The main objective of this research axis is to advance knowledge on the red blood cell, a privileged target of selective pressures, which expresses the pathological consequences. The emblematic example is the balanced selection pressure exerted by the malaria parasite, which leads to the emergence and selection of genetic mutations that are advantageous for the heterozygote and deleterious for the RBC in the homozygote. The cost of this resistance is reflected in pathological consequences represented by hemoglobinopathies (sickle cell disease and thalassemia), erythrocyte membrane diseases (ovalocytosis, elliptocytosis...) and metabolic disorders including glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency. All these pathologies are characterized by anemia, whether peripheral or central, most often requiring transfusion.
The human RBC is an enucleated cell that plays a major physiological role by ensuring gas exchange in the body. It is produced in the bone marrow by a physiological process called erythropoiesis, and released into the bloodstream where it has a life span of about 120 days. Our research on the biology of RBC covers the different aspects of its life cycle, from its production to its release into the circulation and its senescence, through fundamental, applied and translational research. This research is focused on the molecular and cellular mechanisms that govern the GR life cycle as well as on the dysfunctions of these mechanisms under pathological conditions. The physiological and pathological aspects of our research projects are intimately linked, with a permanent reciprocal dialogue, which is essential to advance knowledge in this field.
Our collaborations with the clinical services of the Marseille hospitals and the Filière Maladies rares Constitutionnelles du Globule Rouge et de l'Érythropoïèse (MCGRE), as well as our links with the different services of the EFS place our projects in a medical and public health context, at the heart of the problems of blood transfusion
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In total, the objectives of this axis are to better understand the mechanisms that govern the different steps of erythropoiesis (project 2.1) in order to understand the pathological deregulations (project 3.2) and to improve the production of RBCs in vitro (project 3.3).