Two Montpellier researchers awarded chairs of excellence in biology/health
Giacomo Cavalli and Jérôme Dejardin, researchers at the Institute of Human Genetics, are among the 22 national winners of the Chair of Excellence in Biology/Health program, one of the drivers of the 2030 Health Innovation Plan.
The goal of the Chair of Excellence in Biology/Health program is to retain and attract the best researchers in their field to France, thereby strengthening the excellence of French research. With funding of €2 to €3 million each, these chairs will enable new large-scale projects to be carried out in France over a period of five years.
The names of the 22 researchers selected by the jury were announced on Monday, April 22, including two researchers from the Institute of Human Genetics (IGH).
Giacomo Cavalli was selected for his EpigeneticMemories project, which aims to decipher the role of regulatory factors in the epigenetic inheritance of alternative chromatin states. EpigeneticMemories will identify the molecular steps leading to epigenetic cancer in Drosophila and test the role of epigenetic inheritance in mammalian cell differentiation. This project, coordinated by the CNRS, will help decipher how epigenetic components can lead to stable changes in cell fate during evolution.
Jérôme Dejardin was selected for his project Endloops, telomere loops: mechanisms and functions. Telomeres are nucleoprotein structures located at the ends of chromosomes, whose regulation is crucial for maintaining genome stability and underlies the phenomena of cellular aging. The Endloops project, coordinated by Inserm, aims to understand the control of telomere length and protection during early development, particularly at their ends, known as "telomeric loops" (t-loops), which may play a role in protecting the ends of chromosomes.