Molecular genetics, genomics and microbiology

Quantitative biology of cell division

Director: Gilles Charvin

Studying the mechanisms of cell division homeostasis, using yeast as a model organism. The team is interested in the onset of replicative senescence and the response to hydrogen peroxide, and uses imaging and microfluidic methods.

Adaptations and microbial interactions in the environment (AIME)

Director: Stéphane Vuilleumier

Studying the degradation mechanisms of halogenated pollutants and/or non carbon-bonded pollutants, the associated cellular adaptation, and the response of microbial communities in ecosystems exposed to these compounds. These fundamental studies have potential applications for depollution.

Intra-specific variation and genome evolution

Director: Joseph Schacherer

The "intra-specific variation and genome evolution" team brings together researchers with expertise in population genomics, genetics, bioinformatics and data analysis, all of which are essential for the generation and analysis of high-throughput sequencing and phenotyping data. The group's long-term aim is to use functional and population genomics to achieve a better understanding of the rules governing the genotype-phenotype relationship within a species.

Intracellular RNA trafficking and mitochondrial diseases

Director (MITO): Ivan Tarassov and Alexandre Smirnov

The team aims to decipher the genetic, cellular and molecular mechanisms of nucleo-mitochondrial communication. The emphasis is on the mechanisms of RNA-protein interaction in the organelle and the development of new tools for the treatment of mitochondrial pathologies.

Dynamics and plasticity of synthetases

Director: Hubert Becker

The team studies the non-translational functions of cytoplasmic aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases in yeast and filamentous fungi. It is interested in those involved in the nucleo-mitochondrial dialogue and those involved in the modification of membrane lipids.

• The team led by Stéphane Vuilleumier, contributed to the establishment of the SWITCH ITI certified in July 2024. In September 2022, the team welcomed a new senior lecturer, Catherine Badel-Mélinand, a specialist in the genomics of Archaea. The team discovered the first bacterium capable of growing with the major diabetes medication metformin and characterised the new degradation pathway involved in this metabolism (Microorganisms, 2022).
• Stéphane Vuilleumier was chair of the FEMS (Federation of European Microbiology Societies) webinar on microbial ecotoxicology in March 2021 (more than 350 people connected).
• The team led by Ivan Tarassov and Alexandre Smirnov was involved in a large international study that demonstrated for the 1^st time a human aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase as a key player in melanoma resistance to anti-MAPK therapy (Nature Cell Biol 2024). The team developed an original methodology for analysing subcellular transcriptomes (NAR 2023) and described a novel mitochondrial ribosome assembly factor (NAR 2020). Lastly, it participated in a cross-disciplinary effort to set up a new educational database concerning aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (IUBMB life 2024).
• In 2025, Ludovic Enkler was an invited speaker at the EMBO Workshop in San Feliu de Guixols (Spain) on "Lipid droplets in health and disease"
• The Charvin team has published several articles as lead author in eLife (2018, 2021 and 2022), and other articles in collaboration (EMBO J 2022, eLife 2022, EMBO J 2021, Mol. Cel. 2020, eLife 2021).
• The Charvin team recruited a new senior lecturer, Anton Zadorin, in June 2024.
• The Schacherer team obtained ERC CoG funding and NIH R01 funding.
• The Schacherer team has published several papers in prestigious journals (Peter et al. 2018 Nature, O'Donnell et al 2023 Nature Genetics, Caudal et al. 2024 Nature Genetics).

Awards and distinctions

• Gilles Charvin has been an appointed member of Section 22 (Cell Biology and Development) since 2021
• Joseph Schacherer is a member of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF)
• Françoise Bringel has been a member of the Scientific Board of the CNRS Institute of Biology since 2023
• Stéphane Vuilleumier has been a member of the scientific council of the international microbial ecotoxicology network EcotoxicoMic since its creation in 2014 and on the board of directors of the Association Francophone d’Ecologie Microbienne AFEM since 2022 and on the SWITCH ITI steering committee (since 2024)
• The AIME team received a CNRS 80|PRIME award in 2020, receiving a doctoral contract for a project involving teams from the Institut des Sciences Biologiques (INSB) and Institute National des Sciences de l'Univers (INSU)
• Stéphane Vuilleumier was awarded a "visiting scientist" research grant by the SIAM foundation (Soehnghen Institute for Anaerobic Microbiology, Netherlands) in 2023,
• Stéphane Vuilleumier and Emilie Muller are participating in the drafting of the CNRS SIC community plan for the period 2024-2029, and Stéphane Vuilleumier participated in the steering committee of the CNRS PFAS congress held in Paris in March 2024
• Since 2023, Emilie Muller has been a member of the steering committee of the microbial biotechnology section of the Société Française de Microbiologie
• In 2024, under the coordination of Ivan Tarassov, the IMCBio+ ITI comprising 4 Research Clusters and a graduate school (more than 70 teams from the 5 Strasbourg Institutes) was evaluated by an international jury and renewed until 2028. In 2020, Alexandre Smirnov became a fellow of the University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study (USIAS)