Science at theUM [S01-ep15]: From Research on Aniridia to the Gravimeter
This week, Frédéric Michon, an Inserm researcher at the Montpellier Institute of Neuroscience and winner of the Groupama Prize, talks to us about his work on aniridia. In the second part, Nicolas Lemoigne introduces us to the Geosciences gravimeter.
As you already know, rare things are expensive! This is true for markets as well as for healthcare, and research on rare diseases often struggles to secure the funding needed to bring solutions to patients. In France, a disease is considered rare when it affects no more than 30,000 people—or fewer than one in 2,000. To date, 7,000 rare diseases have been cataloged and identified. For 80% of them, the cause lies directly within our genome. It is estimated that 3 million people are directly affected in France and 25 million in Europe. Precisely because they are rare, these diseases often take years to diagnose, and in most cases, treatments simply do not exist.
This is a situation all too familiar to people suffering from aniridia, a rare disease that affects the eye and can eventually lead to corneal blindness. Thanks to our guest’s research, these patients may well find renewed hope. Frédéric Michon is a researcher at the Montpellier Institute of Neuroscience; he has just been awarded the Groupama Prize, which supports research on rare diseases, for his work on aniridia.
Recommended reading:
Frédéric Michon, winner of the 2022 Rare Diseases Research Award
In the second part of the program, we meet Nicolas Lemoigne. He is a research engineer at the CNRS, at the Montpellier Geosciences Laboratory, where he works on gravimetric instrumentation. We follow him to the laboratory’s basement, where the gravimeter—an instrument that measures gravity—is safely shielded from external vibrations.
At "UM : Science," here's the lineup—let's get started!
Co-production: Divergence FM / University of Montpellier
Host: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: Aline Périault / Lucie Lecherbonnier
Reporting: Aline Périault
Editing: Bruno Bertrand
Director: Anna Demeulandre
Listen to the show “A l’UM la science” on Divergence FM 93.9
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