about enzymes & molecules

#9 - Inflammatory Diseases - Dr. Nathalie Vergnolle

In this episode of our Special Interviews Series with Institute Directors, we spoke to Dr Jean-Sébastien Silvestre, recently appointed Director of the Paris-Centre de Recherche Cardiovasculaire (PARCC, 2023-present). Dr Silvestre has a clear view of how to implement a successful research strategy at PARCC. He told us about the continuous dialogue with his team leaders, research technical staff and praised the work of the administration at the Institute. Dr Silvestre is constantly thinking about the future of PARCC, including how to recruit new talents and what kind of emerging technical innovation should be integrated in the tools that PARCC scientists have access to. He also described his own research interests that are focused on the inflammatory response and repair mechanisms after injury in the heart, telling us that the cardiovascular field attracted him from the very beginning of his scientific career and that led him to the position that he is now covering. Together with our previous interview with Dr Alain Tedgui, former PARCC founder and Director, we now have a comprehensive overview of the past and the future of this prestigious French institution. Listen on Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/about-enzymes-molecules/id1707039731Listen on Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/35yk70l7qLG9tHY6EjXFIh?si=7c6f9c51270543be#aboutenzymesandmolecules

In the second episode of our Special Interviews Series with Institute Directors we invited Dr Alain Tedgui, former Director of the Paris-Centre de Recherche Cardiovasculaire (PARCC, 2009-2018). Dr Tedgui gave us a wonderful overview of the strategies behind the founding of PARRC as a major French scientific institute dedicated to study cardiovascular disease as well as the original plans that were initiated in the 70s for the realization of this novel Institution. Dr Tedgui also explained to us his life and professional journey, coming to France from Algeria as a young boy and progressing to become a highly recognized scientist working on atherosclerosis, which is still the topic that keeps him busy nowadays, despite the fact that he 'officially' retired a few years ago!Dr Alain Tedgui - PARCC

The topic of our discussion today is environmental stress and how it affects our susceptibility to develop diseases. We are familiar with the danger of air pollution, which increases lung disease and is being implicated in neurodegeneration or cardiovascular disorders, but we often do not consider noise, which is a very important external stressor. We are surrounded by noise, especially in the urban space: cars, public transport, construction works etc. are all a continuous source of noise. How does noise impact our health? Today's host Dr Andreas Daiber, full Professor in Molecular Cardiology at the University Medical Center Mainz in Germany, has specialized in the study of noise and its consequences on cardiovascular health. During the episode we will cover lots of interesting aspects including: what is noise? How does it impact our health? When are we more vulnerable to the effects of noise? And, very importantly, what can we do to counteract noise to safeguard our health?

This is the first episode of our Special Interviews Series with Institute Directors, where we discuss the opportunities and challenges that come with being in charge of a research institute. The expertise required for this job is multi-varied: the director needs to develop ambitious research goals by relying on their teams' skills and scientific interests, leveraging the input of technical platforms at the service of science, coordinate the administrative support and constructively work with supervising bodies. This is no easy task: directors often have to learn on the job, as in their "former" life they were originally "only" scientists! For the first interview of series we approached Dr Florence Niedergang, Director of the Institut Cochin in Paris, France, who readily agreed to talk to us. Dr Niedergang described the strengths of the Institut Cochin, her ambitions for the Institute and how she efficiently organizes her time between her directorship role while still running a research lab.

For our fourth episode we will talk about a special system that is very important for protecting the organism against stress: the NRF2 transcription factor. It is the master regulator of the stress response, which is responsible for increasing the expression of a long list of genes that help to combat stress and restore cellular homeostasis. Interestingly, NRF2 is activated by stressful stimuli but also by plant-derived natural compounds, showing how nature has evolved to harness the power of plants to provide benefits for our body. In opposition to its fundamental role in protection, NRF2 also has a dark side in the context of cancer, since its overactivation in cancerous cells renders them stronger and more resistant to drugs that aim to kill them. Today we welcome Dr Albena Dinkova-Kostova, a researcher that has greatly contributed to understanding the detailed mechanisms underlying NRF2 activation by different stimuli and is actively engaged in examining the role of NRF2 in metabolism and cancer.

In the 3rd episode of this series, Dr Vinchi and I will talk about different facets of heme biology, why heme is crucial in normal physiology and why it exerts a deleterious action when it is not tightly bound to a protein. We will further examine the modulatory role of heme in diseases characterized by excessive free heme in circulation and how endothelial cells in vessels and specific immune cells, called macrophages, adapt their function in response to heme. We hope you will enjoy our conversation with Dr Vinchi and learn more about the heme molecule and its effects in human pathologies.

In the second episode of our podcast 'about enzymes & molecules', we welcome Dr Roland Stocker to talk about bilirubin, the antioxidant molecule produced during heme breakdown by heme oxygenase. Dr Stocker will tell us about the inspiration that led to hypothesize that bilirubin possesses antioxidant properties, the thorough methodological approaches that were required to precisely demonstrate this effect, and how bilirubin can protect cellular membranes, albumin, lipoproteins and other cellular structures from the damage caused by free radicals. We will also discuss the epidemiological studies that support an important role for bilirubin in mitigating cardiovascular disease and diabetes complications, ending with potential therapeutic approaches based on bilirubin derivatives that are currently investigated in some laboratories. We hope you'll appreciate Dr Stocker's expertise and excellent explanations on this subject. #aboutenzymesandmolecules

Welcome to the science podcast about enzymes & molecules, where we will discuss the fascinating world of enzymes & molecules and their role in nature and human biology. I am Dr. Roberta Foresti, professor of Biochemistry at the University of Paris Est Créteil and working as a scientist at the Mondor Institute of Biomedical Research in France. During the podcast we will be exploring several scientific topics highlighting how enzymes and the molecules they transform contribute to life processes, how they can malfunction during disease, and how some of the discoveries of enzymatic processes can lead to the development of drugs that can be useful against human disorders. Thank you for tuning in, and I hope you will learn more about human biology and science topics based on enzymes and molecules!

Welcome to the first episode of the science podcast about enzymes & molecules. Today we welcome our first guest, Leo Otterbein, PhD, Professor of Surgery and principal investigator of the Otterbein Lab at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. Dr. Otterbein has published fundamental findings on heme oxygenase and its product, carbon monoxide, establishing the crucial role of this system in inflammation. One of the primary goals of the Otterbein Lab is to study the benefit of carbon monoxide in low doses to help against organ injury, for example in the heart, kidney or lungs, trying to understand the mechanisms that drive this protection. In this respect, Dr Otterbein has led a major effort in developing approaches to deliver CO to organisms for therapeutic application, including a recent gas-entrapping material. In this episode Dr. Otterbein and I will talk about some aspects of heme oxygenase and carbon monoxide biology, including their main function, the toxicity versus the beneficial activities of carbon monoxide as well as the impact on this system in inflammation. We hope you'll enjoy our deep dive into this metabolic pathway!