Pr. Minoru Yoshida
Executive Vice-President of RIKEN, Leader of the Chemical Genomics Research Group
RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Wako, Japan
Invited by Dr. Pierre-Antoine Defossez
“Tackling Genetic Diseases with Chemical Biology“
The seminar will take place in the Institut Jacques Monod seminar room (RB-18B).
Bâtiment Buffon, 15 rue Hélène Brion, Paris 13th.
On Friday, February 20th, at 2:00 pm.
Professor Yoshida has published over 300 papers, collectively cited over 50,000 times. His h-factor is 104. Among his many discoveries, he identified Trichostatin-A as an inhibitor of histone deacetylases. He has received many prestigious prizes, such as the Japan Academy Prize.
Seminar Anne-Sophie Lebre– May 27, 2026
Pr. Anne-Sophie Lebre CHU de Reims - Hôpital Robert Debré, France Invited by Pr. Bertrand Cosson "Brain (epi)genome study in CNS rare disorders" The seminar will take place in the Institut Jacques Monod seminar room (RB-18B). Bâtiment Buffon, 15 rue Hélène Brion,...
Seminar Hiroshi Kimura– May 20, 2026
Dr. Hiroshi Kimura Institute of Quantitative Biosciences, University of Tokyo, Japan Invited by Dr. Pierre-Antoine Defossez "Dynamics of chromatin modification and transcription in vivo." The seminar is Zoom-only On Wednesday, May 20that 11:00 am....
Bing Zhu Seminar – May 6, 2026
Dr. Bing Zhu Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China Invited by Dr. Pierre-Antoine Defossez "Epigenetics: remember the past & prepare for the future." The seminar is Zoom-only On Wednesday, May 6that 11:00 am....
Harm H. Kampinga Seminar – April 15, 2026
Dr. Harm H. Kampinga Dept. Biomedical Sciences, UMCG/RuG, Groningen, The Netherlands Invited by Dr. Valérie Mezger "Collapse of protein homeostasis as driver of age-related protein aggregation diseases" The seminar will take place in the Institut Jacques Monod seminar...
Frédéric Frottin Seminar – April 8, 2026
Dr. Frédéric Frottin I2BC, Gif-sur-Yvette, France Invited by Dr. Valérie Mezger "The nucleolus as a hot spot in nuclear proteostasis - Molecular basis of the accumulation of misfolded proteins into the nucleolus" The seminar will take place in the...
Pint of Science 2026: Our unit takes Science to the public!
The Pint of Science festival returns from May 18 to 20, 2026. This year, members of our unit are once again deeply involved in bringing cutting-edge research out of the labs and into the relaxed atmosphere of Parisian bars. Featured Event: "DNA Damage, Cancer and...
Congratulations to the Defossez group for their review published in Médecine/Sciences
Congratulations to Matthieu, Raady and Pierre-antoine for their review "Demethylating DNA against cancer : towards new epigenetic therapeutic strategies without DNA damage" published in Médecine/Sciences in february 2026! Read here
New research article on histone chaperones with central functions in chromatin repair
In this paper, we identify new players in chromatin repair through a novel approach for the proteomic profiling of DNA repair patches in human cells. Thus, we expand the histone chaperone network involved in repair-coupled chromatin restoration and highlight a...
Dimitris Xirodimas Seminar – March 11, 2026
Dr. Dimitris Xirodimas CRBM-CNRS, Montpellier, France Invited by Dr. Valérie Mezger "Guardians of Proteostasis: Ubiquitin and Ubiquitin-like pathways in Protein Misfolding and Aggregation" The seminar will take place in the Institut Jacques Monod seminar room...
Laurent Duret Seminar – February 25, 2026
Dr. Laurent Duret Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Évolutive, Lyon, France Invited by Pierre-Antoine Defossez (EDC) and Sandra Duharcourt (IJM) "Random genetic drift sets an upper limit on mRNA splicing accuracy in metazoans" The seminar will take place in the...
Fiona Francis Seminar – February 18, 2026
Dr. Fiona Francis NeuroSU, Paris,France Invited by Dr. Valérie Mezger "Progenitor cell mechanisms during cerebral cortical development" The seminar will take place in the Institut Jacques Monod seminar room (RB-18B). Bâtiment Buffon, 15 rue Hélène Brion, Paris 13th....
Pauline Spéder Seminar – February 4, 2026
Dr. Pauline Spéder Institut Pasteur, Paris, France Invited by Dr. Valérie Mezger "Under pressure: forces and resistance in the neurogenic niche" The seminar will take place in the Institut Jacques Monod seminar room (RB-18B). Bâtiment Buffon, 15 rue Hélène Brion,...
Laure Bally-Cuif Seminar – January 28, 2026
Dr. Laure Bally-Cuif Institut Pasteur and CNRS, Paris, France Invited by Dr. Valérie Mezger "Making sense of adult Neural Stem Cell heterogeneities" The seminar will take place in the Institut Jacques Monod seminar room (RB-18B). Bâtiment Buffon, 15 rue Hélène Brion,...
Welcome to Léa
Léa joins the team as a research assistant. After completing a master's degree in virology, she worked in Strasbourg on grapevine viruses, then on characterizing mRNA degradation in plants at the Institute of Plant Molecular Biology (IBMP). In the Polo team, Léa will...
Sophie Polo receives an Impulscience® grant from the Fondation Bettencourt Schueller
Sophie Polo has been awarded an Impulscience® grant to fund a research project on the establishment and maintenance of the inactive X chromosome in response to DNA breaks. This is wonderful news for the lab ! We thank the Fondation Bettencourt Schueller for their...
Welcome to Léa, new engineer in the team!
Léa joins the lab as a research assistant. She holds a Master's degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Sorbonne University. She will contribute to investigate DNA methylation maintenance mechanisms in response to UV damage in mammalian cells. Léa Girard À lire...
Well done, Dr Mori!
Margherita successfully defended her PhD on DNA methylation maintenance in response to UV damage. Brava! Margherita and her thesis jury. From left to right: Sophie Polo, Sandra Duharcourt (on screen), Déborah Bourc'his, Margherita Mori, Nataliya Petryk, Jean Molinier,...
Congratulations Dr Giacomini!
Giulia defended her PhD on the impact of high grade glioma-associated histone H3 mutations on genome integrity. Congratulations to her on a fantastic thesis defense! Giulia Giacomini and her thesis jury. From left to right: Beatrice Rondinelli, Keith Caldecott,...
Congratulations to Dr. Maeva Zamperoni!
On September 15, 2025, Maeva successfully defended her thesis: “Role of the lysine methyltransferase SETDB1 in TGFβ-induced fibrosis in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD).”Maeva and the jury members: Pascal Maire, Nicolas Reynoird, Sestina Falcone, Frédérique...
Congratulations to Jérémy, newly appointed Associate Professor!
We are delighted to announce Jérémy Berthelet's success in the Assistant Professor competition!On September 1, 2025, Jérémy officially joined our laboratory as a civil servant lecturer-researcher (trainee). This position is an important step, not only in his career,...