Science at UM [S02-ep02]: From the epitranscriptome to the cancer exhibition

[Podcast] - Published on October 3, 2022 in Science-Society

This week on A l’UM la science, we talk to Alexandre David, biologist atthe IGF, and Eric Rivals, bioinformatician at the Lirmm, about an innovative method of cancer diagnosis based on the epitranscriptome. For the report, we head to the Lirmm's robotics department, and at the end of the program, Catherine Alix Panabière from the LCCRH talks to us about the Cancer exhibition.

Our story today perfectly illustrates the benefits of collaboration and interdisciplinarity, bringing together a biologist, a biochemist, and a bioinformatician on the same project. Their challenge: to work toward better cancer care through a new method of diagnosis and prognosis. How? By looking at the landscape, but not just any landscape. The epitranscriptomic landscape.

To do this, they did not use binoculars, but spectrometers and a few RAM memory modules. Their study was the subject of a noteworthy publication in the journal Analytical Chemistry. With us in the studio are Alexandre David, a researcher at the Institute of Functional Genomics (IGF) in Montpellier, and Eric Rivals, a researcher at the Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics, and Microelectronics (LIRMM). Christophe Hirtz, the third member of the trio, is not with us, but he contributed greatly to the success of this project thanks to the Montpellier Clinical Proteomics Platform (PPC), which we featured in a report in 2020.

In the second part of the program, we continue our exploration of LIRMM, Montpellier's computer science, robotics, and microelectronics laboratory, on the occasion of its 30th anniversary. This week, Robin Passama and Benjamin Navarro introduce us to the robotics department.

Collaborative robot or cobot designed to assist humans. Here, the cobot is used to pick oranges by detecting them with a camera, then cutting them with pruning shears and collecting them in a basket.

Finally, Catherine Alix Panabière, director of the Laboratory for Rare Human Circulating Cells (LCCRH) and practitioner at the University Hospital, will talk to us about the Cancers exhibition, which has been on display since September 4 and will run until August 8, 2023, at the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie.

At UM Science, you have the program, so let's get started!

Co-production: Divergence FM / University of Montpellier
Host: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: Aline Périault / Lucie Lecherbonnier
Reporting: Aline Périault / Lucie Lecherbonnier
Editing : Lucie Lecherbonnier
Production: Adeline Floc’h

Listen to the program “A l’UM la science” on Divergence FM 93.9