experiments in vitro and animal models of CKD.
Inserm Unit U845 Paris (PI: Dr Dany Anglicheau)  is a Research Unit located in the Necker Hospital site, with the clinicians also working at the University Hospital Necker for their clinical work to ensure efficient translational research from bench to bedside. This activity provides the unique opportunity of developing clinical and translational researches, as well as basic science in transplantation immunobiology.


Contact persons active in BioMargin
 INSERM-Limoges:  
Prof Pierre Marquet, Dr Annick Rousseau, Dr Marie Essig, Dr François-Ludovic Sauvage.
Inserm –Toulouse :
Dr  Joost P Schanstra
Inserm-Paris :
Dr Dany Anglicheau


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